It looked like Trey was questioning her damn sanity at the broom that she had chosen, which was fine. She knew that, technically speaking, new brooms were safer, but she didn’t see it that way. When it came down to it, Cecilia knew that Trey was probably a hell of a flier, not that she knew personally because he wasn’t who she had paid attention to at games. She’d really only noticed how Roman, Isabella, or Evan were doing, but Trey would have to be good to be on the team and be captain. If he didn’t want her to fall off of the broom and die, she wouldn’t, and if he did, she would. No amount of safety features would change the fact that it would really be up to him. But speed… speed could be up to her, since the Cleansweep was at least a bit slower than some of the other models that were in the shed. That was a hell of a lot more important to her than supposed safety, not that she would ever admit that she was basing that off of Trey’s apparent skill at flying.

She took a breath at his words, knowing that he was right, annoyingly enough. “No, I’m sorry,” she said, quickly, wishing that she wasn’t at the mercy of his whims at any given moment. Normally, she was better at acting the part, but this flying debacle simply had her on edge. “I am serious about it. Just, you know, had a momentarily lapse. With the … flying,” she replied, glancing at the broom cautiously, “and the birthday—I’m on edge. Won’t happen again.” Apologizing to him was bloody irritating, but she knew that she did have to stay on his good… ish side, apparently. This entire situation might have been awful, particularly because she had put herself in it without thinking through the ramifications of it, but he had the ability to take it away at any moment. If he did that, then she would be in an even worse condition than she was now, and it would be no one’s fault but her own for being stupid enough to even get herself into this mess. The school year was almost over, and then she would be done with it anyhow. Trey would be bored with her by then; in fact, she was nearly positive about that. She was sure that any day now some other bint would catch his eye and that would be more important than irritating Roman.

However, him being pissed at her was a momentary stall from flying, so she appreciated it nonetheless. But she knew that she did have to bring the subject back about to prove that she was being serious, or something. “So is that broom okay, or…?” Cecilia asked, raising an eyebrow. Being distracted about the potential of him dropping her and this agreement had momentarily caused her to calm slightly down about the idea of flying, though she still knew she probably looked incredibly damn wary. And once the prospect of actually getting on the broom presented itself, she was sure that Trey would be in for a laugh as she tried to hold back being outwardly afraid.

This would be a really long summer if she couldn’t buckle down on that bloody attitude of hers. He could make her home life even more irritating than he assumed she found it. From what he knew about her and her family he was pretty sure she had quite a few problems with them. After all she was being trained up to be a proper woman from what he’d heard. She was pretty far from that if this instance was any indication. There was a time and place for her attitude. He was fond of her cheek during a good shag as that seemed to get him pretty riled up for some strange reason, but when it came to public appearances she needed to learn to hold her bloody tongue. Even if this hadn’t been an agreement and he was going to try to actually date someone, which was laughable really, he would expect the same as he did now.

He listened to her prattle on about the excuses as to why she had slipped up with a look of disinterest clear on his face. ”I didn’t ask for excuses. It better not happen again…” He added curtly. If she wasn’t such a good shag and had so many benefits he would have dropped her by now. There were dozens of girls out there who could only dream of being in her position and she needed to remember that. As much as he could make her miserable he would also give her some decent benefits. If she could act half decent he would keep her little secrets, her family would adore him, and possibly they would have a bit more hope for her. Being with him would have some perks.

Trey took a deep breath trying to center himself before smirking at her choice of broom. ”Do you really want to chance being on an old broom like this?” He asked curiously before shrugging. He knew he could handle it and she would be completely safe riding with him. He was an asshole, but not so much so to let the girl fall to her death. He mounted the broom before patting the the part of the handle in front of him. ”Don’t make me wait, doll face.” He said with a sly smile waiting to see what she would do next.

Cecilia really didn’t know what Trey thought he was getting into when he had come to her with this ridiculous arrangement. She wasn’t exactly known for being the easiest person to deal with, though she supposed that had changed ever so slightly when she had started dating Roman and when she also began to make a solid attempt to not be a bitch in order to keep people away from her. Perhaps he thought that the shift in persona would make her an easy bint to keep in check, which she was bloody trying to be, but it was apparently more difficult than she’d anticipated. Really, she thought that she was doing all right, but he had very little patience for any troublesome comments. She mildly hated herself for even attempting to try to be easy to manage, but it was how she acted at home as well, and she found it just to be easier there. The only noticeable difference between the two circumstances was that every time she held herself back from saying something snarky, she just felt like Trey was bloody gloating about it, knowing that he was getting her to act the way he wanted. She supposed that was similar to how it was at home, but she had to act appropriate there, and in this situation it was just because Trey was holding bullshit information over her head. That was the major difference, bloody obviously.

