Now or Never ⇀ John B Routledge [1]

x. happy together

The air was heavy as the Kook party raged around Ashtyn. Nameless people greeted the sixteen-year-old from time to time, a few males even attempting to make a move on her, but they didn't get very far.

Somewhere along the way she was handed a solo cup with an unappetizing red liquid inside that she knew better than to down. Jungle Juice at rich kid parties always had the best vodka a person could buy in them, meaning she'd be on her ass in the next hour if she put that shit in her body. 

Plus, Ashtyn was more focused on finding her friend than mingling among the crowd tonight. She had yet to see Topper or either the Cameron children since arriving, and that small fact worried her. Did Emerson lie, and if so, why?

Not long after the two had entered the large mansion, Emerson excused herself and had yet to be seen again. That didn't surprise Ashtyn in the least, fully expecting the girl to go off with her own group of friends for the night, but she had hoped she'd stuck around long enough to help her find Sarah.

Ashtyn's blue eyes shift down to the red solo cup in her hand, watching the bass vibrate the liquid inside as she leaned against one of the white walls. She was beginning to feel restless and internally debated on whether or not she should make the long hike back to The Cut alone, even if it wasn't the safest option.

The last place she wanted to be was in a crowded room surrounded by snobby rich kids. It hit too close to home and that's somewhere she was currently trying to forget.

'Parties, drinking, fights?' Her mother's words from a week ago rang through her head. 'I didn't raise you to act like this Ashtyn Elizabeth.'

'Next you're going to tell me you've been fucking around with those lesser thans.'

John B's image had flashed through Ashtyn's mind when she recounted that statement. Claudia's words were directed toward middle-class students from Ashtyn's school that day, so she could only imagine what her mother would say if she ever learned of her daughter's feelings toward the orphan.

Ashtyn knew that if she wanted to please her parents, and a part of her always would, then she'd have to say goodbye to John forever.

There was no best of both worlds.

Everyone dreamed that the world was changing, evolving into a more accepting environment for the generations to come, but that way of life had yet to spread far enough. Princeton would scoff if they learned that the girl they wanted to make their poster child was dating someone of such low regards.

At Ivy League schools, well known families came together to create new, more powerful business empires than the generation before, and the Hughes family was no exception. Ashtyn was expected to meet a man who was the heir to an extravagant throne, one that could almost compete with that of Hughes Enterprises, almost.

From the day she spoke her first word, her mother began to groom her into a powerfully elegant woman, but as she stood invisible to the crowd around her, she wondered what a life of seclusion would bring her.