"Jesus Christ..." I heard Aiden mutter in my ear as Uncle John pulled into the large circular driveway in front of their four-story mansion.

"I told you," I mumbled back.

When we got out of the car, I saw Aiden's jaw drop further as he looked up at the expansive house my relatives lived in.

Really it was unnecessary for them to have such a large home.

They had three children, all of whom were grown up and away at college. One, Kara, the eldest, was in graduate school for Psychology. She was engaged and was planning to get married next summer. The second oldest, Brandon, was in his last year of undergraduate school at Johns Hopkins. He had been accepted to go to Harvard Med for next year. The youngest of their children was Laura. She was and was a party animal. But she knew when to be serious. She was, after all, studying pre-law at Stanford as a freshman. I knew they'd be coming home soon enough, though. They also had winter break.

I hated my cousins. They were attractive and annoying and intelligent and bratty. I had hated them when I was a child, because they would always have the newest and coolest toys and then would brag about them to me whenever we visited during the summers and winters. I also hated them because they tried to turn Mikey against me when he was a lot younger. But Mikey was smart and he knew where his loyalties lay. He would always tell me of their pranks and evil schemes before they did them. He had my back, and now, I had his.

"Welcome to our home..." Uncle John began, but trailed off. I blinked and realized that he had forgotten Aiden and Nick's name.

"Aiden and Nick," I mumbled to him.

"Aiden and Nick," Uncle John finished as he opened the door to the large foyer. Aiden raised an eyebrow at me quizzically as he took in the elegant features of the home.

"Woah, this place is huge!" Nick whispered to Mikey, who was holding my hand.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Aunt Meredith said, coming in behind us and shutting the door. "Martha! Martha! Oh, where on earth is she?!" Aunt Mereditch exclaimed. Martha was our maid. One of them. Yes. My relatives were rich enough to have maids and butlers.

"Yes! I'm here Ms. Dubois. Ah! Renee! You're home! Welcome!" Martha said, rushing in and cleaning her hands on her apron. "And we have guests!" she exclaimed, her eyebrows rising up.

"Yes, they are friends of Renee's and Mike's," Aunt Meredith said, her lips in a frown.

"Would you please show them to their rooms and get me a glass of wine?" Uncle John said, rubbing his temples. I gave Aiden an apologetic look.

With every look of annoyance and disapproval my aunt and uncle gave Aiden, I felt a pang of guilt. I shouldn't have dragged him into this. I should have just let him stay at Rosestone for break. At least he wouldn't be embarassed and degraded. Now, with the way my relatives were acting, I knew they weren't going to spare him.

I knew the drill well. They would ask him question upon question about his future plans and then find things to pick at and criticize with all the answers he would try to give. Then they would embarrass him and mock him and rub their success and their children's success in his face.

He was in for a roller coaster ride and I had to warn him. It was the least I could; I had after all dragged him into this mess.

Martha brought us upstairs to our rooms and deposited our bags inside.

"You will have to stay with Mikey, unless you want to go to the single bedroom upstairs," Martha said to Nick. Nick shrugged.

"It doesn't matter. I live with Mikey at school anyway. So it won't be any different," Nick replied. She smiled at him and put his bags into Mikey's room.

"Do you kids want anything to eat or drink? I can set out some snacks in the kitchen for you," Martha asked, looking at us with her kind, grey eyes. She was old, probably around 40, but this was the only job she could get. And she never once complained, no matter how hard it got. I admired her for that.

"We're fine, thanks," Aiden answered.

"All right. I will call you down for dinner when it's ready," she told us before walking down the thickly carpeted hallway.

"I think I'm going to take a nap," Mikey said.

"Sounds like a good idea," I told him. He grinned and disappeared inside his room, chatting away with Nick. Aiden looked at me, leaning casually against the doorway to the guest bedroom that was in front of my room.

"I need to talk to you about something," I said, gesturing inside my room. He nodded and followed me into my room, shutting the door behind him.

"What's up?" he asked, glancing around the room, which was decorated in all blacks and silvers and purples.

