*THE HOLLEN SERIES 03*
👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦EPISODE 03👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻
*👁🗨 MORE THAN FRIENDS 👁🗨*
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻
Zenia’s POV
“Shhh. She’ll go away,” he whispered in my ear and pu-ll-ed me against his steel che-st again.
“St©p it EJ!” I said in a loud whisper, pu-lling away from him before rushing my palms up and down my dress, adjusting and smoothing it.
“Hello,” Mrs. Hollen said again and another knock followed outside the door.
“I’M IN HERE!” I yelled.
“Zenia, is that you?” she asked.
“Yes Mrs. Hollen, and I’ll be in here for a while.” My face flu-shed with embarras-sment but I would have literally said anything to prevent her from waiting outside that door.
“Okay sweetie. I’ll just use another one.”
I heard the sound of her heels, cl!çk!ng on the polished marble as she walked away.
I heaved a long sigh and slide down against the bathroom door as EJ lightly chuckled like if the situation had been an amusement show to him.
“It’s not funny EJ. What if you hadn’t locked the door and she had walked in on us?”
“Well she would have saw her son being a man.”
I narrowed my eyes at him deadly and stood up. I unlocked the bathroom door and peered out, ma-king certain the coast was clear before stepping out.
~
I walked out the bathroom and walked directly into my sister.
“I’ve been looking all over for you. Where have you been?”
“Umm.. bathroom,” I stuttered to give a reply.
Her eyes trailed above my head and st©pped at a figure behind me. Her eyebrows raised with a questioning look on her face.
I turned on my heel and f0rç£d a smile at EJ.
“Hi EJ,” Jasmine said, waving at him.
“Hi Jasmine,” he responded.
He walked closer to me with a sm-irk on hisl-ips. “I’ll see you outside,” he said softly in my ear. His manly scent taunting me as he moved away.
~
“Are you and EJ involved?” Jasmine shook me from my trance.
“What? No, we’re just friends.”
“Zenia, plea-se don’t be a fool. By the looks in that boy’s eyes, I can tell he really likes you.”
“I know that Jasmine but EJ knows where the line is drawn between him and I. We’re friends.”
I moved pas-sed her but her arm reflexes quic-kly and bought me right back to where I was standing. In front of her.
“I’m not done with you as yet.”
I mentally rolled my eyes.
Sometimes, the bigger sibling could be such a pain in the as-s.
“What is it now?”
“My son used some very ‘colorful’ words over dinner yesterday and I was wondering where on earth he could have heard such obscenities.”
Oh fv¢k!
“Oh really? What happened?” I asked innocently, fidgeting with the details on my dress.
“We were having dinner and Jevan accidentally knocked over his food container. He stared down at it before saying Oh fv¢k. Kill me. Have you been cursing around my child Zenia?”
I tried by I couldn’t contained the laughter. I laughed until tears sli-pped out my eyes.
After I finally managed to compose myself and got my breath back, I told her why he repeated those words.
“I’m sorry, I had no idea those words were still registered in his head. I was using my digital notepad and some stuff got deleted by mistake.
I used the ‘F word’ and then he started repeating it. I immediately scolded him. I told him that you’ll kill me if you heard him using that word.
Then he started repeating ’Kill me. Kill me.”
Jasmine cracked up. “I don’t know why but he has the tendency of picking and repeating foul words from a complete statement.”
We threw our arms around each other’s n£¢ks as we walked back into the yard for the p@rty.
__________________
My eyes scanned for EJ throu-gh the now thick crowd. It seemed like more people had arrived while I was locked in the bathroom with him.
“Are you looking for him?” Jasmine asked beside to me.
“Who?”
“EJ.”
“No.”
“Would you st©p lying to yourself and just try giving him a chance. He’s a really great young man once you get to know him.”
“Jas, we’re just friends. I said that before and I’ll say it again. F-R-I-E-N-D-S. Friends.”
“I can tell you’re guarded and your walls are built. But you just might push that guy away from you for good.”
“And so what?”
“Okay Zenia, Let’s just hope you don’t eat your own words.”
She walked away and I watched the back of her head until she approached her fiance.
I turned in the direction of the bar, re-moved my heels and walked up to the kind face bartender for a glas-s of wine.
