Ren

Spending Sunday with the James family is not my ideal way to pass the weekend, but with the father-and-son duo, I can certainly count on some action going down.

The maids didn’t bother to wake me up for breakfast, which isn’t the biggest problem in the world, but upon arriving at the scene of the drama this morning, I was rudely shooed away from the kitchen.

I would’ve liked to think that was just because they were busy cleaning up the mess A.J. made and rushing around to tend to the masters of the house. But after an older servant cornered me in the hallway and slipped me a smuggled bun, along with a direct warning not to let anybody see me eating it, the message became pretty clear.

The servants had orders from above, i.e., Donnie the devil himself, to make things difficult for me until I proved my usefulness-slash-obedience. I’d rather starve.

Once again, during lunch, where A.J. was suspiciously missing, the servant scooping the food gave me a ridiculously measly portion. I had to choke back a laugh. Lady Anette observed the spectacle, staring at me as if she could read into the depths of my soul at any moment, but aside from one sharp intake of breath, she made no comment.

On the other hand, Levi’s interactions with his father would have been wholesome if he didn’t see the man through rose-tinted glasses. Having A.J. here would’ve been a pleasant change.

With my phone confiscated for the duration of my stay, I had to find other ways to entertain myself, so I settled on taking a walk around the estate. Levi, in the meantime, was finishing up his schoolwork, and A.J. was still nowhere to be seen.

...----------------...

So, I roamed aimlessly, and my wandering was rewarded. The James family line might be descended from Satan himself, but you can always count on the filthy rich to have fantastic libraries.

Picking a gold-inlaid, red leather-jacketed tome, I settled into a nook in the library and managed an hour of respite before one of the younger servants found me.

“What,” she started, enunciating each word, “in the name of the Lord do you think you’re doing here?” she reprimanded, her tone stern.

“I was just reading,” I answered, holding the book up for her to see.

“You were just-” she repeated, “do you think this is a playground? Just walking in wherever you please?” She said it in a way that demanded an answer, but I didn’t have a response to that. Feeling slightly defeated, I got up to return the book to where I found it. Her eyes bored into my back, hands cocked at her hips.

I walked out of the library. God, I need some fresh air. My feet, moving on their own, led me to the door. I gripped the handle, my hold tightening, thinking that if I stepped outside, I could just run. Fuck it all, consequences be damned, if I could only just run.

“Do not put your fingers on the glass,” a voice devoid of emotion stung at my back. “It was shined this morning.”

Turning around, I saw another servant watching me. “I didn’t touch it.” I don’t know why I was still bothering to explain. Now, I truly felt all the energy drain out of me.

“You should return to your room,” the man said, walking past me and closing the door behind him. And thus, to my prison cell, I returned.

...----------------...

At 9:00 p.m. sharp, a knock at my door sent shivers down my spine. Donnie said the meeting would take place in a couple of days, he wouldn’t actually summon me out at night just a day after my arrival. Would he?

The door banged open, and the lady who had given me the bun earlier today walked in, uninvited.

“You are to come with me to the young master’s bedroom for a sleepover,” she informed me and a second chill crept up my spine. Am I being pimped out to the youngest James? Is anyone in this family normal?

“Come on now, dear child,” the old lady urged, and I grudgingly got out of bed, following her to my next torture chamber of the day.

...----------------...

A.J.’s room was surprisingly tidy, considering his temperament. He was hunched over his desk in front of a laptop, headphones covering his ears. He took them off when I entered.

His acknowledgment of my presence was a nod of his head and an order: “Sleep,” he said. Sleep, my ass, I thought.

But I did lie in bed, sighing heavily despite myself and remaining exceptionally still. The gremlin gave me a single glance, then put his headphones back on and turned his back to me, completely ignoring my existence.

After two hours of lying completely still, and A.J. still glued to his screen, I began to toss and turn, toying with the idea of getting into trouble.

“So,” I started. No reaction from the other side of the room. “Do you often hide in closets?” He didn’t hear me. Either that or he was ignoring me.

I got out of bed and walked toward him. Sensing my presence, he banged the laptop shut and looked up at me like a deer caught in headlights.

“Were you watching porn?”

He removed his headphones and sighed deeply like I was the one being unreasonable.

“What is it?” he asked, in a tone far too accommodating for my liking. Alarm bells started ringing in my brain.

“Do you often hide in closets?” I asked again.

“Occasionally,” he answered. His face was impassive, and I felt the way I did when speaking to my father: clipped answers, indirect dismissal, and the unshakeable knowledge of when a conversation was over. He kept looking up at me from his gaming chair, and for some odd reason, I knew I would be safe for the night.

But then my stomach rumbled like a dying whale, and I scratched my face to hide the incoming redness. Why am I feeling embarrassed? He should be. It’s his family starving me.

He left me standing there and walked out of the room. So, I went to lie on the bed restlessly once again. But thirty minutes later, A.J. and the head maid, who I now knew was called Auntie Loola, came back in with a tray of fried eggs, cheese and ham sandwiches, and a kettle of Earl Grey. We ate together in silence, and then he resumed his place in the gaming chair in front of his laptop.

Eventually, I fell asleep, and when I woke up in the morning, he was still sitting in the same place he had occupied last night.

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