Chapter 17

A LOUD SCREAM pierced the West wing of the DuPont mansion early on a Saturday morning.

I cracked both eyelids open, revelling in the softness of satin sheets against one's bare skin. I stretched my limbs, longing for more sleep. Beyond my door, there was a ruckus.

"I want this room!" It was a feminine voice belonging to a child.

"No! I want this room." A slightly older, male voice returned.

"I came here first," the first voice protested.

There was a crash, followed by muffled profanities. And then more crashes that seemed to be coming closer to my door. I forced myself to sit upright, to take in the DuPont's third guest room which now had warm sunshine pouring through sheer curtains. I yawned.

"But I'm older, so I get this room."

Off the bed my foot went, landing on a soft, sheepskin rug. I was clad in underwear because I’d forgotten to pack pyjamas and I definitely wasn’t going to wear something uncomfortable to sleep.

"Why can't we take this room again?" The girl asked. Her voice seemed to originate from... right outside my door.

"Dunno, let's find out," the older male, assumably a sibling said.

I realized, within a split second, what was going to transpire. I couldn't remember if I locked the door last night. Before I had time to widen my eyes and hyperventilate, the room door flew open. Beyond the doorframe stood a teenager, maybe fifteen, whose eyes had landed straight on me.

Time stood still for a very long time - on his end anyway. His jaws parted, then they closed. I hastily grabbed the duvet, trying by best to cover what I could from his eyes. The boy seemed to have the signature DuPont brunette hair and hazel eyes.

"I'm so sorry," he said quickly before shutting the door.

"What's in there?" the female voice asked.

"Nothing. It's occupied."

"By who?" The girl demanded, petulantly.

"No idea."

"I wanna see!"

"Uh - "

Before I could react, the door was flung open for the second time, this time revealing a girl, maybe ten. She had pigtails, with designer shades draped over her hair. She was dressed in pink dungarees and what appeared to be Stuart Weitzman boots. The epitome and height of a brat, basically.

Her jaws parted like her brother's did prior. I was covered in a modest fashion this time, thankfully, by the duvet.

"Who on EARTH are you?"

I blinked at the girl, wondering if this place even had adults.

I was about to reply politely, before I recalled that I had a shitty fiancée role to play.

"Oh, fuck off. You'll know who I am when your family introduces me," I sniffed at the kid. "By the way keep the noise down, you woke me up."

The kid's jaw dropped. But I could tell she wasn't one to back down, this one had fire. She strode up to me, petulant facial expression turning sourer by the second.

"Do you know who I am?" The ten year old or something asked. "Do you know what my daddy can do?"

"Uh, Sabine," the male peeped in. "Aunt's coming."

Just like that, the kid called Sabine rushed out and slammed my door shut. There was another ruckus beyond the door, supposedly an aunt handling both kids. I sighed to myself before making my way to the en suite.

They had a floor length mirror in there, one that added even more dimension to their already sizeable bathroom. I took a brisk shower - I couldn't resist their rain shower - before catching sight of my reflection. I frowned, realizing that I had lost weight.

But then I recalled all the sandwiches I'd been living off and it occurred to me that I needed to change my diet or god forbid I could lose my curves that I cherished so much. I dried my disgusting mousy brown hair, got into a bathrobe and exited the marble bathroom.

Elias was lying down on the bed. His form wasn't something I would have noticed if he wasn't dressed head to toe in black. The color contrasted wildly against the pristine white sheets. He was like a stain on the sheets (an attractive stain), I couldn't peel my eyes away.

"Morning," I greeted cautiously.

He had both hands rested behind his head, his eyes appraising my form. Well, not that there was much to appraise with a thick bathrobe hiding everything that should be covered.

"Good morning," he finally greeted back. "How did you sleep?"

"Like a baby," I smiled a rare smile.

"Good to hear. Family breakfast, in T minus 12 minutes," Elias said as he peeped at his watch. "Alright, I'll leave you to get changed."

He pushed himself off the bed, about to leave.

"You can stay and watch if you want to," I half joked.

He halted for several deafening heartbeats. I could see his back muscles tense, his hands robotically running through the curls atop his head. He peered at his watch for the second time.

"You have eleven minutes," he turned to look at me.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Means if I stay we'll definitely take more than eleven minutes," Elias returned with a measured expression.

I shrugged. "Whatever."

"Andrea," his lips twisted into a helpless smile. Everything that he wanted to say, was efficiently communicated in the way he said my name. He looked so handsome this morning. I felt my breath catching in my throat.

