One

HER ENTIRE MORNING revolved around wanting to kill herself.

There was nothing as ridiculous as craving something hot in the morning and finding out there was a long-ass queue in front of you. Certainly not as ridiculous as the barista, who was taking an ample amount of time finishing someone's order before going on to the next customer. From how slow he was working, it would take approximately thirty minutes before she got her order. For a guy, he was embarrassing his own gender, because he was like a girl! Excuse her, but even a girl wouldn't be as slow as this guy.

Nelly had in mind to walk over there and pushed him out to let someone take over from him because she was seconds away from screaming her head off in the middle of the diner. There were eight people in front of her, and no one looked anxious or in a hurry; unlike her, who wanted to be out of there in five minutes. If they had nowhere to go, if they weren't in a rush, she would be happy to skip the line, and if they objected, she would show them who she was. And if they still had something to say, she would buy the whole fucking diner and ban them from it.

Only, Nelly hated displaying her power. Her grandfather once said if someone uses their power to get something, it only makes you look weak. You could either solve it with your head or retaliate. But from how things were going, she wanted to throw away every lesson she had gotten from Grandpa Sili.

Patience was something she struggled with, time was something she didn't mess with, and emotions were something she couldn't keep in check.

It was insanely hot, the weather, like a brutal punishment set upon them. Never in her seventeen years of life had she hated this diner before, a successful diner that was unable to afford a decent air conditioner, or maybe it was the fact that it was the heart of the town and it was almost, always crowded. The heavy designer coat she had worn was absorbing the relentless heat like a magnifying glass was starting to be her worst nightmare. Small beads of perspiration tickled her unmercifully.

Sweat, she assured, was not a girl's best friend.

Her boots felt like they had taken a dive into the hot oven before she had worn them, and she was acutely aware of her feet that were protesting, crying for freedom. She wanted to lift her manicured hand and fan herself but she had more class than that. She would rather endure it.

Beauty was indeed pain.

"Nell."

Slowly and with ease, she slightly turned her head around, gazing into the eyes of her best friend, Lucy. A warm smile spread across her beautiful face, her annoyance was suddenly forgotten. She was just about to call her and vent, but Lucy had known the right moment to drop in. With no further hesitation, she spread her arms wide and engulfed her in a hug, placing her head on Lucy's shoulder.

"Thank god you're here!" she exclaimed with a relieved sigh before pulling back to wear an annoyed expression. "I was about to go mad in this place."

Lucy eyed her from head to toe before she burst out with laughter. "What are you wearing?" she inquired tartly. "It's so hot, Nell. How can you stand wearing that?"

"Please. It's so hot. I swear, I'm seconds away from going naked."

She laughed. "Serves you right. Well take it off–" Lucy made a move to take off Nelly's coat, who was quick enough to slap her hand away with a glare, wrapping her arms around her coat protectively.

"There's a reason I wore a damn coat today. I'm not stupid and crazy enough to wear it in this weather without having a good reason."

"Other than looking stylish?" Lucy responded knowingly.

"That, and the fact that Jenny Porter has been flaunting her bag and boasting about how she was the first one to have her hands on it. I would have gotten the damn bag myself, but you know I hate being second," Nelly pronounced the last word with emphasis as if it were a vulgar term absolutely unworthy of her.

Amused, Lucy stared. "So, the coat?"

"...is part of Channel's never seen before collection. It will be released this winter, but I pulled some strings and got it early."

"I thought you don't like using your power."

"I don't!" Nelly wrinkled her nose in distaste as if she was seeing a new type of insect. "But you know how I hate competition. The slightest things bring out my competitive side. All the White family have this condition."

"Condition," Lucy repeated the word to herself in Nelly's tone and began to giggle. "Honestly, you're crazy." Nelly rolled her eyes without deigning to reply. "So, you wore the coat hoping one of Jenny's friends would see you and run to tell her?"

