CHAPTER ONE

REUNION "You have to come!" Drew Allen's voice resonated through the speaker of the phone and Emily winced in pure agony. She rubbed her fingers softly across her temples before speaking back, keeping her voice as calm and sweet as possible. "Drew, you know I am a very busy woman. I do not have the time to attend some stupid high school reunion." "It's not stupid! I'm going to the same party, aren't I?" Drew's voice came out in a long childish drawl. It was hard for Emily to sometimes remember that they had attended the same highschool for six years. With the way the girl behaved, one would think that she was eighteen, not twenty four. In all honesty, Emily had no intention of attending the reunion. It was no secret that she hated everyone of her ex classmates, well, except for Drew and the feeling was pretty much mutual for the other party. "I don't go to clubs." she finally replied. "I do." "That's why we're two completely different people." A man coming in Emily's direction stopped with a halt and greeted her with a smile. She nodded her head strictly as a gesture of her acknowledgement. "Good day ma'am." he said. He was dressed in a black office suit, his jet black hair was gelled upward and his black eyes twinkled in false delight upon seeing the young woman. "Glad you're back madam. We all are." he went on to say. Bluffing. Emily knew they all had their dislikes or grudges for her, but that was the least of her problems right now. She had just gotten into the country from South Africa where she had gone for a business trip, and not even up to an hour of stepping into California had Drew called her to remind her of a stupid high school reunion. Not like she hadn't been told about it a month earlier before, she just didn't care. Without saying a word further to the man before her, she strode out and moved into the elevator. A few employees who saw her gave short and Curt greetings of which she replied the same way she had with the first guy. The elevator gave a ding and came to an abrupt stop on the sixth floor where her office was located. A loud screeching voice made her freeze in her steps. "Emily Gaines, did you fucking leave me on hold again? I have been waiting for your response for over an hour!" Emily quickly looked at her phone and saw that the call with Drew was still on. Goodness, she had forgotten that the poor girl was still on the other line. She grinned and pressed the phone to her left ear as she continued on her journey to her office. "I'm sorry girl. I am just so stressed out, and I left you on for like, five minutes?" Finally, she stopped at a wide glass door which led to her office and almost immediately, a nerdy looking man with glasses opened the door and came out from the inside of the room. He smiled at her and she gave him a short smile, holding up her hands in a way that told him to wait there, and he did. Through his half rimmed glasses, the young man watched as his boss continued her conversation on the phone with one of her rarest smile on full display. "Are you at the office Em?" "Yes." "What are you doing there? You just got back." Emily could hear the worry that laced her friend's voice. Drew was always so afraid and adamant that Emily was going to die from working so hard, and too long without having any fun to spice up her life. "Drew, you know I have to work. If I don't, who will?" "Fuck work up the ass hole." "I can't. Work fucks me already." The long forgotten man at her front snorted and let out a soft chuckle at her outspokenness. Immediately, she turned her attention to him with the raise of an amused eyebrow which made his cheeks turn red, he quietly cleared his throat and looked away at nothing in particular. "Emily, you know what you're gonna do right now?" "I'm gonna walk into my office, and go through anything important that needs my attention, and work on it right away." Ignoring her words, Drew continued like she had not just been interrupted. "You're gonna tell Chad to drive you home, then once you're home, you're gonna take a hot shower, dress up and wait for me to come pick you up. Then off to the reunion we go. Do I make myself clear?" "No." "Emily!" Drew was a screamer. That was never to be argued with. "Fine. Fine. Chad," He looked up at her from the ceiling which his eyes had found sudden interest in. "I know you've been listening-" "Ma'am, I wasn-" "You heard Drew right? You're taking me home now." Chad smiled softly at her and nodded. "Yes ma'am." ● About an hour and a half later, Emily stared at her reflection in the mirror in her room with an impressive smile. She was dressed in a skirt suit in black with ivory pinstripes ending a few distance away from her knees, accompanied with a notched collar jacket which had only a single button, leaving her long slender neck, down to a nice portion of her cleavage exposed. Drew had helped styled her golden hair into beach waves curls, and she had also helped apply a little makeup to Emily's face. "I promise, you won't regret going to this reunion." Drew spoke from behind the makeup table where she was seated applying eyeliner to her eyes. "Easy for you to say. You're just