Turns out he's a drug dealer - Ch. 5, p.1

"Some things the heart understands, not the head." - Unknown

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The house was welcoming, starting from the door I opened to the wide hallway. Upon the walls were the colourful art pieces my father had used to make the house feel more like a home. The floor was a modern-fashioned parquet with a blend of bright whites and cream-colors, the staircases that ranged from both sides of the hallway up to the first floor were twirled in a way. The lamps upon the ceiling shined in its nature, though outside the sun was still up and shining in a way that soothed the soul.

"I'm home!" I shouted as I entered. As I hung up my jacket, I looked down at the floor and realized that it had been whipped not long ago. Emely had been here.

"It's so good to see you!" I heard someone and as I turned around, I looked into two warm chocolate-colored eyes of a beautiful woman with South American ethnicity.

"Emely, you're back!" I fell into her arms and she laughed as she twirled me around, "how was your vacation?", I added, and she let me go, "it was wonderful. I missed my family."

A sad smile graced her face, "can't you take some more time off?" I asked, and her sorrow made me sad in a way I could not describe, "no. And my family's work and relationship to one another is complicated. It is better this way."

I realized while she was still talking that she wanted to change the topic to something less important, "is my mum home?", I therefore asked, and she shook her head in response, "but she should be here any second. She said she was stuck in traffic."

I smiled at her gratefully and she turned around to do something in the living room. My stomach made some unpleasant noises, that brought me to walk to the kitchen as I hadn't eaten anything properly for the day. Quiet music was playing in the kitchen when I entered it. I opened the fridge my mother just got a couple of months ago. It still had the fragrance of something unused. My mother had a certain love for reorganizing furniture or replacing them with one another.

While still searching for something edible in the fridge, my phone rang. I turned around and realized that it was Sofia. I put her on speaker and paused the music.

"Melea?", I heard her soft voice as I still searched for something else than tuna or vegetables, "what's up?" I asked her and pulled out some food I could not identify, but after smelling it the corner of my mouth twitched, and I opened the trash can to throw it in.

"There's this event tonight, someone's celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. Are you going?" she explained the reason for her call, but instead of answering right away I focused on the food options that laid in front of me. After another sceptical investigation, I took a rice bowl with some type of sauce out, put in the microwave and pressed the one minute button. I felt like I was damn hungry.

"Um, I don't know. Who's going?" I then answered, as Sofia had been waiting for my answer all this time, "Veronica, Derek, me, Kara and her friends, Kyle...", she went on, but I interjected the monologue as I heard his name coming out of her mouth, "Kyle? I mean...you want to go? If Kyle's going to be there, I don't know if that's the best..."

"It's fine," she interrupted me, "it would mean the world to me if you would come though," she quickly added, and her voice lowered itself and was more of a murmur at the last few words.

The familiar sound of the microwave went on to tell me my food was warmed up, "I'll be at your house at 8:30PM," I reassured her and sensed the relief she felt through the single word she was saying, "thanks."

"Talk to you later," she just added and we hung up. I took my food out and hissed, as I nearly burned myself by touching the bowl. I took a kitchen cloth that hung near the cooker, and carried it to the table in front of one of the chairs that the room held a home for. I sat down on one of them and the next second my fork went through the rice already. As I ate, I heard the click on the door, and the familiar voice of my mum talking on the phone.

"Do you actually think it's a good idea to order violets? She specifically asked for orchids!" her voice was saying these words with more anger that I could even bear on this beautiful day, "yes, I know it's not their season, but it's not your job to enumerate what's possible, it's your job to help your clients get the impossible," she added and hung up, her face full of irritation and stress as she entered the kitchen.

"Morning Sweetie," she greeted me, kissing my forehead. She looked down to the rice bowl in front of me, "do you actually want to eat that?" she asked, frowning, while walking to one of the drawers to search for a charging cable.

I looked down to the rice bowl, then down on me.

"You know you have to fit into that silver dress I bought you last year tonight. Oh, and please wear your hair up," she added, and closed the drawer as she had tugged out the charging cable.