"I need to warn you about my relatives," I told him, throwing open my closet door, looking for something to change into, for now and for dinner.

"You already did," Aiden replied, walking into the closet behind me.

"No, but I really need to warn you about them," I said, turning to face him. I felt my cheeks flush when I realized how close he was to me. I took a small step back. "Tonight at dinner, they are no doubt going to ask you lots of questions about your future, so be prepared to answer them. And make sure you try to give the best answer possible, whatever will please them. Because if you don't, they'll just embarrass the hell out of you. Their goal is to get you angry and yelling. Then they can tell you that you're barbaric and not intelligent and not worthy to be around them," I explained to him. He raised his eyebrows at me.

"I don't think I've ever heard you talk that much before," he said, his brown eyes sparkling.

"Aiden! I'm being serious!" I exclaimed.

"I can handle myself, Renee. Don't worry about me," he replied smoothly, glancing at my clothes.

"You have a lot of black," he noted, pulling at the cloth of a black cardigan. I swatted his hand away and he glanced at me with innocent eyes.

"What will you say when they ask you where you plan on applying for college?" I asked him, pulling out a somewhat dressy dress for dinner. I grabbed a pair of sweats from one of the drawers and went back into my room. Aiden followed me out.

"I'll say that I got accepted into Julliard," he answered casually. I whipped around so fast I dropped the clothes I was holding in my arms.

"Really?" I asked. He nodded.

"I applied early. They sent me a letter and said I was in," he said.

"Wow. Congratulations," I said, surprised I hadn't known this. We were roommates, but we knew absolutely nothing about each other. Maybe living across from each other without the pressures of school would change that.

"Thanks," he answered, smirking at me as he sat on my bed. "Will they approve of that answer?" he asked me as I went into my bathroom to change.

"They'll be impressed because it's Julliard. But then they'll make fun of you for studying music because they don't think it's an intelligent discipline," I replied from the bathroom as I changed. I quickly fixed my make-up and pulled my hair back in a loose pony-tail before walking out.

"Should I bring up the fact that I'm studying at Rosestone? And that's it's considered to be one of the best private schools in America?" he asked as I threw my previous clothes into the laundry hamper.

I almost smiled at his response.

"That might not be a bad idea. They can't make fun of you for that since they own the school. If they did, then they'd be insulting themselves," I said. "Well done. You pass," I said to him, sitting next to him on my bed.

"See? Told you I can handle myself," he said. I smiled weakly at him and lowered my gaze to my lap. He nudged me with his arm and I looked up at him.

He had the most tender and intense look in his eyes. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he was holding back. I knew that whatever it was, it'd be best if he kept it to himself.

"They have three children, as well," I told him, before things got any more awkward than they already were.

"Really? How old?" he asked.

"All in college. One is engaged and in graduate school. The others are in undergrad," I told him. "One's a senior and the other's a freshman," I added.

"Girls? Boys?" he asked.

"The oldest and youngest are girls. The senior is a boy," I replied.

"Is the youngest hot?" he asked.

"Very," I replied. He laughed. "But she's evil. All of them are," I said.

"I'll just have to charm them all," he said.

"You can probably charm Laura. She's crazy. But Kara is like a mini Aunt Meredith and Brandon is too preoccupied with his fraternity affairs to give a damn about anything else," I said. Aiden chuckled, his arm brushing against mine. He noted this closeness and stood up.

He walked over to my dressing table. He glanced at the purple cork board that was hanging next to the mirror on the wall. It had old pictures of me from my other high school. I had hid the board in my closet because I didn't want to think about it. But I guess Martha was going through my stuff and decided to hang it up. I felt my heart speed up a little. Those pictures would give a lot away into my past life.

"You were a cheerleader?" he asked, pointing to a picture of me wearing my uniform. My hair was up in a high pony-tail, held up in a large baby-blue bow. I had a wide smile on my face as I posed for the picture.

I nodded my head stiffly at his question. He glanced at me, his eyes curious.

"Boyfriend?" he asked, pointing at a picture of Tyler, my old boyfriend, and I at prom junior year. I had been wearing a royal blue dress and my hair fell around my face in soft waves. I had the same wide smile on my face as the cheerleading picture.

