staying on top.

“Yes, I would.” She wouldn’t fire him, and if she did he could easily bounce back. “You know no one else is going to call you out on your bullshit like me, and take your bullshit. That’s why you keep me around.” Her hand wrapped around the back of his neck bringing him closer, the sexual tension obvious but neither would do anything about it.”Okay, Ms. Sharpe. That better?”

       “What would you bet on then? Your life?” she asked, raising an eyebrow with complete curiosity. Not once has she thought about firing him, but she wanted him to think she could any second. “You don’t have to call me out, but then again, it just gives me a lot more reason to my way with you.” Slowly, she let his neck go. It was only a way to show him and others how much power she could hold over a person. Which was why within a few seconds, she also softly pushed his face away. “Yes, much better.”

The actor had no idea who the girl in front of him thought she was, but he didn’t liked her. Not one bit. He was really in the mood for a pretzel and having someone cut in line, preventing him from getting what he wanted, was something Danny was not in the mood for. “Listen. I don’t really care who you think you are or why you feel entitled to cut in line and act like a bitch. Now, if you want a pretzel then I suggest you move to the end of the line. If you want a fucking pretzel like I fucking do, drop the “Oh I’m such a popular girl and everyone is below me,” type of act and like I said and follow the line. Can you understand that?” As soon as she moved her hand, Danny grabbed her by the wrist, a littler harder than he had to, preventing her from touching his face. “It is a lovely evening, I thought punching someone might ruin it.” The sarcasm was clear in his voice as he look directly at the girl in front of him. He had wanted to punch the guy back, but he had to follow Vaughn’s rules. Those rules included not punching people, even though they deserved to be punched. Punching made him feel better. His bloody knuckles after beating someone or even punching the wall to many times, was a feeling that Danny enjoyed. 

        She stared at him with a blank expression on her face as she was actually listening to him. She could have blocked out his voice and did whatever she wanted, but she was interested in what he had to say. A side of her lips curved upward into a smirk as she turned her body slightly to tap the person in front of her a twenty and saying to just go along with her. Turning her head back to Danny, she gave a shrug before saying, "Why should I move to the end of the line when I have my friend here who was saving my spot for me?" With that, she lightly touched the stranger's shoulder whom is in front of her. While that person was confused, but they nodded their head anyway. Dropping her hand and placing it back by her side, Anastasia let out a sigh before shaking her head. "I don't think everyone is below me, so you're wrong about that. I just know almost everybody here would be okay with me cutting them if I so desired." By the time he touched her though, she hated it. The way held onto her wrist made her flinch as well as feeling inferior and that was the last thing she wanted with a man. “Whatever you say.” Pulling her hand free from him, she then gave Danny a glare. “Just touch me like that again and you’ll regret it.”

“You’re never gonna find someone as good as me, you know that.” He said, leaning down a bit with his words to get to her far shorter height. The two were similar to the relationship he had with Faye when they worked together, except there was something else, he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was but it was there. “I’m not jealous, Ana. Fuck, Anastasia is such a mouthful though.” She loved torturing him, but he loved the pain it brought. They played a twisted game, but both were willing participants in it.

        “Wanna bet on that?” she challenged, raising an eyebrow before reaching a hand out toward the back of his neck, wanting to make him bend down further. “And if you’re going to get my height, you might as well do it properly, Kent.” Zachary didn’t quite do anything to her from the start, but she still felt bitter towards most people, mainly men, and decided to take her anger out on him whenever she could. A reason why she enjoys keeping him busy and doing anything else for her entertainment. “Right. Just keep telling yourself that. Then call me Ms. Sharpe. I’d prefer it anyway.”

Jamie’s surprise disappeared. She must have mistaken the girl for someone else she’d known back at Whittemore, as she’d already seen so many familiar faces. She reached down to pick the flyer back up. Jamie’s voice went dull in her reply. “Thought you were somebody else.” She extended the flyer back out to the girl, plastering on a very forced smile under her new annoyance due to her own mistake. “Guitarist for the band Pedestrian. We’re having a show this weekend.” Part of her just wanted the other girl to walk away now, but she knew for the sake of her band she should try to get more business.

        “If you say so,” she replied, her eyes scanning the paper before taking a hold of it. She read the words on it, but didn’t care too much about it. Still, she took it anyway and figured she could just hand it over to somebody else after this conversation was over. At least she was still helping a tiny bit in spreading the word, but local bands didn’t quite interest her. “Pedestrian? Is that the name of your band?” she questioned, only wanting to make sure of it.

“You rely on me too much, Anastasia, what are you gonna do when we’re separated?” He joked, attempting to demean her and make her seem inferior, which they both knew wasn’t true. “You wish, if anything it’s you who loves being around me. You’re always finding reasons to, maybe you’re just going out with my sister to make me jealous. Hm, is that what’s going on, Ana?” He questioned, playing their little game.