"It's afternoon mum and I'm not going to wear that dress," I murmured, and my mother shrugged her shoulders, "suit yourself," she simply responded, then grabbed the charging cable and was about to walk out, but something stopped her on the way, "you have to come tonight, you know that darling, don't you?", she asked, and I responded with a nod, "yes, I'm coming."

"Perfect. And love," she stared down at me with a sceptical look on her face, "please think about the dress again," with these words, she then walked out of the room. I threw the rest of my food in the trash.

"What are you wearing?", I held a dark green blouse and a bright skirt in my hands as I was asking Veronica these questions over FaceTime, "probably just a skirt and a long-sleeve shirt, maybe a dress. Not sure yet," Veronica replied, and added "Sofia said she's going to wear a white top and a black skirt. That should be good enough."

"I don't know," I responded, as I sat back down and buried my head into my pillow, "my mum wants me to wear that silver dress."

"It's a wedding anniversary of someone we barely know, not my wedding day with you as my bridesmaid," Veronica uttered, her voice underlined with confusion about my mum's obsession to overdress me.

I stood up from my bed, and rummaged a dark blue top and a rose skirt out of my dresser, "how about this?"

Veronica sighed, "Melea, it's fine. Stop worrying about these small things, you'll look good no matter what you wear."

I smiled at her gratefully, "Hair up or down?" she shrugged her shoulders, "I'd go for down, but surprise me," she replied and moved up from her bed, "Thank you Veronica, I talk to you later," I picked my phone off the bed, and she added a quick "see you!" and hung up.

"Sorry I'm late, I had to catch a cab because my mum needed the driver," I greeted Sofia, "it's fine," she replied, but in her voice I was able to hear the nervousness, and her whole body felt tense.

"You look beautiful. Please don't waste one minute this evening on thinking about Kyle and his downgraded version of a girlfriend," I went on and the way she smiled at me told me that she believed some parts of the words I was saying, "thanks, Melea."

We arrived a bit later than we were expected to. The event started at nine, but as I had been late we got off the cab half an hour later. Hastily, we gave the doormen our names and he crossed them out before letting us in. I spotted Veronica's dark brown, almost black hair from far away, "see, you two look wonderful," she greeted us.

"Thank you. Have you seen Kyle?" Sofia seemed more nervous than before, as if she had been forgetting what kind of guy he was.

Veronica grimaced as she answered, "and his temporary girlfriend? Yep, they're near the dessert table."

"I think I need a drink," Sofia suddenly whispered in my ear, and already made her way through the crowd to search for the bar. I sighed, but also made my way through the crowd to find her. Veronica tipped on my arm all of a sudden, and I turned around with a confused look on my face, "I'm coming with you," she explained, and so, we walked through the crowd together.

The bar was a bit further away from the seating tables and the buffet. Mostly businessmen I knew worked with my father were sitting or standing around the bar, but I also spotted the fair-haired lead next to some older suit-wearing men. Anger suffused my body. It may was the protective part inside of me that wanted him to suffer as much as she had when she found out, it may was just a characteristic of mine. Or maybe I just liked to see him suffer, as he was one who's company I disliked.

I was about to get over there and tell him off, but Veronica held me back, "let him be an asshole, who cares." she explained, and surprised me by being the rational one of us. She loosened her grip, "Derek is searching for you by the way. He texted me earlier."

As she added these words, I was taken aback by confusion. They were talking?

"When did you want to tell me that you two broke up again?", I asked her, and she paused for a moment, "um, I hoped before the end of the week we would be back together."

"Seems like your plan didn't work out," I stated the obvious and she ran her hands through her hair, "I know, I know," she stopped touching her hair as she realized it would get too messy, "you love him, he loves you, just apologize," I begged, but she backlashed, "but I didn't do anything wrong!"

I sighed, "I'm going to find Derek, if you love him, just apologize and move on. Please don't make a scene again."

"I never make a scene!", she hissed, but only earned an eye roll from my side, "okay, okay I'll try," she then confessed.

