Spirited Away To You

Chapter-40

I had decided to just call for a taxi. To my surprise, it was the same taxi driver who had given me a ride the first time William showed he was a spirit.

"Hi there, again!" The man said with a similar surprised face.

"The world is small," I chuckled getting in and giving him the address.

"You okay today, Ma'am?"

"Perfectly sane," I said laughing as I remembered how dumb I acted that day.

The taxi driver, Chase as he introduced himself, drove around quickly as we made small talk about the weather. He let me off at the entrance of address that Britney had given me and left with a small parting word. The steel doors with intricate designs was a see-through for the mansion in front of me.

It was a French colonial mansion with the most expensive exterior I had seen in my life. The mansion on the hundred acres of land was stunning with a beautiful mermaid fountain in the centre of its gravelled path. The automatic doors opened up when I said my name in a microphone.

I pushed myself to walk along the path that led up to the exquisite furnished double doors. I rang the bell and a second later heard shuffling on the other side before Britney opened the door.

"Hey there," Britney said chirpily.

Well, she seemed to be in a good mood.

"Hi," I squeaked out as she made more room to let me in.

The interior was as magnificent as the exterior. With marble-polished royal stairs going up on both sides of the house, a gigantic crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, which was painted in stories from the Bible.

It was absolutely marvellous and terrifying at the same time. I felt really tiny in the vast and overloading beauty of the house. Britney walked around before leading me to an elevator at one corner which I probably wouldn't ever notice and we went to the third floor.

"Your house is beautiful," I said looking through the transparent glass of the elevator, which played a slow melody.

"Thanks, my mom is very much into such designing," she said smiling a little.

I had done some research about borderline personality disorder to understand Britney more easily. To say, it proved to be one of the serious mental disorders which can cause one to self-harm. It was necessary to be calm around them and not provoke them into matters they didn’t want to talk about.

It was at least good that people with BPD could recover over the years. But I still wondered what caused Britney to have this disorder since it was usually due to extreme stress or serious incidents.

We made our way to her overly girly room. I knew she would own a fancy bedroom but nothing prepared me to see the all too pink and white room with a huge closet full of makeup and designer clothes.

Well someone's pampered a lot.

We sat down and started with the project almost immediately. She had actually searched up sites to know more about our topic. We worked straight for an hour with no breaks and discussed ways of presenting it. Britney's snarky self did show a handful of times but she was better than ever.

By the next hour, a butler came in with a tray of refreshments and snacks. Britney had a tray full of colourful medicines which she gulped almost instantaneously.

"Let's have a break," she said popping open her Dr. Pepper. I did the same and we clanked our soda cans before taking a sip.

"To our finished project," Britney said sighing.

She was actually nice under all those exterior she held so no one could mess with her. I really admired her in a way to be through so much and still be so carefree.

"Where's the restroom?" I asked after a while. The air conditioned room and Dr. Pepper was too much to handle.

"My one's broken, there's a one right down the hall," she said scrolling through her news feed.

I nodded and walked down the hall to the washroom. Finishing my business, I walked out and made my way back when I saw several family pictures and trophies on the walls.

There were pictures of Britney with her parents in almost all events of her life. I took notice of pictures of a very young Britney hugging a boy a little older than her.

She has a brother?

My heart was thumping fast as I went through the photos and achievements related to football. There was a picture of a young boy in his jersey and adorned in medals and a trophy. He had dark hair and a smirk plastered to show off the achievement. Stopping at the centre of the wall I looked up to read the intricate letter painted in gold.

Benmonte.

My mind flew back to the time I saw this name. Xander Benmonte. Britney having his name tattooed. It only meant one thing.

Xander was Britney's brother.