Camera Flashes (1) - Taylor Swift

1

Grace Kent never particularly enjoyed the Met Gala. It was fine, really that was the only word for it. The outfits were ridiculous, the press was overinflated and the company was usually repulsive.

At twenty-four she had attended enough of them to know it was only getting worse as the years went on. Seriously, who thought of fashion in an age of technology? Was there no class left in these events? That Prada outfit was horrendous, she wouldn't even be caught dead near a Prada store.

"Charles," she tapped her date's shoulder gently, he was onto his second drink of the evening, "That man over there, is he wearing a metal arm?"

"I believe two," Charles James Percy Langford the Eighth replied drily. That was all he ever did, he was usually such a bore. He and Grace were supposed to be getting married next spring, not that either was enthused about it. Their parents had arranged it decades before and once he finished his final year of law school, he would be groomed to help William once it was time to pass along the company.

Grace wasn't allowed anywhere near it, she was given a formal education and then expected to stay home. It was fine.

Fine.

That's all it ever was.

She didn't necessarily have any opposition against it, she didn't know any better than to go along. It was all she'd been told her entire life, that Charles would make a good suitor and that she should keep her mouth shut, wait for her turn to speak. As her mother was an arranged marriage for her father, she would do the same for Charles.

Charles wasn't nearly as strict on the behaviour as their respective parents had been growing up, he wasn't terrible company to those events and he did occasionally make her laugh.

So he was fine, too.

"Another drink?" He asked the brunette, her green eyes narrowed as she tried to recall how many she was in. Was it two in the car or three? Did she put whiskey in her coffee that morning like usual? She couldn't remember.

"Please," she passed him her empty glass, "Anything besides the Chateau."

It didn't matter what she said, he would come back with whatever was most expensive, even if it was disgusting. It was simply what they did.

He left and she continued to watch as celebrity after celebrity made a fool of themselves. They danced, they drank, they tried to catch the attention of the cameras. She couldn't care less about that, she showed because the Kent's were generous donors to the museum and it looked good for them to support the event.

Charles returned with her drink while she was schmoozing with someone she couldn't remember the name of but the face was familiar, so she used her usual trick, "Charles, dear, come here. Have you met my fiancé?"

"No," the man extended his hand and received a name following his introduction. It was such a shame that it went to waste, Grace's attention was lost almost instantly as they babbled on.

That woman was gorgeous. She looked wild, her lipstick was far too dark and her outfit was shiny, actually shiny. Her hair looked like she had cut and bleached it herself, Grace was enamoured by it.

When the person who had tried chatting to the couple excused himself, Grace turned to Charles and asked him another question, "Do you know who that is?"

She was one of the biggest celebrities in the world, but neither of them had ever heard of her. Pop culture lessons weren't exactly part of the rigorously enforced curriculum at her private all girls high school.

Hell, she only had four girls in her graduating class and she'd slept with them all before her final year even began. It was an awkward graduation, not that anyone from her family even bothered to attend.