It took me some time before I snapped back to the present and looked around the dark van. The windows were tinted black and it felt like I was being kidnapped all over again.
I felt a presence next to me and turned my head to see a heavily built man. I hadn’t seen the man before and didn’t know who he was. He was probably the one who pulled me into the van.
Right in front of me was another person. I noticed it was a female. She was typing away something on her phone, barely acknowledging my presence.
Just as I was about to speak, or yell for help, she put her phone down and grinned down at me.
“Hi, you must be Julie James, am I right?” She asked. I was dumbfounded. She knew who I really was? But I didn’t know her at all.
I hesitated before responding. “No.”
She waved a hand in the air. “Don’t bother lying to me, please. I very well know you are Julie James.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Amelia! Didn’t Heather say anything about me?” She asked, extending a hand to me. I stared at it before she sighed and grabbed mine. “It’s called a handshake.” She explained, shaking my hand firmly before letting it drop limply at my side. “Anyways, if she hasn’t told you, I’ll tell you. I’m Amelia Harris, Tristan’s little sister. I know you know Tristan. I’m also Heather and Juliet’s best friend.”
“Okay, but why did you pull me into this van?” I asked, looking at the man seated next to me. He was dressed in a black bodyguard suit and now that I really looked at him, he looked a little scary. “Why are you even here?”
“Well, when Heather reached the mansion and asked for you, your friend there what’s-her-face told us you had gone to a local park about half an hour ago and you said you’d return in twenty minutes. Heather, being the one to take care of things before it ruined anything told me to get you. Were you trying to run away, little miss Julie James?” She scrutinized me with her captivating eyes.
My hands started to feel clammy. I? had? indeed attempted to run away.
“N-no.”
“Oh really? Then you just randomly decided to sprint out of the park opposite in the direction of your car?”
I sighed. “Fine. I did try to run away but I stopped. I didn’t want to leave my friend alone there. I swear I’m not going to run away again.” I really hoped that she believed me because if not, Heather was definitely going to give me an earful.
“You better not.” Then she smiled at me. “God, Heather made me ditch this party I was invited to just to go after you. The food at the mansion better be good to make it up to me for that. I’m famished. It’s almost dinner time. Let’s go!”
She turned to her driver. “Frankie, drive to the Jenson mansion. And Timmy,” She said, turning to look at the man sat next to me. “Call her driver and tell her that she’s going with me.”
She sat back before popping a pair of ear buds in her ears and blasting music on so loud that even I could hear it. She closed her eyes. “Wake me up when we get there.”
I didn’t know what to do. The man sat next to me stared straight ahead after making the call. So I just settled with looking out the tinted windows.
We were ushered in once the van pulled up in the driveway.
“Hi, Juliet,” Heather smiled tightly at me, pulling me in for a hug which was a little too tight. “You had me waiting for you for a long time.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I just got lost in thought at the park.” We pulled away and I could feel her suspicious eyes on me.
“Sure,” she shrugged, sounding sarcastic.
Once we were out of earshot from everyone, Heather turned to me with furious eyes.
“Calm down, Heather. She didn’t try to run away. I just saw her in the park, sitting alone.” Amelia, whose presence I just noticed, said, putting a hand on Heather’s shoulder. I was shocked. I had tried to run away. So why was she saving me from Heather’s wrath? Why was she helping me?
“You sure you aren’t lying?” Heather asked her with narrowed eyes.
Amelia put a hand over her heart. “You don’t trust me? I’m hurt!”
She rolled her eyes. “Stop the drama. But if you say so, fine. But don’t try and be smart, Julie. You can’t get out of here even if you tried. I’ll find you in a heartbeat.”
I gulped and nodded. “I understand. And I didn’t try to run away.”
“You better,” Heather said and walked off.
“Phew! She can be a little intense at times. And a little scary too,” Amelia said, watching her retreating back.
“Yeah. Amelia, thanks for saving me.” I turned to her with grateful eyes.
She shrugged. “No big deal, bestie.”
Amelia seemed like a cheerful woman, always happy. She had short brunette hair with hypnotizing blue eyes, so captivating and gorgeous.
She was a lot taller than Heather and I. I think she was the tallest woman I’d met here.
“Come on, everybody must be waiting at the dinner table! I’m so hungry, I could eat a few cows.”
