Independent lover

2.

Standing in front of my aunt's house almost felt unreal. It shouldn't. I've visited my hole life. So why do I feel like a stranger?

The De Larue's mansion was built with an enormous entry hall that immediately set the tone. The marble floor hold in the center of the room a medium-size Japanese tree that my uncle loved so much. He said that it represents the spirit of the house and the family that lives there. He found it during a trip to Tokyo for his work. After hearing all the stories around the tree he decided to purchase it and bring it back to Washington. Let's just say my aunt wasn't very happy with the idea of having some greenery inside their house while there was a large garden outside.

On both sides of the room were two stairs that opened to an indoor balcony right above the hall. All the rooms and bathrooms were on the first and second floor while the third floor was transformed into a sort of lounge where we used to hang out all the times while we were kids. The ground floor was where the kitchen and the dining room were. Their home was the best place to hold a ceremony or a party. Something my aunt loved to do. She was always thrilled to play the hostess during receptions. I understand. Their house is absolutely beautiful, and I have to admit that she has good taste in decorating.

Entering the hall, I was greeted by Robert.

I've always known Robert as someone part of the family. My aunt hired him right after my little cousin was born to help her keep the house in order. The man could do anything. From cooking to supervising us, he was always around the house doing something. He took care of everything. As long as I could remember, I never saw him go on a vacation or having a break, not that my family never offered him to take some time off, but he always refused. Instead, he would help our family organize our vacation and distract the kids when the adults had their receptions at home. And because I was always around my aunt's house, I had the pleasure to grow up with Robert.

He walked toward me with his signature smile that just screamed kindness and politeness.

"Miss Anna, I was expecting your arrival. How was the journey? You look tired..." He said with courteousness, just like he's used to.

"Robert!" I screamed happy to see him again "I'm good, don't worry about me, I'm just happy to be back!" I replied not thinking a word I just said. Yes, I was tired. Was I happy to be back? I should be. I was the one who wanted to finish my high school here. But something deep inside of me was worried. Worried to see how everyone would react.

"Well I am more than happy that you are back. Mrs. De Larue asked that I arrange your room before your arrival. So please let me take up all your bags while you go and rest for a bit. The boys should arrive in a few hours"

I froze instantly. The boys. Nobody knew that I was coming back. Not even my best friends. That's another thing that I was worried about. How would they react?

As I made my way up the stairs to the second floor where my new room was, my mind was racing. I should've call him before I came. He's going to be confused, they all are going to be.

I pushed open the door and was met with my clean bedroom. Robert did a good job. He even put up some old pictures of my friends and family. But one of them caught directly my attention.

It was a picture of all five of us at the beach smiling like idiots at the camera, not giving a damn about the world.

I smiled without thinking. Taking down the picture from the wall, I sat on my bed admirring every little detail about it. 

I was in the middle, at my right was my cousin Alex.

He was like a brother to me. We grew up together, literally, we were always there for one another. As years passed by, a strong bond formed between us. I knew him by heart, and he knew me better than I knew myself. People often mistake us as twins due to our physical similarity even though he would always remind people that he was two months older than me, wanting to appear as a big brother. 

His wet dirty brown hair was all messy which made him look like a ten-year-old on the picture. You could tell by his face that he was uncomfortable, surely because he was carrying Noah on his back. They were always goofing around, especially Noah. He was the best at making jokes and making everybody laugh. Growing up an only child, he was always searching for people to hang out with. He was the first person at school (besides my cousin) to talk to me when I first moved to Washington. Turned out he was in my class and we spent the entire day laughing at Mrs. Donovan's skirt, our teacher in fifth grade. Her skirt was hideous. It was purplish with flowers and dogs on it. So of course, the only thing we thought of at the time was to make cat noises when she wasn't looking at us. Since that day we stuck together. He already knew Alex so that worked out well. The rest was history.

My eyes diverted to the guy at my left that was hanging his arm around my neck bringing me closer to him. Jonah Lowells. The boy looked like he came straight out from the show "Boy meets world", which was, by the way, his favorite show. He was the quiet one in the group, always in his own thoughts. He was also the one that always had a plan whenever we got ourselves in trouble. Besides his guitar and lacrosse, nothing really interested him. But for unknown reasons, he stuck around us and tagged along on every expedition, much to our liking.

Here you had it, the three boys that made my life a complete adventure. But it wouldn't be the same without my absolute best friend. The girl with whom I used to spend all my Sundays in bed eating frozen yogurts and watching Friends. The girl that was posing in the middle of the picture, right underneath me, crossed legs on the sand. Cara Newies. She was born and raised in Washington unlike all of us. Therefore she knew everyone and everything going on in St Peterly.

We met during one of my aunt's party back when we were nine years old. I was visiting my cousin during the holidays and my aunt insisted we came down to the party and meet the other kids. Let's just say Alex and I hated all the other children. They were either too bitchy or too arrogant. So, the only way to avoid having any kind of contact with them during the reception was to hide under one of the table that was covered by a long white tablecloth. But when we finally reached our hiding spot, we were surprised to find a very pretty blond-haired girl with insanely beautiful blue eyes. She was also hiding but for other reasons. Tony Garrets had just told her in front of everyone that she was ugly. You could see that she had been crying. Sensing the sadness, I took her hand without asking and dragged her out of there up to Alex's room. Once we were all three safe, we spent the whole afternoon debating who between Alex, Max and Justin Russo should be the wizard of the family. Since that day we became best friends, even though she said that Max had all the abilities required to be a good wizard. Something that I did not agree with of course!

You can therefore imagine how excited she was when I moved to Washington a year later.

But you can't even imagine how crushed she was when I left unexpectedly at the end of our Freshman year.

It's been two years now that I have seen her. That I have seen any of the guys. We tried to stay in touch of course but as the months passed it became harder. I missed my best friends, it was really affecting my daily mood. I felt depressed and homesick but that was something that I could not allow myself to be. If I wanted to survive in this new Parisian boarding school I had to stand for myself and present myself as a strong and fearless woman. Especially with my background, people tried so hard to tear me down and step on me just to prove that they were not afraid of some popular party girl from America.

So, I showed them a reason to be afraid.

If you ask anyone from my former school in Paris, they would much likely portray me as a bitch. They were not wrong. I became this snakelike, vicious girl that allowed me to be respected. I became the girl every girl wanted to be friend with and every guy wanted to be with. Popularity opens up countless amount of doors and privileges but it came with a handful of people that want to take your place too. This was the only way for it to stay that way even if that meant I had to abandon my past relationships.

I became the heartless bitch.

I became the queen.

Hi guys! Here is another chapter! Please let me know what y'all think about it and don't forget to vote