* meet me by the river's edge ,

[Audrey Harper]

AUDREY J HARPER,


JUST FROM GROWING UP AROUND HERE
our father's factories marked our cars
WHILE EDEN BURNED AGAINST THE STARS
-----------------------

She never liked planes or flying in general. Maybe it was the fact that she always managed to get a seat in front of the whiny, screaming infant or toddler or perhaps it was because she had to sit in such close proximity with other people that just put her off on the whole deal. Sure Audrey had been to a vast amount of places before, she’s been all through Europe, Hell, she was born in Australia for god sakes, and she was bound to get on a plane to somewhere, right? But regardless of the situation Audrey was not found of those flying metal death traps. And don’t get her started on the food. So really, besides the predictably boring plots of the in-flight movie selections, to the abnormally cheery flight attendants, all the Irish-Spanish girl was left to do was read and even sleep for a bit, if she could manage to close her eyes for a moment without worrying. If only there was no such thing as air turbulence. She did not have an irrational fear, it was very much rational. Here she was dangling thirty thousand feet into the air stuck in a swirling vortex of disease, what was so good about that?

To put her mind at ease, Audrey was now pages into a textbook she scammed from Matteo before she left. Oh, she nearly forgot the colourful conversation she had with her family before her flight to Greece. That was more of a gong show than was necessarily intended. It wasn’t like Audrey was going to go to wild international parties full of booze and what not all over Europe or anything. She was just there for merely moral support; it was something Audrey agreed to because -gasp- she actually cared about Sophie, and hell, even Petros. They were just the few select people that Audrey cared for, a handful of lucky individuals that Audrey didn’t find anything to hate. But back to the little ‘discussion’ that occurred the night before she left the continent. Audrey could, in all Valkyrie fashion, just pick up and leave, and perhaps just text her brother once she landed in Athens that she was going to spend some time with Sophie. Of course she would neglect to mention Petros; there wasn’t anything worth the fight to mention. There would come the time, where Audrey may perhaps mention that she was seeing Petros, but now was neither the time nor the place. More important than her relationship status was the fact that the father of one her really good friend was ill.

But it was like her family, or more like Isaac was assuming the worst, or moreover, expecting the worst from this little trip. It wasn’t like she was going for a prolonged period of time. Audrey was one of the few responsible teenagers living in the Valks, they should be proud of that right? That should at least give her some leverage. However, that would have been the ideal life, now wouldn’t it? To say the least, she was determined to go, regardless of the gathered opinions of her family. Audrey sighed as she flipped the page, not for the content of medical anthropology was boring, it was just this plane ride was getting tiresome. She could almost fall asleep if she was not so subtly paranoid. The plane lurched as a small muffled scream left her lips, she instinctively grabbed Petros’ hand, her grasp getting tighter with each second passing within the turbulence, “Fuck,” She cursed mildly as she began to mumble, letting go of his hand, resuming to read the paragraph of mutated cancer cells in front of her, “You so owe me. I don’t like planes. At all.”

The flight seemed much longer than necessary, but eventually, through Greek Customs, they were able to attempt to make their way out of the airport, attempt being used loosely here. The moment customs were dealt with and the moment Audrey walk towards the exit with Petros and Sophie was the moment they were hounded. It was a less than spectacular massacre of personal space and bloody murder of the Greek language on top of that. So many question were yelled, so many lights were flashing that Audrey was surprised that she hadn’t gone blind despite her sunglasses and deaf by the time she reached the town car awaiting the trio outside the doors of the airport. Audrey had definitely underestimated the fame of the Hayes-Castellanos siblings. “So you weren’t lying when you said you were famous. Well I knew Sophie was, you know, being a model and what not… But Hayes, with you, I don’t understand.” She joked, sinking into the car seat a little more, closing her eyes for a moment as the car began to roll. She glanced over to Sophie, who wasn’t as full of sunshine as she used to be. It was awful to see her like that, considering Sophie was one of the few girls Audrey actually got along with. “It’ll be okay, Soph… I mean, come on, when the bitter cynic,” She pointed towards herself, “becomes the optimist, something that happens once in a millennia, you’ll be back in Valkyrie in no time.” She nodded, reaching for her hand. Audrey wasn’t much for physical contact but for the moment she held Sophie’s hand, she actually meant all the sentimental value.

