The Dirty Talk of High Society

Chapter 1 - Leo's comeback

"Until his teeth break!" shouted the Prince, sole heir to the throne, as he raised his fists up to the air, jumping. The table under him trembled with each thump. Seven obsessed, out-of-it aristocrats wiggled around their chairs while screaming. Possessed, their eyes were white, and a trail of saliva escaped their open mouths.

A tea party. It's an extremely easy concept. In fact, its name is an exact definition of what should happen in it. A gathering, in which you drink tea and speak with people. However, whenever Prince James was involved, something was meant to go terribly wrong.

As if he was purposefully attracting trouble -Lady Cleo, the second-born of the Kellet family's triplets, always said "Seducing trouble like he seduces all my friends."-, His Highness was someone you couldn't get out of the Palace with without regretting it. This was way more of a truth for Lady Olivia Hayton.

"Let's put it like this," started Lady Cleo a week earlier, lying on the sofa as if she were a panther on a tree. "Imagine we all are a table. We're not all a table: James is the table, and we complement him. You, Liv, are the tablecloth." She sat up straight, completely serious, moving her unruly dirty blonde hair back. "Little Vannie is flowers in a vase, on the center. The Jinxer twins are appetizers. Lady Kitty is the plates the appetizers are on. Leo is the tea, I am the teacups, and Theo is the plates the teacups go on. Lord James (not the Prince. I mean Lord James Hughes. Well, I guess you got it. You're not that close with him, so...) is the forks to pinch the appetizers with.

"You, as the tablecloth, are supposed to save Jamie from being hurt by whatever we do."

So, why was it that she, the tablecloth, the only one calm and collected in their whole Bucket List-knowing group, the one fighting right now?

Right. Because Leonard Kellet was the one fighting against her.

As soon as she turned to face James, Lord Leonard threw a direct punch to her face. Even if she was distracted momentarily, before, the punch brought her back to the present. Her head flew back. She lost balance. She found her stand quickly, but her heel broke and she fell anyway. With a whine, she looked up.

Lord Leonard frowned, his jaw clenched, as he looked down at her. As if magic-struck, her eyes descended onto his broken lip. She did that. He had a scar on his neck, under his collar, which she couldn't see but still knew of. She did not do that.

"Are you going to keep checking me out or are you going to get it together?" He smirked bitterly, the cut in his lip bleeding slightly. Lady Olivia fisted her hands again and pushed herself up, pursing her lips together. "That's nice. More like you."

"What do you know about me?" she spit, as bitter as him.

"Way more than you, apparently."

She threw a kick, which he stopped easily. He grabbed her leg and yanked her towards him, grabbing Lady Liv by the waist, pressing their bodies together. "Liv-" he started, but Lady Olivia clenched her teeth and banged her forehead against his nose. She heard a crack, but the pain on her head was strong enough for her to be confused about its source.

He freed her, and she jumped back, falling down again. He retreated a few steps, his hands over his bleeding nose.

James laughed like a madman. Leonard looked at her, terribly offended. Olivia looked at him, horrified.

"You know," he said, letting his hand down, his face tainted red by blood, "I came back because of you. Is this what you sent that hellish letter for?"

Hellish? Seriously?

Her cheeks burned with shame. The scratch under her chin began to sting. "You read it?"

"Every," he said. She flinched. "single," he said. She paled. "word," he finished. She closed her eyes, accepting death for the last time.