Chapter 3: Part Three.
Part Three.
The scorned and the cheated.
Hames watched silently as his husband laughed and chatted with a small group of vaguely familiar people. He had always been a people person, a social butterfly, cheerful and kind to a fault, while Hames was the complete opposite, gloomy and surly on good days and down right unapproachable on bad days. Oddly that was what made them the ideal couple.
Like polar opposites, they balanced each other out.
But today was one of Hames's bad days. His mood was fairly decent during the day while he practiced with his band for their upcoming European tour, but had taken a turn for the worse when he arrived at this god forsaken reunion, more specifically when he caught sight of the last person he wanted to see.
Seeing him after so many years brought back the painful, unwanted feelings he had tried so hard to ignore…but that fucker brought them all back with just a slight glance and nod in his direction.
That god damn fucker…
'how dare he show his face here? After so many years? After what he put me through?' He thought bitterly, his lips twisting into a deeper frown.
Luckily, he disappeared right as the party started and Hames hadn't seen him since.
'Probably went to jump off the roof to end his pathetic, depressed life' he thought again and immediately regretted it. He shouldn't think like that, after all they were friends for the longest time, something akin to brothers…until they weren't
Until someone spoiled it.
"At least her life has been shit so far" he muttered under his breath before downing the red party cup of gin in his hand, sighing loudly at the burn sliding languidly down his throat.
Now he had to deal with the immediate problem at hand.
His angry as hell husband, mad at him because of his little barb at his little bitch of a best friend.
With sure strides, he crossed the distance to his where husband stood chatting, laughing and fluttering his social butterfly wings.
The presence of big, tattooed, scary faced Hames soured the group's mood and sent them scrambling away, leaving the spouses alone.
Rhys could feel the black aura oozing from his husband who stood silently behind him but refused to turn around to face him. He was still pissed at him and no amount of sweet talk would make up for what he did.
After a minute of silent tense silence, Hames exhaled irritably "You're not even going to look at me?"
When no answer came from the stiff brunette infront of him, he let out another sigh and in one quick step, rounded Rhys, stepping into his eyeline.
Rhys' eyes immediately shot to the ceiling.
Hames scoffed, his perpetual frown deepening.
"Are you seriously going to continue acting like this, baby?"
He didn't reply, instead he held a hand up to his ear, a faux confused look on his face "Did someone say something? I didn't hear them over the noise of my internal incinerator mentally burning them to ashes"
Hames held back the urge to roll his eyes. His husband had always been an overly dramatic person, even in high school so he was more or less used to his flair for drama and usually whimsical vocabulary.
It was one of the many reasons he loved him. He was unique, like a bright star in his dark world, bathing him with light and warmth and cheering him on every day and night.
There were a lot of reasons Hames fell for Rhys but this one was his favourite, Rhys was his special little snowflake.
But now, his special little snowflake had spikes and was spitting fire aimed specially at him.
"Come on. Don't do this again baby, I can't stand seeing you like this" Hames let out in a small mummer as he stepped closer to Rhys.
"You should have thought about that before making my friend run for the hills" Rhys hissed, his eyes blue fire as he poked a finger into his husband's solid chest.
"Suddenly she's your friend again? If you don't remember, this 'friend' called you a faggot right before she ditched you to go follow her dead beat boyfriend"
Rhys' eyes softened and his hand retracted "She didn't mean that"
"She didn't? how do you know that?" he paused and let out a huge sigh, running his hand through his hair "You know she did but you're so blinded by sentimentality to see that"
Rhys suddenly erupted, his voice loud enough to turn heads in their direction "I'm not blinded by anything, I know Aspen, I know she regretted everything the minute it happened! You were friends with Soren right? Didn't you guys fight?!"
The moment that name left Rhys' lips, something bitter twisted deep within Hames and he suddenly didn't care what he said
"Yea we fought, but we didn't rip at each other like how she did to you, called you names and abandoned you during the most difficult time of your life"
"She didn't abandon me" he retorted hotly
Hames shot back equally as hotly "oh yea, then what do you call what she did to you?"
Silence fell and the two exchanged angry gazes until Hames spoke again, his tone low and viscous "She got what she deserved, don't let her crawl back into your life after all that has happened"
"So I should just throw her away like how you threw away Soren am I right?"
That god damn name again….
