“What in the fuck is that?” grumbled one of the girls, Aldona, lying on a tapestry superimposed upon a thick, gorgeous, deep velvety red rug which ran up the stairs and all around the landing. Her Giambattista Valli long-sleeve tweed minidress was hiding the wool of the tapestry which had been weaved to illustrate the Palace of Versailles.
“Yeah, what in the fucking fuck is that?” exclaimed Lena, patting down her sleeveless studded leather biker jacket from Louis Vuitton like one swatting away flies. “A big yikes from me,” she said with a yawn. After a few rapid and tumultuous churns of chewing gum, which flashed a brilliant white between her violently red lips, she continued, “That’s not it chief.”
“I don’t think I’ve seen a lad this side of Manny wearing one of those things, whatever one of those things are called,” added sweet little Celina, with a flurry of sparkly batting eyelashes and a face full of excessively applied makeup powder, her arms folded meekly behind her back. She also wore a beige tweed minidress.
“No cap, this is the simp daddy was telling us about,” said Justyna from the shadowy corner of the left-hand staircase, behind the picket white handrailing. “The fuck is that around your groin?” she said abruptly with an expression of repulsion. She hesitated for a moment, stepped away and then back forward as though she was pulled between fear and curiosity; the latter won out and she stepped carefully down a few steps, closer to the warm light cast by the large gilt-bronze and cut-crystal chandelier, which dated all the way back to 1830 - exactly 200 years ago.
“Wha-” said Rod, raising his finger in protest, “I was shown in and...” he gulped as his eyes hovered over the young girls, struggling to take in all at once the overwhelming sight. The fruity scents of their perfume made him almost delirious. He scratched the back of his neck as he coughed a couple of times, his knees almost collapsing underneath him like a stack of cards. His mind went blank all of a sudden, and he struggled to form at least one thought as he racked his brain to come up with something to say. “What do I say?” he thought, “these girls...why do they look older than they should look? That one in the middle, with the leather jacket, she looks awfully like her...No,” he turned away, “I shouldn’t think like this. Wait?” he turned back defiantly, “no, I cannot be like this. There’s nothing wrong here. What am I even doing? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. Stop guilting yourself Rod...You haven’t done anything wrong. I simply made an observation – nothing more; nothing more. There was nothing more to my observation than a simple, clinical one. I was just thinking a fact, is all. It’s not my fault anyway that they are dressed so maturely; it’s easy for one to confuse them for adults. Yes, yes, it is easy for anyone to confuse them – not just me,” Rod shrugged his shoulders and forced a smile. “Oh, I want to die,” he thought suddenly, “they called me a simp. Did Aleku tell them? No way; he wouldn’t do that. Why would he tell his daughters about me at all? He said constantly throughout our friendship that he does not speak about me at all...well maybe once or twice he said he mentioned me but that was all. Wasn’t it? Wait, I am not a fucking simp! Should I tell them off or something? Shouldn’t? I am the only adult in the room as far as I am aware...the butler left me all alone – how dare he? The guy knew what he was doing! What should I do? I should get out of here as soon as possible...Wait! Isn’t this the exact opportunity that I was looking for earlier? How am I not tired yet? I’ve been up since...ten o’clock this morning: it’s all the coffee I drink that’s why. No, this is exactly what I need. I need practice if I’m going to go back. If I can’t even talk to highschool girls now, how am I going to talk to them then? Oh this is such nonsense.” Rod grabbed the bag around his waist and said, smiling, “It’s a fanny pack.”
The four teenagers, whose distinct, Manchesterian accents, bounced off the white walls of the palace, laughed at the unkempt, disheveled man before them, but stopped short suddenly as Aldona said in a whiney voice with an obvious pout, “Daddy doesn’t want to take us shopping, and said we aren’t allowed to go without an armed escort. He said that we’ve done more shopping in one week than half the people on Earth.” She did not mention that they were to go to their rooms immediately after their new guest arrived, and not to even look at him, for each of them were silently interesting in the disheveled, young man, as though he could have been one of the boys in their classes.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“I was sent here and-” Rod cut himself off as he marveled at the grandeur of the landing. It was like something ripped straight from the past; the 18th century architecture lit up his brain like a firecracker. Was this a reconstruction or a genuine historical artifact? He wondered if the girls knew, if they would be impressed by his inquisitiveness.
