The Truths Behind the Life of Maeve Sun Lively

72

THE FIRST FEW DAYS WERE the hardest.

Mason made work excuses to leave dinner tables. Cameron didn't even bother to make an excuse, he just left. And me and Klarise were mostly left alone, because Jackson took most of his meals up to his room.

I think that went on for about a week. Or two. Like I said, it was the hardest.

Klarise, with her fragile state and everything, while she could barely go outside because of her half healing face and how insecure that makes someone, she was the one who sewed this gap together between all of us.

It started with a rainy morning. The weather was horrible, it was pouring, and a nasty chill ran through the house. It was those kind of days where you just wanted to be doing nothing and make a waste of your time and be unproductive. That was exactly what I had been planning on doing until Klarise did what she did.

"Come on! It'd be so fun!" She grabbed onto my arm, tugging at it like a toddler begging to get candy. How old was she?

I was not in the mood for teasing and games. And what she suggested was totally out of question. I did not want to even step out of the house.

"You're insane. Horseback riding? In this kind of weather?" I pointed out the living room window. The weather report even said a storm was coming. Sometimes, more mature and knowledgeable than me, Klarise can get so insensible. Once she gets like that, there seems to be no negotiation at hand. "This is out of the question. We. Are. Not. Going."

I slam the book I was trying to read, because she just kept nudging at me, doing those puppy eyes I didn't know she did. It's impossible to concentrate like that.

"Oh come on, Maeve. You know we need this. Please," she stretched out the e, seeming to stretch on forever. I swat at her, which makes her finally stop that noise.

"Okay, give me some good reasons why we should go."

She beams, smiling. Though I must have put on a good act, and it took quite some convincing of her. What she didn't know was that the moment she asked, her eyes smiling brighter than it had been in days, something she hasn't done a lot ever since the things that has happened to her, I had already fallen. I wanted her face to stay happy like that, her to stay happy and joyful. I've given in since the start.

"It's fun. And because you've never done horseback riding. That makes it more fun, doesn't it?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Fun is not a good reason. Look outside," she looked outside, then looked back at me, face seeming innocent like she doesn't see the dark clouds and everything. "We live in the city, in case you don't know that. So where in the world will we even find a horseback riding place first of all? And then there is——"

"I've found a place already!"

I would have frowned, but seeing her smile so true and sincere, I just waved her off again. "Fine. Like I was saying before you cut me off," she rolled her eyes at my exaggerated displease, which earns her a tiny grin from me. "How will we get there? Because this place must be in the country is what I am guessing or just somewhere far." She opens her mouth but I talk over her. "Driving is an option. But who will drive? Hiring a driver is not an option, since..." I don't want to say it, and seeing her expression dawn I know she knows what I mean.

Anyone will leak her condition right now to the press and that would be...damaging. Both to her career and her self-esteem. I couldn't let that happen.

I make my voice slightly lighter to hopefully change the mood. "Cameron is definitely not going to. He's a lazy bum." Klarise laughed, and I'm glad insulting Cameron managed to do so. "Mason is a no too, because I know he is definitely going to drive us if we asked him, and that is exactly why it's a no. He needs rest and relaxation from all that work he crams himself with, and driving us for hours is not going to give him that. Me? Don't even, I don't even want to go so I'm not driving us." I crossed my legs and arms together, leaning back and closing my eyes. I wanted to do nothing and absolutely nothing. Negotiating and arguing with Klarise can get so tiring.