I’m so sorry for the long delay in updating. I know it’s been really long, but I hope this was worth the wait.
Come as you are
CHAPTER 10
“I can’t believe you Michael. HER, you’re kissing her. What’s wrong with you?” Sydney screeched on the top of her lungs. Michael pushed Nadia out of his lap in record time and stood up to face his girlfriend. He was fully prepared to be the recipient of a slap from her. In his mind he had earned it, no doubt.
Instead of slapping Michael, Sydney ran out of the room with angry tears in her eyes. She ran, until she noticed a bathroom and locked herself in it. Michael followed her and started knocking on the door to get her to come out.
“Syd, I wasn’t kissing her. She kissed me and I didn’t kiss her back. I don’t want to have anything to do with her, it’s you that I love and want. Please, come out so I can apologize to you instead of the door.” Michael pleaded.
“No, go make-out with Nadia some more, I don’t care. I’ll come out when you go to hell,” Sydney shouted angrily between her tears. She had sat on the toilet and hugged her knees to her chest.
Michael was about to start another round of pleading and apologies, but didn’t get to it when Lauren appeared from the other room with Julian and slapped him forcefully in the face.
“That’s for cheating my sister, your girlfriend with my best friend,” Lauren noted with venom and slapped Michael again.
“And that’s for making my sister cry,” Lauren continued her rant to Michael who now had a visible red handprint on his face. To make it a trifecta, she slapped him for the third and final time.
“And that was for ruining my night with Julian. Why the hell would you kiss the one person my sister hates the most? I thought that you really cared about her. On second thought, I don‘t wanna know. Just get the hell out of my sight or I‘ll nail your balls to the nearest wall,” Lauren finished in a dangerous tone and gestured to Michael to leave.
He reluctantly left with Julian who immediately started steering his cousin towards the car. Michael really would not have wanted to leave her there, but he knew that Lauren would take care of Sydney and he would just continue groveling tomorrow. She most likely needed some time for herself and wouldn’t listen to anything he had to say tonight.
“He’s gone, you can come out now. You can’t lock yourself in Noah’s bathroom for the rest of your life, you’ll have to come out eventually. Come out and we can go home and eat ice cream and trash the guys that make our lives suck,” Lauren said in a soothing, comforting tone she had not used in awhile when addressing her sister.
“Swear that he’s gone. I’m not coming out before that cheating asshole is gone,” Sydney shouted again, this time a little less angrily than before. She was going to get back at him tonight and nothing was going to stop her. If Michael wanted to go about kissing Nadia, he could just drop dead for all she cared.
“Sister’s honor, he’s gone. Come out and we’ll have so much fun you’ll soon ask Michael who?” Lauren said in a preppy voice and scanned the room to make sure Michael had indeed left.
Sydney opened the door and walked straight past Lauren with a look of steely determination that was a bad sign in her sister’s eyes, who was well aware of her fiery temper. Lauren had to admit to herself that she had had assumed she would be holding her hand and comforting her for the rest of the night, but it didn’t look like Sydney wanted to be comforted.
Sydney headed to the main party area and succeeded on getting a hold of a bottle of tequila. Lauren was hot on her heels and arrived just in time to notice Sydney taking a long drink from the bottle. She had also started eying the guy that had given her the tequila. Lauren recognized him as a footballer called Danny who was a senior and something hanged with Tom and his friends.
“What are you doing Syd? You have never drank any other alcohol than champagne before and if you keep up gulping tequila in that fashion, you won’t be able to walk in about 15 minutes,” Lauren said in a scolding tone that unnerved her greatly. Was she turning in to Sydney, who usually loved lecturing Lauren about the dangers of drinking?
“You always say I’m boring and never have any fun. Well I’m having some fun right now with Danny, can’t you see that. If boyfriend formally known as mine can kiss some slut, I can take a drink and talk to a nice guy who isn‘t off sucking the face of the biggest slut of the school,” Sydney replied rolling her eyes and took another drink. The hard liquor burned in her throat and she honestly didn’t like the taste either, but she could already feel a warm sensation hitting her.
Lauren tried grapping the bottle out of Sydney’s hands, but didn’t succeed as her sister turned and took yet another long sip of tequila. Lauren knew for a fact that for someone like Sydney who had never drank any hard alcohol in her life, would be knocked out by the amount of tequila she had ingested.
