Autophobia

Friend

Amelia stood up and fixed her cream color dress. There was a small grass stain about level with her knee. With her small hands she knocked off the stray grass and straightened out her dress. When she finished, Amelia brought her head up to look to the two men. She shifted her eyes between Zane and his bother. Her arms were folded in front of her when they got closer.

Zane could see her red stained eyes. Her face was puffy and there was a red blush on her cheek and nose. She looked ten times worse than how she was the last time he saw her.

She must have had a real bad meltdown after he left. He could imagine her in her little squeaky voice crying about how awful this all is. Ranting to the maid and the butler. For being a loud and bold when he first met her he thought she was pretty pathetic to be like this.

Mason walked forward, breaking the still tension, and reached out his hand. He had a real wide smile. "Hey," he said. "I'm Mason."

Amelia's frown turned to a thin line. Mason was about to bring his hand back to his pocket until Amelia reached out hers. He shook her hand gently liking the firm grip Amelia tried to give him before she retracted her hand. Amelia's arm went back across her stomach as the other one did. Zane noticed how Amelia's hand was swallowed by his brother's.

"Its a pleasure to meet you." His smile died down to a small one when he got a better look at the young lady's face.

Amelia smiled softly, but it didn't meet her eyes, "Its a pleasure to meet you as well." She said quickly.

"You enjoying the koi?" He asked.

She looked back to the pond, after a moment she glanced back to him and nodded her head.

Mason walked up to the koi pond and looked across it to where the turtles were currently resting on shallow rocks. "So tell me." He started. He kept his look out to the turtles. "How did a cute thing like you meet my asshole of a brother?"

"We met through Amelia's father during a business meeting." Zane butted in. He walked in between them both his thumbs in his pockets. He eyed Amelia with a warning look before looking out to the koi pond as well. His face kept its cold expression.

Amelia looked back to see that the butler had left. They were the only ones out in the garden at the moment.

Mason shrugged his shoulders, "I was expecting more like through some party." He leaned forward to see Amelia who was on the other side of him across Zane. "Do you drink?" He asked with a wide smile. "I brought some rum."

Amelia shook her head, "I'm not much of a drinker."

With a sigh he lowered his head for a second before straightening up. "Well, I'm off to get that rum." With a small swing of his leg he turned around and trotted off. "You two have fun watching koi."

Amelia waited till he left their earshot. She watch as the man did a little dance his entire way back into the mansion. Her small smile that she had from watching his little dance died when he disappeared from her sight. "Does anyone know what you did?"

Zane looked to her. He had a stern, almost angry, face. "Nobody needs to know about it."

Amelia looked up to him, "Well you should have thought it through." She looked up at him in the eyes. Her brows were creased in the middle.

She gasped, startled, when Zane suddenly had a firm grip on her forearm. It was tight and it hurt. She looked to the raging man. Her free hand was grabbing Zane's hand in hopes to release some pressure.

"I don't think you want to find out what will happen if you spill a word about it to anybody." He spat.

He let go of her forearm and just when she was about to back away he grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back. His fingers dug into her skin. She looked scared now. Her arms were frozen to her sides.