The Princeton residence was colossal. Consisting over five bed rooms, six bathrooms and three major kitchens, with only three attentive people.

It would make you think it were unnecessary, we were only three. What possible reason could have brought us to make such decision? I had no secrete siblings whatsoever, and no relatives willing to stay over.

My grandfather, Princeton Herald, was a general from a rather wealthy family. He'd worked with royalty and therefore had kept a name-as such-to very high standards that my father had wiggled into with his business, and that I have to keep during school. He built this house, the one I'd stepped foot in every morning and every afternoon. His family had much more members than ours had, and sometimes I'd imagine a bunch of kids and two parents hurdled up at the fire place, telling old tales with hot chicken potage. Unfortunately, the sensations that Princeton Herald had induced into the mansion no longer exists. But my Father refuses to think of it as a short coming. And I've grown to understand that silence and isolation had its own beauty.

"Mother, father I'm home" I repeat as I'd moved into the residence from the front door. Yet no one bothers to acknowledge as I had not even heard a response nor seen any of them.

I drop my umbrella against the hanger, and placed my bag by the living room door before entering the kitchen to see if anyone had been lurking there.

I could hear the rumbling of laughter followed by the clicking thuds of forks and knives and before I could predict-

"Oh" I spoke a bit to quickly before all faces turned towards me.

"Sadie, what took you so long?" My mother surprises me with too much enthusiasm to obtain a proper explanation. She tumbles off her dining seat and gives me a slight hug. "Be nice" she whispers firmly and let's go of me before introducing me to the family that is apparently dining with us today. Jaxon's family.

Of course, they were here, Mrs. Mills, Mr. Mills and him.

"I told you I'd be getting smoothies with the girls and Connor on my way home" I forcefully smiled at my mother and looked over at the table once more. My father conversed with Mr. Mills, and Mrs. Penelope was helping out my mother with the food. Jaxon sat in the middle giving a much rather wide smirk than usual.

He was much taller than me if he'd stood up, and had topped onto that with very dark auburn hair and faint grey eyes. Jaxon went to my school, he also lived next door (without my approval). His parents and mine did business together, so by default I'd have to be as nice as one can be.

At least publicly.

But the reality is, Jaxon is a vicious snake, and as much as I know no one's more poisonous than me, he was threatening to a certain degree.

"Hello, Sadie sweetie, why don't you come and take a seat. I am pretty sure you're very hungry after all the hard work you're doing at school" Mrs. Mills invites me to sit beside her son, and I hesitate to take her offer.

Jaxon scoffed. "Yeah, please take a seat. Your presence is very much needed, like in every other place" he mocks and I gape looking over at my mother who had given me the stink eye.

His greys eyes didn't look at anyone in particular, and probably didn't even think anyone even cared over his unnecessary rant. But I did. And I wasn't taking it.

"Jaxon, you do not say that. Sadie is your friend" His mother firmly states and he doesn't even bother to look at her. He groaned "Sorry" he muttered, obviously not sorry.

But for me, I had no patience. He wasn't my damn son; I was going to give this boy a piece of my mind. I was trying to keep it civil on the table, while apparently someone's childish side is nourishing.

"At least being wanted is better than being alone" I talk back with my hands on the sides of my hip. My eyes glaring daggers I add, "And for your information, this rebellious look of yours is not working, try changing your attitude" with much intense anger in my tone.

"Sadie-

"I think I'll pass dinner" I mumbled cutting my mother off, and passed by everyone, before my mother could glare at me, and trotted up towards my room.

I sighed. These occasional dinners were getting really awkward, and much more destructive than helpful. I was always pretending to appreciate their smart, handsome and gentleman of a boy. Yet it was easier to pretend when things were at least half true. Jaxon's immaturity and my parent's constant, do this do that glares, weren't much of help.

I am pretending the best I can, yet what cost must I pay?

I plopped onto my dressing table chair and took a look at the mirror in front of me. I was scenic. I picked up the brush at the edge of the table and brushed through my hair leisurely with my eyes shut.

As I swiveled my brush through my blonde locks, I'd notice the numerous hair strands appearing on the floor and into the interdigital folds of my hands. They'd slowly fall off my scalp.

My hair was actually falling.

I stopped and placed my brush on top of my dressing table and tied it up in a shoulder length pony tail. I sighed handling my strands delicately.

I smiled and looked over the mirror.
Beauty is inside and out. Inside beauty will remain inside but outside beauty will help you survive, my always mother said.

