The Black Rose

06| Watch your mouth

4th March
6.30 a.m.

"Wait, so you're telling me you have an aunt who doesn't know about Poison Ivy?" I asked Dominique, who shrugged.

"You tell me. I literally never knew about this until, well, Ivan kidnapped me from my own home. It's really weird because he was super flirty with me when he was kidnapping me, but suddenly, when he was giving us the tour around the place, he was kind of- how do I say this?"

"Childish?" Cara whispered from the end of the bed. Dominique nodded, gesturing to her.

"Yeah, exactly! Anyway, he did kidnap me and stuff, but it's all kind of cool, I just miss my aunt, you know?"

"Wow, so everybody is getting kidnapped from their homes? And not me?"

"Dude, one of the richest families in the whole of New York adopted you. The security would be too much for them, so I guess they would kidnap you in school. How did I not know about you, anyway?"

I keep forgetting that I told that piece of information to Dominique. I should have not told that to her. I should have told her that I was homeless, and watch her face fall instead.

Woah. What was that?

I felt a wave of envy? as I watched Dominique.

I didn't know what was up with me. I felt the constant need to hurt her feelings, even though I knew she hated this as much as I did.

I felt so alone, everytime she brought up her aunt, everytime Cara told us about the care givers bringing her presents and sweets, tucking her into bed at night. I felt like there was nothing in the world for me.

Everyday I spent with the two of them, the further I was sinking. I wondered whether there would ever be a day I wouldn't be able to breathe. Whether some day, I would drown, in this never ending dark sinkhole.

"Vienna? Did you, like, zone out or something? Hello?" I looked over at Dominique hazily, as she snapped her fingers in front of me.

"Sorry, what- what was the question, again?" I sheepishly smiled, as she huffed. I pushed my thoughts away as her smile brightened again.

"I was talking about how I had never noticed you, or seen you before? Like, your parents are one of the most famous in New York?" I nodded my head.

"I was kept away from the media. The Trumans wouldn't want everyone to know that they couldn't conceive another child and adopted one instead." I looked down, clenching my jaw. Dominique seemed to understand, and she dropped the subject.

"But, seriously, there was probably too much security in your house that they had to kidnap you from your school instead."

"Right, so the place that houses at least 30,000 students with networths more than  a million would have less security than one family. Got it." I rolled my eyes, the sarcasm rolling off my tongue.

"I don't know, dude, okay?" She hissed. "I just want to go home. I miss my aunt." Dominique sighed and I looked over at Cara, who had a hand on her shoulder in order to comfort her.

"How did this, thing, even work? Like, your parents worked against the government, and your aunt had no idea?" I knew it was a touchy subject to talk about, and Dominique's face fell.

"Honestly, I don't know, but it's possible. My aunt lived in Canada, until my parents died." She stopped for a second, taking a deep breath. "I was three at the time so I don't remember much, but-"

"Dominique-" Cara stopped short, walking over to her. "You don't have to tell us."

Cara was pretty much silent all the time, I had noticed. She only chimed in when she needed to. She was also very shy and she hadn't warmed up to Dominique yet, who seemed to be the opposite of her.