Adrian

by Shel Stone

  Watching the numbers of the lift tick higher, she wished her stepmother wasn’t around. They’d never been friends and her dad’s new family was the reason she’d spent most of her schooling in Europe. Essentially she’d been sent out of sight. To some extent the same was true for her mother, who had married some mining baron in Australia, and more or less disappeared out of her life. She still called once in a while, but both of her parents had seemed eager to put their past relationship firmly in the past.

  It wasn’t as if they didn’t love her, because they did. She’d simply been inconvenient as they had been starting out their new relationships and when that time had passed, she was too comfortable in Switzerland to change. And on some level, she’d never completely forgiven them for sending her away, so she had remained a little aloof—mainly to punish them. It had made her independent, and she’d sought her strength elsewhere, particularly with her friends.

  But saying that, part of the reason she was now here was her father’s guilt, as he now realized he only had one year left of her childhood and he had missed most of it. So here she was, forced into a new school and having to contend with the two bratty half-brothers, so her father could alleviate his guilt. And to plow the way to an ivy league university. Obviously, she got that this was family, but they now felt slightly inconvenient to her. Still, there was that side to her, that inner child that still wanted its parents. Suffice to say, things were complicated.

  No one was around when she reached the penthouse. Beyond the floor to ceiling glass windows, the city stretched, dusk starting its lightshow. Cecily had mixed feelings about being in the city. She’d always loved visiting the city, but had mostly lived in the country. Cities were for vacations and shopping sprees, but now she actually lived in one.

  Central park stretched out as a huge rectangle beyond the sumptuously decorated living room, which seemed to change every time Cecily had visited it. Her stepmother was obsessed with the latest fashion in interiors. It was her thing, having the most enviable apartment in New York. Her claim to fame.

  Walking past, Cecily went to her room and shut the door. It was a nice room, gold and peach, and it had all the comfort of an upmarket hotel room. Throwing herself down on the bed, she brought out her phone and looked at the pictures of her friends. They all looked healthy and tanned after spending the summer in the south of France or Italy.

  Shopping trips in Paris were coming up, and then jaunts to the Alps, where someone always had a private family chalet. God, she missed them. One year left of high school, then four years of university and she could move back to Europe. And also, if she spent the year with her dad, maybe she could go back to Europe for all the holidays. She could plan a trip skiing in the Alps after Christmas.

  Putting the phone aside, she cracked open the textbook for Geography and started her assigned reading. Hell, it was dry stuff. The curriculum was a bit different here. Not so much focused on the classical studies as it was in Europe, where one was expected to know endless detail about all minor Greek gods, all significant philosophers, not to mention Latin. That was something she was quite happy to let go forever.

  Chapter 3

  MUSIC POUNDED AND there were people everywhere in the apartment. People drinking, doing drugs and having sex in every bedroom in the place, and there were nine, so quite a few to stow away in. Adrian surveyed the scene. Everyone had turned out. That certainly hadn’t changed. Friend or foe, no one missed his parties. The undisputed king.

  Perhaps it had been a point he needed to prove, particularly to those who sniggered and reveled in his reduced circumstances. Effectively it meant shit, because it was just a figure, but it was a figure people knew about. It meant nothing in terms of how they lived, or what they spent. But wealth, real wealth was beyond what one spent, and a sizeable portion of the Morecroft real wealth had dissipated. Adrian didn’t fully understand how it had happened, but for a while, in the spring, endless articles had been written in the financial papers about it.

  And now the dumbfucks in his school thought it meant something, but he was here to show them it didn’t—and they didn’t. Like wealth, it was a point of pride.

  “Thanks for inviting me to the party, Adrian,” Bella Havers said softly. Her eyes were large and her lips parted. Adrian knew the look, it was the ‘I’m for the taking’ look. Bella always tried, bless her, but he wasn’t in the mood for charity today—or ever, really.

  “Thanks, Bella. How’s Sebastian?”

  “What?” she said, looking confused.

  “I thought you two were an item.”

