The Aldean Chronicles: Hidden

I feel bad for all the clothes I bought. I charged them to the credit card Sebastian gave me. I mean, he said I could use it but it still feels much. I got the dress along with a few other things. I gave Lena my number and she promised to call me when she's finished a portfolio.

All the guilt I had faded away when I saw the trunk and back seat of Grey's car. "How many stores did you clear out?"

He shrugs. "I need new clothes for school." Like that explains the numerous bags all over his car.

"Cassandra," Lena runs up to me. "You should wear this tonight." She drops a black and gold shoebox in the backseat. "I'll add it to your future tab."

"Thanks so much, Lena, you're a lifesaver. An expensive one, but a lifesaver nonetheless."

She smiles. "Thank you." I don't bother telling her that wasn't a compliment.

"How do you know her, Lena?" I ask Grey as we're driving back. "I mean besides from Kat, you two seem close."

He shrugs. "I came here with Kat a while ago, thought she'll be another old, boring designer. But she was interesting, I thought why not. So we became friends."

"Isn't she like a whole decade older than you?"

"Yeah, she's like the older sister I never had."

"I'm offended by that." I laugh. "And I'm sure Kat will be too if she heard."

"I doubt that, Kat and I aren't close. I'm surprised by how much she talks to you. I'm surprised by how much I talk to you."

"Again, offended by that." The ride back to the manor is relatively quiet. We get there a few minutes past 4.

Lilian and Sebastian are still not back, I go up to my room and get ready for dinner. I try to calm myself. Relax, it's just neighbors. Then again, in this neighborhood, your neighbor can be a Liege or an old family of combatants.

Seb knocks on my door an hour later, he says he just got back. The dinner is by 6 and I still have some time. I straighten my hair and curl the tips. My dress is blue and has long sleeves. It's a little tight at the top but free from the waist down to an inch above my knee. I picked it because I thought it was both casual and formal.

Lena would have preferred something else but she said at the end of the day, it was my decision. I pair this with the necklace Seb gave me on my first day at school and slip my feet into my new favorite pair of shoes. They're black stilettos with little bows at the ankles. They make a light clicking sound when I walk. I apply some light make-up and am ready to go down by 6 pm.

Sebastian has us all standing in the foyer, ready to welcome our guests as they enter the house. "Remember, this is an informal visit." He reminds us before opening the door. "Callum, Renata, it's so good to see you both." He says warmly to them.

"Callum, Renata," Lilian matches her husband's warmth. "Please come in, it's been too long. Welcome again to our home."

The man, Callum nods. "Thank you for inviting us, Sebastian." He then glances at me.

Seb brings his hands together. "Where are my manners, this is Cassandra. Cassandra, this is Callum and Renata Oisin."

Oisin, why does that sound so familiar?

"Where's your son, did he not come with you?" Lilian asks.

"He's right behind us, he'll be here soon," Renata says. "Greyson how are you? I saw you at the dinner on Wednesday. So glad to see you rising to your full potential."

"Turns out all these years, I have been using vices to fill this hole in my life," Grey says dramatically. "All I needed was some good old-fashioned work to make me whole again."

His mother's laughs is strained. "Oh, Greyson, you and your jokes. How about we all go in and drink wine?"

The couple perks up. "That sounds nice, we just bought this 1872 bottle. We haven't drunk it yet but we hear it's outstanding." Callum says as they all fleet away.

As they're leaving, their son appears at the front door. "You." He says, walking in. "Good to see you here."

"Hey, Tristan," I'm out of breath. "Can't believe you're actually here." As always, he looks good. He's wearing a white collared shirt with a dark blue sweater and beige khaki pants with black sneakers. His blue eyes are sparkling under the chandelier lights. He smiles and the dimple on his left cheek deepens.

He shoves his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, we're neighbors."

I chuckle awkwardly.

"Great," Grey leans on the wall. "My choices are you two or our parent's conversation. I honestly do not know which is more boring."

Tristan folds his arm across his chest. "Oh Greyson, never change."

"Oh, Tristan, why did you change? You used to be so fun."

I clear my throat. "We should get to them, they might start looking for us."

"They're drinking wine and talking about politics," Grey says. "They won't start looking for us for at least ten minutes."

"And what do you propose we do for those ten minutes?" Tristan asks.

"I don't know, what do you want to do?" Grey asks.

"Honestly, I kind of just want to talk to your sister," Tristan says simply.

I feel my heart pounding. "Me, what do you... what do you want to talk about?"

"Your test, you never got back to me." He fully faces me. "How did it go?"

Oh. "It went well, I guess. Nothing special." I'm angry with myself for being disappointed. What was I expecting him to say?

"And what did you get?" He prompts.

