Meant to Crash | ✓

Chapter Ten

Akin and Layla hadn't taken their eyes off of me as I poured the entire story out for the both of them. A pint of ice cream was planted between us as we sat at the dinner table, diving into the Cookies 'N Cream with no mercy or regret. I told them nearly everything. Well, everything apart from what I had overheard about Ava coming to visit. That was too personal for me to share. I had no right to talk about that kind of family related topic.

"I can't believe it." Layla dug in another spoonful into the ice cream. "The Sasha Lockhart wanted to hang out with you. You're like famous now by association."

I rolled my eyes. "Not really. We didn't even go out. Sebastian was so against it because he thought it would be all kinds of wrong and inappropriate. Besides, I'm actually happy that I didn't go."

"Why the hell would you say that?" Akin boomed.

"Because, I know if I did, you two would massacre me for not inviting you both."

"Oh, we definitely would've." Layla laughed.

Akin raised from his seat at the table and threw his spoon into the sink. "You know what I don't get?"

I looked up from the pint of ice cream. "What?"

"The fact that you said a lot of great things about Sasha."

"What do you mean?"

He lifted himself on the granite countertops. "Well, the media makes her out to be the over the top and melodramatic spoiled brat of the family. I mean like even when I was just starting out keeping up with the Lockhart family, I always saw people catching her during a meltdown about something or just at the wrong time."

"Yeah, you're right. Remember what she did when Brendon got engaged?" Layla spoke up. "Tabloids had all of these photos of her shouting at his fiancé. It got so bad that she wasn't present for the wedding."

"Didn't sources say she refused to go?" Akin questioned. "They said she was on the invitation list."

"You guys can't possible take the media's word for everything. Tabloids always make celebrities out to be worse than they actually are. Whatever story sells better that day is what they care about-not the truth," I remarked. "If you guys met her, you'd see that she's a real sweet girl. She's nowhere near as cruel as her brother."

They both agreed with my claim and we let the topic drop. Layla and I devoured the last of the ice cream, and when we were done, we all headed to the living room and started watching our favorite TV show, Blindsided. It was kind of one of our traditions every Wednesday night when new episodes of Blindsided came on. The show followed the actor, Ian Lindon, as the popular twentysomething year old college student whose world was turned upside down when he got tied up with a pack of werewolves, not knowing he was one as well. We'd been all watching the show years ago when it first premiered, and one of the many reasons we first clicked was because we all watched basically the same shows, always talking about how we felt about the character who had been killed off or complaining about the love interest.

After the show, Akin raced for the remote and flipped it to channel two. Insider in Hollywood was on-it was the only show both Akin and Layla adored and I simply had no care for. Gossip on celebrity's day lives seemed so odd to me. If I saw one in person, of course I'd freak out like everyone else, but I found it awfully rude to take photos of them at every moment in their day.

"Pop singer and song writer, Connie Irving, was seen leaving her Calabasas home-estimated to be priced at 3.2 million dollars-at nine o'clock this morning. She drove off the property and was later spotted at LAX," the female reporter said. A quick clip of the glamourous singer stepping out of her pearl white Lexus was brought onto the screen. Connie, with her bright red hair and pale ivory skin, looked stunning in a casual assemble of clothing. Honestly, she should've gotten into modeling instead of a singing career with her good looks. Not to say she was a bad singer though; she was phenomenal. I owned one of her albums from earlier in her career back when I was in ninth grade-she was bigger back then, but still made a hit every now and then through the years. "Sources close to Connie say she's visiting a friend of hers in San Francisco. One particular possible guess would be to see her old flame, Sebastian E. Lockhart, the heir to the Lockhart Inc. we all know and love."

My jaw nearly hit the floor. "Sebastian d....dated Connie Irving."

The reporter spoke before either of my best friends could elaborate on this new bit of knowledge. "We all remember the big engagement announcement between the most eligible bachelor and pop icon seven years ago." Photos of Sebastian standing very happily next to Connie popped onto the TV screen now. They were at the Grammys, holding each other closely with love struck in their eyes. A massive diamond ring was placed on her left hand, shimming with the flash of photography's lights. "But after the sudden and heartbreak up of the power couple Sonnie, sources say they are not all that sure she'd want to see him ever again."

"They actually gave them a ship-name," I groaned and deflated in my seat. An undefinable emotion rushed through me, making my heart ache and my chest tighten at the photos on the TV screen. I stabbed a look at my friends who were so-called experts on this family. "Why didn't you tell me he had a freakin' fiancé? Let alone a fiancé that was Connie fucking Irving."

Akin scrunched up his nose. "To be honest, their relationship completely slipped my mind."

"Me too," Layla said. "I hardly recall them being together for that long though. They engaged so quickly and before the wedding planning could even start, Sebastian had disappeared."

"Wait," I breathed, sitting up from my slumped position. "Do you think the engagement has to do with whatever happened seven years ago that got him to vanish?"

Akin shrugged. "Possibly, but what guy flees his hometown because of some girl he wants to marry?"

"Maybe someone in the family didn't approve of it," Layla guessed. "That actually reminds me of this one thing that happened in my own family. My dad wanted to marry this woman long before he had met my mother, but my grandparents didn't approve it. In my culture - or at least the old school version my grandparent and their parents practiced - is that if your parents don't accept the person you've chosen, then you can't marry them. So you either have to keep trying to find someone your parents approve or they pick someone for you."

"The thought of arrange marriages makes me want to throw-up," Akin confessed while making fake gagging sounds.

I shook my head. "Hey, well that's how the world used to work and still does in some parts. Arrange marriages was a lot trendier back in the day." Getting comfortable in my seat, we tuned back into the show and heard the other celebrity gossip they had for their views for that day. When the commercials started up, I asked. "Do you think that's what's happening to Sebastian? You know, the whole arranged marriage thing. Do you think his family is doing that to him?"

"I wouldn't be shocked if that was the case behind his breakup with Connie," Layla replied a little too fast. "With all that money in their family, it makes sense if his parents wanted to choose which family their wealth funneled into."

She was right. Of course she was right, it made complete sense if his parents had someone picked out for him. Heck, I bet he'd known the girl they had picked out for him since he was a kid. I didn't know why, but thoughts of that our conversation in the living room swam in my head all the way till I went to bed, provoking me, teasing me, reminding me that I was insane for even taking that job today. What was I thinking for accepting his offer? That he'd really turn out to be a nice guy? If so, then I was delusional.

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