𝐆𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 |𝟏𝟖+

43 || Everything

Oxytocin - Billie Eilish

𝔚𝔚𝔚
Celina

Remember when I told the Russian Tyrant to wait up for me?

He didn't.

I'd gotten ready in record time. The makeup around my eyes did nothing but make them pop and the glossy red on my lips did nothing but make them plump.

Much like everything else about me, my gown didn't disappoint. Elegant and simple enough to earn the judgemental approval of the old women who'd built a pretentious society built on unrealistic beauty standards, yet sexy enough to catch the eyes of their perverted husbands, who funded said society.

I'd done all this, only to find out Adrik Kozlov had left me behind, going so far as to order his minions to do everything in their power to prevent me from going.

Lucky for me, I was smarter than them all. That didn't mean his pettiness went unnoticed. Not only was I forced to call my escort for a ride, but he had to use his mothers black card to send a chauffeur because he couldn't drive.

The same escort who still had yet to show.

"There's a process to these types of things, Lina." Hana's arm slips into mine as she veers us towards the line leading into the ballroom. Two men stand at the threshold checking people in and I begin to dread the night before it begins. "You don't just become a La Haute debutant."

Graceful and classy, the only girl I wouldn't kill given the chance, keeps her head held high and her gaze ahead, smiling at those around us, that is until she feels my stare and turns to me, her cheeks reddening. "What? I did my homework. If you're gonna win this thing, you need to know how."

We move up in line, I can't help but snort out a laugh. "I know how to win." I'd threaten every single person in there and kill the ones who refused my way.

Although now that I think it aloud, it sounds like too much work.

My innocent friend sighs, "You have to make them like you enough to choose you as one of this seasons thirteen debutants." We move up in line and I find my eyes straying into the room and it's not because I'm curious about the overpriced decor. "Then you can go for star debutant which will be difficult considering the vote must be unanimous amongst all seven chairwomen."

I don't find who I'm looking for, and I don't know if that's a good sign or a bad one. "Luckily you have Missy Mae who'd be crazy not to vouch for you, considering how much you paid her to plan your wedding and we have Chelsea from school, who we can win over if you play nice-"

Her words finally register as we near the front of the line. "Not happening." Pissy was hardly a fan of me and Chelsea was nothing but a pest I refuse to ever play nice with.

I'd win the only way I knew how to.

Through sabotage, manipulation and deceit. And if that entailed playing fake nice for the beginning, then so be it.

"Name?" The harsh, annoyed tone of the man drags my attention from my friend to him, and I manage a fake smile. "Lina Ayad."

He scans the list on his iPad, and without so much as a glance at me, he barks out his response. "Not here. Next!"