As I headed my glas-s, I felt the bas-s of music causing an effect on my h!pso I began shaking to the rhythm and the beat of wo-bble wo-bble by V. I. C. The Disc Jockey had repl@yit again.
I was so in tuned with the music that I didn’t noticed EJ walking towards him. He t©uçhed my arm, catching my attention.
b!tt!g his bo-ttoml!pand ma-king his eyes sparkled like if he had total control on ma-king them do such, he s£nt a shiver down my spine.
He was handsome. His V line T-shi-t was pure white and simple. His black faded jeans made him look chilled and the white pair of sneakers completed his look. His gold Rolex stood out on his wrist and his overall look, actually proved he was worthy.
“Hey,” I said, settling myself.
His eyes roamed my b©dy.
“Where are your shoes again?” he asked as his eyes landed on my feet.
“Somewhere over there.” I pointed in a direction I doubted my shoes were even in.
“Shall we dance then?”
“No EJ.” I gently pushed against his che-st but he caught my hands in his and planted a k!sson them.
He is such a ro-mantic.
After declining his proposal on dancing with him, he went over to Jasmine and Evan.
My feet grew tired so I flopped down on a nearby chair on the lawn and strolled throu-gh my cellphone looking at clothing lines for inspiration.
_____________
After thirty minutes of sitting, my eyes searched for EJ again.
The crowd had less£ned and he was easily sp©tted talking with my sister and his brother with a young lady leaning against his arm.
WHAT THE HELL !!
“Who the hell is she?” I asked aloud, without the intentions of anyone hearing me.
“Oh that’s Madison. She had been friends with EJ since preschool,” Mr. Hollen -EJ’s father answered.
He was standing right behind me and I wasn’t even aware.
“Oh,” I stupidly responded.
“Maybe you should go over and say hi.”
“Sure,” I answered.
I emptied my glas-s of wine before heading over to them.
Blood coming to a boil by the seconds as my feet carried me closer and closer.
THE HOLLEN SERIES 03*
👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦EPISODE 04👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻
*👁🗨 MORE THAN FRIENDS 👁🗨*
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻
Zenia’s POV
“EJ was always so adorable.” I caught Madison said as I got closer to them. “And he’s so funny.”
The hell!
Jasmine’s eyes landed on me as I stood next to her. She was standing opposite EJ and Madison, with Evan on her right side so I stood on her left.
“Oh Zenia, this is Madison. My most favorite person in the world.”
Most favorite person?
“Madison, this is Zenia.”
Just Zenia?
“Hi,” Madison greeted, extending a hand to me while the other one was still placed on the arm of EJ.
“Hi,” I answered back with a weak smile, shaking her hand while the dark voice was screaming ‘break her hand’ at the back of my head.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you Zenia. I’ve heard so much about you and I was so excited to finally meet you and now I have, I’m thri-lled.” She sounded like she had been planning on saying that her whole life.
“Oh I wish I could say the same,” I said back with a fake chuckle which made me earned a look from my big sister.
“Oh well ummm…. Jasmine, I accept.” Madison then turned her attention to Jasmine.
“I’m sorry, what do you accept?” I asked, knowing I was lost because I didn’t caught all details from the early conversation between them.
“Jasmine wants Madison to be one of the bridesmaids for the wedding,” EJ clarified.
I was trying my best to compose my anger because I had alre-ady given the impression that I didn’t have any feelings for and towards EJ.
But seeing another girl, hooked up to him and not letting go her hand from his beautiful arm, was doing something to me.
A wrecking feeling boiled around in the pit of my stomach, waiting to be erupted by the slightest annoyance of Madison.
I had no idea who she was but EJ was definitely warmed up to her.
“Zenia, can I plea-se speak with you? A little Girl-To-Girl chat in pri-vate?” Madison asked.
“Umm, okay,” I responded.
~
We slowly walked to the very back of the hvge mansion where a very big swimming pool was visible but secretly surrounded by trees.
We sat down at the pool, allowing only our feet into the water.
“Zenia. That’s a really lovely name. What does it mean?” She broke the awkward silence between us.
“It’s actually a flower.”
“Oh. Like your sister’s name is Jasmine as in the flower also. That’s so awesome. Does your mom love flowers?”
“At one point.”
“That’s great.”
“What is it that you really wanted to talk about? I highly doubt you only wanted to know the origin of my name.”