It had been a few years since the last time Audrey was in Greece, it used to be a summer ritual, and to spend those two precious months were spent in the sun shine with her grandparents. They had retired to a small seaside town, Alimos to be exact. Perhaps, if there was a bit of time, she might go to visit them, they would hardly recognize her. She actually grew out her natural hair colour, grew a little taller and became a little thinner. She missed it here, though she did spend most of her time by the sparkling body of water that lined Alimos, rarely coming into Athens with the exception of some shopping or her flights arriving or departing Greece. Hopefully, after this whole ordeal, she may go down to Alimos before going back to Valkyrie. Equally as hopeful, she hoped by the time they went home, Audrey would get her letter of acceptance to Oxford. Sure it was a stretch, and Audrey got a healthy scholarship at UCLA, just in case, but Audrey was a shoe in for the full ride at Oxford. She humoured Matteo when she applied at UCLA, just so he would shut the hell up. At least something in her life should be going the way she planned right? It wasn’t much just to ask for one measly little thing.

She blinked as the hospital came into view; the town car slowly crept to a stop in front of the automatic doors, the entrance. Taking a deep breath, she slipped out of the vehicle and into the hospital in one fluid movement, almost graceful. Granted she was a little nervous, but it wasn’t because Audrey was going to go into a hospital, filled with doctors whom she never had a fond liking of, but because she was going to meet Orion Castellanos, the great Shipping tycoon and also, her boyfriend’s father. In all of her previous relationships, there was a pattern when Audrey met the parental unit; one would love her and one would hate her beyond belief. She never questioned it, but it had always come to this; which parent would hate her? Oh yes, it would switch back and forth, between mother and father, but there was always one that never like Audrey. She never understood it, Audrey thought that she was perfectly adequate person, but then again, she never really had a boyfriend before Hayes. It was like the parent already sensed her flaws, no matter how polite she was.

She ran a pale hand through her dark auburn hair, pushing her sunglasses atop of her forehead. She hated people who left their sunglasses on while in buildings or even at night, what the fuck was that about? After the nurse instructed them to the third floor, the trio left to the elevator bank in record time. She pressed the circular button for the third floor of the exceptionally large elevator, enough to possess two full sized medical beds. It was a little eerie, the lemon-fresh smell must be the one common thing in all hospitals around the world, to make the people ill and otherwise realize where they are. It was also unnaturally cold in here, as it was with every other hospital Audrey managed to visit; she zipped up her leather jacket a bit as she stepped out of the lift. They walked together to the room that held Mr. Castellanos; she glanced through the window in the door and back to Petros and Sophie, “Well… We’re here, and it seems like your Dad is awake…” She said her voice a little more quiet than usual as she wondered why they paused before the door. Then again, if it were someone Audrey cared about, because she didn’t give a damn about her father, she’d like to collect herself before facing someone in a hospital bed.

-----------------------

STATUS`finito
TAGGED TO` sophie & hayes, bby
ATTIRE` audrey
CREDITS` format inspired by all the vside lovelies<333 graphics by me
LYRICS` "meet me by the river's edge" by the gaslight anthem
NOTES` Yay for the Greece Thread! I tried not to gm too much, hope it's okay.

-----------------------

[Petros Hayes]

PETROS JUDAS ,
COME AWAY WITH ME IN THE NIGHT
COME AWAY WITH ME AND I WILL
WRITE YOU A SONG, COME AWAY
WITH ME ON A BUS, COME AWAY
WHERE THEY CAN'T TEMPT US WITH
THEIR LIES
-----------------------------

[/color][/center]

