THE BET | NALU

Chapter 18

Are you ready yet?" Sting's servant, Rogue, asked from outside Lucy's dorm room. She took a deep breath and stared at herself in the mirror. Her hair was done up in a bun, a few of her golden strands hanging down by the side of her face. The golden dress she had gotten from Sting clung to her waist but flowed out a bit around her legs. To her surprise, and joy, the dress showed no cleavage whatsoever, it did however show a lot of her back. The dress looked nice on her, she couldn't disagree with that.

Except, it looked..rich. It must've costed a lot of money. And money was something that annoyed her to no end. The world was so corrupt nowadays because of money. Families are torn apart, fighting over money, friends betray each other. No one is in their right minds when money is involved. Some are succesfull in gaining money, but they horde it for themselves, when there are people who are starving.

And there are people who only use their children as another away to get money.

She blinked back tears as she placed her hand on the doorknob. She had dreaded this day for so long now..Halloween..

Halloween..

"Yeah..I'm ready.."

"Sting Eucliffe and Lucy Heartfilia." Sting declared to one of the servants. The servant nodded then announced the two to the party. No one looked their way, no one even batted an eye as the two walked down the incredibly expensive stairs. Lucy held on tightly to Sting's arm, not because she wanted to, but because she at least knew him. Everyone else here, they all looked so strange...so..so exotic. These were the type of people that you wouldn't feel right looking at, that you don't have to right to look at them. The richest people in Fiore. Some were snobs, that's true, that's very true, however there were some kind ones. Despite what a lot of movies and books say, Lucy has met kind people who were indeed rich. But she hasn't seen them for a while, and none of these people looked like the ones she's met.

Each wore a mask of some type of animal, most wore birds, but there were some with cat masks or dog masks. All the masks looked extremely expensive, glittered with jewels and fancy paint, it made her dread being here. Sting and Lucy wore their own masks too. Bird masks glittered with jewels and fancy paint, just like the others.

"Don't look so down, you're here with me." Sting smirked in Lucy's direction. Lucy only replied with silence as the two walked through the crowd of people. Her gold dress sparkled underneath the light of the chandeliers, her heels making a small clink sound on the floor whenever she stepped. And she really...REALLY hated it. She liked her life with her friends more. The greasy pizza, sweet vanilla milk shakes, the laughing, and the no judgement. No one would scoff in disgust there, no one would just ignore her presence, as if it wasn't worth it to acknowledge her. At least she felt at home there.

She never really liked Halloween before, to be honest.

Kids going trick or treating with their parents or friends, hearing the servant's tales of when they were children and the adventures they went on on Halloween night. Even in horror movies, people were always with friends or family. No one was alone.

Except for Lucy..

On Halloween, she would lock herself in her room and dress up, pretending to be part of a normal family. On day, she actually decided to work up the guts to ask her father if she could go trick or treating with one of the servants. But heaven forbid a nine year old be able to do something as childish as that, she should just perish the thought.

It was like that every holiday..

Holidays did get better though, when she was out of the house and with her friends.

But here she was again..in a rich place..with someone she doesn't like.

"I'll be back." Sting announced and left her alone in a pile of people she didn't at least didn't recognize. She might've met them once when she was younger, but Father didn't normally introduce her to his business partners, except for Sting's father and another one that her mother trusted. She might've had seen their faces once or twice though when they would come to her house. When they did come, she would lock herself in her room once more.