She nodded. "Also got the boots as well, and that's the idea. Although, I think I might break. The heat is killing me raw."

"Aw, my poor baby." Lucy knew it was hardly wise of her to try and tease Nelly because there was a definite risk that she would take it to heart and ignore her for a whole week. However, she didn't manage to avoid it—and to be honest, she didn't even try—and she stifled another laugh under the critical gaze of Nelly's striking blue eyes.

If there was one thing she loved about being Nelly's best friend was moments like this where she got to laugh at how ridiculous her best friend was being. Everything about Nelly was crazy, but it wasn't her fault. She was born into a rich family, her family coming from old money, so it was expected of her to be ridiculous sometimes.

"Don't act like you're not enjoying this," Nelly replied with pressed lips as a confirmation of her annoyance at Lucy. If they were in her room, she would have attacked her with pillows.

Lucy gave her a spiteful smile. "How can I not? I'm a human being. We see silly things and we laugh at it. But it doesn't mean I don't sympathize." She reached and patted Nelly's smooth and glowing cheek.

"Well, you showed up at the right time. How did you know I needed you?"

"I didn't. The girls and I are completing our project and we got hungry. Hopefully, we finish it today. The summer break is already over. I don't want to go back to school," she whined.

"I can't wait to escape this hellhole. Vogue is doing an internship in six months. I plan to get it."

"You mean you're going to do an interview and wait to see if you got in?" she replied in amusement. She sounded a bit too abrupt, and Nelly made a disinterested face.

"It's Vogue, Lucy. If I have to sell all my bags or kill someone to get that internship, I would."

Lucy laughed warmly with the affection of their ten-year friendship, which had completely overcome so many obstacles. "Come on, let's go sit down." She nudged her head toward their table. "I'm pretty sure the heat is affecting you in the head."

"But my–"

"It's not like the queue is moving quickly." Lucy dragged Nelly to her table at the back of the dinner, where two brunettes sat. "Girls, look who I found."

The one closest to Nelly lifted her head up and instantly masked her annoyance upon seeing the redhead Lucy had dragged to their table. It wasn't like the girls hated Nelly. She was nice, probably the nicest rich girl you could ever find, but being in her presence was impossible. She looked down on everything. She was arrogant, thought everything she did was right and everyone should go along with it.

Nelly White was many things, but a big bitch was a more suitable title for her. It was hard to believe she could be nice as well, but only to those she thought deserved it. The only living daughter of one of the richest men, she was sure to have an ego with a planet of its own. It was shocking how she was best friends with Lucy, who was not as rich, or rich for that matter. But the two were old friends. They had a history together, so it explained how friendship was able to hold.

"Hey, Nell," Sam greeted with a warm smile.

"Heard you guys are still working on your project. How is it going?"

"About tonight," Lucy said, prudently changing the subject. "Will you guys be going to the party? Its the last summer break party before everyone starts getting their shits together."

"Who's throwing it?" Nelly asked, playing with the cup of straws. Anxiety grew in the pit of her stomach. She didn't like going to parties because they were not her scene. She didn't like any of those people. She was always careful with whose party she attended.

Lucy glanced at her with arched brows. "Nell, I told you that yesterday."

Nelly shrugged nonchalantly, licking the bottom of her lips. "You told me a lot of things. I just forgot," she answered sincerely.

"Freddie Ray is throwing it. His parents are out of town and he's taking advantage of their absence."

"Heck yeah, I'm going," Mia chimed in excitedly.

Sara nodded, brushing away her hair from her face. "I desperately need a party after spending hours on this stupid project. Might even get drunk."

"I don't know, Lucy. I don't like Freddie. He freaks me out." Nelly didn't mention that Kyle Shane was also going to be there. He had texted her about the party a week ago, and she had ended up not replying to him at all. Kyle was the biggest douche in town, and he was also Lucy's ex-boyfriend. Their relationship had ended brutally because Kyle kept sleeping with various girls, and Lucy had found out about it. It turned out that he was dating two other people while he was dating Lucy.

