Chapter 5.

Everything was perfect. Well, I hope that everything is perfect. I glanced one last time in my mirror; my worried look didn’t quite suit my elegant emerald gown. With a smile in the right place, I strode towards our main entrance to welcome the first guests with my parents. It’s a silly tradition, but who am I to disagree with that? As the first 20 people were already dancing and enjoying their drinks, I was released from our greeting committee. But that doesn’t mean that I’m released from my hosting duties. So I roam around the room to greet people properly and have at least five minutes worth of small talk with them. It really is always the same few sentences. ‘How is your family?’ ‘That’s great to hear.’ ‘How is the company doing? ‘ ‘Yes, my father will also be here shortly.’ ‘Thank you; it’s always a great pleasure hosting one of our founding balls.’ There isn’t a single thing in this room that could possibly be more boring than the conversations I have with the people attending. God, have mercy, please. “How is our favourite, little spoilt and eager to please Miss doing?” Yeah, I said, God have mercy; don’t God summon hell upon me. With my smile still in place, I looked around our ballroom.  “Me? Oh, I’m wonderful, Everett; thank you for asking. But are you okay? I mean, all those joyful people must turn your little demon stomach around. Or are you feeding on their happiness? That would make a lot more sense.” Everett also just continued to look around the ballroom. As if we weren’t really talking to one another. “In fact, I feed my demons with their fake personas. It’s quite amusing watching them lose their calm.” A surprised laugh almost escaped my mouth, but I quickly covered it up with a cough. “Did I just make you laugh?” Now he turned to fully look at me. Great job, Celest. Before either of us had the chance to continue our little conversation, I started walking around the room so that I could lose Everett in the crowd. But no, I felt his piercing eyes glued to my back. How can a single person be so irritating? I swirled around to face Everett once again. “Okay, so what is your problem? Can you just get out of my sight, so I can at least attempt to have a nice evening?” – “To be honest, Celest, I wasn’t in your face. I just tried walking around for a bit.” His smug smile is driving me crazy. In a bad way. “Oh, sure, walking is the new stalking, right?” I raised a mocking eyebrow, and so did he. “Stalking is a strong world, little one.” If it wasn’t for this stupid ball and all those people I would gladly smack that little devil grin out of his stupid face. “God, can’t you just be a dick somewhere else?” I became more and more irritated by the second; there is no one. No one in this world can drive me as mad as he can. And by the looks of it, I’m driving him just as mad. At the thought of him getting angry again, I barely flinched away from him. Just like yesterday, I saw the emotions flooding his eyes. Hurt. Regret. Anger. And oh! How the anger turned his eyes into liquid silver. It’s fascinating to be one of the few people to see him this rattled. “What do you think I’m doing, hm? That’s just because I lost it yesterday and gripped you too tightly, that I now do what? Hit you?” Everett’s anger and disbelief just encouraged me to get more arrogant. “No, I don’t think you would, because—” My gaze swayed to his left eyebrow, which still had a bloody cut through it. “Your own brother would gladly kill you for that. How does it feel, always being second in every way possible? It must really suck, huh?” A little arrogant grin spilt from my lips. He is going to implode.