"Ex," I corrected, my voice hollow. As he continued to look at the pictures, I realized I couldn't take it anymore. I reached up and pulled the board down. Then I kicked it under my bed, hidden from the visible world. I felt Aiden looking at me, but I ignored it.

"You should go get changed or something. Wear something relatively nice for dinner. Tell Nick the same," I said, dismissing him without looking at him. He lingered for a few moments longer before exiting my room.

I let out a sigh of relief and felt my heart rate slow down a little. I sat on my bed and held my face in my hands. It would be so hard to keep my secret a secret here. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how bad of an idea this was. I should have never asked him to come. Now things would get difficult. And I didn't need any more difficulty to deal with right now.

                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~

 "Put your hands up," I said, kneeling on the ground in front of Mikey. I was helping him get dressed. He never liked tucking in his shirt.

"All right. You can put them down," I said, as I heard the door open behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see Aiden, who was dressed in a pair of white skinny pants, black v-neck and electric blue blazer. I raised an eyebrow at him, standing up.

"Too much?" he asked.

"It's a bit eccentric. But somehow you pull it off," I said. He smirked at and came all the way into the room.

"Where's Nick?" he asked.

"I told him to try on some of Mikey's shirts that we bought thinking Mikey would grow into them," I said.

"It's so stupid that we have to dress up for dinner," Aiden said, sitting on Mikey's bed.

"Tell me about it," Mikey piped up. I ran my hand through his silky blonde hair, brushing it out of his eyes. He really needed a haircut.

"You look nice," Aiden told me, nodding at my dress. It was a simple black dress. I had my hair half pulled back and minimal make-up on. I felt my cheeks flush nonetheless and I glanced down, so as not to meet his gaze.

Nick chose that moment to walk out of the bathroom. To our surprise, the shirt fit him.

"I think it's a little small," Nick said when I told him this.

"Not at all. It fits you perfect," I replied. "Right Aiden?" I asked, nudging him with my elbow. He looked down at me and then at Nick.

"She's right. Besides, she is the fashion expert," Aiden said, winking at me. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Well, all right," Nick said, shrugging.

"Hurry up and finish getting dressed. We'll meet you guys down there," I told Mikey as Nick retreated back into the bathroom to put his pants on. Mikey nodded and I brushed his hair out of his eyes before walking out, Aiden following me.

"You never cease to amaze me with how you treat Mikey. You treat him like he's your child," he said.

"He's my baby brother. I care about him," I said as we descended the stairs.

"He's not really a baby, though," he pointed out.

"We're all each other have," I accidentally said. When I realized what I had just told Aiden, I stopped on the stairs. He did as well, his eyes curious and questioning.

"Renee..." he began. I shook my head.

"Forget it, Aiden," I said, trying to calm my racing heart. He dropped the subject, thankfully and didn't push it any further.

We walked into the drawing room outside of the dining room. To my discontent, my cousins were all sitting around, sipping wine with their parents. They all looked up when we walked in.

"You're still here?" Kara asked, grimacing when she saw me. I bit my lip and felt Aiden tense up next to me.

"Who's that?" Laura asked, nodding at Aiden, a mischievious glint in her eye.

"This is Aiden. He's a...friend of mine..." I replied quietly.

"A friend? Or a friend?" Laura asked, a cruel grin on her face.

"He's a friend," I replied.

"Well, Aiden. Let me introduce myself," Laura said, standing up in her too-tight red dress. She looked like a hooker to me, but she probably thought she looked sexy. "I'm Laura," she said, holding her hand out, batting her long eye-lashes at Aiden, who glanced awkwardly at me.

"Err...nice to meet you..." he said, shaking her hand. She let out a wild cackle and looked at me, an evil look in her eye.

"Oh, this will be fun," she said.

On the contrary, I thought it would be absolute hell.

And I don't think I was too far off.

________________________________________________________________________________

A/N: Ohh snap. Renee's got competition from her cousin. What do you think Aiden will do?

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