Chapter 3

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Instead of showing my panic at being cornered, I rudely shoved a middle finger up at Vain

"This might come as a surprise to you, but I didn't choose this hiding spot for your entertainment. Now go away, all that white is making my eyes hurt."

Vain just raised a speculative eyebrow, and I could feel my face go pink with frustration.

All the children of the Tramph family looked like peas in a pod. Each one of us had green eyes, curly blonde hair and were all considered pretty. Even me, though it's hard to see past my complete lack of style and bad attitude.....

Vain Maziric though, had to be the most uniquely beautiful person on the planet. As a child, he had been bullied for being so pale and scrawny, but in the past couple of years, he had really bloomed.

Or so people say.

He just had that delicate beauty that you didn't often see, one that left people breathless.

According to popular opinion.

But the thing that really made him unique was the fact that he was an albino. Both his skin and hair were a soft white, and his serious eyes were a crimson red behind his wire-rimmed glasses.

How he managed to avoid looking like he spent his days rolling around in flour and washing his eyes with chlorine was a mystery to me.

Even now, his red eyes studied me with a subdued mixture of irritation and amusement, somehow seeming to read my every thought.

The cocktail of being prettier than me, more mature and somehow all-knowing, pretty much made Vain the most annoying thing on the planet.

The living embodiment of Smug.

"I take it she's up there then?" Devin asked from the floor level of the kitchen, where the normal people dwell.

Vain blinked, breaking our staring contest to look wryly down at Devin.

"Of course. Here and unharmed, if somewhat disgruntled at being out-maneuvered. Then again," Vain sent me a knowing look. "That's nothing new."

My teeth clenched angrily at the subtle insult.

Was it just me, or was I the one person on the planet that Vain felt the need to mock with every breath?

Honestly, he's always soft-spoken and practically angelic with everyone else, but he suddenly turns into a sarcastic jerk when he talks with me. A soft-spoken, sarcastic Jerk, but one all the same.

"Hmm, do you mind if we don't continue this conversation from on top of the white goods Maddison?" Vain asked, pointedly looking at the fridge I was standing on.

I crossed my arms stubbornly; tempted to point out that he was standing on a chair, so technically only I was standing on the white goods.

But I already knew what he would say if I tried that.

Avoiding the problem by picking at technicalities Maddison? Just how scared of coming down from this fridge, are you?

"You're welcome to go away at any time you want," I snapped instead, deciding a flat refusal was the safest option.

Vain rolled his eyes, smiling slightly like he knew that I had just mentally scrambled over myself to avoid falling into his psychological trap.

"Why do you feel the need to make every single thing a chore?"

Ignoring my protests, Vain reached towards me, and I backed away as his long-fingered hand filled my vision. Instinctive panic made my heart kick in my chest.

What are you afraid of? It's just Vain.

As that question crossed my mind, any fear I felt was quickly replaced with indignant anger.

Correction. It's just Vain being a total jerk.

Pissed, I slammed my fist into his palm just before it grabbed for me.

Damage points- zero.

Strangely enough, the hand actually stopped, hovering in front of me hesitantly. And no, not because my punch had actually hurt or anything.

Still, he stopped.

"I said No damn it!" I snarled, glaring at the frozen hand in front of me. "Don't just ignore me and force me to do what you want. That's not something you do to someone you... Consider human."

We stayed like that for a moment of awkward silence, before I finally built up the courage to look at him in the face. I glance past the hand, strangely enough, to see Vain smiling at me sadly.

Before I could figure out what that look meant, the hand in front of me shifted, turning over so that the palm was faced upwards.

I opened my mouth to tell him where he could shove it, but Vain spoke first, saying the one thing that had any chance of getting me to come off the fridge voluntarily.

"I brought some of my grandmothers chocolate cake over," He bribed. "You can have as much as you like."

I resisted.

For about two seconds.

Glaring at him, I warned him with my eyes that this wasn't over.

He waited patiently, face calmly neutral.

Stiffly, I moved to climb onto his pale hand. It remained steady as I stepped up, wobbling a little on the uneven surface as I settled uncomfortably into his warm palm. I crossed my arms, hoping that the move looked impatient, not defensive.

We had barely spoken to each other in the past two years, so being carried by him felt beyond awkward.

With one last unreadable look at me, Vain slowly climbed off the chair, careful to keep the hand holding me steady.

He smells like Lavender...

I nearly bit my tongue cutting off the silent observation. Keeping my eyes unfocused as Vain walked us back to the counter where Devin stood waiting.

Watching the room blur around me when people carried me always made me feel ill. Looking at the building-sized person holding me just freaked me out. Hell, even the buttons of his shirt are bigger than my hands now.

I focused fiercely on the faintly sick feeling in my stomach and told myself that it was caused by motion sickness.

Vain came to a gentle stop beside the bench, silently placing his hand down so that I could climb off.

Wasting no time in doing so, I stood on the bench, hands on hips, looking up at two people I had known since childhood. Who were now as big as buildings compared to me.

I hate this.

"Well," I demanded. "Where's my cake?"

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