“Zenia, I know you don’t know anything about me but I feel like we could connect with each other and I’m really hoping we could be friends.
EJ and I go way back. Preschool to be precise. We’ve been inseparable and shared a bond like no other but all that changed when my family ran into financial difficulties and I was f0rç£d into moving away from next door EJ.”
bit-ch used to live right next to him?
“When I moved, we lost t©uçh with each other, you know? I tried reaching out to him continuously but I failed and we grew ap@rt. I knew he had his own life to live and he’s a guy after all.”
She gave a light feminine laugh as she pla-yfully pushed my shoulder.
“Why are you telling me all this?” I finally asked her. I wasn’t one for empathy so I wouldn’t pretend I actually give a damn about her and her personal issues.
“I’m telling you this because EJ is a really nice guy and I can tell he alre-ady has a stronger connection with you. All he talks about, is you.”
Oh, she’s trying to put in the good words for her friend.
“Oh well,” I said and as a plea-sing smile crept to my face.
“I think we should work together. We’ll make a perfect team.”
“Work together to do what exactly?” I narrowed my eyes at her as I took her in.
She was pretty in the face and one wouldn’t get bored just looking at her.
Her beautiful creamed skin screamed perfection and her green eyes possessed traces of gold around the pupil.
Her hair was dark brown hair and was cut in a stylish Bob which fell loosely around her n£¢k.
She was just pretty.
“Lets work together on getting EJ back to me. I had always love him.”
I most fell into the pool.
______________________
Ethan Junior’s POV
“You do know that very soon you’ll be starting work at HT, little brother so you nee-d to be prepared.
You’ve alre-ady finished your college courses and I’m so proud you accomplished that at only twenty years old.
Took me two years more than you.”
Evan and I shared a laugh and he manly patted me on the back.
I knew someday I would be the COO of Hollen Tower. It was all dad ever talked about and molded me on becoming.
In high school, I was the straight ‘A’ but popular guy. I knew I made my parents proud and I was patiently awaiting the day for dad to tell me I’ll be beginning my COO duties at his company.
He was only hesitant because he knew I would move out from his house, purchase my own, and he wouldn’t be able to see me as regular as he wished.
___________
As Evan and I talked about the company and my upcoming responsibilities, Zenia walked up to me.
“Hey, are you okay?” I asked, looking at her face and her slumped b©dy language.
“Yeah I’m fine. Can I talk to you for a quic-k sec?” she asked.
“Sure.”
Excusing ourselves, we walked un-derneath a nearby tree.
“What’s up?”
“I just had a conversation with Madison and she wanted me to talk to you.”
“About what?” I pu-ll-ed her onto my che-st. I always nee-ded to feel her against me when she was in my pres£nce.
“She said she was in love with you.”
A chuckle escaped myl-ips.
“Really?”
“Yes really. Do you love her back?” I s-en-sed a hit of jealousy from her statement.
“I was always expecting her to fall in love with me.” I pla-yed.
Her eyes flared at me and she quic-kly turned on her heel to dep@rt but I pu-ll-ed her back to me.
I lowered my head and claimed herl-ips into mine, p@rting them with my ton-gue to gain access into her wine -tasted mouth.
She responded slowly but surely and when our ton-gues wra-pped with each other, I felt sparks shooting up from inside me.
“No. We can’t.” Her voice croaked out before pushing me away from her.
She turned around quic-kly again and took off running towards the large tent where the dinner was alre-ady being served.
________________
Zenia’s POV
We just shared a k!ss!
EJ and I k!$$£d!
It was just a breath-taking moment but after telling Madison I had no feelings for him and that we were only friends so I’ll talk to him in her favor, I felt like I was betraying her alre-ady, although I didn’t knew her.
~
Dinner was being served when I arrived at the table.
I found a seat next to Madison.
“Hey, did you talk to him?” she leaned in and asked in a low tone.
“Yes I did.” I answered in a tone to match hers.
“And?”
“He said he’ll think about it.”
“When exactly did he said that? Before or after you k!$$£d him?”
Damn it!
Feeling embarras-sed and ashamed, I gr@bb£d a bottle of wine on the table and pu-ll-ed myself off the chair, all pair of eyes on me.
I drank the entire bottle of wine by myself in the darkness of night by the poolside.
TO BE CONTINUED…..