French Rose

Chapter 9

"I got her when I was twelve and dyed her fur yellow cause she loves the color. I wanted to name her yellow but I had six other cats with the same name so I dyed her fur pink and named her pink. Then I got another cat a week later. She had the whitest fur with beautiful blue eyes. Looking at her for the first time, she took a large chunk of my heart so after a few minutes, I named her Michael Jackson"

"Is it legal to dye cats? Or to have this insane amount of them?" I flipped through the picture book, seeing one by one all the cats she had in her possession. It only made me wonder what her house would look like and how much work she kept into maintaining these things. Bathing, feeding and every other thing wouldn't just take time but also a lot of money.

I couldn't take care of myself, let alone take care of another creature.

"Of course it is. Besides, animal control comes every once in a while to check on them and they're always fine"

"And the cost of maintaining?"

"It's not that expensive if you think about it. A bag of cat food only costs a few dollars"

"Just a bag for sixteen cats?"

"I think that's enough Cat, Christina has somewhere to be now"

"Okay, I hope you love your nails now"

"Yeah, it's better now" The attachments had been taken off, leaving my normal nails to finally breathe. They were also clipped off and filed down to my desired length. She insisted I coated it with at least one later of pink and that conversation took minutes of going back and forth till finally, we settled on clear gloss.

"Mr Aubert is ready for you" Kaitlyn said, standing close to the door. She'd been working since the day before and I had to commend, she was doing a very good job. Ever since I knew her, she'd always been on her feet but the thing is, I really didn't need any of this on a regular day. I would prefer it if she just took the time off, stay with her family or something.

"Why don't you take a break Kaitlyn?"

"You don't need to worry about me Christina, it's my job to watch you and I definitely don't need breaks"

"Exactly, watch. You can just sit back and watch. All these make up and hair and girly stuff, I'm not that interested in it as you think. For instance, you brought a make up artist, the stylist and even picked out clothes for me just to see a childhood friend and at the end of the day, I didn't use any of them"

"It's always good to be ready"

"It's also good to take a break so I insist you do and if I need anything, I'll be sure to call you"

"If you insist, but I'll always be around if you need anything, okay?"

"Yes mom"

She laughed and helped me get my purse from where it was. All I had in it before was just my phone and now, I saw a bottled water, mini make up kit, protein bar and headphones. "And this stops too"

"Just in case you need them"

"Thank you very much Kaitlyn, I'll see you in a few hours or minutes depending if what happens yesterday happens today again"

"You don't have to think that way, it wouldn't happen again."

"You're always positive and you were yesterday before things happened so I don't believe you this time"

She was the reason I felt motivated to go in there the first place. She made it sound so easy and even gave tips on who and who not to talk to but even after, things still happened that way. I wouldn't say her advice wasn't correct, she was right about the comment thing. My dress was the first thing Alex commented on but it would've been better if It also came in my mind to walk away. I don't think anything anyone would say would make me feel better and I was certain that no matter what type of party it is, I would never attend another one ever again.

"It's because you're new to this"

"People don't think I'm new to it, have you seen my email? I've gotten a couple of death threats and more are rolling in"

"Which is why they're people around you to watch you. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. Besides, I'm sure all of this will die down in a few weeks."

"A few weeks isn't that easy for something I didn't do."

I left the room to meet Leo that had been waiting for about thirty minutes now. I wouldn't have spent so long if the nail artist didn't spend extra time showing me her cats gallery. It was fun to hear the few stories she had and the things she learned from them. Although the type of life she lived was a little weird, it took so much of my attention, I didn't know time wasn't on my side.

Leo was sitting on one of the armchairs when I got into the sitting room. He looked like he was somewhere before he decided to come over by the formality of his dressing. It wasn't too much of a difference since yesterday cause he had something similar on, just different colors. I'll never under men's clothing.

"Hi Leo, sorry I took too long"

"There's no need to apologize, Christina. You look beautiful"

"It's just a sweatshirt but thank you. So where are we going again?"

"I understand you're still angry from yesterday and I'm so sorry, I wish I could go back in time to reverse it"

"Why are you apologizing? It's not like it happened because you wanted it to. You're not Alex and you're definitely not the one that set me up, that's if you believe me, of course"

My mind drifted to yesterday, where Alex basically ruined my life for the dumbest reason on the planet. Even though I hadn't thought about it before, I knew I left the party very early and kind of ruined the fun for everyone. Even if I stayed, the fun was already ruined but everyone saw it as my fault. Willam himself wouldn't be so pleased with what happened in a party. I didn't even see or talk to him throughout the whole thing. The party was a million dollar party, everything was set to perfection. How much of a disappointment it would've been to see everything fall apart?

"And before you go on about you believing me, I'm sorry your party got ruined"

"Christina_"

"No" I cut him off "You don't have a reason to believe me, do you? Alex has been friends with you since you both were kids and I just came into the picture yesterday so you have every reason to think the way you do"

"I saw the footage from last night and I heard everything that went on between the both you which is why in so sorry cause I should've remembered Alex would've done that if I left you"

At least, one person knew the different and true story. I couldn't imagine how awkward it would get if Leonardo also thought I was the villain everyone painted me as. Well, he wouldn't act all weird around me but it could make me feel very uncomfortable. I didn't just get relieved because he knew the truth but alse had proof against Alex and that was everything I needed. If only I could get my hands on that footage.

"So you know everything?"

"Yes and I'm sorry this is what you get your first time"

"You don't need to be cause you've also gotten a reason to get me out of this"

"Sorry?"

"The footage, I wouldn't have to feel this way if you would just hand it over"