𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐬 || Jameson Hawthorne

dinner, party of none?

༄ "𝐋𝐈𝐙, 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐋𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐘?"

Ready to go to a Hawthorne dinner? No. I don't think I'd ever be ready for that, not after everything.

I was wearing a leather skirt with a white and black sweater top. My heart was straight throughout but curled at the bottom, and there was a small black ribbon holding some of my hairs together in the back of my head.

There was a knock at the door, and Rebecca was leaning against the door frame, her arms crossed. "We're all waiting for you. Lottie and Andrew are already in the car."

"I know," I took one last glance in the mirror before grabbing my phone and hurrying out of my room. Not looking back at Rebecca, I said, "What's going on with you and Thea?"

There was a moment of silence before Rebecca said, "Nothing. There was nothing there anyways."

Lies. Rebecca loved Thea. She still does. And even though Thea was a bitch, she would do anything for my sister.

Which is why Emily never approved. For the good hour or so she even knew about it. Then again, Emily never liked when people kept things secret from her. I would know—

"Lizzie," Rebecca placed a hand on my back, bringing me back to reality. "Are you okay?"

No. "Yes."

"Liz, be honest," Rebecca looked me straight in the eyes, and it was hard to not give into those green irises. "Has something happened with your condition?"

"No." Rebecca gave me a pointed look. "I'm serious, Bex. It's been a lot better." Besides, my condition was never as bad as Emily's. I was never hovered over like she was as a child.

"Fine. If you say so."
—
༄

"So what sports are you into, Avery?" Thea said, stabbing her fork into the chicken on her plate. As of yesterday afternoon, Avery was a heiress, and the Hawthorne's were disinherited.

Thea never was innocent, and she always had some agenda up her sleeve. If she was interrogating Avery, she had a reason to do so.

Avery looked nervous when she said, "I don't really do sports."

"Everybody at Country Day does a sport," Xander added. "It's kind of like a right of passage."

"You make machines." I countered.

Xander stuck his tongue out at me and Grayson rolled his eyes. I forget how fun it was to annoy the so called Heir Apparent.

The dinner table was wide and large. I was sat directly across from Jameson, who looked like his head was somewhere else. Usually, I would've been right there with him, trying to figure out what the old man's next game is. What this one was.

But not anymore.

"I think we should celebrate," Zara said, raising her glass of champagne. "to Avery Grambs, the one Tobias Hawthorne chose." Skye visibly tensed at her sisters words, and the look of satisfaction on Zara's face was apparent.

She may of not liked the circumstances either, but she was reveling in that fact that Skye Hawthorne had not gotten anything from the old man. Or her children.

Thea cleared her throat. "And to Emily, may she rest in peace." She looked directly at Jameson and Grayson, and then turned to face me.

Thea was never innocent.

"Theadora," Constantine hissed.

Thea took a sip of her drink and adapted the world's most innocent look. "What?"