Silence.
Complete, utter, dead silence.
Gianna winced at the gravity of it. It was grating and she tried not to look anyone in the eye. Someone cleared their throat. Grandpa Gary shifted in his seat, readjusting his position on the couch as he took in the words of the young woman. "I thought you liked Xavier?" Gianna turned crimson at the question, not quite expecting it to be the first thing to be said after the long painstaking silence. She fidgeted. Her heart raced and the words couldn't exactly form coherently for her to speak them. "She doesn't know me. You can't like someone you don't know," Xavier's deep voice sounded somewhere at the back of her mind and she searched for him almost instinctively. Her eyes found him; he was already staring at her and she realized he did that a lot. Whenever she wanted to look at him, he was already looking at her.
His answer must have made sense to the others because nobody refuted and she heard the old man sigh beside her. She bit her lower lip. She seemed to have brought trouble.
You're always bringing some sort of trouble wherever you go. I'm starting to believe you're trouble itself.
Her mother's voice echoed in her mind and she gulped down the sting of the words. She didn't know what she was doing and if her parents found out she had been here she couldn't imagine the number of punishments lined up for her.
"I know. We're not trying to marry the both of you right now. It's just an engagement my dear." This time Grandpa Gary turned towards her, taking both her hands in his as a form of reassurance, maybe, she didn't know. Of course Gianna knew that. She hadn't intended for those words either but they somehow slipped out of her mouth.
She pursed her lips and nodded, the process excruciatingly slow. "What a waste of time." A voice sounded from the back somewhere and Gianna knew she had just been a nuisance. She hadn't intended it and yet she could feel everyone's frustration. Her mother was right; nothing good came out of things when she was involved. You would think she would have matured by now with all the scolding from her mother. Guess not.
"I'll speak to your parents and clear any doubts on their part. It seems they might have scared you," Grandpa Gary said and Gia's eyes widened. "I think my parents are better off not knowing of my little escapade," she fidgeted in her lap, trying to convince the old man to not involve her birth givers. They would wring her neck. Xavier's observant eyes had caught the nervousness on her face the minute his grandfather mentioned her parents. She looked uncomfortable and it didn't sit right with him at all.
Now that he thought about it, her parents weren't as involved as they should have been. Something wasn't right.
"Whatever you say, my dear," Grandpa Gary accepted without any further questions, thinking it was one of those childish things you didn't want your parents to know.
Gianna smiled in relief. That was one problem off of her back. The other family members had dispersed leaving her with Xavier, his grandpa and the butler. Even Jeremy who had been hellbent on bringing her here in the first place had vanished. The nerve of the boy.
"I'll leave you two youngsters to talk," he patted her hand with a knowing smile and the butler came to his side to help him up. She watched as they both went up the stairs, till she could see them no more. She took in a breath and turned around so abruptly she might have knocked herself down on the floor. He watched her and she couldn't decipher what exactly was going on in his mind. It was hard to hold his gaze and her stupid heart wasn't making things any better.
"Come, I'll drive you home," he said with little to no emotion on his face as if dismissing whatever had happened earlier and it didn't sit right with her at all. He turned to the door and she got up from the couch. "W...wait...," her voice quivered. He looked at her and the neutral expression on his face made her heart waver. "Are you...mad at me?" She asked as slowly as possible, wanting to hear the answer and dreading his response at the same time.The thought of him being mad at her had her feeling weird in her tummy.
A beat passed. Another.
There was no answer. He just kept staring at her and her breath shook. He took a step and she realized he was walking towards her in long perfect strides. He reached her even before she could properly think about what was happening and before her mind could process his presence at all he bent to her level and a small gasp escaped her lips.
Her widened eyes stared into his calm ones and she tried not to hyperventilate at their close proximity. It was too much for her to handle at once. He smiled. The faintest of smiles she had seen but she noticed because he was right in front of her. She noticed because she hadn't been able to take her eyes off him. Not once.
He was beautiful.
"Whatever goes on in that pretty little head of yours," he whispered, clearing the curly strands that framed her forehead so gently it might have just been a breeze if she didn't feel the coolness of his fingertips on her skin.
She died. Metaphorically.