The Banquet hall was one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen, it was in a separate wing of the hotel and was filled to the brim with nicely dressed scientists. Although it did look to be that me and Huxley were among the youngest of attendees. As I walk further into the hall I almost entirely forget that Huxley is standing beside me until I hear him chuckle.
“Did you just laugh?” I pin him with a stunned look
“No” he says returning to his stoic facial expressions
“Ok well I guess I will see you when the banquet is over, text me if you need to find me”
I say to Liam as I begin walking off further into the hall. I am stopped by the feeling of a hand wrapping around mine and tugging me back. I turn to look at Liam and decide that I may as well just tell him why I came here in the first place.
“Look I got to go talk to some rich scientist with resources to spare, why do you think I wore this dress in the first place?” I can see his face go slightly red
“I uh” he cuts himself off and releases my hand, I wander off into the crowd.
My first step is at the bar, technically Liams partner in this event was supposed to be Melvirn so when I came in his place it meant I got his lanyard which conveniently had a little green ring around the top meaning 21+. I never thought looking older than I was would come in handy but tonight it definitely does and I am going to need the courage. I request one of the already curated cocktails and get it with no questions asked. As I am turning around I bump into this younger looking girl with short dark brown hair, olive skin, brown eyes and one of the prettiest smiles I have ever seen. She is wearing a black silky dress that goes down to mid calf and I can’t help but smile back at her.
“Hi!” she says in a cheery voice “I'm Vee” she sticks out her free hand for me to shake.
“Hey, i’m Raelyn” I grab her hand and smile as she shakes it
“Ugh this place is so depressing, there are only old men here and the music sucks” I think it takes her a second to register that she just met me and immediately tries to correct herself
“Sorry, I have just been to these things since I was 16 my dad is on the board” I immediately like her.
“Well in all honestly I wouldn’t be here if I didn't have to beg these old men for free resources” I say honestly
“Oh my god are you a scientist?” she asks impressed and intrigued
“I wish” I say the next part in a whisper “I am actually In my last year of Highschool, but I intern at LAB TECH and I’m trying to get free stuff so I can start my research” Unbenouced to me I feel like I can tell this girl anything and she would get it.
“Shut up! I'm also in my last year, but as soon as I graduate I'm moving away to college. I need to get as far away from these so called parties” she makes me chuckle.
“Where do you wanna go?” I ask so curious about this girl who is just exploding with personality
“NYU school of medicine probably” she says hopeful
“No way I live in manhattan, it’s like 20 min from me” I say cheerfully
“Ok we are so friends now I hope you know that. Come find me after you take money from old men, I know a guy who works the hotel bar and will get us drinks” she says as she pulls out her phone and gesturing to me to input my number.
“Good luck” Vee tells me as she takes her phone back and disappears into the crowd.
I chug down the horrible tasting cocktail and scope out the scientists around me. I spot an older looking familiar gentleman that I could have sworn I have seen Melvirn talking to before. I make my way over to him and plaster the most cheery smile I could on my face.
“Hi, Im Raelyn” I say, sticking my hand out to greet him, he looks me up and down before grabbing my hand. I try not to gag as I continue to smile at him. He is eyeing me heavily so I decide to full ditz in hopes that he takes the bait.
“So you’re like a real scientist right?” I hate myself right now but my research means everything to me so I grab a piece of my hair and twirl it around my finger.
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“Yea I am, I study this cool thing called regeneration” I bite my tongue at the condescension in his voice and plaster a confused look on my face
“It's this thing where I make organs from scratch” he says and I can almost see his ego growing. Nella does the same thing and is one of the most world renowned and you don’t hear her bragging.
“Oh. My. God. That's like so cool” I hate this so much. He then leans in and brushes his fingers along my forearm. I want to vomit in my mouth.
“So do you like work in a lab?” I can see him smile as he then says
“I actually have some samples from my lab in the back, do you want to see them?” As much as I hate the idea of going anywhere with this man alone, I know I need to do whatever I can to see these samples.