“Right. Sorry.” She added, unsure why she had been wasting her own time in even attempting to explain anything to him. He didn’t care why she did anything as long as she was doing what she was supposed to be doing. This entire arrangement just seemed like straight bullshit the more she thought about it, but there was bloody nothing to be done about it since she’d royally fucked herself over by agreeing with this to begin with. But it would be over soon, that was true enough, and then she wouldn’t have to worry about this anymore. In just days they would be heading back to London, and Trey would surely have broken up with her by then. By the next school year, he’d have thought up some other ridiculous way to irritate Roman that had nothing to do with her, and then she would be in the clear. Nodding in response, she glanced at the broom again. This was really about to happen, she told herself; she was really going to have to do this. “Yes. If I’m going to fall, I’d rather it not be at one hundred and seventy-five miles an hour,” she stated, naming off the speed the last Firebolt could get to in ten seconds. Cecilia really did know far too much about this for something that she hated, not that she had much choice in the matter. She watched warily as he mounted the broom, trying to steady her breathing that suddenly felt far too irregular to be normal.

Taking an almost imperceptible step backwards at him gesturing for her to sit in front of him, Cecilia felt like her heart had just sank to her stomach. She had really bloody been hoping she could sit behind him, because then she—and she bloody hated to even think this, could hold onto him and feel a bit bloody better about not falling off. It would also be a lot easier to get away with having her eyes closed. Sighing, she approached the broom, cautiously getting on in front of him, immediately feeling her heart beginning to race. “Oh, sweet fucking Merlin,” she muttered, clasping her hands tightly onto broom, though she bloody doubted that would stop her from falling.

He had initially thought she would be even more difficult than she currently was but that seemed to be completely unfounded as it wasn’t taking much for her to learn to shut her mouth. Granted it was still irksome. He could probably get her trained relatively easily if he put a bit more work into her. After all he would be having her all summer as far as he was concerned. If he had to suffer being looked at as her boyfriend from potential slags over the summer she needed to learn quickly where she stood with him. Sure he was going to have a bit of fun with her at her expense, but she had brought this on herself. He was well aware that she already knew this, though that didn’t mean he wouldn’t remind her of such a fact whenever given the chance to do so.

You should be.” He replied tersely. If he was going to keep this charade going he wasn’t going to give himself the opportunity to actually like her company outside of shagging. If that meant he had to be a bigger arse than usual than he would be. She was a tool and nothing more. He quirked an eyebrow at her as she tried to explain her choice in broom. He chuckled lightly shaking his head. ”It’s the height thaty matters more than the speed. If I take you up high enough you could fall to your death rather than going quickly at a lower altitude.” He said looking at her as if she were daft. He had momentarily been impressed as she rattled off the speed of the latest model though didn’t show it. It was odd she would know such information, though he supposed her step brother being a professional quidditch player had a lot to do with that.

He smirked as she finally got onto the broom amused that she was complying without any real issues. He took notice the same group of students now watching them as she situated herself. Yes, the audeience was going to make this all the better. He put his hands over hers as they gripped the broom. ”Just close your eyes.” He said softly unsure why he even told her that as he shouldn’t really care about her comfort at this point. With that he kicked off roughly and they soared up into the sky.

She knew that Roman had been curious about why she wouldn’t fly, as had Isabella and Evan, and they had all tried to convince her to on more than one occasion, though they had never really pushed the point too much at one time. They all knew that there was some kind of reason behind it, even if she wouldn’t tell them what it was, and that was enough to get it to be merely a halfhearted try before giving up again. But Trey really didn’t give a damn about her being afraid of flying, nor did he care if there was a ‘why’ at all. In fact, she was pretty damn sure she could fall and die and he wouldn’t be fazed by it—all right, she supposed that was unfair to think. He might feel a little bit bad about that, maybe. Although she knew that she needed to figure out how he was getting all of his information about her, and sort that out, she was currently too preoccupied with even the thought of flying to think of much else. Cecilia vaguely realized that he could have done this purposefully with that thought in mind, but the fact of the matter was that she would have to figure everything else out later.

Cecilia nodded in response to his brusque words, wondering if it was even possible for him to ever be content with how she acted. After all, he could just be like her family and always find something wrong with her, and that would be difficult to deal with. If no matter what she did, he thought she wasn’t trying hard enough to make this shit work, then she would always be at risk of him just informing Roman of who her father was. Even with everything that had happened in the past month, that still seemed like it would be the worst of it. She just had to hope that she could handle not pissing him off for the next couple of days… which shouldn’t be that difficult, but she was finding it to be far more challenging than she’d anticipated originally. “Well, who controls the height we’re going to? You do; so that means speed is just about the only thing you put in my power to pick,” she replied, shrugging. Of course he was right, height was a way bigger factor than speed, but she had no doubt that he would go as high as bloody possible just to see how she reacted to it. There was nothing that she could possibly do about that.