"Please look out for Sofia, you know how she is when she drinks," I begged, and Veronica nodded in agreement. I turned around to make my way through the crowd once more, but had to stop for a second as it was too crowded to move further. As I had already moved a bit, I looked around to see where this tide of guests was coming from, and realized that the cheating fair-haired lad was right next to me. In his hands, a champagne glass. His girlfriend nowhere to be found.

"A good reputation is no excuse for burning others down like their made out of paper," I explained to him, and the look on his face was a rather shocked one, but before he could respond I made my way through the crowd to find my feuding-hating-but-loving best friend.

I spotted his light brown hair from far away. He was standing near the dessert table with a bunch of other people, like Jeremy, Sophia's brother, laughing. Of course, where else would he be than near chocolate puddings and more kinds of ice cream flavours he could enumerate?

Derek seemed to notice my presence somehow. He smiled at me, his lips forming a simple "hey", but all of a sudden, all the attention laid on me and his accompanies turned around, and I realized in-between Jeremy and his friends, Taylor had also joined them. Derek and Taylor knew each other?

"Aren't you here with Sofia?", Derek asked boldly, and I knew him too well to not grasp on the fact that he tried to avoid topics about a certain fierce American girl.

"Veronica's with her," I responded just as boldly, and I recognized the way he went through his hair due to nervousness, "how are you though?", I tried to commence a conversation with someone else, so my question was addressed to Jeremy. The other guys began to talk in little circles, ignoring Jeremy's and my conversation, "it has been harder, since Dad works a lot abroad. Mum is always busy with something, so we don't spend a lot of time with one another at the moment. But it works for us. We're managing."

I nodded to show that I understood, and the smile that appeared on his face was full of gratefulness.

Jeremy was one of the few people I had known in my life that only had genuine intentions. Sofia's and his father recently left them in San Francisco, while travelling around the world on its own. He barely kept in touch with his family. Their mother and him had some unresolved issues, and he decided that running away was the best option for him to resolve some of them. He plunged himself into work, into jobs he didn't need to do; he was there for his children if they did need him, but the look that grazed Sofia's face the morning she woke up and was told that her father had left them for a while to work in Paris would never leave my mind.

It was different for me, I was used to it. My mum travelled to France about every other weekend, and my father was nearly never home, and if, sometime after midnight was the earliest he arrived. When I was younger, they had always been around – but everything changed in that one night in the little house near Abingdon.

I was used to waking up by myself, and managing on my own, but Sofia wasn't. And though Jeremy pretended he was, I knew he barely managed as well.

His phone suddenly rang and he took it out of his blazer, "excuse me for a second," he said to me, and as he went away, Derek pulled me away by my arm, "so, you're here with Veronica too?"

I shook my head for a yes, "didn't she wanted to come with you and say Hi?", he asked, but I shrugged my shoulders, "no."

He raised an eyebrow, that indicated two things – first off, he was confused, second off, he was hurt.

"She said you were searching for me," I tried to talk about something else than the fact that she didn't even greet him, "yeah. I wanted to talk with you about Veronica, but now I don't feel like talking about her. Or anything else involving her," he sighed, and I gave him a concerned look " I just saw Chase by the way. You should know that he's here too."

"I should say Hi. Do you know where he is?" I asked and Derek responding with a quick, "I saw him near the tables in the back."

I nodded slowly and looked through the hall, as I found myself in Taylor's eyes. I wanted to leave Derek and find Chase, but somehow, my gaze got stuck on him instead of finding the person I was actually looking for. He gestured me to come over, so I did. My feet walked by themselves, as if they had never done anything else than to follow him like a puppy. I wasn't someone attracted to the general beauty ideals – so why did it feel so familiar walking towards him, and why did it please me to see him this much?

"I didn't know I would see you here," he greeted me, "how was your interrogation?", I asked, without returning the greeting, "not as intimidating as it should've been," he smirked, and I giggled, until I saw a green package in his hands.

Initially, I thought that he tried to hide it under his jet-black blazer, but eventually realized that he wasn't trying to hide it at all; he didn't seem to care if I saw them or not. The judgement of others didn't seem to mean much to him.

"Are these drugs?", I mumbled and gestured to the package in his hands that he now put into a deep-hid pocket inside of the blazer, "Weed," he answered boldly.

