| 010. The Invitations |

  Malachai's birthday was the first social engagement of each academic year. When the email notifying the flats of the annual invasion arrived in her inbox, Xenia felt her stomach drop out. A shadow fell over her, and she looked up at Leo. His lips parted in shock, and she quickly threw a hand up over her face. But it was too late. He’d already seen her ridiculous blush.

  "I didn't realise you would all open up the flats to the whole school for birthdays," Brandy said excitedly clapping her hands.

  "It's always eventful," Jung-hee muttered, glancing briefly at Neil. "But it's only part one of the festivities." Brandy looked confused. "Since Malachai is turning eighteen, he'll be entitled to a portion of his inheritance."

  “I see,” Brandy said, although she didn’t really.

  “He'll probably have a more formal event arranged by his family, with lots of networking opportunities,” Phillip explained.

  "What I'm hearing," Brandy said looking at Jung-hee, Jenna and Xenia excitedly, "Is that we need to go shopping."

  Xenia groaned, and Leo quietly started shaking with suppressed laughter. Xenia had never been the type to shop in person. Probably because her mother was obsessed with it. Brandy, on the other hand, seemed the type to try and find the perfect outfit by looking through all the possible stores available.

  "You should go." It took Xenia a moment to register that it was Malachai who had spoken, having appeared on her other side. She looked up at him with a carefully calculated smile of acute pleasantness, with absolutely no unease at all.

  "I didn't realise you had opinions about my outfits," she said, trying to sound off-hand. She could smell his aftershave. It wasn’t helping.

  “Remember that favour you owe me," he said. She stared at him, the picture of intrigue. “If you come to this formal celebration with me, I will consider it written off." Her eyes went wide. His lips twitched into a smirk that disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. "You would be a good candidate, since you know how to dance, and I can rely on you not to embarrass either of us at a corporate event."

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  “I... guess that makes sense,” she said slowly. Then horror dawned as she realised she didn't have any formal evening wear. She'd deliberately left it behind at her parent's home. She looked slowly around at Brandy and Jung-hee. Their smiles were petrifying. Jenna patted Xenia's arm gently. Somehow it felt as if Malachai had deliberately set out to torture her.

  So it was that Xenia spent the better part of four hours walking around the nearby shopping mall as Jung-hee and Brandy pulled Jenna along in their wake like a lightning strike with thunder. Xenia's mood become increasingly sour. Reminded of her mother far too strongly.

  She should have ordered an express delivery of one of the dresses from home. She could have asked her mother or Ashley to buy a dress for her. But that also could have meant getting dragged into a second far worse shopping trip commandeered by one of them. Xenia broke out in a cold sweat.

  In the end, they stood her in front of a mirror and forced her to play dress-up by telling the shopping assistant that the sky was the limit in terms of budget.

  "I feel a little guilty," Brandy confessed as she held up a deep teal A-line gown in front of Xenia.

  "For torturing me," Xenia asked stoically.

  "Oh, not at all," Brandy said with a bright grin. "I could torture you all day! But actually I'm worried I may have teased Phillip about Jessica a little too hard." Xenia blinked. "I mean, he gets very uncomfortable at the idea of us not getting on. I'm worried he might ask her to back off in a knee-jerk reaction."

  "Phillip has never been the spontaneous type," Jung-hee said, shaking her head and waving her hand in dismissal. The next gown was a liquid mirror of silver. "I don't think I've ever seen him have a knee-jerk reaction in all these years."

  "Oh, you'd be surprised," Brandy said. "He used to get terribly possessive about toys when we were kids, and when I wouldn't share, he would throw them over the fence so that neither of us could play with it."

  "That's... s-surprisingly immature," Jenna said. "Are you s-sure?"

  "Oh yes, and on the plus side," Brandy said. "I've gotten really good at climbing over fences."

  Jenna held up an ice blue silk concoction, and Jung-hee melted.

  "This is the one, Xenia. If you wear this, we'll stop."

  Xenia was torn between her wish for it to all be over, and her need to hear more about Phillip and Jessica. But if she tried to draw it out, that would be the most suspicious thing she could do.

  "Didn't he just announce they were dating?" she asked, wrinkling up her face on purpose in reaction to the dress and the idea of shopping further.

  "Yeah, I know," Brandy said with a sigh. "That's why I feel bad. But he was going on about how she was different when she was with him, and I said that made her sound like a walking red flag, and he got all quiet and introspective."

  "I think if we spend anymore time here, I will be the opposite of quiet and introspective," Xenia concluded, feeling her stomach churning with worry. She really hoped Jessica wasn't about to do something stupid.