Chapter 53 NO LONGER QUEEN.
SLOANE'S POINT OF VIEW.
The world stands still, as Lucien stands before me with a guarded expression.
All of a sudden, it's as though he and I are the only ones in the room. Electricity crackles between us as he and I stand face to face. He looks like he's not to be fucked with, as his right eye twitches clearly, and his body language is tense.
The sound of Ace's chuckle from where he stands breaks the moment. "Do you guys need privacy? Or should I stick around just in case someone tries to drown her again? I am good at saving girls, you know."
"Stay the fuck out of it," Lucien says, his tone dark and hard. But he doesn't turn to look at Ace as he speaks. He doesn't break eye contact with me, not even for a second.
All of a sudden, he advances on me, his move predatory, as his blue eyes suddenly turn dark with something dangerous and volatile.
"You remember what I told you earlier?" He asks, and stops the second my back hits the wall. "You're mine. Always, and forever. Nothing in this world will change that. You were mine the moment I made eye contact with you years ago; the moment you fed me those cupcakes under the bridge...you and I became one. Saying you want to call it quits will never change that."
What?
"What do you mean? I never fed you cupcakes." I breathe, my chest heaving with each inhale, stinging. He has to be delusional. The only time I met him was at this darned school.
"Okay, Sunshine. Let's say that. But I'll honor you...But I must warn you that if we decide to play this game, you will lose. We both know I never lose."
"Say whatever you want. But one fact remains, you and I? We're over. So you should leave now."
Lucien turns to Amara, barely regarding Ace, like he's some Gecko on the wall. "Stay with my girl. I wouldn't want her getting worse."
"I'm no longer yours!" I try to scream, but it comes out like a broken whisper. My heart clenches with hurt as the stupid love I feel for him stings me.
Let him go, Sloane. You were a bet.
I whisper to myself, and immediately, my eyes well up with tears. But I fight it, until....he walks out, taking my fucking heart with him.
My throat closes with a sob, and I fall to the floor.
My vision is blurry, and all I feel is Amara's comforting arms around me, as her scent wafts in my nostrils.
"It's okay."
"No," I whisper, sobbing like a child, as the pain of being played settles in my mind. "He played me....he fucking played me, Amara." I sniff.
"I was a bet...everything we did, everything I thought we meant to each other....it was all a fucking game he made with Roxanne, the same girl he fought with because of me. I thought he liked me; I thought the feelings were mutual. I'm so stupid."
"No." She sobs, with me in her arms. "You're not stupid. Blame a jerk like Lucien for what he did. Blame guys like him for playing with the hearts of girls like you and me." She lifts my chin and wipes my tears softly. "But you know what? We're going to fix you first, and once you're better, we'll show him to never fuck with you."
Everything fades away, as I sob in the arms of my best friend, over a love I thought had blossomed....but was all a lie.
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The days pass by in a blur. All I did was roll in bed, with wet tissues, and fat tears rolling down my tears. I caught a cold as well; maybe it was because of my broken heart, or the aftermath of almost drowning. But about three days later, my throat burned, my eyes burned, and I could barely breathe through my nostrils.
Amara was here all through though. She made me chicken soup, and ensured I had a change of clothes everyday, and I showered.
All I wanted to do, was lie in mu covers, until the world ended, but she wasn't having it.
So, here I am, seated in her father's Aston martin.
She's a scholarship kid, but her father is among the elite in the country. So, she had access to anything luxury.
"Amara, I really want to be in bed right now." I groan, slouching in the car seat. Giving her my best puppy dog eyes, I try to tug at her heart strings.
But she fixes me a glare, and shuts off the engine.
"We're going in there, and you're going to give that jerk a big fuck you, as you strut into those halls, with every heir of the world's largest conglomerates, and political affiliations watching you. So keep your head high, your chin up, and fucking smile, until everyone in there bleeds. They expect you to cower, to fall, or to shrink. But we're going in there, and they will all bow to the fucking queen."
"I'm not queen anymore. We broke up remember."
"I don't care about that. You're still a queen, and no damn relationship can change that."
With that, she opens her door, and gets out. My eyes follow her, as she walks over to my side of the door, till she flips the door open.
"I hate you." I mutter.
"Aww. I love you too." She says, humorless, and pulls me out of the car, like I barely weigh anything.
Her hands intertwine with mine, as we walk the pathway towards the grand doors of Ravenscroft's entrance.
My head buzzes with different thoughts, as I try to ward off their stares. Their whispers fill my mind, as everyone regards me with careful eyes, and scared gazes.
"I heard she drowned...you think it's some attention stunt?"
"Maybe she's inherited something from her crack head of a mother...might be hereditary." Another whispers, and his words draw a sharp inhale from me, as my steps falter.
But Amara doesn't let me fall, as her hands hold me high, while I try to hope that I wouldn't see Lucien and Roxanne together, waiting to mock me for ever thinking he and I could ever be together.