  “No,” she said, her smile wavering a little. Yes, they all knew she’d fucked Sebastian last week.

  “Oh, was it supposed to be a secret? You really should have told him that.”

  Now she looked confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t.”

  “Oh, okay,” he said, bored with the conversation. Crossing his arms, he looked out at the crowd. People were sitting on the sofas, talking. The girls thought it was talking, most of the guys were trying to work out the right things to say, like a combination lock, that would give with the right combination of words.

  “I don’t know what you’ve heard—” Bella started.

  “Seriously, Bella, own up to what you do. It’s okay that you did, just don’t lie about it, you know? If you do it, you might as well own it, right?”

  Her glossed mouth opened and closed as if she didn’t know what to say. “You’re a dick, Adrian.”

  He didn’t bother with a reply as Bella stormed off. Why did girls always expect him to be bothered about storming off when called out on something they did? He just didn’t get it. Himself, he was for honesty—dirty, base honesty. He was honest. He fucked girls and when he was done with them, he was done with them. It wasn’t his fault they seemed to take it as a challenge.

  Over by the pretentious grand piano that no one in his family played, were the lacrosse team. They’d come too, it seemed. Monty Gibson in the center of them, the star of their celebrated team, made up mostly of scholarship import to make up for the lack of natural athletic prowess in their population. Monty was the exception. Monterey Gibson. How pretentious was that name? Adrian called him Monty, and they guy hated it. They’d always butted heads, but Monty never had enough pride to skip his parties. The guy pretended as if he didn’t care, but inwardly, he was just as insecure as the rest of them. Not the brightest, it had to be said.

  With a snort, Adrian walked on, drink in hand. Over in a corner, he saw freshmen. “How the fuck did you get invited?” he demanded and large, scared eyes looked at him. Who the fuck had invited them? “This isn’t a kids party, fuck off.”

  Placing down their illicit drinks, they scrambled. One of them still had fucking braces.

  With a sigh, Adrian wondered if he was over all this. It was basically the start of the year, but he was over it already. Then again, he considered what he wasn’t over. Sex was easy. Alcohol was boring. He was actually too stubborn and contrary to enjoy the effects of drugs.

  In a way, the only thing interesting was this challenge to his authority by his father’s disgrace. Because there wasn’t much else interesting going on. It at least gave him something to work on, not that it actually required much work. Only the strong dared challenge him, and they were trying.

  Maybe there were more people he needed to throw out, and his gaze traveled the room. Even sophomores weren’t supposed to be invited, but there were a few around. Mostly the faces he didn’t recognize. Then he settled on a girl, long blond hair and a pretty face. Clearly not a freshman.

  “Who the fuck is that?” he asked as Seb walked past.

  “Who?” Seb asked. If anyone kept track of the girls, it was Seb. Seb was a quantity kind of guy. The more the better.

  “That,” he said, pointing at the girl.

  “Oh, a new girl. Cecily Chambers, I think her name is. Euro trash.”

  Chambers. Adrian knew that name. “She related
to Jeffrey Chambers?”

  “How the fuck would I know? I don’t have dossiers on them. She’s cute, though. You gonna hit it? New girls always appreciate attention.”

  The girl wasn’t here alone. She was here with a group of juniors. How was she tied into them? Heading over, he approached, keeping the new girl front and center. “Hey,” he said and placed his arm around Mishti. There had been a time they’d had a thing. “Glad you could make it today.” All eyes were on him. Some with the large eyes and parted lips, a couple of the smarter ones who were guardedly suspicious. “And who are you?” he said, speaking to the new girl.

  “This is Cecily,” Audrina said. “My cousin.”

  “Just moved to town?”

  “I’ve been around, on and off.”

  “She’s been more Europe based,” Audrina filled in.

  “And now we have the pleasure of your company.”

  The girl’s face was clear. A curiosity.

  “Cecily what?” he asked.

  “Chambers,” she replied. A clear accent. Not completely British, but a mix.

