𝖈𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖚𝖇𝖎𝖒 𝖏𝖆𝖜𝖆𝖍𝖎𝖗

"Stop doing that."

I looked up at Versailles with a smile that was refusing to leave my face, "Doing what?" I asked as I continued to nuzzle into her lap that I'd been lying on for maybe the last twenty minutes. I'd even begun to trace the ink on her thigh and wondered if it tasted different than the rest of her flesh.

I'd have to find out.

"You keep licking your lips," My smile only widened at the bashful look on her face and the way she would look away when I'd stare for too long. "See you just did it again!" She accused me, covering her face with her hands.

"Forgive me, Angel," I chuckled, crawling up her body so that we were almost eye to eye. My hands sunk into the leather couch we'd ended up settling on as I leaned down so our faces were closer, "I did just eat something sweet."

She tried to hide it but the joke made her laugh a bit and instead, she rolled her eyes and sat up too, flipping me off her so that I was no longer hovering above and was now squished on the couch next to her. "You're such a clown," She snorted, leaning forward to grab her ripped shirt that had been discarded on the glass coffee table.

I tried not to frown as she put it on covering my view until she turned slightly, allowing my eyes to feast on the piercings on her nipples that were peeking through her thin shirt. Today was my first time seeing that piece of jewellery. "No you don't get to look right now," She covered her breasts with her hands, shooting me an angry look, "You owe me a new shirt."

"It seems like that shirt was long ruined before I tore it off," I replied, trying to hide the jealousy in my voice at the message I could now see was written across her chest in bright alarm bell red. "Who the fuck is Sky?"

Instead of replying, she leaned down to join our lips again, every thought I had vanished from my mind and the rising heat in my chest melted away in a drug-like bliss. When she tried to pull away I followed her lips until she brought her hand to my chest to push me back into the couch.

I grabbed her neck and pulled her head back down to me groaning when she tensed before mouths could meet. "Versailles," I whined, straining my neck to try to kiss her.

"Your friends must be losing their minds with worry," She panted, still breathless from our kiss.

I didn't even blink before replying, "They know exactly where I am."

Her brown eyes softened and I swooned internally as she eased up, allowing me to bring her closer but instead of kissing her again I just rubbed our noses together, enjoying how close she was. I wanted so desperately for it to have been this easy and maybe if we were anyone else it could've been, but we weren't.

"I'm so sorry," I finally murmured, into her ear as she continued to stroke my face with her cheek.

"It's fine," She hummed, pressing a small kiss at my hairline. "I'll just buy another shirt."

"Vee," I breathed, rubbing behind her ear with my thumb. She seemed to finally hear how serious I was and pulled away from me so that we could look at each other. I saw a painful look of realization scrunch her eyebrows and suddenly her entire body stiffened up as if she was now remembering where she was.

And who she was with.

"Gods," She said but spat it like a horrible curse word. Before I could reach for her she was shooting off of the couch and looking for her pants. I sat up slowly when she found them and kept my eyes on my feet as she began to get dressed.

"Versailles I'm sorry," I repeated when she was finally fully clothed. Whatever robotic trance she was in continued until I stood up and stopped her from leaving. "You didn't deserve any of it."

She narrowed her eyes at me and her blonde eyebrows tightened on her face as her lips curled into a snarl, "I know that," She bit at me, before eyeing me up and down, "Do you?"

We continued to hold eye contact, her not backing down for a second and when the silence in the air got too heavy her gaze turned into a glare. She scoffed and began to try side step me to get to the door but I stopped her, "Wait, no," my fingers curled around her wrist, "I don't care about it anymore," I told her honestly, "You'll tell me the truth when you're ready," her eyes widened as I continued, "What happened doesn't matter to me anymore, you do."

She yanked her hand out of my grasp and took a step away from me, shaking her head slowly, "You still don't get it, do you?"

Before I could beg her to make me understand we were disturbed by the melodic sound of my phone ringing but it only spiked the tension in the room and I was quick to excuse it. "I'll call them back later," I told her quickly when I saw her face darken with irritation.

She didn't reply as the ringtone quieted down, only turned to look at the ringing phone as the person proceeded to call back three more times back to back. "It sounds important," She spoke, softly.

I didn't want to take the chance that I would pick up the device and she would slip out of the room. "This is important," I argued, taking a step closer to her.

Her feet carried her to the coffee table where my phone lay and she waited for it to ring again before picking it up. "It's your mom," She said, handing it to me and taking another guarded step back.

Worst timing in the world.

"This will be quick," I promised her when I saw her throw a glance at the door, "Please don't leave."

I kicked myself internally at how desperate I sounded, but I still found myself looking to see if she would agree before answering the phone. "I'll be right here," She nodded softly, before looking at the phone that lit up again.

I threw her one last careful glance before walking to the other side of the room and holding my phone to my ear, "Mama?" I answered, throwing the blonde another look to see if she was still near.

"I'm outside your dorm room, where are you?"

Alarm struck through my body like electricity, "Mama, you're in London? I didn't know you were coming?" A smile spread on my lips when I realised the event that was happening tomorrow, "You said you weren't going to be able to make it, you should've called me I would've come to get you at the airport."

"Cherubim, where are you?" She repeated but sounded a lot more annoyed this time.

I could see from the corner of my eye I could see Versailles was looking at me curiously now and I sighed internally realizing we would have to continue our talk later. "My friends and I went out to eat after the prom," I could imagine her eyebrows scrunching at the word so I rushed to explain, "You know the dance I told you about that my school was organizing? The one where that really nice brand offered to style me for?"

