Crying out Loud

Chapter 2

“Come on Jean-Jacques! Hurry up! You know how Richard gets when anyone is late.” Andrina skipped lightly up the front steps walking swiftly to the mini-car exit. J.J. sneered fiercely at the mention of Richard. Richard Bernard Durstan was Andrina’s fiancé. His parents were family friends of the Partiel’s and of course he absolutely hated J.J. The feeling was mutual, as J.J. thought that he was the most pompous, snobbish, and bigoted person he had ever met. J.J. had first met Richard at boarding school. Truly a product of his upbringing, and though extremely wealthy, Richard had often been picked on at school for his stuffiness and love of rules. He had teasingly been called “Dickie”, as Richard, much like Andrina, detested nicknames. He was admittedly attractive with smooth light blond hair, clear blue eyes, and a lightly chiseled jaw. It was somewhat diminished however, by the placidness of his face. Richard was an apathetic person and was extremely malleable. He did whatever Andrina told him to. These were the reasons Andrina loved him. Andrina did not know how to love someone deeply, only shallowly. J.J. considered this one of her major flaws. She had the consuming need to control everything and everyone all of the time and there just wasn’t any time between all of that to truly love someone..

“Oh, as if you couldn’t just smack him around and he’d do whatever you wanted him to.” J.J. smirked, distaste coloring his words. Andrina narrowed her green eyes at J.J. and frowned.

“There is no need to play the bitchy gay man with me. Besides, Richard has never said a bad word about you.” Andrina sniffed. This quickly set J.J. aflame.

“That bastard never has to ‘say’ anything. I can see exactly how he feels by the look on his face whenever he sees me. As if I’d shoved a handful of dung under his nose.” Andrina sighed. She wasn’t unaware of Richard’s flaws, but they loved each other, and she had known him all her life. Granted she had known J.J. all of her life as well, but only peripherally.

“Alright. In any event we must take a mini to the strip. Richard is waiting for us there.” Andrina gracefully situated herself into the passenger side of the mini car, raising an eyebrow in J.J.’s direction.

“Oh, I expect you want me to drive, right. I sure hope Dickie isn’t coming with us on this ‘lovely’ trip.” J.J. groaned as he hopped into the mini furiously speeding along the small paved road.

“His name is Richard and no he is not able to attend. Besides, this is my vacation.” Red hair whipped frantically in the harsh wind prompting Andrina to once again drag her hair up into a ponytail. J.J. internally rolled his eyes. Vacation from what, he thought maliciously. From sitting on her arse all damn day he supposed. Andrina’s life of privilege was a major bone of contention between the two siblings. Andrina’s insensitivity to J.J.’s situation often infuriated J.J. to the point of wishing her far away from him.

They arrived at the strip in silence and calmly entered the plane. Richard was waiting in one of the lush tan leather seats sipping a half full glass of wine.

“Richard, how are you darling?” Andrina cooed as she sauntered up to Richard and accepted a smooth kiss on her cheek.

“I am quite well. Just enjoying the rare solitude. How are you my Princess?” J.J. flinched at the cool dulcet tone of Richard’s voice. The sentiment of his words, though endearing, was not reflected in his eyes, which remained as ice cold as ever. Andrina seemed not to notice as she slipped in the seat next to Richard smiling contentedly. Richard graced her with a stiff smile before turning his opaque stare to J.J. Gritting his teeth J.J. nodded shortly in greeting before pursing his lips and sitting in the seat across from Andrina.

Standing up, Richard kissed Andrina’s hand as he headed toward the exit of the plane. “Have a wonderful trip darling. I will see you at the end of the month.” And with that Richard exited from the plane his eyes cutting through J.J. as he left. Soon, Andrina and J.J. were in the air. All was quiet for a while as they both settled down for a very long flight. J.J. fidgeted in his chair his ire growing with each second that passed. How dare Andrina insult his friends when they were so much better than hers? Somehow J.J. vaguely felt that he was being petty, but the incident with Horatio had upset him. At least his friends were genuine J.J. thought snottily.

“Well, I don’t know how you can stand him.” J.J. huffed as he turned to face Andrina. Andrina raised an eyebrow as her face hardened.

“I refuse to argue with you over Richard. I know that you do not like him, and that is fine. Can we just agree to disagree on this subject?” J.J. gazed at Andrina steadily for a few seconds before breaking out into a smile.

“You know when people say, ‘let’s agree to disagree’ they are really saying that the other person is too stupid to understand that they are right. Yeah, let’s forget about Richard.” Andrina gave J.J. a forgiving smile and the two quickly settled down and began discussing what they were going to do in New York.

