Maybe This Is Love, |✔️

Chapter 17

"Now what?" I mutter out loud to myself. I stare up at the night sky where raindrops are slowly starting to fall off of the leaves of the tree. I tie my braids into a ponytail and put my hood on. I feel like a huge idiot standing outside of this enormous Edwardian style house that looks like something Angelina Jolie would live in.

It's a part of the few gated communities in Beaumont where only the people who could afford to have 3 cars and take family trips to the Caribbean every year live.

I feel very much out of place, standing in my grey parka and black beat-up plimsolls, I definitely do not look like I belong let alone feel like I do.
Shivering in the rain, I press a gloved finger against the buzzer for the fourth time.

Maybe she can't hear me? I should text her. I pull out my phone from my pocket. I'm feeling so jittery that I almost drop it on the wet grass below me.

Just as I unlock it, I hear a muffled giggle through the speaker.

"Hello?" a shrill voice sings.

"H-hi, it's Harley-Blair, Parker's friend." I pinch myself for forgetting to shorten my name to just Harley. It sounds less like '1950's housewife' that way.

"Oh...Yeah." I heard another muffled snigger that makes my stomach feel uneasy. Why did I feel like this was some kind of prank? "Come on up, I'll buzz you in."

I hear a loud beeping sound and the large metal gates swing open. I stuff my hands in my pocket and trudge across the decorative white pebbles that cover the ground leading up to the already open front door.

I tentatively walk in, making sure I didn't leave the dirt from the bottom of my shoes on the pristine, cream coloured tiled floors.

Standing at the bottom of the huge spiral stairwell smiling at me was Jasmin. Her stylishly messy dark hair trapped on the top of her head with a clip. Her pale pink silk pyjama set exposed her long tan legs and brown shoulders.

"Hey, glad you could make it Harley-Blair!" She says, enthusiastically. She claps her hands together and ushers me in.

"Just Harley," I tell her. I couldn't keep eye contact with her, I keep on staring at her perfectly polished toes.

She strolls over towards an open door that leads to a kitchen. I follow her as she opens the massive fridge. It's stocked to the brim with every possible food you could think of.

It looked as if I had stepped into the M&S frozen food aisle for a second.

"Do you want a snack or anything? Hunter can get you whatever." She pulls out two cans of Pepsi cherry and gestures over to the port smartly dressed old man standing in the corner of the room nodding his bald head at me.

I stumble back in surprise. I hadn't even noticed him standing there.

A butler? Who in the world is Jasmin Jelani?

"I'm fine." I decline politely and nod my head back at the old gentleman. "Thank you."

We walk up the stairs, taking years to finally get to her room.

The door was slightly ajar and the sound of All Time Low was floating out into the hallway.

Cassie was lying on her back with her head dangling off the edge of the princess-like canopy style bed. Her blonde hair practically swept the floor. Her eyes are focused intently on her phone and her fingers are typing away furiously.

"Ugh!" She grunts and dashes her phone across the bed where it lands luckily on the pillow. Finally, she acknowledges my presence with a kind smile and a wave. "Hey, Harley-Blair."