Chapter 330) The Wrong Girl

Left to our own devices and passions, we human beings have a hard time seeing beyond what is immediately in front of us.

— Gene Robinson

Del Sol Valley
Westview Mansion 
(Home to Blake, Mila, Sheridan, Reed and Cassidy Cameron)

What had started as a fun and casual afternoon at Blake and Mila’s mansion suddenly took an unexpected turn. Everything happened much quicker than it can be told in words.

Blake and Mila had gone out with Liam and Vivien, while their kids and their significant others hung out at the home, split up in two groups.

One consisted of Reed, his wife Cassidy and Nick, who were talking and laughing together under the pergola.

At the same time, just some feet away, Sheridan, her fiancé Reggie, Aria-Grace, Adrianna and Rohan were by the pool.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Sheridan’s voice got loud, Rohan received a slap, then was pushed backwards into the pool without any warning and fully dressed, Aria-Grace and Adrianna screamed and jumped up, then, along with Reggie tried to help pull a completely soaked and coughing Rohan out of the pool.

“Oh no! Rohan, are you okay!? Oh my God!” Aria-Grace fussed about her brother’s best friend, gently pushing his wet hair out of his face and touching his cheeks, his eyes focused on her while she spoke to him, calming and gently.

Adrianna instantly laid into Sheridan about it, Sheri yelled unflattering things back, finishing with

“Just get the heck out of my house and take that dorky creep with you!”

“Who do you think you are!? What in the world is wrong with you!?” shouted Adrianna now, with Rohan getting his bearings about himself next to her, helped by Reggie and Aria-Grace.

“You heard me! This is MY house. Take that Johan-loser, Aria and your stuck-up Italian self and get the hell out!”

Adrianna grabbed Rohan’s arm, and pulled him up and to her, her arm around him protectively as she dragged the still slightly discombobulated young man towards the patio door while yelling phrases in Italian – clearly not terms of endearment – back over her shoulder at Sheri, who was busy dealing with Aria-Grace’s wrath

“OK, couple things: First, I know you are not that smart Sheridan, we all know the only reason you just barely graduated college at all was your big name, big ass, big tits and a lot of help from your brother, but even your sparrow brain should be able to retain that my brother’s best friend’s name is ROHAN, not Johan, and my name is Aria-Grace, not Aria, take the time, okay? If this happens even ONE more time, I’ll get creative with a few new names for you, and believe me, I know how to get shit to go viral. Good luck with your acting career with whatever stigmata I dream up for you! Second, talk like that to Rohan or Addy EVER again and I will make you sorry you were EVER born. Don’t underestimate me!”

“GET. OUT. OF. MY. HOUSE!!!” Sheridan shrieked at Aria-Grace now.

This was when Reed, Cassidy and Nick arrived.

“What the hell is going on over here?” Nick demanded, looking bewildered at his little sister for her odd outburst at their cousin. Everyone who knew the siblings also knew, Nick’s default was always to be on Aria-Grace’s side, unless it was him and her bickering.

“None of your business, Nick! Go back to playing house with the happy mommy and daddy-to-be over there.” Sheridan told him, pointing at her brother and sister-in-law.

“No, Nick, stay and enjoy the ride! Ask our cousin what’s up her ass, cos I was just kicked out of this house by her, along with your girlfriend and best friend, Nick. Deal with this shit or I will come back and deal – and it won’t be pretty! She fucking threw Rohan in the pool for NO REASON AT ALL! Psycho-DSV-Hillbilly-Bitch!” Aria-Grace stomped out slamming doors, everyone’s eyes now on Sheridan.

“Oh, that so rich! Now I am the bad guy again? Seriously? Your creepy ass friend was coming onto me, Nick, with my fiancé right there! Victim-shame much!? How does that expression go again? Tell me who your friends are, and I tell you who you are, was it?! Your Slumdog-Millionaire-bestie is a frigging closet-wannabe-rapist, and your sleeping pill of a girlfriend and psycho sister of course took his side!” Sheridan screeched at a completely confused Nick.

“Watch it, Sheri! I don’t know what went down here, but nobody talks like that about Aria-Grace, Adrianna or Rohan! Don’t forget he saved my dad’s life and I have known him forever. Thin ice, woman, really cracking too!” Nick warned, his voice a deep growl.

“And that’s not what happened anyway, Sheri. I was right next to you! First row seats to the Sheridan Cameron show – AGAIN! You clearly did what you always do around other dudes, you flirted big time. No wonder the nerd was stumbling all over his damn self!! I didn’t see him do anything other than be awkward and shit his pants because of you! Had he – or ANY other man tried anything weird with you, you bet I would have handled it! There was NOTHING to handle. That poor sucker took a swim for NO friggin’ reason!” Reggie interjected.

“Are you fucking serious now? You team up with them against me?” Sheridan hissed at him.

“Not teaming up, just saying what I saw. And what I didn’t see. What I saw was you having a fit out of thin air for no reason at all. Just calm the fuck down, girl!” Reggie snarled back at her.

“I saw it too, she really flirted with Rohan, or tried to, and he just was all nerdy, didn’t know where to look anymore, that’s all.” said Cassidy.