“Omg of course” he places his hand way too low on my back and leads me behind the stage, we come across a large table filled with all sorts of lab supplies, samples, and fun new contraptions for the presentations. My eyes land on a slightly white solid in a bottle labeled succinimidyl ester-methoxy polyethylene glycol, this is what I emailed Carther about and never got an answer.
Just to preface I have never stolen in my life and I really don't want to make a habit of it but I feel like it calls for it.
My eyes are locked on the substance until I feel this man’s hand slip further down to cup my ass. I freeze. I am about to turn around to tell this man off when I hear Huxley’s voice boom from behind me.
“What the fuck are you doing” I whip around and feel the old man slip his hand around my waist. I am now turned away from the table with my legs resting against its edge. The man holding my waist speaks up
“Hey man, just walk away.” he winks at Liam like they have some sort of unspoken understanding. I can see Liam's eyes go back to the black colour
“Back the fuck off” Huxley says as stocks twords the man holding me. He drops his arm and steps in front of me. I roll my eyes since apparently this old man thinks I'm going back to his hotel room. While Huxley and this old man who I now realize I never got the name of continue to bicker, I reach my hands behind my back, keep my expression blank and feel around for the little clear bottle of succinimidyl ester-methoxy polyethylene glycol I saw earlier. When I finally feel my hands grasp around it I place my arms at my side, step slightly over so I am fully blocked from Huxley by the old man and I lift my arms to let the bottle drop down my shirt to rest between my breasts. I then move back over to clear my throat loud enough so both of the men look back at me.
“Why are you here Huxley?” I say crossing my arms and looking into his eyes. They immediately soften back to that green colour and he opens his mouth to say
“He had his hand on your ass” Well, that stunned me for a second. I just stood there looking at him. The old man looked between both of us multiple times and finally spoke up
“Yea not worth it” he turned around and walked away leaving us alone again.
“Why the fuck would you let him touch your ass” he said clenching and unclenching his jaw.
“Why do you care?” I say taking a step closer to him
“I don’t”
I roll my eyes
“Well you seemed awfully interested in it” I dare another step closer to him, we are about arms length away from each other now.
“Why did you come back here with him?” he asks defeatedly
“I told you why Huxley” I look down at my feet now feeling sorta like I sold myself for the bottle resting between my tits.
“I told you to call me Liam” he says as he closes the gap between us. I look up at him to see he is already staring back at me. I see his hand lift from the corner of my eye and come to caress down from my shoulder to my forearm. He then slides his hand around my waist and looks down at my lips.
“Liam” I say in a whisper. He leans down so our mouths are inches from each other. I close my eyes and move just a little closer. Immediately everything falls to pieces, I feel his grip get slightly too tight and my eyes shoot open to see two big black orbs staring back at me. I stumble out of his grip and shake my head, closing my eyes and clearing my vision. When I open my eyes I see my Huxley standing there looking hurt and so confused. I immediately turn around and dash out of the hall looking for fresh air. When I burst out of the two enormous doors enclosing the banquet I hear a new comforting voice from beside me.
“Finally had enough?” Vee says from a bench outside the hall
“Ugh Vee you have no clue how happy I am to see you, I could use that drink right about now” she laughs and stands up outstretching her hand for me to take. I grab it and she leads me though just about the entire hotel before we get to a door that is labeled Staff Only.
She knocks an intricate rhythmic pattern and the door swings open. A guy that looks about our age is standing behind the door. He is a little taller than me and has a mop of curly blonde hair sitting on his head. He turns his bright blue eyes to me, smiles and says
“Vee you spoil me” she immediately slaps his chest and responds with
“She is a new friend you dork, she hates those stupid science banquits as much as us” Vee looks at me and smiles
“This is Oliver, he’s the one who can hook us up with the drinks” I smile back at Oliver but he is glowering at Vee.
“Vee I told you to stop telling people that, I’m not giving you free shit” I look over at Vee to see her with a grin across her face.
“Please… for me” Vee says in a flirty way, which apparently works because he takes the most dramatic sigh and opens the door wider to let us both in.
We walk into what looks like a glorified storage closet, my jaw drops when I look around and see every single wall stacked to the top with bottles of various booze. This is going to turn out to be a fun night indeed.