She's Beautiful

 Lyris laid back on the bed and scratched the top of his head.

 "Why are you with that guy anyways? He's an evil person, that's his aura. I can feel it, you know, people's auras. Animals are good at that. We can always tell who is good and who is bad."

 "I don't have much of a choice." Camille said, taking a seat next to him and resting her head on her hand.

 "Of course you have a choice! Everyone has a choice. Even if you said yes initially and you're regretting it now, you can change your mind. You can say no and back out of it. That guy is no good, believe me."

 Camille sighed, "I believe you. I feel the same way, but even still, I can't just break it off."

 "Why not? That doesn't make any sense! I don't even get why you were with the guy in the first place."

 Camille understood what Lyris was saying, his confusion was completely valid as she too despised being with him.

At times she also wanted to run away from Neil and never look back, but that unfortunately wasn't an option for her now.

She also understood why he would be curious as to the reason she and Neil even got together in the first place.

Camille thought back to when she was young.

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 "Ew! You're so ugly! Look at your hair! Ew!" A few of the kids in Camille's class pointed at her and laughed as she stood there crying.

 She was about the age of 8 years old, her hair was put into sloppy braids. One was bigger than the other, and strands of hair had been left out of the do altogether.

 Weird lumps appeared in the middle of them and the bright pink rubber bands on the ends were lopsided.

 Her mother had just passed away, and it was her first time coming back to school since the tragic accident.

 Since her mother was no longer there to do her hair, her father had taken up the role and done it for her that morning.

 It was his first time ever dealing with his daughter's hair, and, although he tried his best, his lack of experience was painfully obvious.

 A little boy with black hair suddenly ran up as Camille had her head buried in her hands, tears dripping off her fingers, and stood in front of her.

 He held his hands out and with a stern look on his face yelled, "Shut up!"

 Camille looked up, tears still rolling down her face.

 It was Neil.

"She's the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world, so shut up!"

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 There was another moment that she instantly thought of.

 A time when they were much, much older.

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 Camille stood with a champagne flute in her hand, her brown hair straight down her back and straight cut-across bangs.

 The champagne flute, of course, was filled with sparkling cider; appropriate for the 16-year-old.

 She wore an emerald green, poofy dress that came up to her knees, with a white faux fur pelerine.

 Her fingers were decorated with diamond and emerald rings which matched her earrings, bracelet and necklace.

 It was her father's company's Christmas party, and many of their family friends and employees were in attendance along with their children.

 She'd been waiting for Neil to arrive, searching desperately through the crowd and continuously glancing at the door.

 A boy her age suddenly approached, blocking her view of the door, with a large smile on his face.

 He was the son of her father's financial advisor, both were total sleezebags, in her opinion.

 She rolled her eyes and turned away from him, taking a sip of her cider as she silently prayed Neil would get there soon.

 "Hey babe, what's going on? You feeling quiet tonight? What? You on your period or something?"

 Camille rolled her eyes again, this time coupled with a disgusted look on her face.

 "Go away….I'm not interested." She said as she took a step away.

 "Hey! I'm just concerned for you. Don't you girls like shit like this?" He grabbed onto her arm and yanked her backwards, causing her to spill some of her drink.

 "My dress!" Camille looked down at the darkened green spots on her dress and attempted to brush them off.

 "Who cares about your dress? Why are you women so materialistic? It's just liquid, it's not going to hurt you." He was beginning to sound more and more irritated.

 "Go away, I said!" Camille said as she grabbed a napkin from the table next to her.

 He grabbed onto her wrist and attempted to pull her along with him, "Come on babe, let's go to the bathroom then and get you cleaned up."

 "Let go of me!" Camille pushed her body backwards, attempting to counteract the force of his pulling, while simultaneously trying to pry his hand off of her.

 Suddenly, another hand landed on top of his.

 "Let her go. She said to go away." It was Neil, and he was glaring daggers into the other male.

 Knowing the power that Neil's father had, the boy threw his hands in the air and quickly scampered off.

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 Once her savior, now her enemy, Camille should have left him long ago, but things weren't as simple as they seemed.

 "Well," Camille began, "my father used to be very rich. I met Neil when I was very young because our parents were acquainted. Later on, our parents grew closer and so did we. One day, my father's financial advisor ran off with most of the company's funds. My father ended up making some bad investments too while he was trying to recoup his losses. Our family went bankrupt and my father arranged a marriage to Neil to make sure I was taken care of. Since we were already good friends, it seemed like the best choice for me."

 She shrugged. There wasn't much more to say about the reason behind why they entered into an agreement to get married.

 Although she had originally agreed to it because she at one point, long ago in the past, had romantic feelings for Neil, those feelings had faded away even before she had agreed to it.

 "Oh? So, it's only for the money, huh? Is that what you care about? Money? I'm disappointed. I guess, I got it wrong about you. I thought you were a good girl, but you're willing to risk your safety for some cash."

 Camille jumped off the bed and whipped her head around to glare at Lyris. She was fuming.

 "How dare you! I don't care about money! That's not what this is about!"

 "Oh, isn't it though? You're engaged to him, for money. You work at a job you hate, for, I assume, money. You refuse to leave him, because leaving him means leaving your big cash out, right? I mean, I would get if he at least treated you well, but even your safety is at risk."

 Camille clenched her fists and took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she exhaled, tossing away her anger and frustration.

 "Admittedly, I'm a little bit nervous now around Neil. He's never been physically aggressive with me before. It's really unlike him. I'm sure I'll be fine though. He's probably just overly stressed with something. This isn't normal for him."

 Lyris sat up and stared, "So I'm right about the paycheck thing."

 She shook her head and furrowed her eyebrows, "Absolutely not. If I really cared about luxury goods and living in a nice place, I would live in a much better apartment than this!"

 Camille motioned around at her home.

 Her bedroom was small and cramped with her queen-sized bed taking up most of the space and two nightstands on either side of it. There was a vanity next to the door with a small wooden chair sitting in front of it.

 Two doors were across from the bed, one leading to her closet, the other leading into her living room.

 The window next to her bed looked out at a brick wall and fire escape – the side of the neighboring building.

 Despite looking like a fresh coat of paint had been applied to the walls, it appeared that evidence of water damage was peeking through in the far-left corner of the room.

 Wood on the windowsill looked to be chipping off as well upon closer inspection.

 Lyris' shoulders slumped. Perhaps he WAS incorrect.

 "So? Then, why? Why do you stay with him? It can't JUST be because of what you said before. There has to be another reason that you're avoiding breaking it off with him."

 Camille bit her lip. He was right, there was another reason, a huge reason.

 It was something she didn't really want to admit, because admitting it made her feel even more trapped somehow.

 Yet, she could tell that Lyris wasn't going to let her off until she told him.

 "Since arranging our marriage….my father passed away. It was his dying wish that I marry Neil, so I have to stick with it…"