I nodded to no one in particular and applied a fresh layer of Crimson Red lipgloss. After I'd coated all sections and reassured it's moisture, I placed it beside my hair brush and popped two Aderral pills, but ingesting no water.

"What are the pills for?"

The sudden voice had startled me, making me jump slightly and turn around. It being Jaxon, drove me to frustration. He leaned on my door and looked monotone as ever.

"Those weren't pills, and it's none of your damn business" I rolled my eyes turning my head around. He laughed bitterly and let himself walk inside. "Really? Then what-o-what might they have been royalty Sadie? Candy? Drugs? Painkillers for royalty?" He questions with a tint of poetic sarcasm, and I panic faintly looking for a good lie, the last thing I wanted was for my whole school to know, not that he had any friends to tell besides Kayla and Joshua.

"I don't have any obligation to explain myself to you Jaxon. Will you now leave my room? Or do you not have the capacity to understand that?" I humiliate him furiously, yet he takes my threat none other than a harmless warning, and walks even more into the room deciding to sit on my bed.

He was wearing of formal attire, most probably picked out by his mother, Jaxon wasn't one of proper wearing. He had some sort of rebellious phase, of which drove us far apart, not that we had been very close at all.

"I don't intend to leave your room, primarily, because you want me to leave" He laughs mocking me firmly. I rolled my eyes and picked up my hairbrush from my table and swayed it across the room trying to aim his face.

We were different, didn't he understand? We came from different parts of the social food chain at school?

I had ambitions, he didn't.

I was a taker; he was a giver.

I had a name, he had nothing.

The brush flew yet he'd ducked right before it could have injured his face in a way which would have been sore to the eyes.

"Sadie, have you gone mad?!" He yells and I turn around looking at him with a red face. "Have I gone mad? Me? You're saying I've gone mad?" I speak back, thinking he himself had gone insane. I laugh bitterly.

"I mean you did just throw a hair brush at me!" He clears up and I gasp not believe we are having this conversation. "I had every right to throw that at you! Coming to my house, and disrespecting me? Look I can handle trying to pretend to like you in front of mother and father, but when it's just you and me, I want you to know you are an insensitive disgusting and unworthy human being!" I whisper yell, letting it all out. The word vomit was something else today.

Jaxon, creases his forehead laughing mockingly. "Well, jeez Sadie that's sounds a lot more like you than it does me. But I'm pretty sure you've never had trouble exploiting that side of you" He rolled his eyes.

I sighed. "Well Jaxon, if you're so persistent I am such a person, then what on earth are you doing following me to my room. Shouldn't you be busy pretending to be the perfect little son you truly are" I smiled forcefully. Obviously speaking with a cascade of sarcasm.

Suddenly he'd silence. I was still wearing what I had worn during school, I was exhausted and worn. Why was the world giving me the biggest baby to deal with? Yet his sudden obedience was calming. It was much better for the both of us when he didn't speak.

"I'm not" He simply says and gets up from my bed.  He ruffles his hair a little and I breathe in slowly feeling a bit more calmed. "I'm only trying to be friendly, believe me you are by far the last person I'd want to form a certain friendship with. But our parents always wonder, when will these two mature and get along. When will they grow and understand? I've grown Sadie, but have you?" He questions smiling sheepishly. He'd obviously found this sudden conversation intriguing, but I had AP chemistry homework awaiting me, unlike him.

"What makes you think, I haven't grown?" I question rolling my eyes.

I'd matured before anyone, dealing with real life issues, handling much more responsibilities than a high school student ought to. Jaxon's grey eyes glowered at me, as if pointing out something obvious.

"You claim to have grown Sadie, yet can't seem to stand four feet across from me. Why must it end in the shedding of one's blood? Well-not really, but you get my point. The meaning of humanity lies beneath its vital survival, companionship. Can't we just put it all behind us for our parents?" He ends as if having given some sort of valedictorian speech at a graduation. "Are you done?" I fake a yawn and walk away from him getting out my notebooks from under my desk.

"You know, you are so hard to deal with" He groans and I shrug simply giving a slight smile, as if I had won and he'd been defeated. "But I know there is some good in you, that will consider this" He speaks passionately, though not completely serious.

"Stop assuming things about me, and-again-do me a favor and get out of my room" I demand getting very annoyed, as the conversation has indeed no socket. "There's literally no point to what you're saying"

I picked up a slight facial disruption in his face. Jaxon wasn't one to hide behind the bushes, very clear and straightforward target. Though today it is as if the whole of the dialogue was a constant push and pull off the main subject. He was quiet, and he is never one to close his mouth.