"You're eating food in a fifty-thousand-dollar dress?" She asked, almost completely horrified.

"No no no!" I corrected her quickly, shaking my head as if she could see me, "We ended up going back to the dorms to change, I am not in the dress anymore-

"Cherubim we have a flight to catch, we don't have time to be discussing dresses. Get here."

My smile faded off my face but before I could ask what she meant she'd hung up on me. I pulled my phone away from my face and stared at it for a couple of seconds unblinking. We have a flight to catch?

"I guess that means we'll have to finish this later?" Versailles spoke out, making me turn my attention to her. She had her arms crossed on her chest and was looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Trust me there is nothing else I would rather do than stay here and fix things," She tried to keep an unbothered face but I saw the shine over her eyes. "My mother's in the city she's looking for me and I have to go right now," I explained, picking up my brown leather jacket that had been thrown over the couch. I approached her and put the jacket around her shoulders, so she wouldn't have to walk out with her ripped shirt, "But this isn't over Versailles, it never was."

She looked away for a second and let out a deep sigh before nodding. Finally, she met my eyes and put her hand out, showing me the car keys between her fingers, "Do you need a ride?"

"Cher, you're staring," Versailles groaned, as we reached a red light. 

"I can't help it," I admitted shamelessly, playing with her fingers that she allowed me to hold whilst she was driving. My fingers outlined the rings she adorned, taking in their every detail and how pretty they made her look.

"You can have one if you like it," She offered, pulling her hand out of mine so she could slip off one of her rings. It was the heaviest one of them, a snake-shaped one that twisted around the finger before resting its head on your nail. 

"You'd give off the shirt from your back if someone on the street said they liked it," I laughed but slipped the ring on my finger nonetheless, it didn't match at all with my manicure but then again I could just change that. She turned her head to roll her eyes at me and in the yellow coming from the traffic lights her hair looked like curled sunshine.

"Did your mom sound worried? Is everything okay?" She questioned, entwining our fingers again before settling on my lap. 

"Yeah she didn't sound out of the ordinary," I played off, trying to soothe the deep worry in my chest. "She did say something a bit strange though, " I revealed. Versailles kept silent until I spoke again, "Apparently we have a flight to catch."

She shot me a worried glance just as we turned onto the road our school lay on. "A flight?" She repeated with a slack jaw, "You're missing graduation?"

I winced, "I don't think so," I shook my head but I didn't sound sure. Versailles squeezed my hand which brought me slight comfort and a bit more confidence, "I don't think she would do that to me."

"Unless it was serious," Versailles finished, pulling the car into a slow stop. I continued to stare at the little red jewels in the snakes eyes, hoping that I had nothing to worry about and my mother was simply being dramatic. "Look's like Weston's parents have come to get him too."

I looked up to see a bunch of sleek black cars parked right by the school entrance, not at the parking lot like where most other cars were but crowded by the door. I frowned at the group of well-dressed men standing both by the cars and around a particular car where they were crowded.

Weston was the son of the president of Spain and his parents loved making an entrance whenever they were picking him up or dropping him off, they made a day of it. I too would've written it off as just his parents coming to visit if not for a small detail, "It's not," I frowned.

Versailles looked at me, "Who else would come with an entourage to see their child?" She asked, not convinced.

"I don't know but it can't be Weston," I shook my head, "Look at the number plates."

One of the men glanced at our car and whispered to the guy next to him until suddenly all of them were looking at us. "Should you call your mom?" Versailles wondered out loud, uncomfortable with the way they were staring.

"No," I disagreed, reaching for the handle of the door, "She said she was right outside my dorm so I'll just walk past them and go to her."

I got out of the car trying to ignore the men still staring and glanced at my phone to check if my mother had indeed sent me something I'd just missed. "Cherub!" The sharp and familiar tone startled me but only shocked me even more when I realised where it was coming from.

"Mom?" I spluttered, watching her walk up to me whilst the men in suits made way for her. She had dark rings around her eyes, deeper than usual and it almost looked like she'd aged four years since the last time I'd seen her. When she got close enough she stopped and crossed her arms over her chest which was a signal that expected me to close the gap. "What is going on?" I asked her when I got close enough.

"What's going on is I've been waiting for you for almost two hours and now you finally get here and you're with," She raised an eyebrow at whatever she saw behind me, "Is that the Mostafah girl?"

"Mom who are those men?" She didn't even look slightly bothered by my question which made me even more surprised, I'd always thought my mother would've been a misandrist if she hadn't met my father. "Are they with you?"

"Look," She removed her glasses and rubbed the space between her eyes, only making her look more exhausted. "I don't have time for your questions right now so you'll just have to bear with me. For now, what I need from you is to come with me and everything will be alright."

She didn't even wait for me to respond before she turned on her heel and began heading back to the cars, I took a step forward to follow her but stopped in my tracks soon after to turn around. Versailles who was still slowly getting out of her car barely had a second to realise what I was doing before I had thrown myself in her arms.

She quickly recovered, picking me off the ground as I wrapped my arms around her neck and held her tightly. "I'll be back for you okay?" I told her before pulling away from her and pressing my lips against hers one last time before I let go. "Promise me you'll wait for me," I begged her, my fingers trembling at the thought of leaving her.

Her eyes softened which was a contrast to her lips that straightened in a tight reluctant line but nevertheless she nodded, "I always do."