Born to be Bad

ch. 3

Roy

After puking all over my shoes, Adele fell on my chest, unconscious. Despite Adele’s parents’ groveling and apologies, I actually enjoyed my night. Okay, if I’m gonna be real honest, it was Adele’s mom who was apologizing to me and my parents the most. Adele’s dad looked like he was about to burst out laughing at any given moment. He caught my eye and he merely gave me a secretive look, as if I was in on whatever amusing secret he was in.

“Mina, honestly, don’t worry about it. They’re children. I would be lying if I said Roy hasn’t come home drunk out of his mind at least once.” My dad interrupted Adele’s mom, amusement laced in his tone.

“But-” Adele’s mom started to protest before my dad interrupted her again.

“Mina, we’re all friends here. And, besides, I think that’s a sign to call it a night. Roy, take Adele upstairs to her room and I’ll see you at home. You have your car, right?” My dad asked and I nodded. “Perfect,” he then turned to Mr. Diaz, holding out his hand. “Clark, thank you for tonight. We should do it again. “Katherine, it’s so nice to meet you,” he said, addressing Nina’s mom and kissing her cheek.

“Her room is right this way, Mister Allister.” Their butler, Ben, said gesturing to the stairway. “Miss Cortes will lead you there. I have to clean this… bile up.” He said.

I gave him an apologetic smile. “Thank you, Ben.”

Ben merely nodded.

“Come on, Roy.” Nina said and proceeded to go up the stairs as our parents said goodbye to each other.

I gently secured an unconscious Adele and carried her bridal style before following Nina up the stairs. We passed by rows of pictures of the Diaz family. There was Mrs. Diaz before she was a Diaz, opening up her own enterprise, the original store Adele’s dad started his bakeshop (the store that started his entire empire in the pastry world when he was twenty-eight), there was a framed letter that looked worn and ancient (the letters they sent to each other when they were in a long distance relationship), Mr. and Mrs. Diaz’s wedding, Ethan playing baseball, Ethan winning an award at the science fair when he was eight and many more until finally, we passed by a gap-toothed young latina girl smiling goofily at the camera. She was holding a chocolate ice cream on her left hand and the rest of the chocolate was all over her face.

I couldn’t help but stop at the photo of young Adele. She looked so adorable. I looked around and found more photos of her growing up until I came across a photo of her in a park. She was an adult now and the photo looked like it was caught by a professional photographer but she didn’t know she was being taken a picture of. She was surrounded by bubbles and she was smiling happily as she looked at it, like a child on Christmas seeing the Christmas tree light up for the first time. Pure joy and content was on her face and I could not remember a time she looked at me or anyone like that in the short time that I’ve known her.

“Hey, Allister.” Nina’s voice spoke up.

I jumped a little bit and turned to look at where Nina was. She was peeking behind a doorway, which I could only assume was Adele’s bed room, and she was giving me an “I caught you” look and I could feel my cheeks flush.

Instead of making fun of me, like her expression recommended, she merely said, “This way.” and disappeared behind the door.

Bless her soul.

I adjusted Adele in my arms and she groaned softly in her sleep. That’s when I became more aware of our situation. She was literally in my arms and I could smell her shampoo; peony scent mix with vanilla. It was intoxicating. I had to refrain myself from acting like a creep and sniffing her in the middle of the hallway. Instead, I shook my head and followed Nina into her room. That turned out to be a bad idea since the entire room smelled like her. I looked at the white walls and wooden shelves filled with all kinds of books to the succulents on her desk by the window. There was a closed wooden door beside her wardrobe and I could only assume that that led to the bathroom. She had glow in the dark stickers of the entire galaxy on her ceiling.

“Put her over there,” Nina gestured to the queen sized bed placed on a corner shoved against another window overlooking the entire city and covered in baby blue bed sheets. I went over there and gently placed her on the bed. Adele wasted no time to snuggle up against her fluffy pillows.

Nina sighed as she stared at her best friend. “What a bother,” she muttered.

“Is she always like this?” I asked.

Nina shook her head. “Not really. She’s a lightweight, sure but she knows her limits. I don’t know why she went overboard tonight though.”

“Oh,” I  scratched the back of my neck. “That’s probably my fault.”

Nina turned her sharp eyes on me. “You don’t say.”

The way she looked at me was like how a tiger would look at its prey before pouncing on them. She was hungry, alright but not for me. Oh, no. She was hungry for answers and she was going to get it before the end of the night. The thought alone made me gulp.

“So, fiancé?” Nina continued, fully facing me now.

“How much do you know?” I asked the safest question I could think of.

Nina shrugged, nonchalantly. “Not much. She hasn’t told me anything… yet.”