He gritted his teeth, words escaping slowly "I didn't throw him away, he did, because of that bitch…" luckily he caught himself before he said any other thing
But Rhys' curiosity was already aroused
"What? Which bitch? What the hell are you saying? What happened between you and Soren?"
Hames shook his head, once, twice, trying to rearrange his thoughts to answer "It doesn't matter now, what matters is that you cannot allow her back into your life, you can't just forgive and forget like nothing happened, she doesn't know how bad you felt, how for the weeks after you looked like a ghost, how you couldn't even eat"
He paused and sucked in a breath "She doesn't know and doesn't care"
"Isn't the choice to forgive her mine huh?, she didn't do anything to you for her to get this level of contempt from you"
'You don't know what she did to me' Hames thought in a viscous strain but said softly
"She broke my husband's heart, that's enough reason for me to hate her"
Rhys opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by a familiar voice coming from a few feet away, a voice he hated with all his being and some more
A few feet away, looking prim and proper in an obviously expensive suit and slicked back hair, smiling happily as he talked with a small group of people, was none other than Caleb Beckett
Rhys saw red, how dare he look so at ease and happy when he ruined his best friend's life?
His feet had already started moving towards where Caleb stood, smiling like a well fed cat when a hand held him back. Hames shook his head at him, a disapproving look on his face
"Let go of me" Rhys gritted out, anger coursing through him "I'm going to give that asshole a piece of my mind"
Hames shook his head again "No, don't involve yourself in this Rhys"
"Fuck you Hames!" he hissed "Let me go" he struggled against his hold, his eyes stuck on the blond asshole a few steps from him
Finally Hames let go of Rhys's hand but stepped away from him, heading in the direction of Caleb, as he moved, he said over his shoulder "I'll handle this okay? So go cool down"
The gym doors slammed open and a red head woman raced through and skidded to a stop before raising her over her head and cheering loudly "I won! I won!". her volume making people turn towards her jumping and yelling frame
Soren jogged briskly through the doors, stopping where Aspen was, a wide smile on his handsome face "Yea, Yea, no need to rub it in" he drawled jokingly as he watched her launch into a wild victory dance which involved a lot of limb flailing and jumping in place.
Aspen was the one who suggested the race downstairs and Soren went along with it, even giving her a head start. Now seeing her this happy about winning an impromptu race, he didn't regret letting her win.
Finally when she calmed down, she pointed to him and let out on a soft pant "You owe me something don't you?"
Soren made a show of exhaling loudly before turning his back to her and crouching down to her level "Your humble steed awaits, your highness"
His tone was bland but inside he felt anything but.
Aspen grinned widely and without another thought, jumped onto his back and wrapped her legs around his waist "Lets go, my loyal pony!" she yelled happily
Together, they made their way through the hordes of people who were staring at the two unlikely people, one piggybacking another . Wasn't that Caleb Beckett's girlfriend being piggy backed by The Soren Ishida? How the hell is that possible? Their thoughts echoed, being muttered quietly between them.
The subjects of their internal and quietly whispered external questions were ignoring the stares, wrapped up in their own bubble.
Finally, they arrived at the bar and Soren very carefully set Aspen down on one of the empty stools before motioning the bartender over and saying solemnly, his expression serious "My mistress requires three shots of luke warm whiskey and then the sluttiest sex on the beach you can make"
The bartender looked at him weirdly but didn't dare utter a word and instead hurried around making the drinks, in all honesty he was a bit afraid of the strange man with the pink hair tie
Better not to get him pissed.
Aspen collapsed into high pitched giggles, almost falling off the stool in her mirth "You! Should! See! Your! Face!" she wheezed out, trying to rein in her laughter.
Soren swallowed down his thrilled smile, instead pulling on a faux annoyed look "Okay okay, it isn't that funny"
Her laughs didn't cease "It is! It is!"
By the time the drinks arrived, Aspen's laughing had mostly stopped, reduced to infrequent giggles, Soren had abandoned his fake annoyance and was smiling again.
In tandem, they each took a shot of whiskey and grimaced at the burn of the liquor
"Wanna play Twenty Questions?" she suggested, twirling the straw of her Sex on the Beach
He chuckled "That curious about me huh?"
She made a dismissive sound, waving her free hand "As if! You wish Pretty boy"
A warm feeling rose in Soren's chest, warming his ears but he schooled his expression into one of mild amusement "I'll tell you anything if you ask"
"Anything? Even embarrassing stuff?" she asked, sipping her drink
He closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples "I feel like I've somehow dug myself into a hole"
Aspen giggled and waved her hand about like a fan "No, no. No hole here. I won't ask embarrassing stuff, I promise"
One inky eye blinked open "Promise?"
