Sonata (Harry Styles FanFiction)

53. Behave Yourself

It wasn't until I got to the end that I saw the first dash of color. There was a female figure standing deep in the background, the pale lavender of her hair the only thing truly setting her apart from the rest of the page. I couldn't even bring myself to touch the picture for fear I was imagining it. It didn't make sense. Why would Leala put me into the pictures at all? She'd made it explicitly clear that she didn't want me to be a permanent part of his life and this was a pretty damn permanent symbol. I had to be hallucinating. There was no other logical explanation. I'd had way too much wine and not nearly enough sleep. Not to mention the gala was the next day and it was already well past four in the morning.

I shut off the lights and collapsed face down into my bed. I still had a week or so more to finish his present, but I had less than twelve hours until I had to impress a hell of a lot of rich bitches. Sleep won out.

Darien Grace

"Ren, have you seen my Chanel gloss? I can't find it!" Jas asked, poking her head into my room from our adjoining bathroom.

"Have you checked your purse?" Rolling my eyes, I continued to concentrate on penning in the intricate black lettering. I was almost finished with his present. I had about a page and a half more to go before I could take it to one of John's publishing friends. He was going to bind into the gorgeous worn leather hardback I'd found in the back of a local book exchange. John had been pissed at me when I'd ripped out the book's actual contents to make room for my creation, but he could deal. I was doing a good thing, those were few and far between with me.

The combination of the illustrations and the French/English hybrid went surprisingly well together—cohesively forming the perfect rendition of what I'd visualized and I was damn proud of it. The entire concept was creative as fuck and he was going to fucking love it. There wasn't another option. I'd worked my ass off—hell, I'd even recruited the help of someone who would like nothing better than to rip my head off of my shoulders with her bare hands. If that wasn't dedication, I didn't know what was.

"Obviously, I've checked my purse and my make-up kit and the car. It's not here." She was getting whiny and whiny Jas was annoying as fuck. I loved her to death, but when she got like this I had to physically restrain myself from bashing her skull in with whatever stiletto, or in this case, cosmetic accessory was missing.

"What about the dressing room at the theatre?" I carefully penned in the last flowing letter before turning to look at her and then to the clock. She was still in her silk robe with massive curlers all over her head. The girl was a wreck and we had to leave in fifteen minutes. I'd made the executive decision to hire a team of professionals in preparation for the evenings festivities. Their work, along with my Reem Acra gown and Louboutins nearly broke the bank, but it was definitely worth it. I'd requested that we darken the purple hues in my hair for the evening—the muted violet only shining through in direct light. The color along with the flowing waves perfectly accented the pale Alice blue of my gown. I usually tried to stay away from lighter colors—or really color in general—but somehow Jas had been able to talk me into it. She'd said something about the allusion of innocence being more "appealing to those old, obscenely rich bastards". I hadn't really cared at that point and just went with the gut of my own little personal shopper.

The damn dress was over ten grand alone and she didn't even bat an eye. It was outrageous what the McKenney's were willing to pay for one night. Caleb and John had insisted upon paying for everything for the Gala and I felt just plain guilty. I mean, I knew that they were beyond well off—our house alone had to cost a fucking fortune, not to mention Caleb's family home in France, but still. Ten grand for a dress? Fuck. That was way too much. I'd tried talking Jas out of it, but she wouldn't have it. I felt awful letting Caleb and John pay for me when they already had to put up with her antics.