----WELL, SHE CAME. he definitely see that one coming, but he also didn't see him ever asking a girl to come to greece with him. spare the romantics because it wasn't suppose to be romantic at all. this was petros hayes after all. and besides, the reason he was going back to greece was because his father had a heart attack. so yeah, you can stop the violin and blow those candles out. and even if he wasn't dating audrey, he was thankful she was here because he didn't exactly know how to handle sophie. she came home a complete mess right before they were leaving. petros didn't like milo, so he was thinking that sophie wouldn't appreciate his comforting for a guy he didn't even want his sister to be with anyways. so, sophie and audrey were friends. sophie could cry to audrey. they all stayed subtly quiet on the plane. sophie only stared out the window and audrey made a comment about owing her for being on a plane. heh, now petros knew a weakness. take mental note later one so that he could use this against her. and his hand wouldn't be there for her to grab. petros was so use to flying around, he didn't think twice. he just leaned back and enjoyed the ride. every once in awhile he'd look at sophie who was still in her catatonic state. somewhere down the line, petros thought he nodded off. well, he must have because the next time he came back to consciousness, the plan landed. he looked over to sophie who was already slipping sunglasses over her eyes. right, low profile. "you might want to put on some sunglasses." he told audrey as he withdrew a baseball cap and put on his own sunglasses. "this might get ugly."

maybe there wasn't going to be any paparazzi out there. petros was just assuming there was going to be some. maybe like a small handful. petros by this time was use to getting his photographed taken. it wasn't so much in america, and valkyrie at the least, but over in europe they often followed him like they followed those young hollywood actors from the o.c. petros didn't do anything besides get drunk, throw parties, and publicly humiliating himself people couldn't help but love him for. sophie still wasn't talking as they exited the plane and went through greek customs and then finding their luggage. his mother said they'd have the family's town car outside waiting for them, they he should be able to locate it fairly quickly. that didn't help the shitstorm the three were about to endure. it first was the flashes, then the questions. it was crazy because those retarded little nobodies would only be asking about how they felt about their father but soon as they noticed audrey was infact, part of this group, he could hear the curiosity in all their voices as their fat sweaty fingers snapped away of them going through the airport. "when did you find out about your father's condition?" "do you know anything new on your father?" "how did you like california?" "who's the new girl, petros? you girlfriend?" "what's her name, petros?" these were only a few of the questions he managed to catch, but he knew there were a dozen more for every one he heard. petros was able to keep it cool under pressure like this. he didn't say anything. his arm was around his sister, guiding her to the front entrance. audrey was beside him, but he didn't touch her. because that would arise more question and confirm something like they were dating, or engaged, or hell, they'd even stretch something like petros got married in america.

once they reached the outside, he saw the town car, exactly where his mother said it would be. their driver was already outside the car and once he saw the three followed by a dozen paparazzi, he opened the trunk door and immediately helped them get their luggage inside. the questions were still going as petros helped sophie inside the car, and let audrey go in before them. but, petros was the media king in athens. if this was going to be in a magazine or paper tomorrow or whenever, you best believe he'll be quoted around it. he kept his hate and sunglasses on as he leaned on the open door. the paparazzi stopped shoving around like idiots and one called out, "do have a comment, petros?" petros smiled lightly, "yes. thank you for the support but i ask that the media respect my family's privacy through this difficult time. thank you." petros turned and got into the car too, closing the door on even more questions. "well, besides the circumstances, i have to admit i missed that," petros told the girls as they started driving straight to the hospital. “So you weren’t lying when you said you were famous. Well I knew Sophie was, you know, being a model and what not… But Hayes, with you, I don’t understand.” before he could answer, sophie mumbled, "i'm famous because i collapsed on the rome runway from not eating in over three days." wow, how depressive. she was taking this to hard. petros jumped in, "well you know. i'm a trust-fund baby with rich friends and expensive taste. you don't need uch more reason here."