“Well, then. Wouldn’t it be better if she told you herself?” I said, unbuttoning my suit. My father made me wear it for the occasion which, now that I think about it, was kind of pointless since Adele wasn’t there to see it. The sole purpose of the dinner tonight was for both our families to get to know each other but without Adele and Nina there, my presence was kind of useless.

Nina pursed her lips. “Point taken. Alright. One question, though.”

“What would that be?”

“How does it feel to be engaged?”

Her question made me pause. I never really pondered on how the engagement would make me feel. I always thought that whatever benefited the company would be enough for me to be happy. When father told me of the alliance with Malcolm Enterprises, I knew that my future was already laid out for me. I didn’t feel bad or hate towards me, just regret. I knew that being in an arranged marriage would have a lot of restrictions for me, especially with who I’m seen in public with. And, so far, none of that really mattered and as I looked at the passed out girl on her bed, I couldn’t help but think what a journey it’d be if I was engaged to someone as cunning and funny as her, based on the events that I witnessed today.

I turned to look at Nina and said in the most sincere way I could manage, “It feels great.”

And I was surprised to find myself telling the truth.

~ *~

Adele

Mint and aftershave. That was the first thing that my mind registered the minute I woke up. Next was the pain. Everything hurt. My arms, my legs, my neck, my back but what hurt the most was my head. I let out a loud groan as I turned to my side and found the world spinning with even just the slightest of movement. Oh God, how bad did I go last night? I can’t remember a thing.

“Quite bad, miss.” Someone pointed out and I startled awake only to see Ben holding water and some meds for me to take.

“Jesus, you scared the crap out of me.” I said, the spinning in my head getting worse.

“Well, you did ask a question,” he said, placing his gifts on my bedside table.

I gaped at him. “How did you know that? Are you a mind reader or something?”

Ben looked at me weirdly. “You said it out loud, miss.”

I paused. “Oh.”

Ben shook his head at me disapprovingly and helped me sit up. “Well, take these remedies to help you with your hangover and come down to the dining room immediately. Your mother requests an audience with you.” That statement sounded so much more scary with Ben’s british accent.

I sighed. “Is that so,” I trailed off. When Ben was about to leave, I called out to him.

“Is there anything else, miss Adele?” He asked politely.

I hesitated before saying, “How bad was I last night?” I was almost too scared to know the answer.

Ben paused, as if pondering on how he was going to break the news to me. He was quiet for a few minutes, making me more nervous by the minute before he looked me in the eye and said, “Very bad, miss Adele.” and then walked away like he didn’t just sign my death sentence.

~ * ~

I walked down the stairs carefully, making sure my footsteps were as quiet as a mouse. I don’t know how bad it was last night but if Ben didn’t even bother to assure me that everything was going to be okay then it must have been devastating and could only mean one thing; my mom was going to have my head. Hearing the voices coming from the dining table, I was ready to sneak into the living room and make a run for it to the elevator and down to the lobby when the stupid stair creaked and echoed across the entire freaking house.

“Adele?” My mom’s voice could be heard from the dining room.

I cursed under my breath before composing myself and made a beeline for the dining room where the rest of my family were waiting. When I entered the room, the first person I saw was my mom. She had her arms crossed and an unreadable expression on her face. Next, was Ethan who was smiling goofily as if he found this entire situation hilarious. Ugh, that dumdum. Lastly, I looked at my dad who had a gentle smile on his face. Seeing him made me relax a little.

“Good morning, everyone.” I said with fake enthusiasm.

“It’s already two in the afternoon. You missed an entire day of class,” my mom bit back.

“Day isn't over yet though. So I still have time?” I countered back.

My mother threw her arms in frustration. “You are hopeless. I am not in the mood for your quips and quirks right now. You made a complete fool of yourself last night,” she snapped and looked at me expectantly. “Well, do you have anything to say for yourself?”

“What do you want me to say? It happened. No one got hurt.” I said.

“I still don’t hear an apology, Adele.” My mom retorted.

“Mina, it wasn’t even that bad of a damage. There was no harm done here,” my dad told my mom.

“See? Even dad agrees.”

My dad turned to me. Oops, I guess I said something too soon. “That does not mean you are off the hook, young lady.”

My mom started, “You humiliated yourself in front of the Allisters and--”

“Then, I’ll go and apologize to them tonight.”

“Damn straight, you will. You will apologize not only to Mr. and Mrs. Allister but to Roy as well,” my mom said.

“What? What does he have to do with this?” I asked.

“He has everything to do with this. You vomited all over his shoes and he had the decency to stay and carry you up to your room.” My mom ranted.

“He what?” I exclaimed.

