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Her arrival in Oregon wasn't matched with a warm welcome. Though she had travelled numerous hours in multiple modes of transport, she was greeted home with nothing but disappointment and awkward quiet.
Wanda Aiyers is a very driven woman. She knows what she wants in life, and she knew who she had to manipulate to get to her desired outcome. So, when the decadent entrance door opened, facing Roselyn with a half-naked sleazy man, Roselyn wasn't all too surprised.
"And who might you be?" The balding man asked the brunette, raising a brow and leaning against the doorframe as if he would seem more attractive. Roselyn crinkled her nose up in disgust, shoving past him and towards her room, Jiji hissing as he trotted away.
"The daughter," was all he was answered with, the chestnut girl putting her luggage in her room before pacing downstairs to find her mother. The man by the door seemed to perk up at her answer, clearly perplexed at the information. Perhaps, Roselyn wondered, he was expecting it to be some kinky thing in store for his highness. Shame on him.
"Roselyn," her mother beckoned from the kitchen, looking up to see a tiresome brunette. "I was dealing with a client, I hope you didn't scare him off." She raised a perfectly arched brow, "I need him." She was met with a sigh, the poor girl standing guard by the fridge.
"No, mother, I did not," Roselyn murmured, looking around the disarray in the kitchen. "Did the maid clean today?" She asked, grimacing at the cutlery and dirty dishes scattered around the room. And the blood splotches on the long oak table. She didn't want to imagine what dark magic her mother was using.
"She wasn't adequate for the job, and since you're home I didn't see to getting another unqualified servant," she huffed, standing from her position, her height intimidating the young witch. "I hear Nevermore closed early. I will not have you squandering around here. You will need to be of service whilst you stay here, or else I'll have you sent away. I can't have you hindering my plans," she tutted, sauntering over to her daughter. She moved her long nails across her daughter's face, pulling her chin upwards. "Your under-eyes are visible. You need to fix that, I can't have my only daughter looking sickly."
Roselyn took a deep breath, bowing her head and blinking oncoming tears away. "Well, it has been hard to sleep when there's a monster parading the school and killing everyone," she answered, not daring to look Wanda in the eye.
"Well, I didn't know. Since you blocked me out of your head," she tutted, eyes sharpening as she looked at her disobedient daughter. "Anyway, I haven't the time for such petty drama. Alejandro was in the middle of showing me his prospectus" she hummed in lust, practically gliding across the floors to the staircase. "Be a doll and help him out if he needs anything around here?" She taunted, eyes glimmering with ill-intent before she left.
Roselyn felt the need to wash herself of that conversation, moving to her en suite to shower the metaphysical grime off her skin. Shrugging off her clothes, she stepped into the steam, dipping her head into the beads of burning water. Slowly, Roselyn moved her fingers to her scalp, gently lulling herself into a haze as her tresses blackened under the water. She had barely been home for half an hour, and she was on the end of her tethers. Somehow, Nevermore Academy with all its rampant mischief and monsters seemed way more appealing to her than her own bed at this time. Yet thoughts of her yearning ran down the drain with all her peace as she finished scrubbing her body raw.
Silence seemed to sting her ears as she softly padded towards her mirror, faintly wiping the condensation off the glass. A sigh only the angels could hear resounded from her lips at her tiresome face, her eye bags were bruising slightly. Just like her mother said. Damn her for being right. Patting the pads of her fingers against her cheekbones did little in waking her up from the nightmare she believed was occurring, so she resorted to distracting herself. Staying locked away in her room, reading to escape the lurking witch downstairs. Jiji's incessant mewls for cuddles, curling up to her windowsill to overlook the pristine garden. The one she was never allowed to play in as a child, not to stray from the stone paths around the parameter.
She was suffocating under her mother's surveillance, so she just had to imagine it was all fine. And not to tell her about her newfound magic. She would surely get dragged into more than she could chew with her family. So, she had grown up to live a secret life. Behind the walls of solitude, she thrived in the quiet moments alone. Left to her own devices as her mother performed unknown businesses and went on frequent expeditions for 'work'. Sure, she felt alone, but never lonely.
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That night, she was playing around with her new phone, trying all the buttons. She had seen a text from Xavier, failing to suppress the giddy giggle and childish smile that flared. Pressing on it, and sending a 'hey :)' back, she noticed the camera icons on the screen. Curious, she clicked on a video icon, thinking she could take a video to send him of Jiji playing with her curtain drapes. Only, the screen flashed to a call, a squeal leaving her throat after a second to see a certain blonde boy's face super close to the camera.
"Holy shit!" She gaped at the camera, oblivious to how Xavier could see her double chin as she looked down at the screen in shock.
"Hello? Roselyn, you good?" He chuckled, moving his screen away from his face to take a sneaky screenshot of the befuddled girl on the call.
"I wanted to send a video, oh," she realised, seeing her facial expression in the corner of the screen. "I didn't mean to call you, oh I'm sorry. I thought it was to take a video," she added, now flustered to see the notification that "Xavier took a screenshot (2)".
"No, you're all good. How are you? You settled in back home?" He asked, moving to a sitting position to pay full attention to the tired girl.
She sighed, moving a hand to smush her cheek in frustration. "As much as I can. I'm good. Just tired," she stifled a yawn with a hand before smiling lopsidedly at his grin. "You alright? You eaten dinner, yet?" She asked, caring deeply for him especially after chatting about his familial situation.
He nodded, looking over his shoulder to what she presumed was a clock. "Yeah, did you?"
She nodded absentmindedly, moving her camera so Xavier would get a very close shot of Jiji's chunky face. "Mhm. But look! I wanted to send Jiji doing something silly..." she paused, noting the black cat's unimpressed glare before moving her phone back. "He's not silly anymore," she whined.
Xavier tutted, squinting his eyes in mock anger. "Well that's mean to get my hopes up. Bad cat," he muttered, raising his brows in surprise after hearing a loud growl from Jiji. "You look tired, Ros," he noted, smiling tenderly at the girl with her eyes barely open.
"No, but I want to hear your voice," she murmured, pouting at him. "I miss you."
He chuckled, "Look, I'll call you tomorrow. But you have to get some rest. It's been tiring, you need your energy, honey." His cheeks flamed at the accidental slip of his tongue, luckily unnoticed by the drowsy witch.
"Mhm. You promise you'll call me?" She asked, flopping her head onto her pillows and laying on her side to see his response.
"Pinky promise," he scrunched his nose up shoving his phone comedically close to his face and moving a pinky into shot. "Now I'll hang up, goodnight, Roselyn."
She lazily smiled into her pillow, batting her lashes at him. She tried to memorise his face, his green tea eyes that immersed her into vivid lullabies before he ended the call. "Goodnight, pretty boy."
And so he turned off his phone, smiling to his ceiling. Unbeknownst to the girl who wouldn't remember what she called him, Xavier's memory carved a special place of that that would repeat itself like the most beautiful broken record. He would go to sleep dreaming of Roselyn's sleepy soft words, and she would slumber fantasising about his soft green eyes.
—Author's Notes— Happy holidays everyone! I hope u take time for yourself and make sure to take care of yourself this time xoxo
