Sour

Beryl called just as Kimberly was about to grab the door knob.

"Lucky me." She smirked at Jasmine.

"You think so?" She drawled, a corner of her lips jerking up.

Kimberly stopped in her tracks. "What?" She might have earned herself another punishment, for what? She wasn't really sure.

Jasmine took hold of the knob and pulled the door open. "Nothing." She told her and Kimberly's shoulders dropped in relief. There was no way she could go back on her words.

Jasmine let the phone ring thrice before she picked it. By that time, she was up in her room.

"I knew it would be you. So mean!" Beryl said. Jasmine could tell she was pouting.

"So?"

Beryl gasped and Jasmine's nerves slightly flared. She was being so prim.

"So, you've been avoiding me?"

Jasmine scoffed, picking up an apple. "Aren't you being... Over-confident?"

"I don't know what else to call you not picking my calls."

"See, I happen to be tired of your rants."

"Really?" She could hear Beryl say in between bites. She was eating chips.

"I have no obligation to answer your questions."

"Then, you're wasting your time forming rhymes. A short yes or no would have been perfect."

"You never say anything reasonable and you accuse me for not wanting to pick your calls?"

"Oh, what do you want me to say, huh? Look for Collaborations for you or something?"

Jasmine pretended to think about it for a while. "No, you'd ruin my business."

"As if!" Beryl shot at her irritated by her words.

"I didn't think you would call me this week."

Beryl was just about to put a chip in her mouth, then stopped. "Anything happening this week?"

Jasmine walked to her bed and sat on it. Sweeping her hair to the back, she asked Beryl, "Rare Blue Hill?"

"What?" She sprang up from the chair, spilling the chip on her lap. "Shit! I totally forgot, Jasmine. Are you going?"

"No." Jasmine answered curtly. She wasn't ready for the stress.

Beryl relaxed a bit. "I should have known. Since you're not going, why kill me? I almost slipped into a comatose." She sat back down and picked a chip from the floor. "Why don't you ever go for that thing..."

"Beryl, not now." It was the first time she had called her name since they started talking.

"You haven't gone since I met you and I've been looking forward to..."

"Shut up." Jasmine cut her off with a snap, and Beryl hated that tone.

She threw back the bowl of chips on the floor and sat up. "No! You have been avoiding this topic since forever and snapping at me without an explanation. How do you...."

"Get off my phone." Jasmine pulled the phone from her ear to cut the call.

"Jasmine!" She heard Beryl yell, but the line went dead if she wanted to say more.

'Such a bore.' She wondered, thinking how someone was willing to stay on phone for a whole day if she wasn't stopped.

She got a message before she lay back down and she grabbed her phone with her.

'I'm home.' Kimberly.

But she didn't reply, she wasn't ready for Kimberly's chit-chat. It was still shocking that everything happened that day. But she was sure the next time she couldn't take it, she'd kill all of them.

The day had just been so stressful and she felt her emotions were not in the right places.

She got up. it was no use disturbing the maids, so she opened her wardrobe.

20 minutes later, she was throwing a key at Anthony.

-----

Dylan stood, looking at the garden from his room. A time without Ciara was very...

"Aren't you going?"

He didn't even answer, nor did he turn to her. The answer was very obvious.

She was at the doorway and he was wasn't facing her way, so she went closer.

"Since you're not going, would you come shopping with me?"

He raised a brow. "Didn't you just go shopping?" She had been out for up to 4 hours and she was going to shop again?

"Yeah, I did, but I forgot something." She got to his side, jabbing him in the rib. "Would you not go out with your cute Sister-in-Law?" She asked and made a puppy face, though he wasn't looking at her.

"I would," her face brightened, "if only I had one." He replied looking humourless and her face changed from cute to vicious.

"I put all my effort into trying to be nice to a numb skull and here you are, ruining my day. Can't you be nicer?" She waited a while for him to respond, but when he didn't, she turned away, then turned back at him again and stepped down on his foot with a victorious smile. She wanted to make him say something at all costs.

He sighed and turned to her. His face looked clouded and bleak, nothing to see, just a face full of fine flesh and nothing more. But he didn't say anything to her, just turned and left instead.

Ciara was confused and felt very much like a fool. She had only been trying to alleviate the tension, but the way he left made her feel stupid.

He mostly never said anything so nice, though, but he seemed to be in a very sour mood.

She pushed it to the back of her mind. Anything that was wrong with him, she didn't know and she didn't care. All she cared about was, he shouldn't even carry his frustration out on her, because if he did, she would give it to him fair and square. She concluded within herself and went downstairs, but he wasn't there. She stopped a servant and asked him where Dylan was.

"He went out." She was puzzled. She hadn't heard the car pull off or anything and she could have sworn she was following him.

A smile slowly lifted her lip. He really had attributes, it would be nice getting him...

"What is that dubious smile doing on your face?"

The smile disappeared from her face with immediate effect. She hadn't realized someone came in, she was too engrossed in thinking about him.

"Nothing!" She told Moira, slightly nervous, and her voice did not quite come out the right way. She hurried to Moira, clearing her voice, she said in a clearer tone, "nothing."

Moira eyed her suspiciously and pulled her hand from her grip. "Well, let's hope it is nothing." She said, with a slightly obvious stretch added to the 'it is'. She knew Ciara all too well to realize there was an imposter behind that beautiful facade.