I smiled at her although she didn’t see it. Maybe she’d help me too, just in a lot more friendly and supporting way than Heather would.
Sure enough, everybody was already seated in their places at the dinner table. Aromas of the many dishes that had been prepared for the guests wafted throughout the room making my stomach grumble. I think I even heard Amelia’s stomach grumble twice or thrice. She didn’t seem like she was embarrassed by it like I was.
We washed our hands and took seats beside each other. The room was filled with lively chatter and laughter between the people. It seemed a lot more crowded now. There were six people in addition to our usual five. There were Rachael and Rebecca, Antonio, Heather, Tristan and of course, Amelia.
Heather and Ethan were sat together, Mr. And Mrs. Jenson were sat together too. I had Rebecca on my other side and Rachael next to her. Antonio and Amelia were engaged in a conversation about cars and Olivia and Tristan were surprisingly talking to each other without Olivia making a face that would suggest she didn’t like Tristan’s company. I think Tristan took me up on my advise and stopped pretending to be a perverted jerk. He was a really sweet person and any girl would be the luckiest to have him.
I was feeling a little left out but that soon disappeared when food was laid out in front of me. I was glad no one was talking to me because I liked to eat my food in silence so as to savor its taste fully.
“Oh my God! This food is amazing!” Amelia exclaimed. “Who’s your cook, Mrs. Jenson? I would like to marry him.” She joked.
Mrs. Jenson laughed. “Keith cooked this along with the other cooks. I knew from the start that there was magic in his hands.”
Amelia nodded. “I agree.”
“He really does cook brilliantly. I even asked him to teach me and we make different dishes almost everyday,” I added.
“You cook? Wow Juliet, this is amazing. I guess two years out of here did you good.” Amelia said and I hesitated in answering her. The atmosphere suddenly turned tense and silence settled over everyone.
I looked over at Mr. and Mrs. Jenson and they looked a little hurt. Amelia realized this and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. “N-not that I mean that she did good by running away. It was very wrong of her. I j-just meant that she got loads better by running away… no, shit that sounded wrong-”
“Oh, it wasn’t any good. I was so stupid to run away! My eighteen year old mind was messed up and I was such a spoilt brat! It was so childish of me,” I intercepted Amelia’s terrible attempt to explain herself. “Oh pass me that salt. No matter how much Keith is good at cooking, he always manages to get the quantity of salt wrong, at least for me,” I lied. Keith was an excellent cook and knew just the right quantity to be added.
Ethan passed me the salt, well aware of the subject change I was desperately trying to make.
“Really? It feels alright to me. I mean it tastes alright to me but I wouldn’t know. I’m terrible at cooking and can’t even tell if the salt’s right in a dish,” Rachael said.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yeah.” And then Rachael launched herself into one of her many kitchen disasters.
I was happy the subject was changed swiftly. Beside me, Amelia looked sad with her head hung low. She didn’t try and make conversations with anyone after that. I knew she didn’t mean what she sounded like in her words. Mr. and Mrs. Jenson looked like they had forgotten the topic long ago.
I caught Amelia’s gaze once and smiled reassuringly at her. “Guess you won’t be doing all the saving after all,” I whispered to her and she smiled back.
“Thank you.”
“No big deal, bestie.”
***
I had fallen into a peaceful, dreamless slumber when suddenly the sheets around me were snatched off leaving me in my shorts and tank top that exposed my arms and legs. The air was chilly and it instantly caused goosebumps to adorn my skin.
I blinked open my eyes, groaning when bright light came in my vision.
“What is it?” I asked to the ten figures towering over me.
“Happy twentieth birthday, Juliet!” Everyone exclaimed in unison.
By now I was fully awake. “Thank you.” I said a few moments too late, a little disoriented from suddenly waking up and waiting for my vision to settle.
Instantly I was drowned in warm and tight hugs. I didn’t even get time to see who was hugging me before I was pulled into another pair of arms. I did notice Ethan’s hesitance though but he finally leaned down and gave me an awkward half hug and stepped back just as quickly.
I glanced at my bedside alarm clock and it was twelve-six in the morning.
All of them were present in my room to wish me a happy fake birthday, the surprising thing being that it was my real birthday as well.