The Writer & The Player #Wattys2016

Chapter 13

"So, Livvy?" I say, my hands around his neck, as we swirl around the room relaxingly. The band played softly into my ears, a beautiful mix of jazz and soul.

His eyes look pained, and I can't help but laugh. What did this girl do to him? "Please, no. Can I just enjoy this moment without thinking about it?" 

"Was it a rebellious time for you, Mr Football Star?" I inquire with a hint of humour. "Were you trying to be spiteful to your parents by insulting them with the obnoxious insanity of that girl?"

He closes his eyes with a groan and a hint of a smile then looks at me. "You have no idea how much I wish it was like that." 

"So it wasn't like that? To be honest with you, I thought that that was the only viable option." I say as he spins me out.

"My parents actually pushed her on to me." He spins me back in. We glide around the room with an abundance of other couples, some I can recognise from tabloids and magazines and others I can tell are pure socialites.

"You poor, poor child," I say genuinely as his hand finds it's way to the curve of my back once again sending a strike of lightning through my body.

"Her family and mine are very close," He explains. "So when I ended it, my mother was scared to death that she lost a socialite friend and that her status would downgrade. It's so childish." He ponders for a moment, as my eyes land on the dining table we left in a hurry. It was seeming to go well for Carmen and I was dying to know about this underlying relationship they all seem to have with each other. "Anyways, she never lost Cheryl and Blake as friends because Olivia was so persistent in trying to get us back together, there were never any hard feelings. Only my torturous pain." 

I laugh at his dramatics and raise an eyebrow. "So tell me about Carmen."

"We grew up together. She lost both her parents to a car accident when we were 5, and lived with a foster family after that. But most of the time she stayed with us and my parents took her in, treating her like their own daughter." He explains with tenderness, the violation of Carmen's privacy strained in his voice.

"She didn't get along with her foster family?" I ask with a squeak in my voice. 

"Not really. Her foster parents pushed her into psychology in college. They wanted the best for her but they didn't understand what that was for Carmen."

"So she dropped out and works for you now?" I ask, piecing it together.

"Something like that." He says as we slow to a stop as the song fades away.

"We should go back," I say. We had danced through a couple of songs and dinner was going to be served any minute. Not to mention the table was now full excluding our spots at the table, meaning that we had been joined by Cheryl and Blake, the lovely Livvy's parents. And also that young guy I had seen earlier who had disappeared, I was yet to meet.

He groans. "Do we really have too? I haven't had to deal with this much scrutiny since last Christmas." 

"Well get used to it, because it sounds like Livvy's party will be exactly like this," I say, "Except, full of plastics." 

"Plastics?" He laughs.

"You know, the girls I hear you used to date." I continue, "All happening down here but nothing up there." I gesture to my chest then to my head.

He smirks. "Alright, alright, alright, I get it." He takes my hand and lace's my fingers with his. My heart skips.

"But who knows, I might not even be there to watch you under all that scrutiny," I say, my mind wandering to Olivia and her words.