Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"A party?" I asked Dad, hoping I heard wrong. It had been three days since Grayson and I broke up and I was still not in the mood to go out anywhere. Just yesterday, Tony tried getting me to go grocery shopping with him, but I refused. "I don't want to go to a party..."

"I know you're still upset," Dad said in a sympathetic tone. "I thought Grayson was good for you. But my boss is expecting my whole family to be there. And that includes my daughter."

"Can't you just tell your boss that your daughter can't make it?" I asked. "She's suffering from heartbreakitis."

Dad chuckled and shook his head. "I'm a doctor, Poppy. That's not a real thing."

"Like you would know," I muttered. I then gave him big, pouty eyes. "Please don't make me go."

"You have to," Dad said. "And a lot of my coworkers have kids your age. They'll be a teen lounge set up. You're going, and you'll be pleasant."

I sighed, not even bothering to argue with him. It seemed important for him, so I guess I had to go.

I walked over to Mom, who was sitting in the living room, reading a book. She was already ready, no shocker there."Mom, can you help me pick out a dress for tonight?" I asked. Normally, I wouldn't ask her for help on clothes considering I liked wearing 'lazy' clothes, but my head wasn't in the right place to pick out a dress. Besides, Mom has been really helpful lately. I liked how different she was acting towards me, but I couldn't help but wonder why.

Mom nodded and put the book down before going up the stairs with me. We went to my room and began looking at the dresses in my closet.

"So this party is for Dad's work, right?" I asked. That was what I presumed. Dad said 'party' and 'boss', even 'coworkers'.

Mom nodded. "A few new workers have been hired over the last couple weeks. Your father's boss wanted everyone to get to know each other while they weren't working."

"Sucks for the ones who are on shift today, then," I said.

"That is true," Mom said. "Oh well. You can't put the hospital on hold just for a party."

Mom was able to find a dress for me. It was a strapless dress that was white and black striped for the torso and black for the skirt, which was longer in the back. "How about this?"

I smiled faintly. That was one of my favourite dresses, even though I normally hate dresses. "Yeah," I said. "Thanks."

Mom handed me the dress and left, closing the door behind her. I quickly got changed and found a pair of black gladiator sandals to go with it. I went down the stairs, where everyone else was getting their shoes on or looking for the keys.

Finally, everyone was ready to leave. We got in Dad's car before he drove off.

On the way there, Mom said, "It's going to be nice meeting some of your other coworkers, Gene."

Dad nodded. "Yeah. We need to invite more of them over for dinner. So far, only the Princes had dinner with us."

Princes. I just remembered something. "Dad, will the Princes be there?" I asked.

"I believe so," Dad said. "I talked to Gary and he said he's bringing his whole family. Why?"

"Um, Dad?" Tony said since I wasn't replying. "Grayson is one of Gary's sons, remember?"

"Oh," Dad said slowly. "I should have remembered. Sorry for bringing you along, Poppy. I completely forgot."

"It's fine," I said quietly. I knew I was going to have to see Grayson sooner or later. I just wished it was later.

When we got to the banquet hall where the party was taking place, I slowly got out of the car. I didn't want to run into Grayson. Not yet.

Needless to say, the whole party was pretty boring. We haven't even been there for five minutes and I was already bored out of my mind. Tony and I were sitting at a table while my parents were off talking to Dad's coworkers. Then, the Princes walked in; Gary, Gale, Graeme, and Grayson. Grayson saw me immediately, but shortly looked away. He looked like he really didn't want to be here, just like me.

"I'm going to get something to drink," I told Tony, standing up from the table. I walked over to the table that had many hors d'oeuvres and drinks. I grabbed a glass of lemon water and just stood by the table to drink it.

Some boy who looked around my age walked up to the table and grabbed his own glass of water. "You look like you're enjoying the party," he said sarcastically.

I snorted. "I don't even want to be here."

"Same," he said. "My mom dragged me here."

"My dad dragged me here," I said. "I'm in too bad of a mood to be here." Not to mention my ex-boyfriend whom I still had feelings for was here...

"I don't know why they force us to come," he said. "It's not like we're the ones working at the hospital."

"Exactly," I said.

"I'm Andrew," he said.

"Poppy," I replied.

"So tell me," he said. "Is a girl as pretty as you seeing anyone?"

Wow. I didn't even meet this guy a minute and he was already asking if I had a boyfriend. What was up with guys these days?

"Why do you want to know?" I asked.

Andrew shrugged. "I thought it was pretty obvious in my opinion."

I was about to reply when Grayson walked up to us. "Poppy, can I talk to you?" he asked. "Now?"

I really didn't want to talk to Grayson, but something about the urgency in his voice and his eyes made me agree. I silently excused myself from Andrew as I followed Grayson to the opposite side of the room.

"What?" I asked. "It better be in important because I really don't want to talk to you."

"Wow, thanks for being honest," Grayson said sarcastically.

"Can you blame me?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. I didn't know if I was ever going to talk to him again, so I decided to be honest with him. "I've been a crying wreck for the last two days because of you."

"I get that you're mad," Grayson said, "though I don't know why."

"Are you serious?" I asked. "You broke up with me and you're wondering why I'm mad?"

"I gave you a reason, but I guess you don't care about that," Grayson said. "Look. I just wanted to tell you to stay away from the guy you were just talking to."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Why should you care? I can talk to whoever I want." I didn't really want to talk to Andrew anyway, but I still wondered why Grayson was telling me not to.

"You want to know why?" Grayson asked. "That's Andrew Burke. He's as dangerous as his older brother."

"Burke?" I asked. "Isn't that Devon's last name?"

"And Dedrick's," Grayson told me. "Andrew is Dedrick's younger brother. Once Dedrick went to prison, Andrew started acting up and even made a few attempts to hurt me. He's bad news."

"You know who else is bad news?" I asked. "You."

Okay, I knew I only said that because I was mad, but it was a bit true.

Grayson narrowed his eyes. "That's cold, Flower."

"Flower?" I asked. "Once again, you are not allowed to call me Flower."

"Harsh much?" Grayson asked. "Poppy," he emphasized. "Just trust me on this. Stay away from Andrew, and definitely stay away from Dedrick."

"Yes, because it was my intention to become best friends with Dedrick and Andrew," I said sarcastically. "Why should I trust you, anyway, Mr. Bad Boy? Not after what you did."

"Gee, thanks Poppy," Grayson said. "Thanks for judging me over one small thing I did when you don't even know my back-story. I thought you of all people wouldn't be this way towards me." He walked passed me, looking extremely pissed off.

However, what he said had me very curious. Back-story? What did that boy not tell me?