“Oh, shut up you gold-digger whore! You think just because you got your white trash ass knocked up with an anchor baby by my gullible brother it gives you any right to meddle before you take half his money and leave anyway?! You’re not family, you are NEVER gonna be family, so stay the fuck out!” Sheridan planted her verbal roundhouse kick at her sister-in-law.

Cassidy’s mouth opened, eyes welled up and she ran off. Even though still at the beginning of her pregnancy, the hormones had her extremely emotional of late and this treatment didn’t help.

“You bitch! How dare you talk to my wife like that?! She is more family than your crazy ass is! We’ll talk about this later! This is NOT over, Sheri!!!” snarled Reed at his twin sister, then ran after his wife.

“I second that! Talk about psycho! You have gone completely off the bench now! You need meds for this, woman! You are lucky I didn’t witness any of that, or believe you me, you would find out what serious psycho is! I’d knock you into that pool and you better not try to come out until we heard a believable apology. I don’t give a fuck whose house this is.” Nick roared at his cousin.

“Oh, I know that YOU would know how to go off the deep end, Nick, I know your parents! Psycho is your family motto!” Sheridan bellowed at him.

Nick’s eyes were glowing, he was visibly fuming and working hard to not flip out, his jaw clenched. This was when Reggie put his hand on his shoulder and tried to mediate.

“Sheridan, stop! What are you doing, girl?!” Reggie interfered horrified, realizing Nick was about to lose his temper and he would be caught in the middle of a really bad fight. But instead, Sheridan directed her anger at him now in the worst way yet.

“You know what, Reginald? FUCK YOU! Take your new bestie Nick and both of you take your sorry poor basic asses out of this house and don’t come back again! And don’t forget to take your cheap-ass excuse of an engagement ring with you, Reg, and in case that wasn’t clear, I am breaking off this idiotic engagement! Not to mention that ghetto proposal at some lame ass park like a bunch of hood rats in the boonies of Windenburg! WTF!? You humiliated me so bad! I deserve a REAL proposal in a REAL location that means something by a REAL man! Screw all of this! So tired of being everyone’s scapegoat only because I do and say what needs to be done and said! Screw all of you! I don’t need any of you!”

Sheridan had pulled the ring from her finger and tossed it at Reggie, it bounced off his face, while Sheridan ran off into the house.

The young man looked humiliated and angry, his eyes scanning the ground, Nick saw the ring, picked it up and handed it to him. Reggie took it from him, and told him.

“It’s not a cheap ring! Not by my standards … I didn’t go cheap … I worked SO hard for this … ” he mumbled.

“Hey man, I know, sorry about her. I blame her mom for this shit, my aunt made her that way by saying women in entertainment have to be strong and know their worth. She’s not wrong, but Mila took it a little too far and created a monster. I think Mila even she knows it and can’t handle her own daughter anymore.” Nick told Reggie.

“I know. Sheridan always had two sides. Sadly, the one I don’t really like is surfacing more and more and the other one fades. Maybe I really made a mistake proposing. I thought it would change things, make the real Sheri come back. Guess not. She’s right, I don’t belong here. Hope to see ya around Nick. Oh, and for what it’s worth, your friend really didn’t try to kiss her, even tho Sheri was laying it on thick. And I think we all know that guy has been crushing on her forever.”

“Yeah, I know. She’s been doing that to him for years, I tried to warn him, but Rohan really likes her, I think. I guarantee ya, no matter what Sheri were to offer him, he’s got integrity, he would have never. I know my best friend and I know my cousin. I KNOW what went on here.”

“I know, I didn’t feel threatened. And obviously, my biggest enemy is Sheridan in this whole mess anyway. So much for real love. I am a dumbass, Nick, that’s what I am. Oh well, at least it happened before we made real wedding plans, right? I was supposed to go to those awards with her in a couple weeks. Glad I didn’t spend money on some suit yet. I gotta get out of here. See ya, when I see ya. Looks like I was voted off the island as far as family things go, but maybe I’ll see ya through mom. You’re a lucky guy, your girlfriend has class and stood up for your best friend. I don’t think Sheri would do that. She hasn’t met any of my friends yet, too low class and honestly, I didn’t want to deal with those worlds clashing. My homies are not DSV Hills material and as I realize now, neither am I. I was an idiot for even thinking this could work.”

Reggie inhaled deep, shrugged to himself, then pat Nick on the shoulder, nodded at him and went inside.

Reggie Williams was the son of Nick’s mother Vivien’s best friend Nikki, whom the single mother named after the grandfather who raised her and her cousin Malik, and through the years they had been around, if not much, but Vivien’s kids knew the Williams well, so chances were that even if the breakup was real and not just temporary Sheridan drama, they’d see each other again eventually. That connection to Vivien was how a simple guy like Reggie had even met a high-level celebrity like Sheridan in the first place. When they first started dating, and eventually got engaged, those who remembered Vivien and Reggie’s uncle Malik, who once where a couple and everyone thought they’d be forever, but just like with Reggie and Sheri, things got in the way.

Del Sol Valley
Villa ViVa

The next morning Aria-Grace had stood by barely keeping it together as her brother Nick, his girlfriend Adrianna and Rohan disappeared in a limousine to the airport to fly back home to San Myshuno.

Breakfast was but a blur for her …