"I don't know, I think a 95," I reply absently.

He nods and claps. "Alright, good for you, Cassie. Glad to know all my hard work paid off." He pulls me into a brief hug.

I inhale his perfume and smile, why does he always smell so amazing? Before I can fully wrap my arms around him, he pulls away. I try not to look too disappointed. "So, where do you live?" I say to fill a heavy silence.

"Just up the street, like four houses from here." He says. "I don't know why I thought you knew that."

"That's why Seb asked you to tutor me. You're his neighbor." I say. "Makes sense."

"Yeah, so if you don't mind me asking, what about your other scores?"

"I haven't checked them yet. Too scared. It doesn't matter, I don't think I'm ever checking it. They can just add it to my end-of-year grade or whatever."

"You have to check, you worked so hard, you deserve to know." Tristan pushes. "If you want, I'll check it with you."

"No." I snap, I don't want him to see it and think I'm a failure. "I mean, no, what if it's bad? There's no coming back from there."

"Oh, screw this." Grey snatches my phone from my right hand.

"Give that back." He uses his left hand to fend me off as he rifles through my phone, looking for the link to the website.

"What's your password?" He asks. "Just tell me your password."

"Stop checking my phone, I'm not giving you my password." I try my best to wrestle my phone out of his hand. "I said I don't want to see it."

"Okay, I feel pressured to intervene," Tristan says. "Greyson." He snatches the phone from him. "It's her grades, she'll tell you when she's ready."

He hands me back my phone. "Thanks." My smile is so wide. "That was really nice."

He waves his hand dismissingly. "It's alright, my little cousins fight all the time. I always break them up."

I feel my heart drop, did he just relate me to his little cousin?

As my countenance lowers, Grey's brightens. "This, this right here, is the highlight of my day." He walks out of the foyer and towards the dining room.

"What was that about?" Tristan asks.

I shake my head. "Who knows?" I follow after Grey to the dining room and take my seat. The adults are chatting animatedly. Tristan seats opposite me and I try not to look at him.

What's going on with me, do I like Tristan? No, no, no, I swore I wouldn't do this. I do not need to be thinking about boys right now, Tristan included. I need to get my life together not add someone to it. And even if I was ready, he is clearly not interested. And why would he be? I'm a sad, weird loser who does everything wrong. I've always been one and it's just taking the rest of the school time to figure it out.

"So Cassandra, Tristan tells me he's helping you with your magic," Callum says during dinner. "How has that been?"

"It's good, he's a really good tutor," I reply simply.

"She's being modest, she's a natural." Tristan praises. "She even got a 95 on professor Harding's exam."

"That's nice, I hear he's tough," Renata adds.

"Yes, Cassie is a natural," Lilian says. "Your teacher mentioned your score to me. Said he was impressed by your progress."

"That was kind of him."

"Cassandra does well in school. She got all A's this midterms." Lilian reveals.

That makes me happy. "I did? That's good to hear, I was too scared to check myself."

"How nice, what about you Greyson?" Renata asks.

Lilian frowns. "Greyson did well too, although he got a B in biology." She sounds disappointed. Is this the serious matter she was going to yell at him for?

"B for biology right." Grey jokes, sipping apple cider from his glass.

His mother huffs. "Although I won't blame him, he got into Blue Rose this year. He was probably just stressed."

"Congratulations on that." Renata exclaims. "You'll love the blue Rose, I enjoyed my time there."

"I did too, although I got in a bit late. My third year." Callum shakes his head. "Nonetheless, it's a good society." He turns to me. "What about you Cassandra, will you be joining?"

"I don't know yet, right now, I'm just trying to make it to the end of the semester." I answer. "Maybe I'll try to get in second year," I say this to get them off my back.

"Good for you," Renata says. "So Sebastian, tell us about the new project you're working on."

"It's not fully formed yet but it's on our trade agreements with Varron, it's..." And on to the real reason they came here.

"Cassie," Tristan says softly. "I have this suspicious feeling that you're angry with me. Is that real or all in my head?"

"What, no. Why would I be angry with you?" I ask. "You didn't do anything wrong, you helped Grey and me. You know when we were acting like children, like you said."

He laughs. "Is that what this is, you weren't fighting like children. You were fighting like siblings. Like my kid cousins, that's what I said."

"So I'm like your kid cousin?" do not know how to act around crushes.

He looks confused. "This is getting messy so can you just explain what's going on?"

"It's nothing, it's just...do you see me as a kid? Cousin, kid cousin." I stammer.

"I don't know, you act like a child sometimes. Like last week, when you were bothering me even though you knew I had exams soon and earlier tonight with Grey." He says. "Like a cousin, no. Kid, definitely." He resumes eating.

I do too, that stung.