Sydney started swaying to the laud music and felt lightly dizzy. Danny asked her to dance and Lauren watched in disbelief that her sister actually let some drunken footballer grap her backside in a public place.
After watching Sydney’s drunken dancing for 10 minutes, Lauren went closer to Sydney and this time succeeded in getting the bottle out of her sister’s hands. She was obviously quite hammered. Danny tried objecting, but Lauren shot him an extremely telling glare that did the trick.
“Now Boozy McBooze, I’m taking you home. Car keys, now,” Lauren said taking a hold of Sydney’s arms and starting to drag her towards the exit. Thankfully the alcohol affected strongly and she went quite easily.
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Sydney was having the worst morning imaginable. Her head felt like someone had just smashed her with a brick and she felt sick to her stomach. She had just returned from her fourth toilet visit in an hour and honestly wanted to die. Her last recollection was sipping tequila at Noah Hick’s place. She had no idea how she got home and was feeling embarrassed on how she must have behaved last night. If only the earth would swallow her now.
“Wow, Ms. Tequila Shots is awake. Your head must be hurting right about now or what?” Lauren said standing next to the door in her pajama’s. She was smirking an d holding a coffee cup in her hands.
“Shut up, I’m not in the mood.” Sydney said in an irritated voice and threw a pillow in Lauren’s direction that missed when the amused blonde sidetracked and made her way to Sydney’s bed and plopped herself on it.
“Go away. Everything hurts and I want to be left alone. I can‘t deal with your I told you so’s today,” Sydney moaned and buried her head under a pillow.
“I am tempted, but I think you feel shitty enough without that. By the way, you owe me big time, ‘cus I saved your drunken butt yesterday. I covered like crazy for you and dad didn’t notice how hammered you were. And I will collect that favor trust me ,” Lauren noted in chipper tone and patted her sister on the top of her head and with her other and took a long sip of coffee.
“Can you go away, please. I feel like someone would have steamrolled over me and just the smell of coffee makes my stomach turn, so leave,” Sydney grunted unhappily and slightly pushed her sister which resulted Lauren spilling the semi-hot beverage all over herself.
Lauren screamed and dropped the cup on the floor, causing the pink and white mug to break into pieces. The brown liquid had stained her pink pajama top, but thankfully wasn’t that hot that would have actually burned.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean that to happen. Did you hurt yourself?” Sydney asked with concern.
“Nope, although you so totally ruined my new pajama top. Now get up, dad wants us to get ready for lunch he and mom are having with a couple of guests coming over. Most likely it is work related and that’s what I came to tell you, before you went all psycho on me.” Lauren said and started lifting the pieces of the mug from the floor.
“I don’t think I can eat anything today without throwing up. Plus I think I’m still drunk…” Sydney whined and lifted the covers over her head.
Lauren finished collecting the pieces and took them to Sydney’s trash can and after that started pulling the covers off.
“Girls, what’s going on. Everything okay? I heard screaming,” Irina said appearing to Sydney’s room just as Lauren was pulling the covers and Syd was
kicking her to make her stop.
“Nothing, I’m trying to get Syd’s lazy butt out of bed, since it’s like noon already. I’ve been up for hours now.” Lauren said giving her mother a winning smile.
“Now you two stop bickering and get ready, the guest are here in an hour. Bill Vaughn and his family are coming over and you are not even close to being presentable,” Irina said motherly and gave a stern look to both of her daughters.
“What? Dad didn’t tell me that they were coming. Since when were they supposed to come here today for lunch? Is Julian coming as well?” Lauren quizzed with a exited facial expression.
“Your father and Bill made plans yesterday when you two were out. Bill is most likely going to be directing a film your father’s studio is making. And yes I believe Julian and Michael are coming as well,” Irina responded and disappeared to the direction where the master bedroom was.
“Great, just great. I don’t want to see Michael right now. I’m surprised that he can actually come, I would have expected him to be too busy licking Nadia’s face,” Sydney said bitterly and got out of the bed. She went to her vanity table and sat.
“You know I’m most likely not the biggest Michael Vaughn fan in the world, but the guy loves you. It’s kind of pathetic, but he loves you. He would do anything for you and I bet you that he didn’t kiss Nadia because he wanted to, I don’t think Nadia gave him any choice,” Lauren reasoned. She knew her best friend well enough to be sure about this.