J.J. woke with a start and looked around frantically trying to place the shrill noise which rang unpleasantly in his ear. He couldn’t believe that he had fallen asleep. The last thing he remembered was watching a movie with Andrina. Searching for the noise J.J. pulled out a sleek gunmetal grey cell phone and checked the small LCD display screen. Annoyed to see Desdemona as the caller, J.J. turned the phone on silent and threw the phone on a seat behind him. Groaning, he blearily turned towards Andrina only to see her slouched in her chair murmuring quietly and drooling. Laughing silently, J.J. studied her briefly while she slept. She looked so different asleep than awake. When she was asleep J.J. felt as if he could see the real person behind the mask she wore all the time. He felt that deep down there was a truly compassionate person inside Andrina, who cared about him. Unfortunately, that person rarely came out.

Shaking his head, J.J. looked curiously out the plane window and stared in amazement at the green and brown which seemed so far away. No matter how many times he flew he never got tired of seeing the world look small and miniaturized. Sighing J.J. slowly leaned back in his seat slouching slightly as he settled into deep thought. He realized that overall he was dissatisfied with his life. He just didn’t know how to change it. He didn’t know if he could change it. His life it seemed had been set on a certain path from a very young age. His mother French socialite Lorinne Delaine Fournier married Mexican technological expert Javier Hernando Martinez at the age of eighteen. He, Jean-Jacques Ignatio Martinez was born when Lorinne turned nineteen. So, he was actually the older sibling even though Andrina acted as though he was her little brother most of the time.

As expected the marriage was not approved by either family and it was dissolved soon after J.J. was born. His father had then moved back to Mexico and married another woman. Javier Martinez soon started a microchip company and built a grand empire which distributed its merchandise among many countries. This had put J.J. in a rather strange position as he was wanted by neither family. Lorinne met and married Lucien Fabre Partiel at the age of twenty-one and Andrina Corinne Partiel was born two years later. Since Lorinne would not part with her first-born child J.J. was raised with the Fournier family until he was ten years old and was then sent to a Welsh boarding school. Because of this, he had only really known Andrina for about six years since he often stayed at the school or with friends during holidays as his presence at home was not desired. It was at this school that he had met Horatio. An archetypical troubled child, Horatio was also not desired at home so J.J. often traveled with him as soon as he reached his teens.

It was hard being the child of what basically amounted to an affair. His heritage was a well-known fact and J.J. was often ridiculed for being a half-breed, not wholly French nor wholly Mexican, but a mixture. Bloodlines were very important in his family and the other families his own was associated with. This had hindered him greatly in boarding school as few of the other boys were at all interested in befriending him as they would not be able to use his family as any sort of contact through him. The only person he still spoke to regularly from the school was Horatio, who had his own problems being with being accepted.

His relationship with Andrina was often strained due to the differences regarding their status and the fact that they hadn’t known each other that long. She often did not notice the rejection he faced from many of her friends as it did not apply to herself and as such had little importance in her life. J.J. forgave her this flaw because he understood, as Andrina did not, how hard it was to think outside of one’s own experiences. J.J. was well aware of how much worse his life could have been so he didn’t often fall into despair about the lack of emotional connections he had. He was thankful that he had Horatio and on occasion Andrina.

Nervously biting his fingernail J.J. pondered what this trip actually meant to him and what he was going to do. He hadn’t exactly told Andrina the whole story. He had not forgotten the trip scheduled for earlier but rather tried to avoid it. He had found out in November of last year that his father had died earlier that year. J.J. had tried many times when he was younger to contact his father and family in Mexico. He had only spoken to his father once when he was twenty years old. It was not the happy reunion that he had expected though. His father had politely informed him that he considered that part of his life over and did not wish for any further contact. He made his mother seem like Mother Theresa. What was unnerving to J.J. however was the fact that three months ago he had discovered quite incidentally that he had a sister. Guliana Eldora Martinez was born a year after him, making them closer in age than him and Andrina. He didn’t know how he had missed her existence. He supposed that he had been so focused on his father that he had pushed any reference to his other family, with the exception of the fact that he had re-married, to the side. Apparently, Guliana was now owner, and President of his father’s company. However, she lived most summers in New York, ironically close to J.J.’s mother’s vacation penthouse.

J.J. was unsure whether or not Guliana knew of his existence. He was inclined to think that she did not, as his father did not seem in any hurry to dig up the past or even meet his son from his first marriage. J.J. was going to use this trip in order to meet her. He was desperate for some sort of family and he felt that he and Andrina may never be as close as he would desire. Andrina was so much like his mother it was uncanny. His mother was privileged, snotty, and idealistic even at the age of forty-six. The cheerful idealism was the only personality trait which separated her from Andrina. Andrina was horribly cynical, she always had been. Yet, even she remained somewhat naïve in some instances, the same as most people.