"Promise" she agreed
As soon as he nodded, she launched into her mental list of questions "First off, What the hell happened in the past decade for you to turn out like this?"
Soren shrugged his big shoulders "Lots of things"
"Like what? Can you be specific?"
"Hmm" he sounded, looking skywards before returning his gaze back to the curious Aspen staring at him with huge jade eyes "well I went to fashion school for one"
Aspen sputtered, barely keeping the mouthful of liquor she had drank in "Fashion school?"
He nodded "Yea" he paused, cocking his head in a curious action "Is that weird?"
"Shocking yes, Weird no but Shocking, hell yes!"
His grin was bashful. Scratching his nape, he explained "I tried the college scene for about a year but I got bored so I applied for a scholarship at Esmod Fashion Institute in Paris" he paused and leaned in closer before whispering "I didn't get in"
Aspen opened her mouth to express her distaste but he cut her off "Don't worry, I applied the second time and I got in finally" he beamed, drumming his slender fingers on the bar top "Fast forward four years, I graduated and got an internship opportunity with Massolini house"
Her mouth dropped open "The Massolini House?"
He chuckled "Yes, The Massolini you know"
It took a few seconds for Aspen to return to normal but once she did she couldn't stop from exclaiming softly "That's amazing"
Massolini was one of the most famous luxury clothing and shoe brands in the world, it designed and catered to and for the very rich and very famous, their designs gracing the red carpets at various exclusive events and strutting the catwalks of various Fashion weeks all over the world.
It was stupendous to think that this man sat infront of her, worked for a great Fashion house like Massolini.
"It was just an internship, I mostly just fetched coffee for people and tried to stay out of their way" he said on a soft laugh
"Even though, its amazing, I mean Massolini! Wow!. its like you're a real life Anne Hathaway in 'The Devil wears Prada'"
"I guess that's accurate, my supervisor was a real Meryl Streep"
Aspen laughed at that, long and hard.
When she calmed, she motioned him to continue "And then what happened?"
"I finished my internship, lucky for me, I got a low level design job working at the same place, I did that for a year and a half before I branched out and formed my own house"
"Really? That's very Entrepreneural of you" commented Aspen
He shook his head, laughing softly to himself "The first year was absolute chaos, I almost gave up half the time but I had my first big break about a 13 months in"
"What was the break?"
"I got to design an outfit for Tuesday Wesley for the Opening night of one of her movies"
She was stunned again, stunned was an understatement now, she was stupidfied, so stupified that she could only ask in a tiny voice "You designed for Tuesday Wesley?"
He nodded, knocking back a shot with ease "We actually became friends afterwards, apparently, my supervisor at Massolini let it slip that one of her favorite designs she wore for an awards show once was mine and one day she sought me out and the rest is history" he paused and flashed another bashful smile "she even modeled one of my pieces at the London Fashion week this year"
But Aspen was still caught up on one detail "You're friends with Tuesday Wesley?"
As you guessed, Tuesday Wesley was a very famous model/actress, a fashion influencer if you will. She had many awards and accolades under her belt and was so exceptionally beautiful that she was considered one of the most beautiful women alive.
And Soren was friends with her?
That's impossible
"You're shitting me right?" she asked softly
He shook his head again and made a cross symbol over his heart "Cross my heart"
Aspen couldn't believe it "I can't…" she stuttered "I can not…" she tried again and failed. After a few seconds of shocked silence, she motioned for him to continue
"Well, that was the catalyst and soon enough we were drawing a lot of attention and a lot of stars were coveting our pieces, now four years in and I can't believe I've achieved so much" he smiled and motioned the bartender over for another drink
"Wow" was all Aspen could say, thoroughly stunned. Soren lived such a charmed life that it almost wasn't feasible. It was just amazing.
"what's your brand's name so I can brag about you to my other friends?"
The bartender had just finished refilling the shot glasses and Soren downed one before answering "Cavagna, I named it after my mom"
As soon as she heard that name, she knew. Cavagna was the hottest fashion brand out there now and she had no idea it was Soren's
She was just about to express her verbal awe when a familiar person stepped up to them and grabbed her arm tight
"Thank God I found you" Rhys said, pining her with his serious sky blue gaze "Caleb's here and he's looking for you"
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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