hexes for exes

chapter three, meet me under the sprawling oak

LIVIA WOKE EARLY the next morning. The Anderson/Carmen household always arrived in the mornings, and she assumed that this year was no different. After quickly getting dressed, Livia sat down to do her makeup. Nothing too much—sunscreen, foundation, concealer, the lightest bit of eyeshadow, mascara and eyeliner, blush, and her favourite Chanel lip gloss. Auntie Xu had already laid out the dresses she'd asked her to wash yesterday, and Livia chose her new favourite—a light blue dress that reached her knees with stitchings of butterflies on the front corset. She gave it a little twirl before the mirror.

She liked it very much.

Her dark hair, she did in a fancy hairdo. It wasn't actually that much—a few braids tied together, a half-up, half-down ponytail that she twisted slightly. That was that.

Her parents were already awake, along with nai nai. Pamela was unsurprisingly not.

Her father glanced at her as she strolled down the stairs. "Plans today, Livia?"

"Depends on what time Brie and Lila arrive," she replied honestly. "I'm going to go for a walk after breakfast, though. It's been a while."

"Will Pamela go with you? The girl ought to head out a bit more." A frown as he said that, before his father reached for his coffee that Auntie Xu had just served.

"I don't think she'll come with me," Livia murmured. "She mentioned something about a shopping trip with Anya today, though, so they're probably doing that."

Their mother moaned. "Not another shopping trip! She already came back yesterday with so many bags!"

"You talk like you don't know your youngest daughter," nai nai said snidely. "Oh, let her get what she wants. She cannot buy the entire town, can she?"

"She doesn't wear half the things she buys," their mother pointed out with some irritation. "It is such a waste. The girl is spoilt, she does not know how to stop. If I ever cut her money, she won't be able to continue living."

"Then I hope you have no intention of cutting her money," nai nai huffed. "She's not all that bad, I have seen far worse."

Their mother knew there was no point continuing the argument, so she turned her attention back to Livia. "Are you not going to go with the twins?"

Livia let out a little snort of surprise. "Ma, I haven't been good friends with the twins for a little while. We rarely talk anymore, honestly."

"Nonsense!" her mother frowned as she narrowed her eyes. "Last summer you three were bound by the hips. It'll take some time, that's all. Besides, this is your last year all together here in Briarville. Although you are going to university together with Amphion, that is good, I suppose. Someone to take care of you."

"If anyone is going to take care of anyone else," Livia said archly, "I'd be the one taking care of him. He can hardly manage himself half the time. I lived in a dorm for years in Hong Kong already." Since she'd been sixteen, her parents had insisted she lived in a school dorm at her international school despite their home not even being half an hour away. It was for independence's sake, they said, though Livia saw no point in it.

Though, that being said, she had no intention of taking care of Amphion Calvert-Egerton. He could find someone else to do that for him if he needed to. A nanny, for example. She was sure he had the money to pay for one if he truly saw the need.

"It's university," her mother huffed. "You're going to be in a strange new place, and you need to protect yourself! You're a girl! It's safer to have a boy you trust around who can watch out for you just in case." She let out a little shiver. "The things that happen at those parties! They drug you and..." her voice trailed off. Livia resisted the urge to roll her eyes.