"I have to say, Jeffrey, I was quite surprised that you chose a hotel out of all places to get married, it's almost as tacky as the Anderson's wedding at Disney World." Eve Lexington crooned as Jac finally hurried on to the stage. She could feel the eyes of every guests on her despite the "conversations" that filled the Crystal Ballroom.

The angry trio had been arguing  on stage for the last thirty minutes - well, to be accurate, the two rivals had been arguing but as Jac calmly went to stand by her mother, Jeffrey finally lifted his eyes off of the carpeted floor.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be-"

"Being your pathetic divorcee?" Eve tsked, her voluminous black wavy curls moving with her head shake. "Darling, that's hardly my style. Did you really think I'd let you live your unrealistic fantasy with this," She turned to Steve with a disdainful frown. "Poor, middle-class, pathetic opportunist who serves margaritas for a living?"

"Actually, I'm now Steve Lexington who will proceed to fuck my husband for a living and you're just Eve Hyun. I know it sucks but I think it's time for you to move on." Steve replied smoothly and while Jac wasn't really pleased with the events that had made him go from her butler to her possible stepfather, she did like how confident Steve had become in defending himself now that his bully wasn't his employer.

"It's actually Seo-Hyun but I don't think you should be calling me that just yet."

"And why not?"

Eve suddenly smiled crudely, looking like the wrong victoriously beautiful goddess to mess with. "You're about to find out." Then she turned, shoving the heavyset priest that looked like he'd been kidnapped from some crappy casino in Las Vegas out of the way and making her way to the mic.

She tore the mic from its stand, clearing her throat and causing the fake chatter that had been easing the tension of the Crystal venue to fall deathly silent.

"I'm sorry to be such an inconvenience but I would like to make this very clear," Eve spoke eloquently into the mic with a soft, delicate smile that was nothing like her personality. "Jeffrey is not getting married tonight," She paused for a moment. "Because I am pregnant with our second child."

At that moment, Jac dropped her glass of spiked Pellegrino, her last ounce of cool shattering on the stage floor.

Suddenly, no one was pretending they weren't listening to the soap opera that was the Lexingtons.

Eve laughed exquisitely as the ballroom erupted into chatter, turning back towards her stunned family.

However, no one could conjure up a word. Jac sure as hell couldn't and not even Steve had some kind of comeback. Instead they all simply stared as Eve's pretty expression quickly turned cold, looking back at their guests who were not trying to hide the fact they were nosy.

She put a hand on Jeffrey's shoulder whose jaw might as well have been on the floor.

"Well now that this is out for us to absorb," She said coolly. "Jeffrey, I think it's best if we just tell everyone this stunt with Steve was for promotional purposes. You were desperate for Hollywood fame so your beautiful wife decided to play along while you tried to get an interview with Ellen Degeneres."

Jeffrey gawked. "But-"

"I'll have your butt for brunch after the embarrassment you just put me through."

Jeffrey's green eyes widened and in that moment he looked more like a boy than a man. He turned to Steve and then to Jac - who nearly went into one of her external screaming fits because he was wearing the look he always had when Eve was being cruelly pushy on vacay mansion shopping.

He was about to give in.

"Are you sure you're even pregnant?" Jac snapped, deciding she'd abandon her cool demeanor for just a second. She wasn't really on board with her father's addiction to cheaterade but their family had been through enough.

Steve gave a slight sigh of relief, moving closer to Jeffrey again. "Yeah, how do we know you're not lying?" He turned to his fiance. "She could be doing this to break us up."

"Don't worry, dear, I'm way ahead of you," Eve handed the skeptical couple the paperwork she'd had tucked under her arm with a devilish smile. "Unlike Jeffrey, I am not a liar."

Jeffrey inspected the work, squinting at the words as if he were trying to change them and Steve looked over his shoulder. Jac would have tried to get a glimpse of herself but she was too busy trying to keep the bratty, screaming rich girl contained.

'Cool, calm, collected, Mom is lying, cool, calm, collected..'

However, Jeffrey's face colored as he stared at the paper in his hand.

"You have to be pregnant by someone else, " Steve said suddenly, shooting an accusing look at Eve. "Who did you bang in NY?"

"Nine weeks?" Jeffrey spoke up softly then, tearing his eyes away from the paperwork.

Eve's smile had turned into the most egotistical smirk Jac had ever seen. And she had spent most of her time with the Felix siblings which said a lot. "If I had been with someone else, it wouldn't match up to-"

"The Oceania Cruise." Jeffrey finished for her, nearly breathless.

Jac had to gasp herself. She'd forgotten all about the cruise her parents had taken just a week before the crazy Mont Vernon house party last semester. As far as she was concerned, it was the last attempt her parents had taken to rejuvenate their marriage. Then Jeffrey must have given up and continued cheating with Steve - 'Ugh.'

Her father stepped forward, practically shaking Steve's hand off of his shoulder. "We're-we're having a baby?"

"No you're not, she's lying." Steve gasped, trying to get Jeffrey to look at him but the book author had already fixed his eyes on wife. 

Eve smiled ruefully. "I'll forgive you for sleeping with him as long as we never speak of it again, darling."

Jac ran a hand through her jet black hair, trying to maintain her posture. 'Cool, calm, collected, cool, calm, collected.'

"I-I can't believe this!" Jeffrey exclaimed then except it wasn't in disbelief. The naive twinkle in his eye - that had usually been reserved for his boyfriend - was now trained on his exzilla. 

Steve, with what Jac thought was tears building up in his eyes,  threw the bouquet of white roses in his hand to the stage floor, fleeing down the stairs and into the eavesdropping crowd. He nearly tripped over his own shoes as he pushed his way through the groups of resting bitch faces.

