Lonely

Chapter 52, Sadie

Ariadne giggled. “He’s cute. Is he your boyfriend?” she asked once we were seated in another room. She was trying o tame Libby’s unruly hair. Roxi stopped filtering the signals coming through the house to listen. I smiled. “Yeah.” They all smiled. Sophia huffed out a heavy breath. “I don’t really see why you would want a boyfriend. Kissing doesn’t sound like much fun.” She said. The other girls giggled. Ariadne pulled a bobby pin out of her mouth. “I never had a boy friend before. How did you guys meet?” I decided giving them the whole story probably would scare them. ‘He saved me from a castle.” All of their eyes widened.

“Are you a princess?” Sophia asked, her eyes widening. I laughed. “No, nothing like that. I just happened to be stuck in one, and Hanger showed me the way out.” Libby breathed a sigh. “That’s so romantic.” She said. Ariadne smiled. “You and Sully are gonna have a romantic story one day, when you tell about how you met.” Libby blushed and looked away. Finally, Ariadne gave up with Libby’s hair and pulled it into a neat little puff on the top of her head, then used her finger to curl the frizzy bits. She patted Libby’s hair, and Libby smiled. “I love it.” Sophia climbed up behind me and began messing with my hair, much to Roxi’s amusement. “I had a boy friend once.” She said. Ariadne looked shocked.

“You did not! I would’ve known.” Roxi made a face. “Not necessarily.” Sophia used her small hands to pull my hair into a messy pony tail full of bumps that pulled my hair, then used her fingers to try and pulled the pieces that were tangled out. I winced. “Arianna is going to want to have a meeting with us before too long.” Sophia stepped away from me. “All done.” She exclaimed, turning to look for a mirror. I quickly pulled my hair down and put it back up in a much neater pony tail before she could turn around. She handed me the mirror.

“Oh! Will you look at that? It looks fabulous.” I said. Sophia smiled hugely while the other girls had to hide smiles of their own. I picked Sophia up and led the girls out of the room. Jett was under the couch, right by Hanger’s feet, and sully and Ryder were surrounded by the older guys as they told them theatrical stories about our trip. All of the guys in Hanger’s group could, no contest, make the like, top ten hottest guys, Hanger being number one, of course. They all smiled at me as I walked in. sully slipped out of the group to talk to Libby, and I set Sophia down. She immediately scampered into the crowd of boys and shoved her way to the center. The one named Liam raised an eye brow.

“And where did this wee little lass come from?” he asked, smiling at her. She immediately stole the spot light, much to Ryder’s disappointment. Ariadne and Roxi went off to talk with Libby and Sully. I sat down on the couch next to Hanger and felt Jett lightly brush against my leg. Hanger smiled at me. “Those poor boys were tortured the entire trip.” He said. Before I could say anything, a maid came in and retrieved all the kids. “Arianna wants you all clean.” She commanded. I nodded at them and they filed out of the room after her. Hanger’s group swarmed around us, and it was like being surrounded by sky scrapers they were so tall. Dodger threw himself down on the couch on my other side and adjusted his massive red head phones. “So. How did a girl like you get in with a guy like him?” He said, throwing his arm around my shoulder. I picked it off and leaned against hanger to get a better look at him. “I could ask you the same thing.”

They all started laughing, and I stood up, taking Hanger with me. The one named Max took my place and yawned, and Dodger stood up also, towering above me. Levy literally darted to a table and grabbed a box of donuts and sat next to Max. “How did you get out here anyways?” Dodger asked, tilting his head. “Don’t you parents miss you?” I saw Hanger shake his head a little out of the corner of my eye, warning Dodger. “I mean, you look like a rich girl. How would you end up here?” I found myself getting angry, and clenched my fists. He continued on, not getting the message. The other guys all watched with interest. “We’re all street beaters. You look like you came from a cushy back ground.”

“Dodge, quit while you-” Hanger began, but I shot him a venomous look and he shut his mouth. “Did daddy pay for you to get here on a plane?” That’s when I decked him, much to the amusement of the others. I leaned over him as he blinked up at me, a confused expression on his face. “Whoa, don’t mess with this chick.” Boomer said after they had stopped laughing and had helped Dodger up. Levy patted my shoulder. “Hey, we all wanted to.” He said with a grin. Hanger rolled his eyes and smiled at me, which, of course, made me smile. Before I could say anything else, Roxi came into the room. “Arianna says she wants to see us.” She said. Dodge glared at me. “I would have heard that had a certain someone not incapacitated me.” He said. I shrugged and followed her out of the room. “Oh, and Sadie? We can’t get Sophia to make herself stop looking like a battle scene, and it’s upsetting Ariadne. Look at the sky.” I looked up, and sure enough, black clouds were swirling above our heads.

“Where is Libby and Sully?” Roxi gave me a wry smile. “Oh, they headed off together. Someone went to get them.”

“And Jett?” Roxi’s eye brows knit together. “Hiding in a closet, I think. Ryder’s in the garden with Rex, trying to make Arianna’s garden better.” I sighed, and looked up at Hanger. “Who’s job was harder?” the corners of his mouth twitched. “I’ll go get Jett.” He said and walked off in the direction we last saw him. “I’m going to get Ryder. Try and calm Ariadne down for me, will you?” Roxi nodded and hurried off. I headed for the door, only to realize I had an audience. I stopped and slowly turned around. Six boys were following me. Nicco smiled widely. “Don’t mind if we come, do you, love? Hanger get a bit grouchy with us after a while.” They all nodded along in agreement. I looked at all of them. They looked at me like little kids. I wanted to roll my eyes, but couldn’t help smiling instead. “C’mon.” they surrounded me as I walked out of the house. “So, why Hanger?” Boomer asked. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. Max pushed his way past him. “What he means is, you could have had any one. Why Hanger? I mean, he doesn’t talk, he’s practically Goth, and you can’t ever tell if he’s joking around or not.” I raised my eye brow at them, who were all watching for my response. “I can tell what he means. You just have to get to know him.”  Levy chuckled. “I guess you’ve gotten to know him in different ways than us.” They all smothered their laughter at the venomous glare that I gave them. Just then we rounded the corner and found Ryder standing in the garden. Instead of flowers growing, vines and thorn bushes were all around him. I smiled. “I thought you were helping her garden? Why don’t you grow flowers?” he made a face at me, and the thorns grew higher. “Flowers are girly.” Liam plucked him out of the tangle of bushes. “Now, that isn’t so. Black roses are manly. And stinking Johns.” Ryder smiled widely. “Stinking Johns? What’re those?” Before I could stop him, Liam went deep into the discussion of stinking Johns. As if the boy didn’t already smell.