7

03: the inheritance

The morning air is cool against my hot forehead as I walk out to the car. Somehow I had roped Niall into coming with me today since I didn't know what I was walking into. He waited in the car as I hobble out adjusting my backpack strap onto my shoulder. I take in a deep breath and swallow the lump of anxiety that sits in my throat.

Although I would equate an inheritance to money I would doubt her family would be giving me compensation. Penelope and I were nothing more than a summer fling, or so it seemed. Then again from what Niall had told me, I guess we had a deeper connection than I would have thought. Or maybe it was just a drug-induced illusion of someone that I needed. Maybe I wanted so badly for someone to really see me that I embellished a connection I had made that summer. The only two people that could know were Pen who was six feet under and me. The prospects weren't looking good.

"You ready?" Niall asks under his black shades as I swing the door shut and sit my bag down by my feet.

"I don't know if I have another option," I say feeling a vibration in my pocket from my phone.

Gemma: Make sure to be at the reception by 7:00 at the latest, you know how mom is about being on time

I arch a brow and quickly type back unsure of what she is talking about.

Harry: What?

Gemma: Don't tell me you forgot!

Gemma: Caroline Walton's wedding reception, you can't just not come Harry she is our cousin! Everyone is going to be there

I run a hand down my face and sigh out loud feeling the pressures sneak in once again. "Jesus, I swear its something every day, I feel like rich people have an occasion for everything,"

"What do you mean?" Niall asks keeping his eyes on the road while his acoustic music sifted through the air in the car.

"My cousin's wedding is today and I completely forgot," I said sliding my phone back into my pocket.

"I wouldn't say a wedding is a rich people thing, I'm pretty sure that's not an exclusive thing," Niall with a teasing tone on his tongue and a smirk smearing across his lips. "She's marrying Dalton Alston right?"

"Yeah, I don't know what she sees in him really. I didn't think she would be the type to go for a guy like him," I say thinking to my cousin I hadn't seen in ages. I can't even pinpoint the last time I had seen her. Then again there wasn't much left of my memory anyways.

Caroline was always so sweet,  it was impossible to dislike her. A lot of girls in her same upbringing would be a breeding ground of entitlement but she couldn't have been further from the word. She was soft and sweet and gentle, the closest living thing to an angel. We were super close once upon a time.

Nothing ever happened between us, life just took our time away. Distances were laid between us as life took us down different roads. While I was busy self-sabotaging and self-medicating with any substance I could get my hands on Caroline was seeing the world through humanitarian ventures. She helped clean up natural disasters in third-world countries and caught kids English while I drowned at the bottom of a bottle each night.

"Money probably," Niall stated the obvious but I was quick to shake my head and disagree with him. Caroline wasn't like that.

"She doesn't need any more money, she comes from family money, and she's, not one to care about material matters," I tell him as we near closer to LAX.

The ride was nothing short of bantering back and forth with Niall to calm my anxieties. A pit grew bigger in my stomach, something just didn't feel right. Why would Pen give me an inheritance?