THE CONSISTENT NOISE OF THE
tennis ball, touching the floor and jumping up into her hand again, made Livia realize how much she had missed playing tennis.
She threw the ball in the air and hit him with her racket. Art stood at the other side of the net and immediately jumped into action, to shoot it back over to her again.
It was a fair match with an even score between the two of them. The sun sun was hot, shining into their sweating body's and making the ground under their feet heat up.

"Alright I'm done!" Art said. He let his hand run over his sweaty forehead, walking towards his bag to drink something.

"What, are you giving up?" Liv asked, smiling but evenly exhausted.

"Nah but it's getting way too hot and we played for two hours now!" The blond replied, taking a sip out of his bottle. Liv decided to get something to drink too and walked to her bag. She saw out of the corner of her eye when Art walked towards her.

"So are you going to this Party of Vega tomorrow?" He asked and the brunette turned around.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" She asked and he smiled charmingly again.

"I've been invited. Just wasn't sure if I should come." He said, gesturing with the bottle in his hand.

"You should come. I need a dance partner you know?" Liv said, making a step towards him.

"Yeah?" He asked, looking into her eyes.

"Yeah." Liv said, locking her eyes into his. She knew she had him on her hook.

•

Liv wore her short black cocktail dress to Cyril's party, which was rather basic, compared to her usual style.
Like always, she walked up to the table with the drinks, got herself one and then looked around.

"There she is! Livia my girl!" Cyril came to her, seemingly already in a few drinks with a big grin on his face. He stumbled a bit and threw his arm around her.

"I knew you'd come, you can't resist my parties!" He yelled over the music, his friends started to cheer and laugh around them. Liv was pulled right into their wild turmoil.

"Whatever you say." She smirked, drinking from her cup, downing it.

"Wow! Going wild tonight? Come on do some shots with us!" Cyril said, pulling her with him.
Liv started laughing at the jokes he made, as they stepped outside.

"Trey where are the shots?!" Cyril yelled around while taking his arm off Livia's shoulder. The girl fixed her hair, which was messy from Cyril's arm around her, while taking compliments from some girls.

"That dress is hot!" Hellen said and Livia smiled.

"Thanks!" She said before being handed a shot by Cyril.

"Down it, pretty." He said and she eyed the small cup.

"What'd you put in there?" She asked smelling on it.

"Drink and find out." Cyril said, wiggling with his eyebrows. Liv held the cup to her lips, already smelling the vodka and downing it. She felt it burn in her throat, enjoying the bitter taste for a moment. Cyril cheered.

She then got away from him and his friends to get herself a new drink. She stood beside the dance floor and scanned the people with her blue eyes, catching a certain guy with blonde hair.
She walked over to the familiar tennis player that talked to a few other guys, probably his friends.
His eyes then met hers when she came nearer and scanned over her outfit.

"Hi." Livia said, when she stopped in front of him.

"You came!" Art said, tilting his head and flashing his pretty smile.

"Yeah, needed to get some party to come down." The brunette said, drinking out of her cup and emptying it.
Art eyed her actions and grinned.

"Slow down, you just got here!" He then said, laughing.

"I am slow, that's my second one." Liv said, putting the cup down onto the table.

"After what? Two shots?" Art asked and laughed.

"So.." Livia said, leaning her hand on the desk, next to her cup. She leaned forward, putting her hand into her hip and whipping her hair over her shoulder in a smooth motion, like she'd done it a hundred times.

"What about that little promise, you gave me? About dancing." She said and Art laughed. He then looked at his friends next to him, who were laughing at him. He looked back at her, his arm leaning on the table beside him, a cup in his hand. He shrugged, tilting his head.

"You got it." He then shrugged and the brunette smiled.
She tiled her head forward, her eyes looking up at him as she let her eyelids relax and took his hand in hers to pull the boy to the dance floor. Art felt his heart flutter at her flirty behavior and let himself be pulled among the people.
Livia then turned around and started swaying her shoulders to the music. Her brown hair fell on her shoulders and Art scanned her figure while he followed her actions. The girl made small steps to sway her hip while looking around the room and then put her hands into the upper arms of the blond boy, meeting his eyes again.

James walked around the party, downing a few shots here and there. He then sat down, his head hurting and his eyes burning from the thick air in the room, that was filled with the smell of sweat and alcohol.
He felt his head spin a bit, his body not taking the drinks well today. Or maybe because he didn't feel good generally. Which is why he walked outside where Cyril opened a bottle of champagne and cheered stuck out his tongue. He then shoved the bottle into his friends mouth, laughing with the others around him.

The blonde boy stood at the window of the terrace, watching from the side as they yelled

"Maxton Hall! Maxton Hall!"

The next thing that caught James' eye was long tanned legs, dancing on the dance floor, a short black cocktail dress that suited them perfectly and long brown hair, which shimmered in the colored lights of the house.

Livia Ashwand had her hands above her head, laughing and swaying her hips to the beat. Before her was a blonde guy, having his hands on her hips as they danced together. James eyed him critically and then looked at the Ashwand girl once more. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her long tanned legs and hair that fell over her shoulder and flew around softly when she shook her head to the music.
He then slowly let his mind wander, looking at the blond guy and imagining it was him that danced with her.
He imagined looming down at her and putting his hands where this other guy had them.

Since when did he even care who Livia Ashwand was dancing with?

It wasn't like he was jealous. He could have any girl on this party. He maybe even should find himself a girl to dance with, but he had absolutely no motivation to dance.

•

The night grew deeper and midnight laid far behind as James sat on the couch of a hallway, watching people dance. His headache got even worse, because taking even more shots, didn't actually help. Normally when he drank and partied, it helped him to forget about all the expectations that the pressure in his shoulders. But not even that could help him now.

He felt someone sit down beside him as the sofa sank and for a moment he catches his mind hoping that is was a certain brunette to sit down beside him, which was a thought that confused him even more.
However, when he looked to the side it was Elaine Ellington, the girl with which he had played golf and hooked up with a few times. Her blonde hair was straightened as always and she had way too much red lipstick in her face, which didn't fit to her green dress at all.

He took her hand in his and James glared at her confused as she kept looking at him, while starting to massage his hand.

"A trendy, new chiropractor from London showed me this." She explained and James didn't even have the nerves to listen to her right now.

"Best thing ever for tension headaches!" Elaine said, looking down at their hands and back up to him again.

"The head of Young Beaufort. I can imagine how much pressure you feel. My parents are already planing my internships!" She told him and James didn't even try to look interested. He zoomed out, staring onto the ground and feeling her eyes on him. He looked down to their hands again, seeing it was 3am on his watch. Maybe he should just call his driver and leave.

"But when it gets too much I like to think about the fact that it will all belong to us one day!" She said and James started to imagine, Livia saying those words.

When it all belongs to them one day. Even though Livia wasn't supposed to have anything. Her business was supposed to be ruined and her stupid face and personality out of his life, but he had failed at that. All because of his sister that had to have an affair with a teacher on their school.
All he could do now was keep his distance.

"You'll be in charge of everything! And that will be the best feeling of all." She said and started to intertwine her fingers with his. James looked at her, seeing how her face grew closer to his.
She was about to kiss him and he thought about making out but her really wasn't in the mood for that, especially it with her.

"James!" He heard his name being called, as he looked up. Trey walked towards them and James let go in Elaine's hand.

"What?" He asked leaning back so he sat straight.

"You should see this."

—
1581 words