Nelly had also failed to mention that he had been hounding on her not a week later, asking her out on dates. If Lucy knew about it, she would be devastated. She was still not over Kyle, and for her to know that he was asking her best friend out, she would be heartbroken. It had taken her a great deal before she was able to get Kyle out of Lucy's head.

Disbelief filled Lucy's eyes. It was an expression Nelly knew all too well—a look that told her that she had to be joking. "Just Ignore him. You might not even come across him. He'd be too drunk to come and bother you. Say you are coming."

Giving in, Nelly chortled, "Fine, but if anything happens, I'm burying you alive."

Lucy laughed, then said playfully, "Are we talking about a minute or an hour?"

She shook her head. "The fact that you even have to ask says a lot."

"Don't we need to go shopping? Unless Nelly is offering to raid her closet." Mia slapped the back of Sara's head. "What? It's not like she doesn't have everything. It will save us money and she has prettier clothes than the mall in this town."

Nelly's laugh eased the tension in Mia and Sara's body, which was ridiculous because she wasn't the type to deny anyone what they wanted. Besides, Mia and Sara were sorts of friends. Handing something of hers to people was not a hard thing for Nelly. She wouldn't even know if someone had taken something from her closet or jewelry boxes because there was so much she didn't keep tabs of everything.

"You can take whatever you want, but stay away from my bags."

"Her bags are her life," said Lucy in a practical voice.

"She's not joking. I'll end you," she added in a threatening voice. When Sara and Mia gaped at her with shocked faces, Nelly and Lucy simultaneously burst out with laughter. "God, you guys should have seen your faces."

Sara and Mia shared a brief glance before letting out a burst of relieved laughter.

"Have you guys heard about the new guy in town?" Mia questioned in excitement. "Sources who have seen him said one of the Greek gods had descended on earth and our town was lucky enough to shelter him."

Lucy laughed. "Geez, Mia, news doesn't get past you. But I heard about him, just didn't see him yet."

"We are hoping he comes to the party. I personally want to check the merchandise out..." Then she threw a glance at Nelly, who had stayed quiet and uninterested. "You can call dibs, Nell. You seriously need a boyfriend. We have never seen you with anyone."

Nelly was looking at her manicured nails when she replied, "Because high school boys ain't it. They are raging beasts who only care about one thing and one thing only, plus they have the brains of peanuts."

The girls cackled.

Lucy had her palm over when heart when she commented on her remark, "As your friend, I genuinely feel bad for whoever would get to go out with you. You will end up breaking him into an empty shell."

Nelly glared at her, but couldn't resist smirking. "I mean, you didn't say anything wrong, but then, if I get a boyfriend, he sure as hell is going to be one in a million. I don't want a fling or someone who would drop me in a few months. Unless he commits and submits to me completely." A part of her didn't want to admit why she wanted that. It was best it was laid to rest.

"Chill, you're seventeen. The age of having fun. Why are you talking like you're ready to settle down?" Lucy chuckled in disbelief.

Sara emitted a loud sigh and sagged her shoulders. "I just want to get noticed by Nate. Think you could help me out in there, Nell?" She pouted her lips.

"Walk up to him. Talk to him and ask him out. What's so hard about that?"

"Nell, you're so stupid sometimes, but I get why you'd say that so easily or think it would be easy to do that. Boys are boys. You don't just walk up to them and ask them out. You let them be interested. You would know that if you had bothered to be interested in them."

Nelly rolled her eyes but didn't comment. Her no dating policy was one of the things that shocked everyone. They wondered why she never dated and when she was the most popular girl in town. It wasn't because she didn't have guys asking her out. She had a lot of those, but she always declined, and when the rest of the guys saw how she declined everyone, even the ones who didn't deserve to be rejected, no one bothered to ask her out.

And she was fine with that.

Completely fine.

She only cared about one thing, and that was the day she would finally get out of town and chase after her dreams.