audrey tried to give sophie some words of encouragement but sophie just shrugged, mumbled something and angled her body towards the car door. petros looked at audrey and shrugged. maybe audrey would understand. once they reached the hospital, petros was getting eager to see his father. their driver stopped, letting them out of the car. petros saw some photographers across the street, snapping away as the three filed into the hospital, safe from all media. petros located a nurse and asked her where his father was being held. he took his sunglasses and hat off. messed with his hair as the nurse told them orion castellanos was on the third floor. the elevator ride was silent too. petros wondered if he was even going to be awake, or if his mother was here. they walked down the hall, and petros could already hear voices coming from a room. "you're killing me here, elene. i had a little heart attack, i didn't die." this was followed shortly with, "so confident in yourself, orion. look at you. propped up on a bed with IVs in your arm and a gown that barely fits you. you were lucky you didn't die with as extreme as that 'little heart attack' of yours was." that was definitely his parents. “Well… We’re here, and it seems like your Dad is awake…” the voices fell silent as they heard a voice outside the door. then, sophie slipped pass both petros and audrey and flew into the room. "papa!" petros followed her in, audrey right behind him. he saw his father, lying in the white hospital bed. his father wasn't thin by all means. he was a big greek man. big... fat... did it matter because he was one of the richest men in athens, so he must be doing something right. his gray hair was slightly disheveled as sophie ran up and threw her arms around him. his mother was standing near the end of the bed and she turned to look at petros. she had her colored brown hair in a low ponytail [because his mother refused to think that just because she was over fifty she should succumb to gray hair.] she was in nice pants and a blazer, looking like she was doing something for her fashion line. her eyes settled on audrey and elene said without missing a beat, "sorry, no visitors, this is restricted strictly to family." ugh, his mom was being psycho. petros turned and grabbed audrey by her elbow, letting her know she was staying. "she's with me. she's my... girlfriend. audrey." yup, it still sounded weird when he said it. his mother gave her a very obvious up/down.

orion, who was watching this whole exchange go down interrupted before his wife would say anything damaging. "elene, give him a break. when can you ever remember petros bringing a girl to meet us?" elene pursed her lips and said, "it's happened a couple times." oriod looked at her critically, "that weren't models in your shows? right, none. now give the girl a break." petros during this was becoming increasingly embarrassing. first, it took a lot for someone to impress his mother. second, elene was probably trying to think of where this girl came from. no one she recognized so that just meant you weren't anyone here in athens therefore not worth dating her son. "ok, so dad, how are you doing?" orion nodded, "out tonight. you're mom's having some welcome home party. because being in the hospital for a few days calls for one." elene scoffed at this. "but your lovely audrey will be joining us for dinner, right?" petros looked at audrey. "yeah, you will." he wondered just how freaked out she was buy his mother.

-----------------------------

[/color][/center]
STATUS, complete
CRED, format and graphics to me
LOCATION & TIME, athens, greece - summer '07
LYRICS, 'come away with me' - norah jones
CLOTHES, here
TAGGED, audrey
I SAY,
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/font]

[Audrey Harper]

AUDREY J HARPER,


JUST FROM GROWING UP AROUND HERE
our father's factories marked our cars
WHILE EDEN BURNED AGAINST THE STARS
-----------------------

So she really was unconventional. Audrey knew she was never a ‘normal’ girl, by no means did she force herself into that mould, but that didn’t stop her from wondering what a normal person would do. Would they go on a trip to Greece in the beginning months of a budding relationship? Probably not. Would they throw a pan at their supposed boyfriend’s face? Most definitely not. So all in all, Audrey James Harper had no one to really relate to, no one to compare to because quite frankly, there weren’t many girls who threw pans and bitch fits at the first signs of stupidity. No, they would do that fairy thing where they would stamp their feet like in the movies and huff and pout and flip their hair in an annoying matter. All those dramatics would just plain tire Audrey out. She was more of a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ kind of person anyhow. But this whole coming to Greece thing, this was pretty much right out of left field. Okay so it was left field for her, Petros probably knew about his father’s heart attack and what not before then, before that visit when things were supposed to end between them. It would have been far simpler, to just end things that early July day, never see him again.

Never to see Hayes again, life would be filled with so much time that would have been spent arguing, throwing objects, and wrinkling creating moments. She would have fewer headaches, sore throats and just, well, boring old time. She needed this, she needed conflict to function, and it was just in the girl’s nature to be so cruel to the things she cared for. It was an odd sort of reverse psychology, because she was very rude, sarcastic and just a rounded cynic to the few people she cared for, but with the rest of the population she was nice, in a very loose sense of the word. She was relatively polite, but didn’t refrain from the truth, or her bitter comments but compared to her regular attitude, she was nice. It was a defence mechanism of sorts, something that she couldn’t turn on and off. It was a bad habit, Audrey knew that, but the hardest of habits are the ones that are so engraved in one’s personality, that it would be like stripping the person of key characteristics. But she was more than comfortable with Hayes, almost to the point where she knew it would be hard to break in someone else, someone else to be this comfortable with. It was weird to even think of Hayes being one of the few people she was comfortable with, as much as she fought with that idea, it was true.