Sighing J.J. mentally tried to perk himself up. This was his big chance to connect with a family he had never known. Promising himself he would use this chance wisely no matter what, J.J. tried to relax as he waited for the plane to land. J.J. woke slowly as the voice of James, Richard’s pilot, broke through the haze of his dreams. Laughing softly that he had fallen asleep again J.J. looked over to see if Andrina was awake. She was not, as he had suspected. Andrina was not terribly fond of flying even though she desperately tried to hide this fact. She had probably taken a mild sedative so that she would miss the majority of the plane ride. Also, J.J. was sure that their discussion about Richard had angered her, and since she could not walk away from him she would avoid him through the media of sleep

Nudging Andrina, J.J. laughed as she woke with a start and turned large hazel-green eyes on him. Mock scowling at him, Andrina looked out the small aircraft window and saw a landing strip as the plane slowly descended.

“Oooh, we’re here!” Andrina said in a sing song voice. J.J. grinned at her excitement as the plane smoothly landed. Soon they were walking down the flight of metal stairs which connected the ground and the plane. Andrina demurely straightened her outfit as she whipped out a pair of large Dior sunglasses and planted them on her perfectly shaped nose. J.J. stretched languidly as he once again stood on solid ground. He loved flying but he was terribly excited to be in New York right now.

“So where is mother staying? Is she still at the Ritz?” J.J. asked as a sleek black Saab pulled up beside the plane. Andrina ignored the question while she gracefully slid into the leather seating of the car. J.J. hopped into the other side and admired the expensive car.

“Nice car. When’d you get it?” Andrina waved her hand nonchalantly as she replied.

“Oh, Richard set this up of course.” Leaning back fully into the seat Andrina stopped the explanation there, as if all was explained. And indeed all was explained. J.J. rolled his eyes at that. Of course Richard would do anything for his pampered little princess. “By the way, maman does still practically live in the Ritz. Father could care less of course, but he is quite vexed at the bills which keep coming in. I asked maman about it and she just said that one could expect privacy to be expensive in more way than one.” J.J. looked at Andrina in surprise than immediately began laughing uncontrollably. No matter how much he might resent his mother at times she did have a humorous flair for the dramatic. There was no doubt that Lucien Partiel had no idea what he was getting into when he married Lorinne.

J.J.’s musings were abruptly cut off by a shrill ringing sound.
“Hello?”

“J.J. what’s up man?” J.J. smiled as he heard Horatio’s familiar voice.

“Nothing. Are you here already?”

“Nah, will be in a few though. Don’t forget, first stop is Daedalus Gallery. I can’t wait to see Ixia.” J.J. laughed sharply at Horatio’s excitement. Saying good bye J.J. hung up with a slight smile on his face. As he turned to face Andrina the smile quickly faded away. Biting his lip nervously, he cleared his throat.

“So, what do you want to do when we arrive in New York?” Andrina looked thoughtful for a moment as her mind raced through the possibilities. She had been to New York numerous times before, but J.J. had only gone a few. She wanted to show him something new and exciting. She knew, however, that what might be fun and exciting for her probably wouldn’t be for him. While she appreciated opulence and indulgence, J.J. rarely spent money on himself and did not appreciate frills and finery to quite the extent she did. He would much rather go to a café than a five star restaurant. Andrina suddenly sat up straighter. That was it! She would take him to Delacroix. Delacroix was a fairly new café which was really relaxed yet fairly fancy in an understated way. J.J. would love it.

“There is this new café that maman mentioned in passing and it sounds like the perfect place to eat dinner tonight.” J.J. agreed and began considering what he was going to wear. Andrina sat back and watched J.J. contemplate with a small smile on her face. She really did love her brother. She knew that J.J. often believed the exact opposite. It just wasn’t so but life was complicated for her. She had so many different people pulling her in so many different directions and all of them demanding her complete loyalty. She didn’t know which way to turn, so she had avoided giving any her loyalty to any at all. In hindsight she saw that by denying the loyalty and love she should have given to her brother she had hurt him. As she approached her twenty-fifth year she knew that time was running short and she must choose soon. At twenty-five Andrina would be named the president of Partiel parfums, also known as ParPar. This was not to mean that she would actually run the company. It was more of a statement which conveyed the message that she would in the future head and own the company. It also had no bearing on her inheritance as her grandfather had set up a trust fund for her to access when she reached twenty-five as well. If she accepted the position at ParPar her choice would be made. Sighing softly, Andrina figured that vacation was not the time to dwell on such matters. She had a couple years left to decide anyway.

Time seemed to fly and before she even knew it the driver had arrived at the Ritz Central Park. Andrina sent the driver to check in for them as she freshened her makeup while trying not to smile at the teasing faces J.J made at her. Whipping her small light pink Motorola from her purse Andrina smirked at J.J.

“Do you want to inform maman that we have arrived, or shall I?” Mock scowling J.J. indicated with a gesture that she should feel free to go ahead. Laughing lightly Andrina dialed her mother’s number and prepared herself for the shrill greeting that was sure to come.