However, Jeffrey only spared an apologetic glance before Eve turned him back to face her. "He's a gold digger anyway."Then she forced herself into his arms, smiling victoriously as even more chatter ensued from below - and Mr. Lexington melted right into the hug, their embrace almost looking natural, almost looking like the picture that used to hang on Jac's bedroom wall on a yacht in Paris; which consisted of a glamorous ninth grade Jac and smiling parents embracing for the camera.

Jac would have called her parents' latest embrace genuine - until she saw the look on Eve's face, not the one that screamed, 'I want a peasant to bring me a margarita because I'm superior,' but the one that said, 'My concocted plan was a success.'

Maybe it was this new outside scope Blake had introduced her to because Jac was sure she never would have caught it in a million years if she wasn't accidentally wearing her 'outside' glasses.

Eve was lying.

"Jacqueline, I think it's best you join the hug," Eve said, breaking slightly away from Jeffrey to wave her daughter over. "We'll all have to come off of the stage together to make a united front."

'Cool, calm, collected, cool, calm, collect - screw it.' Jac was done being cool, calm, and collected. In fact, she was fed up.

"You can barely be a good Mom to me so what makes you think you can raise another kid?" Jac snapped. "Honestly, if you really are pregnant, you should give it up for adoption or something. At least then that's one less child that has to go shopping knowing their Mom doesn't give a damn about their feelings - you know, if you even are pregnant."

Jac didn't even wait for her parents' response, storming off the stage in a more fashionable manner than Steve - because she didn't trip on her way down the steps. If she kept going at this rate with her outbursts, Jac was positive she'd be a true stereotypical bratty rich girl in no time.

Benny Costa was calling her name from across the ballroom but Jac ignored her, moving past some of obnoxious college guys leaning on the door to the exit and heading out to the hotel lobby, nearly bumping directly into a boy she almost mistaken for him.

Except it was just some random East Prep boy who had dark hair and the same taste in suits. When it came to looks however, he was nowhere near the stunning godly features of Damon Felix - and just like that, he was a nag on her mind.

She didn't even wait for the boy's apology and his eventual pickup line, walking until she collapsed in one of the cushioned armchairs that had been placed near some of the exotic plants that embellished the front rotating doors.

And then before she could even stop herself, she was dialing a familiar number because surely St. Larks doesn't ban cell phones.

However, she chickened out and hung up on the third ring.

"Jac?"

At that moment, Blake Evans emerged from a door behind the glossy hardwood front desk, the line that once streamed nearly out of the rotating doors dwindling by the second. He had swapped his bellboy uniform for what Jac now knew was his go-to outfit, a plain white T from Target, jeans, and Converse shoes.

She was starting to like the look since most of the boys at her school dressed like male models at Fashion Week even on lazy Mondays.

"Did the event end early?" He asked and Jac decided she liked the fact he didn't have dimples - unlike him.

'Dimples are cliche' anyway.'

"I didn't know you worked here too." She said, purposely ignoring his question.

Blake shrugged. "Oh yeah, well, things are getting rough so I figured if I'm going to have two jobs, might as well work at two hotels."

"Well that's a relief, I thought you were stalking me."

Jac was joking but Blake still frowned as if he had been offended. The one thing she found absolutely annoying about the bellboy was his lack of humor. She could call Damon the spawn of Satan - which he kind of was - and even he could detect her sarcasm.

"Anyway, I was wondering if..." Blake trailed off with a nervous smile. Jac did like the fact he actually got cold feet around her as if she were some super hot wonder of the world. Sure, she could get the same reaction from literally every other guy at school who wasn't a prick but she kind of liked it even more on Blake.

"Yes?" She pushed on for him.

"If you wanted to see another movie...or something...tonight," He nervously ran a hand through his blonde hair. "We could look at another crummy flick from the 40s or if you're into something new that's out..."

Jac studied his wry face. She didn't want movie night, not with the shitty mood she had. For once in every blue moon, she felt like doing something that was so not Jac.

And as if the fashion gods were blessing her, there was a ping! from her Windows phone that she had chucked in her island floral Proenza Schouler clutch earlier. She whipped out her phone - that no longer made her the token Windows user at Alabaster (time to switch to Vertu) - and read the obnoxious message typed by the king of gossip lovers; Chris Edwards.

"Actually," She stood up, putting on her best sheepish expression. "I kind of have plans, maybe some other time?" Jac made sure to peck his cheek to lessen the blow before hurrying out of the lobby before he could mention the pendant - that she was now stuffing in her clutch.

She was just about to pull a Paisely and catch a cab - although the thought frightened her - when an idea that was so not Jac popped in her head and she suddenly found herself walking carelessly over to the boy who wore suits Damon would wear and inviting him to the next teen hot spot of Beverly Hills.

ⓁⓊⓍⓊⓇⓎ

From: Chris Edwards

To: Beverly Bitches

Tired and ready to get out of this shitty city before you're forced to go to another wedding?

Don't pack up just yet...unless you're okay with missing out on the biggest party of the break.

Our very own Everyday Hottie, I mean Hero, is throwing a party.

If you're not there, be a square.

Or a circle. I really don't give a fuck.

PJs only...or birthday suits...

ⓁⓊⓍⓊⓇⓎ

From: Chris Edwards

To: Beverly Bitches

I'm pretty sure Erika Felix cannot burn a mansion down. Stop asking.

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A/N: I rushed through this because I was supposed to have BEEN updated - so I'm probably going to edit this stuff later - but life punched me in the face and I ended up blacking out for a few days (translation: I've been having some crappy days that stopped me from focusing on Wattpad but it's all good now :p)

Thank you to those that read and I apologize for going MIA xx