Flames with Fire

Chapter 3

Aiden

I throw my phone down on the bed, not bothering to check where it landed before following it and flopping down on the bed.
I pick up a pillow, stick it on my face, and groan.

I went downstairs to the hotel's club earlier.
I Kissed a few girls I don't know.
Did some other things with a few girls I don't know.

Since I couldn't distract myself for over two minutes, and I spent most of my time in the club wishing I wasn't there, I dragged my sorry ass back to my hotel room, took a shower, and voilà.

Here I am.

Now, though, I'm missing the bright lights and the noise from downstairs, because the silence seems like it might suffocate me.

Lex, my personal alarm clock beeps and announces, "One new message.".

I inquire, "Lexi, who sent me the message?", and the reply is instantaneous: "From your father, Aiden. I'm reading it out now:" — Lex says the next part in a perfect rendition of my father's voice — "'My meeting is running late, don't wait up. And sleep early. You don't want to oversleep tomorrow. ' Would you like to reply?"
"No, thank you."
I'm not surprised that Father's first thought is regarding the test, but it would be nice if he thought about me sometimes.

Just saying.
A casual remark from a sixteen-in-three-months year-old.

"Good night, Lexi."

"Good night, Aiden The Buzzkill. Sweet dreams.", Lex says, before dimming the rooms' lights to near-darkness.

I forgot the guys changed my settings on Lex- When I have a spare moment I need to change Lex's settings.

And maybe punch Andrew, too.

I look at the time shown on Lex's screen- 2200 hours. If I go to sleep now, I can snatch eight hours of sleep before the Trial.
Even though I close my eyes and do my best to fall asleep, an interminable amount of time passes before I fall into a restless sleep.

vVv

When I wake up from a terrible night of sleep and drag myself towards the bathroom, and am horrified when I catch sight of my reflection.

I look... bad.

That's putting it lightly.

Andrew would laugh at me, saying I'm vain, but hey- what's wrong with about caring for your hygiene and looks? I sigh and step inside the shower, rousing myself with a burst of cold water before shifting to a warmer setting.

Once I'm done showering, I go to the walk-in closet and stare at the various clothes hanging on the racks, wondering what I should wear.

Andrew would give some horrible suggestion- I'm not even going to bother with wasting my time on asking for help.

Father already treats me like a little kid- I don't need to give him more reason to do so.

Eliot...Well, Eliot's asleep right now.
Eliot being Eliot he'll just wake up ten minutes before he needs to leave, throw on some perfect outfit without even trying and leave.

And I haven't gotten in- a school uniform is out of the question.

Who else?

Then it hits me.

Lux and Nix, help me, I'm an idiot.

Andie.
Andie will know what to wear, because Andie's a fucking genius.

I pick up my phone, dial Andie's number, praying that she's awake and free to help me out.

"You are calling me, waking me up, and I'm giving you three seconds to tell me what you want."