“Please, did he trip, fall and land lips first into Nadia?” Sydney snapped angrily and immediately felt bad for shouting at her sister who wasn’t at fault here.
“Okay, I know what we can do. The best revenge is looking like a million bucks, so I’m going to style you and make you look perfect. Michael won’t know what hit him,” Lauren said with enthusiasm. She dashed out of the room and came back a few minutes later carrying something light blue.
“This a brand new Betsey Johnson original that I bought last week and haven’t got around wearing it yet. I know you love Betsey’s designs, so this will be perfect.” Lauren said laying the knee-length baby doll dress to Sydney’s bed.
“What are you going to be wearing?” Sydney said while taking the dress and examining it intently.
“I’m wearing a black Monique Lhuillier knee-length dress that I bought from New York two months ago. It’s really rad and I have had it on like once before. I think you should leave your hair open and wear only little bit of make-up, we want that innocent look. What do you think?” Lauren winked and waited for her sister to answer. She was so looking forward to giving her sister a make-over.
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Lauren had been working on Sydney’s hair and make-up for 30 minutes now and she had to admit that her twin sister looked very beautiful. She added hairspray in the brunette locks of her sister and she was finished. All Sydney needed to do now was put the dress on that Lauren had given her.
“Thanks sis, I know I was a major bitch before and you didn’t need to do this for me. I’m sorry for acting so horribly towards you when you were just trying to help,” Sydney said rising from the chair she had been sitting in and gave Lauren a heartfelt hug.
“That’s what sisters are for. Now, I have to go get ready too. Don’t ruin that make-up before Michael gets here or I will kill you,” Lauren noted with a laugh and left Sydney’s room to change and get ready.
Since she didn’t have much time, Lauren settled to just taking a quick shower and only applying mascara, lip gloss and eyeliner to her face. She pulled her blonde hair into a tight ponytail and was finished in record time.
She had managed to get downstairs only a minute or two before their guest had arrived. Sydney was sitting on one of the couches in the living room with a not so happy expression on her face.
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Michael was not in the mood to go to the Bristow’s for lunch. Sydney had not been taking his calls and instead Lauren answered telling him to stop calling every time he had phoned.
Also neither Julian or Eric had been that sympathetic to his cause, both telling him that Sydney had a right to be upset with him. Eric had also bragged that Kelly had agreed to come to homecoming with him when the two friends had spoken on the phone earlier.
As the Vaughn’s Lexus pulled into the Bristow’s driveway, Anna Vaughn gave final instructions to the boys to behave and try not to embarrass them in any way.
“Bill and Anna, I’m so happy you made it. Come on in,” Irina said with hospitality and pecked both of the Vaughn’s on the cheek. She also warmly welcomed Julian and Michael, hugging them familiarly as they entered.
Jack settled to just shaking hands with his quests and steered Bill towards his office as soon as their coats were off. They had important business to take care of and Jack didn’t want to stay and listen to their wives engaging in a mutual admiration society.
“Mom, Mrs. Vaughn, you won’t mind if I steal Syd, Michael and Julian for a while? There is something I’d like to show them,” Lauren asked as they had sat down in the living room and waiting for Margaret to bring them coffee.
“Sure, darling. I’ll let you know when the lunch is served, go ahead.” Irina replied and was secretly quite glad to spend some alone time with Anna Vaughn. She knew most of the insider Hollywood gossip that Irina never heard anywhere else.
The three teens followed Lauren to her bedroom and waited as the blonde girl disappeared to her walk-in-closet.
“Syd and Michael, come here. I can’t lift this thing on my own,” Lauren shouted from the closet and with a awkward glance to each other, Sydney and Michael followed her into the place where Sydney usually wasn’t allowed to go.
As Michael and Sydney entered the closet, Lauren quickly exited and turned the key in the lock, leaving the two trapped inside.
“Now, I’m not letting you two out before you work things out. As soon as you kiss and make up, I’ll let you out. Now me and Julian are heading to your room Syd to have some fun. I’ll be back in 15 minutes to see if you are blissfully happy again.” Lauren giggled and took Julian’s hand guiding him to Sydney’s room situated across the hall from hers.
To be continued
Next chapter: Sydney and Michael are trapped in the closet. Will they work things out? Plus Julian and Lauren have some serious fun.