Being so focused on the fact that this was really bloody happening, Cecilia didn’t even notice that anyone was watching them. After all, it seemed like he just got pleasure in aggravating her at this point, which meant that could actually be all that this was for him, having nothing to do with word getting to Roman that it’d happened. As she was situating herself on the broom, she moved to pull her hair back into a bun—because she was not about to die because her damn hair blinded him. “Okay,” she replied, quietly, her hands the handle of the broom even tighter to prevent them from shaking. Cecilia really doubted that was going to help all that much, but she would take what she could get when she had thought he was going to make her keep her eyes open anyhow. Her eyes shut just as he kicked off of the ground, causing her to quietly gasp and immediately panic and tighten her thighs around the broom, which did absolutely nothing to make her feel any more secure as they continued to move who bloody knew how high. Just calm the hell down, she told herself, already feeling like her entire body was shaking, though she had no idea if it really was, as she focused on trying to keep herself from falling off the damn thing.

This was going to be more amusing than he initially anticipated as it was quite apparent that she was nervous about the whole ordeal. He guessed he could be nice and not continuously comment on it as much as he wanted to. She had pretty much dropped her questions as to how he knew so many things. He wanted to savor that moment he finally handed her the letter from her biological father. But for right now he had more entertaining things to tend  to. He chuckled at her assessment of speed versus control. She did have a point. She could pick what their maximum speed would be though she had no control how exactly he decided to fly. He wondered just how much he could scare her. Yes, he could scare the shit out of her then hit her with the letter that felt like it was burning a bloody hole in his pocket at that time. 

He watched her curiously as she fixed her hair i preparation for their departure into the sky above at least she had the sense to do that so he didn't have to deal with her hair blinding him, though he was confident he still would have been able to fly with minimal issues. He kicked off of the ground hard slightly aggravated that the old broom didn't have as much speed as he liked. His own personal broom would have been a better idea if he had really thought about it. Then again he hadn't planned on taking her flying. Hell, he didn't even know for sure if he'd be able to find her in the castle let alone on the quidditch pitch. The moment they got up level with the goal posts he idled the broom letting it sit still  "Open your eyes." he demanded in a more gentle voice then he thought was possible. He was sure to keep his arms rigid beside her while still gripping the broom over her hands in case she freaked out wondering exactly page would react to the height before he did something a bit more drastic. 

If there was anything that proved to her that she needed to find a new place to get away from everyone, it was this. She never would have found herself in a situation where she would have to fly if Trey hadn’t found her at the damn Quidditch Pitch. Hell, he probably wouldn’t have even thought about making her go flying and it had only crossed his mind because they’d already bloody been here. That was fine, she supposed, as it was past time that she found somewhere new to go anyhow. Being around here risked seeing Roman, Isabella or Evan anyhow, and those were three people she certainly needed to avoid seeing at any cost. It had been challenging enough to just see them in class, though she had been doing a pretty damn good job at just ignoring everyone and not speaking at all—though it wasn’t as if any of them were speaking to her to begin with. She just went to class, went to meals, and did whatever ridiculous shit Trey wanted to do to amuse himself with, and that had been the extent of it since the ball. But the school year was almost over, so that was a plus side, obviously.

She hadn’t always hated flying, though she had always been at least slightly afraid of heights. But the whole issue with flying and Quidditch had come about due to a series of events that still unfortunately occurred to this damn day. Summer meant more of that, she knew, but focusing on that wasn’t helping to distract herself from the fact that they were still climbing upwards. Cecilia felt like her lungs had been left on the damn ground, finding that she was short of breath which wasn’t help by them moving through the damn air. She felt like one of the worst feelings was her legs just tangling over nothingness, a constant reminder of the fact that they were way too high up in the sky. How long had they been flying? It already felt like bloody ages though it probably had been barely any time at all.

Cecilia had hardly realized when they stopped moving, still feeling every shift of the wind that made her feel as though she was about to fall the hell of the broom anyhow. Luckily, his arms were still relatively blocking her from certain death when she lost her balance, but she could only imagine how much enjoyment he would probably gain from even pretending to let her fall. Maybe that was his bloody plan anyway, to just let her fall to her damn death. She supposed that might affect Roman a little, if that was what he was going for. Pushing that ridiculous thought aside, she heard Trey speaking again and his words caused her heart to feel like it was pounding out of her chest. Who bloody knew how far up they were now? She had absolutely no damn clue what to expect. She shook her head imperceptibly, keeping her eyes closed. “Not yet,” she stated, unsure if she had even spoken loud enough for him to hear. Normally, she would tell herself that he couldn’t make her open her dam eyes—he had gotten her up there after all, he could feel self-satisfied about that and move the hell on. But she really couldn’t risk irritating him this far off of the damn ground, so moments later, she let her eyes flutter open. Immediately she gasped, trying not to focus on just how far away the ground was as she realized that they were level with the hoops, instead turning and pressing her forehead against his arm which effectively blocked the scene from her view. The action would probably bloody embarrass her later but she didn’t have time for that at the current time. “Okay I looked,” she added, though she knew that it wouldn’t be nearly enough for the level of amusement Trey probably wanted.