I feared the worst, and wondered if I could do something human to stop this awful cycle that was also making me feel severely uncomfortable.

I sighed in deeply, closed my notebooks, and turned around to look at him. "But since I know you better, I know you're only calling truce, because there's something you want from me" His face suddenly lit up, as if a baby was suddenly given something they had been crying over for the past hour. But suddenly changed his facial expression realizing I'd caught up to him.

"What? Me? I would never do that!"

I raise an eyebrow. "You are literally the worst liar I've ever seen" I laughed crossing my arms. He sighed knowing I'd motioned him to explain what he'd wanted.

He'd scratched the nape of his neck laughing nervously before he'd parted his lips. "Okay, so this might sound funny, but I'm in love"

I laughed. Not a slight laugh, but a hardcore rumble of laughter, but he wasn't laughing back.

An awkward silence followed right afterwards. I wasn't able to comprehend the phrase he'd just told me. Jaxon falling in love was what I had least expected, who could he have fallen in love with? And who on earth fancied this human slob?

"Are you serious right now? Is this a joke?" I spoke annoyed. My reaction was very anticipated according to him, and it seems he has already planned as what to say next.

"This is definitely not a joke. And yes, you could really question it, but I really am. And..." He admits and I wonder where this sudden level of confidence had come from.

"Proceed" I tell him to go on, because I have absolutely nothing to say. Much more speechless I had been ever. We weren't friends, far from it actually yet somehow, he was talking to me as if everyone in this world had suddenly died, and I was the only living soul to communicate with.

"She's like you" He ends. I scoff. What is that supposed to mean? Was there Sadie type of girl? I hardly feel insulted. Who wouldn't want to court this elegancy?

"She's up there" he adds rolling his eyes. This particular topic of popularity had always touched Jaxon in places I might not ever know. He didn't understand nor appreciate the role, of some higher authorities at school, just because of the way they dress, the way they were known and how they were somehow-inevitable. Of course, I was totally against his ideology, hence the constant friction between us. Yet somehow his confession, was leading to something I was highly afraid of.

"But I'm in love with her, and I'll do literally anything to be with her, even that means I'll have to ask you to help me become like you vicious, attention seeking monsters" He says with a heavy heart. Damn it, I was afraid of this particular thing happening. Why?

"I thought you hated our type" I convince him to change his mind.

"Yes, but I do it for Willa" He inhales. I choke. "What?! Willa!? Have you gone completely mad? She has a well to do boyfriend you know. What are you trying to sabotage their relationship?" I mention as if not obvious. He furrows his eyebrows and waves his hand in the air. "That, isn't of your concern Sadie, I'm only asking you to help me. Leave the rest for me to deal with" He reminds and I look away from him, taking a while to think on it.

"I'll sleep on it" I say, out of completely honesty. I didn't want to disappoint him, actually I really do, but couldn't find it in myself to help someone that I hate especially considering that this must happen on the very deep low.

"I can live with that" He simply shrugs. I decide to change the topic of discussion finding this moment of civil communication very much awkward.

"Why were you with Mr. Newberry this morning? I saw you getting in as I left" I couldn't help, but ask. The curiously of the school's rebel going to the counselor had killed me. I needed something to keep leverage on him anyway. Was he in a love trance, and getting some advice on it?

"What were you doing?" He tries angling my question with another question, but I wasn't dumb, part of being a Princeton meant I had experience with non-discrete yet discrete people like Jaxon over here, yet needed to show I wasn't. Without actually exposing myself. Makes sense?

"I was asking to volunteer at the counselor section, for extra credit" I said, with confidence knowing he'd buy the lie. "Of course." He laughed slightly. "You'd do anything for great grades, for a good name standard, for popularity" I ignored his slightly hurtful statement. It didn't hurt me as much, because he isn't able to tell me what I am.

With gritted teeth, I inhaled. "I'm not particularly interested in an advice session. I just want to know what you were doing there" I declare, crossing my arms.

His eyes closed for a moment and he'd had an obscure facial expression I couldn't quite understand. Then he'd suddenly smiled and slowly walked towards me. "Same thing" he spoke with gritted teeth and a forced smile.

"Goodnight Sadie" He spoke gently, and walked out my door.

Without me asking.

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