April's POV

I dug my feet into the ground but Aiden had already swung the door open and sunlight streamed inside, momentarily blinding me. I turned to Aiden desperately. He wasn't smiling.

Several groups of people stopped and stared at us – I cringed away from the eyes and drew in close to Aiden, my anger fading quickly. I was alone before. I was completely alone now. I felt myself retreating back inside, but Aiden's hand had settled comfortably around my wrist. I felt better now that Aiden was here, comforted – protected even. Almost immediately people began swimming around us and I tried to smile and look poised.

"Hi!"

"It's nice to meet you."

"What's your name?"

Questions flew around my head – my mind was blank. Aiden drew me away from the crowd and towards the gardens. I sighed in relief and looked to him, but his expression was angry.

"What was that?" He whispered, his hands releasing me to run through his hair in frustration.

My expression changed. "What do you mean, what was that?"

"I told you not to freak out and you freaked out!"

"I'm not good with meeting new people, I told you that! Yet you still let all these people crowd us all at once." I glared at him angrily.

He shut his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. He forced a smile. "April, there's people watching, act nice." He said softly, lips curving downwards unhappily. We stayed in an angry silence for several minutes, until he broke it.

"Okay look, I'm sorry. I'll play nice." He said, turning away from me slightly as he did so.

An involuntary smile threatened my lips, but I was determined not to show him any grace. "What did you just say?" I asked, pretending to be oblivious to the fact that Aiden, yes Aiden had just apologized to me.

"You know what I said," he growled, rubbing his neck awkwardly.

"You should apologize more, Aiden."

"Now why would I do that?" He snapped.

"Because you're an asshole. And apologizing just makes you a little more bearable to be around." I snapped back.

Glancing away from him irately, I saw an assortment of drinks on the table ahead of us. "Can I at least get a drink, Your Highness?" I muttered under my breath, frustrated at Aiden's stupid desire to control my every move.

"You really are something you know that? You change the topic, just like this," he clicked his fingers. "I'll get you some in a minute. But for now, come on." He slung his arm around my waist and I tensed at the close contact. I didn't want him touching me after I saw him with that girl.

Aiden began introducing me to many people after that but I stayed quiet, smiling and introducing myself shortly. Many of them looked intimidating – and that just made the whole experience worse. But once we'd been introduced, they would all simultaneously smile and look much more human. Curiosity got the better of me and I asked Aiden several questions about the people here.

As Aiden was talking to an young teenage girl, his cousin I guessed, I spotted Beau. He waved frantically at me, blue eyes ablaze - I don't think I'd ever seen Beau not smile. It was a beautiful sight to behold. I let out a sigh of relief and unlatched Aiden's arm, excusing myself before walking away from him.

"Where are you going?"

"To Beau," I replied, looking back over my shoulder at him.

I finally reached Beau and collapsed onto a sun bed in the corner. Shadows concealed me and I felt pressure on the other side of the sun bed from where Beau had sat down. His stare burned into the side of my face.

"You look really pretty today, April." Beau commented and I could feel rather than see his smile. I looked downwards and entangled my fingers together.

"Don't I always." I grinned.

"No, not really."

"Hey!" I spluttered, laughing at his expression. He grinned back at me and fell back in the seat, laughing before sobering up and looking at me more seriously.

"Dude, making you laugh is such an achievement - it's awesome knowing you can make the great April Evans crack a smile – you look so much more welcoming when you do."

"Thanks, I guess." I trailed off. I don't do compliment very well – it always makes things more awkward than it already is.

"You don't take praise very well do you?" He asked chuckling. "And if you don't smile for me, I'm going to have to whip out a wok and make Pasta a La Beau again," he warned. I snorted, remembering the incident and gestured for him to join the party, shooting him my best cheesy grin.

He pressed my shoulder gratefully and turned to leave. I looked down at my hands again feeling utterly alone. "April. For the record, Aiden never listens to anyone and the fact that he listened to you... Well, that says a lot." Beau said softly.

