Jealousy or Jealousy|ARUDEN AU

2

ARU'S POV:

I blinked.

So many things made sense now. My mom's erratic behavior, the fancy dress Kara wore. Well, then I was refusing, obviously, I was 19 for heaven's sake!

Then I saw him. Octavian, a skinny little stick man, who was the most sexist person she had ever met. Like the bleep he is, he looked me over with his greasy smile, practically dripping satisfaction. I groaned, of course he was behind it. Well, I was getting out of this one way or the other like she always did.

"Well, looks like Arundhati has arrived, why don't you join us in the festivities?" He phrased it like a question, but I knew it wasn't one.

I didn't know why my skin crawled at the idea of a selection, maybe it was because I had always believed she had a choice, maybe it would have been a long time best friend who I had, or a guy who helped me up. But I didn't imagine I would be partnered with a rando who I thought was cute. And I wouldn't have either, if I hadn't been one of the "Ruling Sixteen".

"No" was out of my mouth before I had thought it through.

"Excuse me?" Octavian replied, his face twisted in an ugly expression that looked like it belonged on a rakshasa's head, which at the end of the day it did. But, I paid no heed to the urge to slap him or to take out my phone and snap a photo of him and post it on Instagram. Maybe I could get a few more likes with it.

"NO!" I yelled, causing a scene, something Octavian hated. So, I yelled louder.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed, then grimaced. My throat was not taking all that screeching well. I turned on her heel and stomped her way through the mansion, up the stairs, into her room. Then I deadbolted the door, and reinforced it with my spinny chair. I sighed and collapsed onto my bed, head spinning, I just couldn't believe she had just done that. I replayed the day's events in her head, the look of shock on Kara's face when she had started yelling. How her mother had finally snapped out her daze, staring at her, horrified. I genuinely felt like a toddler, and I was proud of myself.

"ARU! ARU, LET ME IN!" Kara's muffled voice came through the door. As Kara kept banging on my door, I kept ignoring her. Until, she finally, finally left. I stayed there, on her bed, looking up at the ceiling, until a dreamless sleep swept her into a haze of black.

Faces swimmed in front of her, twisting themselves into monsters, monsters that fed off her fear, and lived in the back of her mind. I saw its red-rimmed eyes, its matted black hair, its chapped and scarred lips twisting into an horrendous smile and I screamed. Because I'd seen those chocolate eyes before, I saw them everyday in the mirror. I saw that with a simple twist of fate I could have become that . . . monster. I saw that every monster was simply a story gone wrong. They were once like me. And that was what scared me the most. I screamed again, a deep, primal scream of fear.

I woke up, sweating heavily. Not such a dreamless sleep, I thought to myself. I stretched, then got dressed. I wore black leggings and gold combat boots, with a gold hoodie to complete the look, and obviously a french braid down my back. I called for room service to deliver freshly made cheese quesadillas. A few minutes later, a knock came at the door and I spinned the spinny chair out of the way and unlocked the deadbolt. The door swung open to reveal Kara standing there, with a plate of steaming hot quesadillas in her hands. I hungrily snatched the plate from Kara, and bit into one of the quesadillas. The hot, hot cheese, and soft, soft quesadilla practically melted in my mouth. The smoky flavor of the cheddar was still on her tongue as I asked Kara to come in. (Not that Kara cared)

"So? Why are you here? To see if I'm okay or to get me to apologize to Octavian?" I asked.

"Neither. There's a meeting and we need you there." Kara replied, as robotic as I had been fierce. "Also, you can't bring food, better eat quickly."

"Has that ever stopped me before?" I replied. They walked in silence, Aru munching away on her quesadillas, and Kara walked stoically, as if she really was a robot. I couldn't believe Kara was mad at her, Kara knew all of my problems with the selection and agreed with me! Yet, in front of me, Miss Robot was acting as if I was a five year old who had a temper tantrum over the smallest thing! I munched on my quesadillas quicker, as if chewing hard and fast would get rid of my problems. She didn't get a chance to ponder on what her problems actually were, though, before they were at the door.

Aru reached the door first, and purposely used her greasy hand that she had just licked in front of Kara, to open the door to annoy her. As expected, the Kara in question, gagged as she passed Aru, all traces of her robotic behavior gone.

"ARU! Ugh, I can't believe you sometimes, much less that you're my twin sister." Kara complained, taking a disinfectant wipe out of her hand-bag and wiping the door handle.

I just grinned in response. They walked in laughing, about my antics.

"I was walking like this wasn't I?" Kara walked with her chest puffed up and her shiny black slippers going clickety-clack.

Aru laughed, all her worry vanished and she got lost in the moments. She pointed to "Lord Coulsen" or as Aru liked to call him, "Lord Tummy" as his stomach was a big round circle that didn't fit in his shirt. She pointed at him and she and Kara erupted into bouts of giggles, tears of joy streaming down their faces as they hung on to each other.

"Attention!" When Aru and Kara didn't respond, Minister Buxom (Yes, Buxom, NO idea what his parents were thinking) tried again. "ATTENTION!!" That did the trick.

"Yes?" They replied.

"Because of the humongous blunder Miss Aru Shah made, she has to publicly apologize."

"No," I replied, just as stoic as Minister Buxom, Two can play at that game, I thought to myself. Or rather announced to the rather large courtroom.

"Excuse me?" Minister Buxom asked (whined)

"I said that aloud, didn't I?"

"Yes, yes you did" Kara tried to contain her laughter, but she failed. But before Kara could start laughing, the door burst open.

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Who do you think it is?

-Vivi