Everybody was silent; then Lena said in a forced, masculine voice, “You know the reason we aren’t allowed to go out alone is because Manchester has become very dangerous ever since the rioting started, and so nobody is going to turn up at school wearing any new pieces from Chanal or Gucci. We can’t buy new clothes to replace last week’s wardrobe, and even I puke at the idea of that, but we can do our part in saving the environment by wearing each other's outfits. Come on guys, no one will even notice. But saying that I won’t even be able to stomach it,” and Lena wrinkled her nose as she thought with vexation of turning up to school the following Monday with what she wore twelve Mondays ago.
“My stomach couldn’t handle itself in something made from dead animal skin,” said Aldona. “I would ruin the leather. Listen, we can go after school on Monday. It isn’t like the mall’s going anywhere. I agree that it would be better for the climate if we listened to dad and stopped shopping so much but saying that maybe I do want to buy a book to read ‘till then,” she added, adjusting the gold rimmed spectacles she got from one of the existing royals in India.
“Excu-” said Rod softly. He did not understand the obsession with clothes; for him, clothes were merely for practical purposes, to shield oneself from nature’s elements and to conform to social and legal norms. Except, he pondered suddenly, what if it was the social norm to be obsessed with fashion?
“I want to invite a friend over,” muttered Justyna, descending a few steps towards the party; the orange glow of her cheeks barely hiding the rosy blush the utterance had caused.
“How you gonna get a boy past security?” asked Lena, still chewing her gum. “Daddy will go ballistic if he catches you with another boy again; and like I’m going to get grounded for something you did,” she added, glaring at her sister.
“Boy?” wondered Rod, his head tilted in disbelief.
“But daddy’s girlfriends get to go out whenever they want; it’s not fair,” whined Celina in her high-pitched voice, and she stamped her doc marten boots on the floor pathetically. “I just want to get a leather jacket like you, Lena!”
“You ain’t turning up in no leather,” she replied, blowing a bubble.
“Daddy didn’t say anything about having friends over, though,” Aldona said.
“We’re talking about shopping,” snapped Justyna with her eyes rolled to the side, folding her arms and still thinking about the boy she had been texting the past few weeks.
“Gah!” Aldona cried with exasperation, glaring at the older, pony-tailed blonde with annoyance. “Let’s get our to go and friends to buy us things and have them come over here,” she said, waving the pen she was writing with as she talked.
“Why not just get them delivered?” said Celina sheepishly, touching the tips of her two index fingers together.
“Idiot, they won’t come until Monday. Erm, hello? It’s already Saturday,” said Justyna.
“Wait a minute...How are these girls still up? Isn’t it past their bedtime?” Rod wondered as he stood awkwardly. He had not moved an inch since the butler had left out of fear; although he could not articulate the source of said fear. “It’s awfully hot in here all of a sudden,” he thought as he pulled at the collar of his t-shirt underneath his jacket. He felt one of the girls staring at him, although he was too scared to look.
“Why not just get one of the drivers to get it?” asked Lena.
“Oh, and wake them up? I don’t like the idea of that,” said Celina softly.
“No one’s asking you to,” said Justyna, scrolling on her phone.
Celina whipped her head to her older sister, perhaps too quickly for she bit her tongue immediately to subdue the impulse to say the first thing on her mind. “You’re just acting hard because a boy is here, and you find him cute.”
“No I fucking don’t,” hissed the blonde, and she darted her eyes to the stranger with an intense hateful judgement. “He’s a creep,” she said bluntly.