And so, with that little truth nagging her in the back of her head, she stepped onto the grounds of Athens. Somehow the half-Irish girl managed to fly across the United States of America, across and ocean and into the Mediterranean without much of a hassle. Sure the turbulence sent her heart diving into the pits of her stomach, and there was that one time where she clawed Petros’ hand and sort of had a whispery scream come out of her mouth, all in all, good flight. When Audrey was younger, she was, well, more prone to screaming, getting knocked out with children’s Tylenol to get her to shut the hell up in a plane. There was something about airplanes that she just loathed; she just couldn’t handle it in such a contained environment, and almost claustrophobic feeling. When the trio landed, it was the hounding of the paparazzi that really woke Audrey up. Without his advice, she instinctively pushed her sunglasses atop of the bridge of her freckle sprinkled nose. Mentally mocking Petros and his grand, but a little too generic, speech, she was a little taken aback by the way he handled himself with the media. It was almost as if Hayes had turned into a whole other person, this media savvy, suave publicist sort of person she never knew existed. Huh, good to know, if she ever need a media whore… I mean, what? No, she didn’t just call her boyfriend a media whore. Nope.

Audrey wished that the atmosphere in the car reflect the one in her mind, because her expectations were a little different than reality. She hoped that Sophie wasn’t too depressed, but that was shot to hell, her morbid response to Audrey’s light comment made her wonder how much she really cared for Milo. She knew there must have been tears shed, clinging embraces, something personal, and something intimate, something so unlike the relationship she had with Petros. They were rough, abrasive, cruel to each other, but because of that, they were with each other. She didn’t like that Sophie was so catatonic; her depressed state seemed to filter through the entire chauffeured vehicle. It wasn’t until they were in the hospital, in the room of the great Orion Castellanos that Sophie shifted, almost gravitated towards her father. A father indeed, he was the stereotypical jolly fat Greek man. That bed seemed a little small in comparison. However, it was when Elene spoke and Petros answered that she paid attention to their little chat.

It was always weird to be referred to with someone’s something. Audrey never wanted to be anyone’s anything, but this she just accepted with a smile, whereas in her head she was a little wary of that title; girlfriend. Then again if Petros didn’t grab onto her elbow as if he was strangling a cat, maybe his mother wouldn’t have believed him. ”Good afternoon,” She spoke in a polite voice while she thought something different like the amount of pressure Hayes was exerting on her poor elbow. Sweet baby Jesus, boy, let go! Her hand wrapped around his, slowly pulling his fingers from her elbow. Man, did he dig those fingers of his into her arm. She got the message, going to the family dinner because she was Petros’ girlfriend. Great, awesome… Audrey thought more words of false encouragement as she kindly smiled, “I wouldn’t want to miss it.” Audrey said, again with her polite voice, feeling a little uncomfortable, not that her tone suggested any of the sort. She carefully looked at Elene, sizing her up a little more subtly than she had of Audrey. Huh, she should have known the mother wouldn’t approve of her, being a fashion designer or whatever. Dress pants and a nice blazer, coloured hair pushed back in a ponytail… She must be those kinds of people who don’t believe in aging, that mentality sort of flowed from her. Audrey just had to stand her ground, a permanent soft smile playing at her lips with her posture straightened and head held in place. No looking on the ground, no glancing everywhere except in the eye, shows no weakness. Wow, it almost sounded like Audrey was going off to battle with Elene. Their mother maybe a bit harder to impress (and by ‘a bit’ Audrey meant a fuck load; she could already tell with that one) but their father, he seemed pretty decent; the man seemed to accept her. Well that was good, she didn’t dread this little visit completely, and that was a plus.

-----------------------

STATUS`finito
TAGGED TO` sophie & hayes, bby
ATTIRE` audrey
CREDITS` format and graphics to yours truly.
LYRICS` "meet me by the river's edge" by the gaslight anthem
NOTES` boo yeah... I don't know what else to say.

-----------------------