Being Bleu

Chapter 8

-----Axel----

The plane ride to Colorado was a long, quiet one even with Bleu sitting next to me. She sat on the window side of our seats with her cheek pressed against the glass and her hair shielding her face from me. I'd tried to make conversation the first few minutes of our flight, but she'd been snappier than usual so I just stayed quiet and read the book I'd brought with me. I understood that she was in a bad mood though, Bleu was losing her dad and I knew exactly how that felt. I just wished she would sit up and talk to me so I knew that she was alright. Also, I needed a distraction from the annoying flight attendant that kept coming up to me and asking if I needed anything, when I'd told her a million times that I was fine. I'd never flown first class so I just assumed that the workers wanted to make sure you were extra comfortable. Bleu didn't seem too grateful about the first class tickets her mom had sent us like I was. She'd explained to me that it was for her mother's own good and that she'd never let her daughter be seen on the 'economy class' side of the plane. I was beginning to regret coming with Bleu on this trip. If her mom was as awful as Bleu said she was, I was in for some real fun. But I would keep a smile on my face just for Bleu and suck it up no matter how miserable I was. I didn't want to put her down with my negativity when she was already acting depressed about seeing her mom.

When we finally reached the airport in Aspen, Bleu told me that her mom's chauffeur was going to be the one to pick us up. I cast her a sideways glance at that comment, which she returned with a weird look of her own. So she lived in Aspen, had a chauffeur and flew nothing but first class? Bleu didn't seem like the type of girl who did those things, but there seemed to be a lot of things I didn't know about Bleu. Nonetheless, I shrugged and carried our heavy bags to the black sedan that Bleu gestured towards. We sat in the back of the car with the driver whose name was James in the front,

"Good afternoon, James. Thank you for picking us up." Bleu murmured to him, speaking in a formal way that I'd never heard from her before. Usually, she was snappy and rude and never said thank you. She was also sitting up straight with her hands folded gracefully in her lap, not looking anything like her normal self. I frowned at her, but she refused to catch my eye. Instead, she stared outside the window like she'd done on the plane.

"Afternoon, Miss. Is this your friend that you're going to introduce to your mother?" James asked while maneuvering the car down a winding path. The white gloves he wore squeaked against the wheel as he steered and I took note of his formal uniform before glancing down at my ratty DC sneakers and artfully torn jeans. I felt totally under-dressed; even Bleu had traded her jeans and crop top for a nice dress.

"He sure is," Bleu said with a mischievous glint in her eye. James chuckled knowingly and Bleu patted my knee with an ice-cold hand, "We're going to have lots of fun, Axel," She promised, leaning in so that her breath brushed across my face. If she kept doing things like that, we were going to have lots of fun.....

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We arrived at Bleu's house after what seemed like forever of driving along the snowy roads of Aspen. The house was actually a mansion larger than I’d ever seen sitting on top of a mountain of snow and gravel. It was a gorgeous home made of stone instead of the boring brick that was popular in New Orleans, and at the top room there was a balcony with its doors wide open and white curtains billowing in the wind. It was any persons dream home, which made me wonder why Bleu seemed to hate it so much.  I tried my hardest not to gape at the house when we pulled up, but Bleu noticed my expression. She pressed her lips into a straight line and looked away from me.

"Home sweet home," She said sarcastically as we got out of the car. A man dressed kind of like James came and picked up our luggage, as if we were at some four star hotel. The house could be passed off as a hotel though, because of its size and the workers in suits running around. I followed Bleu through the doorway were we met a woman in the foyer, standing under a large glass chandelier that cast an eerie glow across the large room. The woman was tall with long blonde hair piled on top of her head and frown lines etched across her face.

"Hello, mother," Bleu said, stopping abruptly in her walking. I shifted uneasily on my feet as Bleu's mother scanned me with her hawk-like gaze before turning to her attention back to Bleu. She introduced me to her mom, who said nothing in return but just kept staring at us with the same cold gaze. I began to wonder if she was even able to convey emotion, or even talk.

"I'll find someone to prepare your rooms. Tomorrow, you will go see your father," She finally said, turning on her heel and marching down the long hallway on her stiletto heels. Bleu's hands balled into angry white  fists and she cleared her throat loudly  to get her mom's attention.

"Actually, mother, we'll be sleeping in the same room. You see, Axel and I live together. We're madly in love and I can’t stand the thought of us being apart for more than a few minutes." Her mother turned around and glared at the both of us when Bleu announced that, and I stared at her too. What the heck did Bleu think she was doing?