This was getting more and more amusing by the minute. He had apparently been very lucky as of late, though he hoped his luck wouldn’t run out anytime soon. Things were still horrible at home. Apparently his mother had been severely injured and those disgusting guards were still making her work at that bloody work camp. His father had tried to protect her as one of the guards tried to ‘persuade’ her with something that looking akin to a muggle cattle prod to get back to work. His father had managed to do so but ended up being badly beaten in the process. From the letter he had received his father was recuperating much better than his mother. That infuriated him, and hopefully this girl would be of some use to getting him acknowledged, to giving his parents some of pride when they saw him alongside Gregory Goyle as an equal actively working in the rebellion. This wasn’t just some petty fight for power, this was very personal and if people got hurt in the process it was their own damn fault.

He smirked as they finally leveled out and the girl spoke. She was definitely terrified of this little stunt, and he had to stop himself from asking what exactly what her deal was. Of course he didn’t care one way or another. It wouldn’t make a difference in how he treated her or thought of her. It was due to his own curiosity more than anything else. If anything it would be something else to hold against her. He leaned his head slightly to see her eyes open before feeling her face going into his arm. A sly smile came across his face as the moment her face hit his arm he jerked the broom in that direction as if it had been her fault for knocking off the balance. ”What are you trying to do… bloody kill us both?” He said sternly before chuckling lightly. ”Seriously what the bloody hell is your deal?”

Cecilia already felt like they had been flying for bloody hours when it had clearly only been a couple of minutes. They weren’t even moving and she felt how the broom shifted ever so slightly with every passing breeze. She didn’t know how she was going to tolerate him finally moving since she was certain that he was going to do something entirely insane and reckless just to get as many reactions out of her as he could get. Why did he have to bloody know that she was afraid of flying, and what else did he bloody know about her that he shouldn’t? She should feel better about the fact that his hands were on hers, because it should make her feel like her odds of falling were less. But it didn’t because it was just something else that put this situation further out of her control. She couldn’t move her hands, and she couldn’t move her legs for obvious bloody reasons, and if he wanted her to fall from the broom, it was well in his power to make that happen. Not that she actually thought that he had brought her up here to bloody kill her or something, but if she panicked and fell, she doubted he would really do that much to stop it.

She felt that she was keeping rather calm, considering. Well, she was certain now that she had left her lungs on the ground because she hardly felt like she was breathing, afraid that even that motion would somehow cause her to lose her balance. Opening her eyes had been an immediate mistake, bringing her thoughts of this going all right straight out of her damn mind. The moment that the balance was thrown off by her movement, she jerked in the opposite direction with a small yelp, scrambling in attempts to pull her hands out from under Trey’s to get a better grip. She took a breath as the balance was regained, her hands shaking more than before. “No. Sorry,” she muttered, trying to remain as still as possible though she had securely shut her eyes again. It felt particularly windy out as well, though that could have just been because she was so hyperaware of every slight movement of the broom. “Nothing. I just don’t like flying.” Cecilia answered, which was the understatement of the damn year, but if he thought she was actually going to tell him why that was then he was bloody fooling himself. The last thing she needed was him knowing anything else about her.

It may have been a bit over the top for him to move the broom the way he had but it was amusing him all the same. He wondered how long he should keep her up there before allowing her feet to touch the ground again. He had noticed that there was a good breeze going that seemed to sway the broom ever so slightly. It was one thing he enjoyed while flying, just the peacefulness of it at times. He was sentimental in the slightest but sometimes when he just needed a quiet moment to himself he would go out on a ride. It was typically in the middle of the night when no one could see him and ask questions. He did have his moments as cocky as he came off to others, but that was a personal but of information about him that absolutely no one had. It would ruin him, or at least make people second guess him in some weird way. Maybe it didn’t make complete sense to anyone else, but it made perfect sense to him.

He felt her try to jerk her hands out from under his knowing if he let her the broom actually could go a bit rogue and possibly cause one of them to fall… most likely her. He wanted to make her miserable, not physically injure her. Thankfully his hold on her was strong enough to keep her hands in place. ”You would have been if I had let you take your hands off the handle.” He said with an amused laugh. He paused knowing her answer to his next question was absolute shit. He shouldn’t really care anyway. ”Bullshit…. I wonder just how high up I can get this piece of shit up in the air. Should we find out?” He added the last bit with a smirk as he thought over just how he wanted to do that.