"You're dealing?", I raised an eyebrow, but he only suppressed a smile, "you can do so many more things with drugs than dealing, Melea."

"So, you take them?", I assumed and thought he'd confess, but he only responded with another question, "you really think I'd take drugs?"

I crossed my arms in front of my chest, and most likely had a judgemental look on my face when I asked, "what are you doing with them then?"

A small smile appeared on his face as he closed the pocket inside of his blazer and answered, "I don't think you'd understand, Melea."

"Why?", my voice was suddenly had the tone of anger in them, and surprised by my own sudden anger my arms loosened themselves out of this defensive pose.

"Are you trying to interrogate me again?", he asked, after observing me, and smirked his usual smirk.

"A conversation is not an interrogation," I explained to him, "with you, it is," he answered boldly, and I crossed my arms again, "excuse you!"

He laughed slightly, "you just don't look like the type of girl that would take this easily."

"So, I'm weak," I concluded and frowned, "oh Melea," his eyes were weirdly familiar and warm, "I have the feeling that you are way stronger than you show."

He walked away, and I was taken aback from his answer.

He went over to greet some friends, and while doing that I found myself wondering about him again. Were these still random compliments given out by him that worked on others, or was this a personal one? And why did it enjoyed this one more than a simple pretty I had heard from guys calling after me on the street?

As I asked myself these questions, I approached Chase who was standing near the wide tables with names on them.

Chase Anstey. A good friend of my family and a good friend of mine. He still wore his hair gelled back, and his soft facial features were empathised by the smile his face owned. The grey-green eyes focused on his girlfriend. So full of love. He looked at her the way every girl wanted to be looked at.

"Chase!", I shouted as I ran towards him, and as he turned around the smile on his face grew wider, "Melea!"

He wrapped his arms around me and twirled me around, "I feel like I haven't seen you in years."

"It's just been a few months, Chace," I chuckled, and he put me down slowly, "still," he added.

His girlfriend smiled at me. As far as I was aware, she did not know about that time last year.

She did not know we had history.

"It's nice seeing you again. My mum told me your father is giving out the location for the charity gala in May, that's very generous," I greeted her and she replied with a smile, "thank you."

She looked over my shoulder and I was about to turn around, when I felt someone else's presence. It was surprising; it gave me a warm, but strange feeling at the same time.

"May I abduct you?"

Taylor's soft voice was only a whisper as he grabbed my hand from behind and brushed my hair behind my ear.

I was briefly surprised by the sudden Intimacy. I didn't turn my head to him, just to the side and looked at my hand, which was surprisingly intertwined with his. Why the sudden Intimacy?

I nodded slowly, and he grabbed my hand tighter and pulled me with him near the crowd of people that were dancing. He pulled me closer, and I wrapped my arms shyly around his neck as his hands were resting on my hips. I looked at him again.

"Why am I here, Taylor?", I asked, the sudden Intimacy still unexpected, but somewhat in a good way. Was that the way he treated other's too?

He chuckled, "you came off mad when we talked earlier."

"Because you think I'm weak," I responded quickly and he shook his head, "I told you I don't believe that."

We were quiet for a moment and just kept dancing.

"Why do you have the drugs, Taylor?", I asked again, but he only grinned as if he was a child that stole candies from a secret drawer, "if I would tell you right away, it wouldn't be half as exciting, would it?" after his answer, I frowned, and looked at him, sceptically.

"You should find a better excuse for the police if they show up at your house for giving other people hallucinations."

"Where's the fun in telling you right away," he winked, and I raised an eyebrow in response, "dealing drugs is not supposed to be fun," I growled, "'fun' keeps people interested," he went on.

"Well, that doesn't work on me," I simply replied as he twirled me once, "if I do not interest you, then why are you still dancing with me?"

Slowly, I looked down at his hands, realizing that he was right. Why was I still dancing with him? Why did I let him touch me like that? This may was the usual for him, but was it for me?

I shoved him off, turned around and stormed off the floor. I heard his slight laugh behind me, that enraged my anger towards no one but me even further. He found it amusing. He found it amusing that he was able to read me. While I wasn't able to read him at all.

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