  “You related to Jeffrey Chambers?”

  “He’s my father,” she replied, stressing and elongating the ‘a’.

  “Is that so? Quite connected in this town. Well, welcome to my house. I throw parties every once in a while.”

  “Thank you. I am very pleased to attend.”

  She spoke formally, and it made him wonder if she was a clueless idiot. Then he smiled and looked around all the rapt faces. “Enjoy the evening.” With that, he left them.

  Well, well, something interesting had happened after all. Cecily fucking Chambers had just arrived at his school like fucking serendipity. While Adrian pretended he knew nothing about his father’s affairs and the scandal that had rocked the town, he had read all the papers, and Jeffrey Chambers’ name came up a lot.

  Jeffrey Chambers was the one who had gained from his family’s loss, and there were hints that he might be responsible for the turn of events. A ruthless and vile man by all accounts, and his daughter, looking all fresh-faced and innocent, had just walking into his school. Embarrassingly, Jeffrey Chambers had gotten the better of his father, and fucking everyone knew it.

  Heat worked through his body. It was only a matter of time before the people here discovered who she was. The Montagues and Capulets of fucking New York. Or maybe they wouldn’t. Mostly, they weren’t that smart, frankly.

  Lighting a cigarette, he sat down in a leather chair in the darker part of the main open space of the apartment and just watched. Mostly he watched her. He could tell how nervous she was, although she tried to hide it. The girls around her were new to her. She was on her best behavior, smiled whenever anyone spoke to her. She certainly didn’t have the jaded suspicion you would expect of anyone who knew what they were doing.

  As he watched, Seb approached her, leaning languidly on the wall beside her. Seb used his body and his voice to seduce girls and it was remarkably effective. A challenge titillated him the most, and Cecily Chambers was polite and attentive, but she wasn’t checking Seb out. Maybe she was even a virgin. Seb would be beside himself.

  The girl smiled at something Seb said. Maybe she would succumb and Seb would coax her into one of the bedrooms and alleviate her of it. But in the end, Seb was doing his disappointed face. Girls hated to break his heart, but Cecily wasn’t falling for it.

  “I was hoping you’d come talk to me,” Abby said, sitting down next to him and crossing her legs toward him.

  “Why, do we have something to talk about?” With boredom, he looked over at her. They’d had a thing for a while. Honestly it was his longest lasting entanglement—two months last year, but it had faded like they always did. Still, he respected her for keeping him engaged longer than anyone. Maybe he even considered her a friend and he should be less rude to her. She had, after all, been cool about their breakup. “Is there something you need from me, Abby?”

  With a sigh, she twisted her head and reached out to run a finger along his hairline. It felt nice, a simple gesture. “Don’t be such an island, Adrian. You don’t need to fight all the time.”

  “It’s in my nature.”

  “You do have friends, you know. We won’t all trample on you if you let go of the reins every once in a while.”

  “I’m sorry things didn’t work out between us,” he said, and he was genuine.

  “You’re going to actually have to give someone a chance one day.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” he said, but he couldn’t really see it. If it were to happen, it would have happened with Abby. She was cool and collected, but it still hadn’t worked. Probably because he was too much of a bastard to make it happen. His father’s girlfriends were basically paid companions. They jumped when told and they disappeared when told. They were experts at determining what his father wanted and when, like the most expensive whores. Which was basically what they were. Compromise was only for people who couldn’t afford those kind of girlfriends.

  Adrian supposed that the truth would be something psychologists would make a field day of. He’d heard their spiel about real relationships that needed compromise and consideration. Bullshit. Maybe that was why it hadn’t worked with Abby, because she wasn’t a whore and she’d deserved better.

  That girl, though, Cecily Chambers, she was going to be a whore if Adrian had anything to do with it. Or else he would decimate her.

  “Try being kind, every once in a while,” Abby said. “It isn’t weakness, you know.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  With a sad smile, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Maybe he had liked her because she’d actually seen him, unlike most girls, who only really saw his position and status. He was the top of the game and that was what they wanted.

