Strawberry Champagne

It was very easy to fall into the trap of friendly behavior. As Nick Walters stood near the gazebo, he watched his father lure numerous people into that trap. They would mistake the twinkle in his eyes as acknowledgment when it was in fact just a tactic to lure them into a false sense of equality to the most powerful man in the Parlis Bay. But friendliness wasn't the only strategy of Michael Walters, he understood that he must be versatile with his actions and implement intimidation where necessary. After all, even his closest friends knew that the self-made business tycoon was not to be trifled with. He counted on his respectable status and the fear of crossing him to keep him fixed in the spot he had worked for for the majority of his life. 'Every man has a price', he would tell Nick, hoping that one day his eldest and only son would take over the business and become his biggest support. Although his hopes were seemingly getting crushed, all attempts at salvation futile, Nick still paid mind to his fathers' words. If every person had a price, then they could be bought; he just needed to be clever enough to find out that price, and the world would be in his hands.

For now, however, he had no intentions to begin his plan of aforementioned world domination and his mind was fixated on finishing his glass of champagne so he could move on to the next one. He knew that fogging his mind was the only way he would be able to get through the product launch party that his father had thrown, inviting the entire company as well as important partners in the industry. The event was strictly formal and the 19-year-old had soon gotten bored of the proceedings.

He was somewhat envious of his father who had spent most of the night constantly mingling with people, his charming smile never leaving his face with Nick's stepmother, Samantha, on his arm. His youngest sister, Stacie sat at a table a few feet away from him, using her phone while Sarah, who was the second to Nick, was seemingly nowhere to be found. He felt quite envious at their privilege of not having to deal with any sort of strict expectations thrust upon them and he quickly downed the rest of his drink at the bitter thought.

Glancing at his father again, his heart jumped as their eyes met, a disappointed look in the man's deep blue eyes that were identical to Nick's. He gulped before walking over to Michael, a lame attempt at pleasing him.

The disappointed look was gone as fast as it had appeared, replaced with an even bigger smile on Michael's face as Nick greeted the couple he had been speaking with. Now that he could see them up close, he could finally recognize his father's closest friend, Thomas Pierce, and his wife Cheryl. Michael and Thomas had known each other since college in Washington after living on the same island for their entire lives. Coming from different circles, they had never had the chance to interact before but had formed a close friendship in college and Thomas had funded Michaels' first project which had projected him into success. And only a few months back, they had both signed a partnership that allowed their companies to work together and reap double the reward.

Although his father loved and admired the couple and their two daughters', Nick had found numerous things that always seemed to piss him off about the Pierces'. Starting with how Thomas seemed to always insist on calling Nick by his first name despite being the only person to do so.

"Michael's telling me you're planning on spending the whole summer in the Parlis Bay, Nicholas."

Nick stifled an eye roll before curtly replying, "Yeah, I'm gonna be here."

"Going back to college in the fall then?"

The awkward smile dropped from Nick's face as he struggled to reply. Even Michael seemed to tense up at the seemingly innocent question; if it weren't for the fact that Michael's friend was just as conniving as him.

Cheryl, however, seemed to feed off the awkward silence as she chuckled at her husband, "Don't be silly, Thomas. Nick dropped out remember?"

There's the cursed detail that Thomas had conveniently 'forgotten'. It seemed that Nick's hopes at not having to face the uncomfortable topic were immediately diminished. He wondered how many people would ask him the same question tonight.

"Oh, right. Of course, I almost forgot," Thomas' smile was almost mocking, "UC Davis didn't work out then?"

Nick gave a tight-lipped smile before shrugging, ignoring the burning stare his father was sending his way, "It wasn't for me, I guess."

"Yes, it's not for everyone," Michael said, his words holding a slight iciness to them.

Samantha was used to the bitter atmosphere that seemed to come with the topic of Nick's dropping out and was quite adept at diffusing the situation as she quickly asked, "Where are your girls though? I haven't seen them all night."

"I think they're with Sarah in the private gardens," Cheryl made a non-committal gesture with her hand, "Something about Instagram pictures, you know kids these days."

"Of course," Michael was just as quick to steer the conversation in a different route, "Nick, why don't you go get them?"

Nick was more than grateful to leave the stifling interaction and he immediately nodded and headed in the direction of the main building that led access to the private gardens. He wasn't jumping at the opportunity of having to interact with the Pierce sisters. The older one, Madison, was the over-achiever that Thomas and Cheryl had turned into the poster child of their family while the younger, Heidi, was close friends with Sarah as they were both the same age. His father was completely smitten with Madison as she was everything that he had wanted Nick to be, which was enough for the girl to get on his every nerve without even meaning to.

As he finally emerged in the garden, he began to walk down a narrow stone path with an overhanging arch covered in ivy that led deeper into the small yard. Laughter reached his ears where the stone path ended and he turned his head to see his sister posing with the bane of his existence next to a fountain while Heidi knelt on the ground a few feet away with the camera.

The girls hadn't noticed him yet so he took the chance to look at Madison because there had always seemed to be something that ticked him off about the girl. Wrapped in a long blue satin dress, her dark brown hair was straightened and left down and her face was embellished in makeup that only made her features stand out even more. Madison was looking effortlessly beautiful, that much Nick could admit to himself, but he still couldn't place his finger on what was off about the golden girl.

Once he realized that whatever it was he couldn't figure it out, he finally decided to reveal his presence to the three unaware girls.

"Sarah," he called out to her, making them all turn to look at him.

"Nick?" Sarah furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before rolling her eyes, "Can you like leave? We're kinda busy here."

Nick bit back a cruel remark, "Dad wants all three of you back at the party right now."

That's when Heidi decided to join the conversation as she stood up, putting her hand on her waist, "And you're what? His errand boy?"

"How about you watch your tongue, Heidi?"

"Hey, if the shoe fits," she shrugged.

Nick clenched his jaw before opening his mouth to respond but Madison quickly jumped in.

"Can you both stop?" she gave her sister a pointed look before meeting his eyes, "We're coming, Nick."

"No, you see I'm supposed to 'bring' you so I can't just go back empty-handed," Nick mockingly explained, knowing that he was making the three girls angry and enjoying it. Sarah just looked irritated while Heidi had a murderous look on her face. Madison judged him for a few seconds before she seemed to take hold of her feelings and huffed out a breath.

"Fine, do we have enough?"

Heidi seemed like she wanted to say something else but held back, "I guess but this place is giving me a lot of ideas for some really cool shots."

"I'll bring you back some other day, I promise," Madison told her, making Nick roll his eyes.

Sarah reached towards the camera in Heidi's hands, "Can I see the last one we took?"

And just like that, the girls had completely tuned out Nick, behaving as he wasn't walking three steps behind them. He didn't mind it, there wasn't any sort of friendly conversation that he wanted to strike up with any of them.

He knew that out of the two sisters, Madison was the more patient one but he had noticed that she seemed to be holding a lot back during their interactions and he couldn't decide if it was because she was just as irritated by him as he was of her or if he had done something to make her hate him. But it didn't matter either way. Their interactions had been severely limited during high school as he was a year ahead of her and because Madison rarely came to parties or if she did, she never came to the ones that Nick was at, and he was very comfortable with the fact that now that she had graduated and was probably going off to college, the chances were even more unlikely.