“Well, what did you think? Nina was almost as drunk as you were and Ben was left to clean up after you so that left Roy to carry your wasted ass up the stairs.” My mom explained.

My mom’s voice faded into the background as I processed her words. No wonder my room smelled like mint and aftershave when I woke up. So, he was here last night too? But then again, so should I have been except that I chose to get smashed than actually attend the dinner. Okay, so I forgot about the stupid dinner. We have those at least thrice a month anyway, most of them with different family members and clients so what was so special about this one? Some inner voice inside me knew the reason why that meeting was so important but I chose to ignore that voice just because I wanted to.

“Adele. Adele! Are you listening to me?” My mom’s voice went back into focus.

I looked at her and then at the rest of my family seated around the dinner table. They were all looking at me expectantly and I felt like some kind of zoo animal surrounded by some spectators, the rest of them waiting for me to give them a show.

“I have to go,” was the only thing I said before I walked away and went back to my room.

~ * ~

I was hanging out with Andy under the bleachers near the football field the following week. After all my mom’s nagging, I finally talked to Mr. and Mrs. Allister. I talked to them for almost an hour over the weekend and we ended up laughing about the whole situation. They even told me about how one of Roy’s cousins did the same thing but ten times worse. After that, I left just before Roy arrived. I didn’t wanna see him yet. Nina told me about what I did, not leaving a single detail behind and that was enough to make me want to crawl into a hole and die.

“What’s going with you?” Andy’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts and brought me back to real life.

I looked down at him and saw him looking up at me, squinting trying to get the sun out of his eyes and his laptop on his lap like he always does. “Nothing. I’m just thinking.”

He looked back at his screen, his glasses slipping down at the bridge of his nose. “About? I’m just asking in case I need to look for a remote location to hide a body,” Andy said.

I rolled my eyes and sat down beside him and fidgeted with the grass. “I’m just tired of… everything. Also kind of embarrassed.”

“Is this about how you puked all over your fiancé’s shoes last week?” Andy said, not taking his eyes off his computer.

My head whipped around to look at him. “How did you know that?” I demanded.

“Nina told me everything.”

I sighed in exasperation. “No one was supposed to know about that.”

“Which part? The puking? Cause, let me tell you, that is gold. I would--”

I swatted his arm. “No, not that, dumbass. I meant the fiancé thing. No one was supposed to  know about that. I told Nina that in confidence. She knows that--”

“That you’re a daughter of two of the wealthiest people here in the city? Please.” Andy interrupted me.

I looked at him in surprise.

He glanced at me before shrugging, a small smirk playing on his lips. “What? I’m the best hacker for a reason, you know. Besides, there had to be a reason why you always got away with Principal Matthew no matter how bad your prank gets.”

I was still looking at him in awe. He was a year younger than I was and he was already so brilliant. I ruffled his hair and he let out a few very colorful words in protest.

“You know that when I graduate, you are going to have to continue with Matthew’s pranks.” I said when we both recovered from our laughing fit.

Andy sighed and looked up at the sky, as if in thought. His eyes glinted against the sunlight that peaked through the bleachers. “Yeah. That’s gonna be a real bother. I’m not loaded like you and Nina to pay some minions to do my evil master plan.”  He said.

I laughed. “Please.”

Andy looked at me, this time his face had a look of confusion. “What are you going to do after you graduate? Are you going to get married immediately, go to college or work for your parents’ company immediately? How does that work?” He asked.

It was my turn to let out a sigh this time and turned away from him. “That’s the tiring part. There’s so many questions to think about and opportunities to consider but I have no say in any of them.” I said, quietly.

“At least you have opportunities,” Andy said in a voice equally as quiet as mine.

I looked at him and I found a sad smile playing on his lips. I felt stupid. Andy was a scholarship kid, meaning he had to keep his grades up or else the Academy would kick him out because he wouldn’t be able to pay for the tuition the school was asking from its students. I guess, in a way we were both dealing with pressure, just from a different kind.

“But, still though,” he looked up at me, a hint of determination in his eyes. “I would choose being financially unstable as long as I have a say in what I want to do for myself.”

I felt like I was just punched in the gut. Andy just gave me more things to think about and as he continued to type away on his laptop, I thought about how my parents dictated most of my life choices for me and, although I always complained about it, in the back of my mind, I never really minded it because I liked living the life of luxury. I guess that’s the reason why I didn’t want the school to know about who I really was. I wanted to experience that little bit of freedom outside of the house. I wanted to see how the lower class were treated in the school. And, in a way, that makes me look quite ignorant. Then I find Melanie and her goonies who love to look down on people just because they weren't as well off as them. I never would've known that if I let the whole school know who I was in the first place.