Then, I felt a dark shadow looming over me and I glanced up and saw a pink lemonade dancing in front of my face. Aiden appeared behind it, cigarette at hand, balancing delicately between his long fingers. I pursed my lips – I detest smoking. He chewed on his lip as though debating what to do and finally threw his cigarette on the ground, crushing it.

"You look depressed."

"Thanks." I replied dryly, my voice lapsing into a weird Texan accent and I frowned at myself. Aiden sat down next to me and I looked away from him uncomfortably. "Sorry," I said quickly, clearing my throat so my voice went back to normal.

"Do you like accents?" Aiden asked slowly. I noticed that Aiden was very perceptive - he didn't speak very much in some situations; he simply observed and judged - he noticed little things, imperceptible things that shouldn't matter but do.

"I guess so," I replied, scrunching up my forehead as I struggled to remember my best accents. He looked around making sure no-one was around and leaned back against the wall.

Aiden coughed awkwardly. "Hello ma'am would you like some tea?" Aiden started, imitating a lame British accent. My face dropped.

"You – ar – are so bad!" I gasped between splutters of laughter.

"I'd like to see you do my accent!" He retorted, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Okay fine!" I cleared my throat. "Hey, my name's Aiden and I'm an asshole. I just walk around with this giant stick up my ass and I hate everyone." Even I admitted I sounded nothing like him. He smiled. Actually smiled – not smirked – smiled. His eyes lit up as he did so, a beautiful forest-green, like sunlight breaking through a canopy - his expression was still closely guarded, but the crinkles near his eyes as he smiled made him seem a lot younger and innocent. My defenses against him dropped as soon as he did – I couldn't help but grin back.

"That was bad."

"I know," I mused, rubbing my chin thoughtfully. "Do you want to hear some more accents? I can do a mean Australian accent," I asked hopefully, sitting up.

He groaned. "Do I have to?"

"Well you started it." " I replied. He let out a dramatic sigh and gestured for me to begin. I took a huge breath and launched into my accents. I did my Irish, French, Geordie and German - they were perfect. But Aiden kept laughing at my attempts, making me break character to shove him in the ribs and scowl at him. I didn't want to keep recalling Aiden's mishap earlier with that girl, but every time I laughed at him, my defenses slipping away, I quickly sobered. I needed to remember he was an asshole. His nicety was false. He was using me for his own benefit and nothing else. Maybe he was just being nice to cajole me into forgiving him for his slip up.

But I couldn.'t.

Because he was hypocritical jerk. And he had too much power over me so I couldn't even protest about it. Why was he with that girl? Why was he so concerned with me knowing - it wasn't as though Aiden meant anything to me at all. He didn't. He couldn't.

Aiden's voice snapped me out my reverie. "Be ready for tomorrow April. You can't mess up like you did today." His warning changed the mood completely.

As he walked away, my smile dropped and I was snapped back to reality. Our rare moment of being together and not wanting to snap each other's heads off was over. I stood up suddenly, glancing over to Emma, absent-mindedly ambling over to her, still thinking about what he had said. I couldn't mess up with Aiden's father tomorrow. My fate (as dramatic as it sounds) depends on him believing I loved Aiden.

After standing with Diego and Emma for 10 minutes, doing nothing but nodding my head at what they were saying, I went back inside. I was desperate for some food. My head was tilted upwards towards the ceiling and I followed the stars with my eyes when I crashed into something and stumbled backwards. My head snapped up, expecting to see a smirking Aiden, but instead I was met with mossy, green eyes.

A young guy with dark hair and a casual button down top stared back at me. He looked eerily like... no, it can't be. I shook my head, clearing my thoughts and shot him a small smile, muttering an apology and side-stepped him, following the smell of food. An arm stopped me and I looked up, confused. His mouth was hanging open slightly in amusement.

"So, you're my little brother's mate."

"Huh?" Was my only stupid response.

AN: I love reading comments so drop one on the chapter or any of the other chapters, I'l still see them and reply or send me a message!