        She tilted her head to a side, already having an answer, but taking a pause to let him think she was actually thinking of something. “---Simple. I guess I’d just have somebody else working for me. It’s not like that’s a problem anyway. Who wouldn’t want to work for my company? And I’d make sure that someone is a better worker,” she replied while shrugging, eventually turning her head to face him. Everything she said was true though. She knew a lot of people wanted to work under her, but she didn’t quite care who it was. Except Zach. He was slightly different. With everyone else, all she wanted to show was that she was powerful. Anastasia rolled her eyes at his next comment and responded, “I’m going out with your sister because I want to. You being jealous is only a small perk of it all and what did I say about my name?”

He was thankful to hear that dreadful music stop, but then his headache returned when Ana began to speak once more. “I’m not paying for your lunch, go home and get your wallet.” He could afford to be rude, he knew she wouldn’t fire him and technically he wasn’t on the job. He rolled his eyes, eventually following her and listening to her words. “Fine, but you have to pay me back. No getting out of it.” He wasted his time on her, he didn’t need to also waste his money on her too.

        "Now why would I go all the way home when I have you, right?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and softly tapping her lip with a hand. Of course, if he actually did refuse, she was going to make him regret it when they both get to work. Noticing him change his mind, she shrugged in joy. "I always keep my word, Zachary. I have no reason to go back on it with my employers. What made you change your mind anyway? Did you realize you LOVE being around me?" she teased.

It only took a quick glance around at the flashing lights and smiling faces for Rumour to know this was not his scene. Turning up at this whole carnival thing hadn’t actually been his idea for fun though, instead he was simply admiring the way people behaved. It was entertaining to just watch, forget everything about his life for a moment, and just examine others. Then again, he’d also thought it could be a good way to pick up some extra cash; people distracted by fun were the best to pick-pocket. This had been where he’d started, why not go back to the old ways. 

Rumour took a stroll and it didn’t take long for him to spot a target. He followed the couple in front of him, and was about to reach out for the mans pocket when he bumped into someone. “-Oh fuck.” Rumour murmured as he lost sight of the couple. “People ruin everything.” He shook his head, not even thinking of apologising. 

        “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she asked angrily. At least other people had the decency to apologize to her, but it only made things worse when people didn’t. She came out to try and have a good time, but all people seemed to do was constantly run into her and she wasn’t that short. She was still tall enough to be seen to most people. Even kids and toddlers she was able to see, so she didn’t run into people at all. Maybe today just wasn’t her day. Either way, she could have made a scene if she wanted to, but she chose not to go with that decision. She didn’t want the whole town to think she was overly-upset for just something that could be seen so little. “Instead of worrying about other people, maybe you should worry about where you walk.”

Did being an actor made Danny feel a little superior? Definitely. Did he used it as a way to flirt on people? Yes. Did it always worked? Absolutely not, specially when the boyfriend was near the corner as he leaned and whispered something in the girl’s ear. This lead to receiving not only a slap from the girl but also a punch from the man. Danny hoped that the girl believed that he was just saying he was an actor to get in her pants. If he got into trouble he knew he would be mentioned a lot, but that it probably wouldn’t do him any favors in Acers. Softly touching the sore area in his face he turned around feeling rather hungry. Seeing that pretzels were being sold nearby he headed there not really caring about the punch, and got in line. Out of the blue someone moved in line before him, “Yeah, because someone thought that people waiting in line was just something pretty to look at. Not to actually wait for your turn.”

       For someone who barely cared about the carnival, she seemed to have been getting in line for the food a lot. She was in it earlier and here she was again. Although, she didn’t bother to be like a regular person and wait behind everyone, she figured she was above these people and decided to cut in line. It was only when someone spoke up about it that she rolled her eyes at the words before turning her body around to face the other. “Mind repeating all of that again? I didn't get a word you were saying. I guess that’s because I just wanted to block out your annoying voice,” she simply replied. However, what caught her attention afterward was his appearance. She rose an eyebrow at that, tilted her head, and reached a hand out to touch his face, wanting to get a better look at it. “What? Not tough enough to win a fight?”

A million questions raced through his head, all revolving around the recently discovered paper weighing heavily in his pocket. Who’d left it? What did it mean– well, he knew what it meant. But what did it mean in regards to the pact? The pact had been a stupid idea in the first place. They’d all been stupid to think this could ever really be over. Chase had been stupid to believe in the new life he’d built for himself, for Olivia. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. It was no surprise, with all the thoughts in his mind the extra crowds thanks to the city wide carnival, plus his usual clumsiness that had carried over into his new life, that Chase had managed to crash into someone. “Shit! I’m sorry,” he muttered, the apology falling from his lips before he’d even truly had a chance to see who he’d bumped into, literally. 

        When another person crashed into her, she took a step back and glared instantly at the other, her patience wearing thin. “No, you’re not. Everyone just likes to say sorry to only not upset a person. Am I right or wrong? Either way, you’re not forgiven and you should have just watched where you were going instead of doing whatever the fuck you were doing a second ago,” she snapped. Now that, that was out of her though, she felt slightly better. She already began to wonder why people couldn’t people just focus on walking or at least stop and do whatever it is they were doing, or thinking. Crossing her arms, she shook her head at Chase for a moment before continuing to talk. “What were you doing anyway?”