saying that because you know Jameson's gonna be there and you still have such a huge crush on him." "Correction, on his dick. I never got to meet it." Emily stifled a wicked grin and said, "So you still dream about his dick?" "Maybe?" The both of them couldn't contain their laughter anymore and burst out in the most refreshing giggles. It was a few minutes past nine before Emily and Drew arrived at X hale. The night club where their reunion was going to take place and also according to Drew, was the best club in the whole of California. However, it seemed liked a little too much exaggeration to Emily and she also had no idea why they would chose a club as the centre for their reunion party. Coming here was a bad idea, and they all knew it. The club was bubbling full with life. The DJ knew exactly how to mix tapes and make the crowd come alive. Emily had never visited X hale before, but Drew seemed to know her way around. They were led to the VIP section where their other classmates were already settled down and popping bottles. As they walked together hand in hand, Emily's eyes scanned the interior design of the club. The decor was stylish with white and silver accents, black light, lasers and mirrors. "After we say hi to the crew, wanna visit the hookah bar?" Drew asked, the colourful lights from the club danced along her skin and gave her a unique glow. Streams of purple filled her hair, and pink covered her tanned skin. "You sometimes forget I am a business woman." Emily grinned. "So you're trynna tell me business women don't like to party hard too? You're such a boring ass." Their laughter was continuously drowned by the loud music blasting from the speakers. Emily's happy go lucky face was instantly replaced by her resting bitch face as soon as she spotted her ex classmates. They were seated on a long cream coloured couch that went on and curved in a circle. A few were drinking, some had their lips sucking on the others and the rest were engaged in a conversation. Just the mere sight of them made Emily grow more irritated. "Heyy everyoneeee!" The ever happy Drew sang and dragged Emily alongside with her. Their classmates went as quiet as dead bodies immediately they noticed them, all attention turned to Emily and Drew, most of their gazes lingered more on Emily. A comfortable amount of space was made for them on the large couch, and the two women sat down but still, they never stopped staring at Emily. Finally hitting her patience level, she broke the silence. "I understand that I am too great for you all to have in your presence but enough with the staring, okay?" She heard a few of her female classmates give out disgusted scoffs, the guys laughed and amusement danced in their eyes. "Ah! Same old Emily, I see, being among the richest women under Forbes list still did nothing to change you. You're still as fierce as a tiger. Too bad I wasn't able to see that fierceness in my bed, writhing under me and begging for release." A black haired guy with blue eyes commented. He had a sarcastic smile stuck on his face as his friends hailed him on his throwback. "Louis, stop being such a dickhead!" Drew spoke, her voice was calm but at the same time dangerous and carried a warning deep in it. The said man kept quiet and the smile on his face was wiped away. "Would you like a drink?" The girl beside Emily asked with a smile, her hands held out a bottle of wine to her. No matter how hard Emily tried to, she couldn't stop the little bitch in her from manifesting. Again, not that she minded. She stared at the girl for a total of three seconds, before looking away and scrolling through her phone. From where she was seated, she heard Drew give out a frustrated sigh. Soon, she felt hot breaths on her ear. "I know you hate them, but I think Jordan was genuinely giving you that drink from her heart." Drew whispered, making Emily pout softly. "Fine." she whispered back. She held out a glass to Jordan and put on a forced smile. "Feel free to pour me one." Jordan smiled brightly at this, and turned down the liquid onto the glass. "Bitch." Emily had no doubt that the insult had been directed towards her. She raised her glass to the girl that had spoken. A red haired girl who had a doll like face. Eyes too big for her face, bigger than Emily remembered she had. Slimmed nose which flared high, tiny lips, extremely big boobs which was almost spilling out from her rag she called her shirt. Yep. Definitely plastic surgery. "Hey Crystal, I see you finally saw the ugliness I always talked about in you. Thank God you finally went under the knife. Who knows? Maybe you'd still be paying guys to Fuck you-- oh wait, last I heard, you still paid them, or do they pay you now?" Oohs and ahhs from the guys filled their VIP room. Crystal's mouth fell open in shock and Drew slapped her palms against her face in frustration. Deep down, she wished she'd never forced Emily to come with her. She stood up and once again, dragged Emily up with her. "Nice seeing you again guys! Emily and I will be in the hookah room - getting some shisha in case you need us." With that said, Drew led her out of the room and Emily did not stop her.