"Fine, fine."

"I'll be back in about ten minutes to walk you to our breakfast room," Elias shot me a thumbs up, one that I returned instantaneously. As an afterthought, he added, "I hope you're not one of those girls who take ages to prepare."

"I don't even wear makeup, don't worry."

He left after that, and I wasted no time in scuffling through the mountain of Forever 21 clothes that we bought yesterday. After what felt like eternity (really it was 7 minutes), I found myself clothed in a translucent black top, jeans so ripped that it revealed more skin than it covered, and I paired my badass ensemble with very tame, Grandmother-approved ballet flats. I really needed to get new shoes.

I barely had time to fix my hair before a knock arrived on my door. My mother used to say that I was blessed to inherit my father's hair. Not the color - the color reminded me of rats - but the volume and the waves. I had hair that some girls paid a fortune to acquire at saloons.

"Perfect," Elias's voice arrived from where he stood.

I turned, flashed him my own version of a million dollar smile, before walking towards him in my best cat-walk.

"You like it, daddy? Your little girl dressed up just for you."

He laughed. "I swear, you're way better at this than you should be."

"You don't like it?" I pouted. "You can punish me later, daddy."

"Okay," Elias dragged the word out. "Save it for the breakfast room. We will be joined by kids today."

"Who are they?" My face turned sour at the memory of the two rascals who woke me.

"What's with the expression?" Elias asked curiously, but didn't dwell on it before continuing, "they're my cousins. Enzo and Sabine. Fifteen and eleven, always fighting like cats and dogs. But I wouldn't care too much about them, I would worry more about my grandparents."

So the brat was eleven. "What about your grandparents?"

"You'll see," Elias promised.

With that, we proceeded for the breakfast room. The breakfast room was already filled when he got there. Elias wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me against his body. I reached behind to help him lower his hand so his hand was on my left butt cheek. I felt him inhale deeply.

Their breakfast room was light and airy, with wallpapered walls reaching upwards and ending in skylight. The room had big windows that overlooked a garden of beautiful flowers. There was a table at the center of the room, laid with plates stacked with pancakes, jars of coffee and tea, a tray of toast paired with jam and butter, along with other kinds of food that my eyes didn't register because Elias had just shifted his hands to better accommodate my derrière. He drove me fucking crazy really.

Elias led my ass to the last empty seats at the table. I wasn't sure if Elias could feel it but my heart was drumming in my chest. Aggressive and beyond the range of what is considered normal, I'm sure.

A hushed silence fell over the table. There were ten occupants today. Two of which I recognized as Elias's parents. Beside them, there was an elderly looking couple, people I assumed to be Elias's grandparents that I was warned about. Then I recognized the kids who woke me this morning, both wore unreadable expressions on their faces. On both sides of the kids, there was a man and a woman - possibly their parents. On my right, was a female who looked to be my age, seated beside a blond male dressed in a business suit.

"Wus' good homies?" I broke the tense silence.

I couldn't help but note how well dressed everyone was. No people should be this well dressed at 9am on a Saturday morning, I slowly began to understand that this family took 'prim and proper' to the next level. I wondered what it must be like to grow up in such pretentious company.

I cleared my throat awkwardly when no one returned my greeting.

Elias finally laughed, sheepishly. "Morning everyone. This is Andrea, my fiancée."

The silence was pregnant, and boy did it stretch. It was finally broken when the most elderly people at the table spoke up.

"Sabine, don't ever let me catch you wearing something like that," it was the grandmother.

The grandfather spoke next. "So you're the girl that my grandson is marrying."

"These are my grandparents, Andrea," Elias told me, as though it wasn't obvious yet.

I yawned at their faces. "I don't mean to be rude but like, is this what I'll be having for breakfast?"

Mr. DuPont, whose name was Maxime replied me. "Yes."

I pulled a face. "This is like, boring. No offence."

Valérie was nicer. She offered me a smile, saying, "if the breakfast isn't to your liking, feel free to tell Henry what you'd like to have instead."

"And who the hell is Henry?"

One of the servants detached himself from the wall. "It's me, ma'am."

I squinted at the guy, he was the same one I was impolite to the previous night. I felt a stab of guilt - perhaps I would apologize to him at the end of my stay, but I had a family to ruin right now. "Get me some real food, Henry. I want bacon, grilled steak, cookie dough ice cream, quail eggs and  make it quick. I'm hungry."