  As Abby left, he turned his attention back to Cecily and took a drag of his forgotten cigarette. Cecily Chambers was in for a tough year. Might break her.

  Chapter 4

  CECILY ENDED UP WITH a drink—something sweet with alcohol in it. All sorts of people milled around, some coming to speak to them and others not. Just trying to keep track of names and faces was hard. It was a gorgeous apartment, a view over Central Park like hers had. Adrian was well off. Something about him had made her unease, but she didn’t see him around now. In fact, Morgan wasn’t around either. She’d been chatting with a guy and now she wasn’t around.

  “Let’s get some air,” Tory said and they moved toward the nearest balcony, which was all in brownstone and dotted with miniature cypress trees. Out here, people were milling and smoking.

  “Who was that guy Morgan was speaking to?” Cecily asked. Audrina was sitting on a couch inside, talking to a guy.

  “Oh, that was Finn,” Tory said. “They have this on again off again thing. Really, it’s on again whenever Finn wants her.”

  “That’s not good,” Cecily said.

  “No, it’s not, but she can’t help herself. It’s pathetic really. She’s so derisive about other people letting guys walk all over them, but the instant he clicks his fingers, she literally runs to him. And every time she thinks it’s more than it really is. Because Finn sleeps with literally everybody. So I’m a little surprised he’s chosen to spend time with Morgan when there are so many options.”

  “Maybe he’s worried he’s losing his grip on her,” Cecily said, recalling a really toxic relationship one of her friends had been embroiled in last summer.

  “That’s a really good point. He would totally do that. Guys are such dicks. Did you leave some guy behind?”

  “We broke up,” Cecily said, thinking back on her brief relationship with Jasper earlier in the year. It had been a fling really. Most of her relationships had been flings. It wasn’t as if she’d had a deep, meaningful relationship with anyone, where they fought and made up. It had just been fun and then it had melted apart. Jasper had just drifted away and then she’d seen him snuggled up with some other girl on social media. It wasn’t as if she’d been heartbroke
n, just pissed off.

  There had always been Freddy, who she’d had a major crush on, but he hadn’t really seen her as anything other than a cute younger girl he never paid that much attention to. But there had been a time when she’d spent an inordinate amount of her mind space on him. Eventually it had faded. Not that she wouldn’t study it in detail if she came across a picture of him. But he was in a relationship with Savannah Bostle-Walders and it was all them on vacation looking impossibly cool.

  Not surprising, because Freddy just had that thing about him that made you starry-eyed, and it wasn’t just her. No one disliked Freddy. He was just so assured of himself, like he’d been born with five times extra confidence, and you know what they said, nothing was as sexy as confidence.

  “I think he’s watching you,” Tory said.

  “Who?” Cecily asked, being pulled out of her slightly jealous reverie of Freddy and Savannah, the couple everyone felt presented ‘couple goals.’

  “Adrian. I swear every time I look over, he’s looking this way.”

  Cecily frowned. That guy was watching her? Why? “Are you sure it’s not you he’s watching?”

  Tory snorted. “He hasn’t noticed me in the last decade, I doubt he’d start now. You’re the new girl. They all love a new girl.” There was derision in her voice. Maybe Adrian was Tory’s Freddy, that guy who just never noticed her and she was giddy over.

  Turning around, she saw him through the glass, sitting quite far away, a tumbler held between his fingertips. Their eyes locked for a moment. It felt confrontational and intimidating, so she looked away. The way people spoke about him, he wasn’t the kind of guy you… Actually, she wasn’t sure what kind of guy he was, but it seemed every person had warned her about him in some capacity or another. “What does he do?” she asked.

  “Adrian?”

  Yes, of course Adrian, she wanted to say, but didn’t.

  “I mean,” she started, twisting her bottle of premix around her hand. “He sleeps with girls, but he’s more fussy than some of them. And if you play it the way he likes it, then he’s fine, but if you upset him, he’s harsh.”