"Tell us about yourself, Andrea," Elias's grandfather said.

He was an elderly man, seemingly in his seventies, but he carried himself well. Everything about him felt immaculate, from his white button down to his well brushed hair. But I knew it was only to compensate for the dirty measures he took to get to where the family was, (financially). It was the same for all successful men, my father included. I sighed.

"So, I'm a transgender," I told the table. Then I burst out laughing. "Jesus mother fucking Christ, shoulda seen your faces. Calm down, you Christians, I swear, all of you have sticks up your asses. Guys, it's 2018 and we live in America, you can't hate on trans people anymore."

The table was... silent.

"Okay..." I cleared my throat, feeling self conscious all of a sudden. I had to remind myself that I had a duty as Elias's friend, and I would make them averse to the idea of Elias marrying at 21 or I will die trying.

"So I'm Andrea as many of you may know," I said to the table. "I'm a Communist, by the way. Eliminate private property!" I shouted the latter, making some of the occupants jump in fright. "Anyways, I’m Elias’s sugar baby as some of you may know. If you don’t know what a sugar baby is then you probably aren’t rich enough." I paused to laugh crudely. “I’m kidding. Jeez.”

The awkward silence continued. I wish I had planned some verbiage, it would certainly make the situation a lot less awkward and my speech less arbitrary, more fluent. Alas, I was actually studying the night before. I forced myself to continue.

"We have hardcore sex all the time."

"Okay that's enough," one of the brats' parents stopped me. She was a stunning woman, a bit too showy for my liking with the amount of jewellery she wore, but stunning nonetheless.

"Don't tell me what to do, you trophy wife."

Her jaws dropped.

"Where did you find this... this person, Elias?" Trophy Wife's husband asked.

"From school, Uncle Adam," Elias answered.

Elias's mother, Valérie finally chimed in. "Let's eat, shall we? Before the food gets cold."

"I shall say grace," the grandmother said. Every occupant, like clockwork bowed their heads as the grandmother began to pray.

I took out my phone to snap pictures of everything all over again. Elias's grandparents didn't bother to conceal their displeasure this time. It showed on their wrinkly faces.

My hands were shaking and slightly sweaty, but I turned on the video recording function and started recording with the front camera.

"What's up mother fuckers," I said to my camera. "As you can see I'm in one of the world's richest family's 'breakfast room'! Heard that you little sluts? A breakfast room. They're filthy rich," I winked at my camera.

"Who is she speaking to?" Elias's grandmother's voice arrived. "Is she possessed?"

"Oh God," I turned to roll my eyes at the elderly woman. "I'm vlogging. Can you not interrupt?"

"Sorry about that my little buttholes," I said to my front camera. "I'm so excited to get married, I'll be apart of this family soon. I'll give you crackheads a tour of this place later, swear to god they gold plate some of their shit. They're like sooo rich. So this is them," as I said the last part, I moved my camera so it captured everyone's faces. Sabine covered her face.

"I feel Elias is the possessed one," the grandfather said this.

"Grandparents, please," Elias hushed them.

"That's it for now, my little hoes," I said to my camera. "Remember to subscribe and leave a comment about what you think about my boobs today. If I hit my target amount of subscribers I'll do a strip tease in my next video. Adios my little satan worshippers!"

"Did you say satan worshipper?" Elias's grandmother asked with a frown deeply etched onto her features.

"Uh huh," I grinned at the senior citizen. "What of it, old woman?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Are you a Christian? You mentioned being a Communist."

"Ew, imagine being a Christian," I laughed at her face. "God is fake. Religion - "

Valérie stepped in for the second time. "Okay, Andrea... I hate to do this but we're a family of Christians so, a bit of respect if you may." She flashed me a polite smile, to soften the blow.

I laughed harshly and mirthlessly. It made everyone in the vicinity cringe.

Finally, my food that I ordered from Henry arrived.

"What?” I frowned at the plate. “Where’s the mashed potatoes? And why is the bacon so oily? I can’t eat this. I’ll get fat. Make me an organic salad instead.”

The occupants at the table seemed to be exchanging silent conversations. I tried my best not to stare, because the last thing I needed was for my already low esteem to get knocked a few pegs lower. This person wasn't me. I was beginning to feel the ramifications. God, I had always been a difficult child but I was a respectful one. It's the people pleasing aspect of my personality, I repeatedly assured myself. Don't be weak now.