Ficlet: Let's Give Them Something to Talk About (GH, Lila, Spencer, Morgan)
Title: Let's Give Them Something to Talk About
Author: empressearwig
Prompt: 67 - Whispers
Pairing/Character(s): Lila, Spencer, Morgan
Rating: PG, maybe
Disclaimer: Not mine, sadly.
Word Count: 1891
Spoilers/Warnings: Part of the extended Lana!AU.
Summary: If she did, who would people talk about?
Author's Notes: Written for theechochorus.
Lila Alcazar blew into Port Charles with the whispers of Manhattan’s elite at her back.
When one was kicked out of four schools in three years, people tended to talk after all.
The latest incident, at the posh boarding school in Switzerland her mother hand sent her to as a last resort, had rendered her exiled. Sent to live with one of her mother’s cousins in upstate New York, Lila was certain she’d be bored to death within a month, which she knew was her mother’s plan.
Seeing where she could be forced to spend her last year of high school if she didn’t behave was supposed to make her straighten up and fly right.
Lila figured she’d let her mother think that the plot had worked. She’d play obedient, well behaved Lila for a few weeks and earn a reprieve. Then she’d be back in the Hamptons or Milan or the south of France, or wherever her mother was summering this year, not that she’d actually see her mother, but her mother was big on pretenses.
She wouldn’t be spending the entire summer in Port Charles.
If she did, who would people talk about?
*
Lila’s first morning in Port Charles began with a very rude awakening.
Accustomed to late nights and even later mornings, Lila was not expecting to be shaken awake by a very beefy woman in a maid’s uniform at seven a.m.
As she pulled the sleeping mask off her face, and blinked rapidly up at her attacker, she demanded, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
The maid pulled the covers off Lila’s legs, leaving her frantically trying to pull them back up as the chill from the air conditioning hit her mostly bare skin. “I have orders from your mother and Mr. Ashton that you’re to be prepared to work with your tutors by eight o’clock, Monday through Friday.”
“What?!” Lila spluttered, giving up the war over the blankets and scrambling out of bed to pull on a robe. “My mother didn’t tell me that!”
The maid shrugged. “Not my problem. Breakfast is being served downstairs if you want to eat.” She walked out and let the door slam shut behind her.
Fuming, Lila snatched her phone off the night stand and dialed her mother’s number, leaving a blistering voice mail.
Things were most definitely not going as planned.
*
Later that afternoon, after being released from the clutches of her tutor (a tutor, Lila was horrified to learn, that had been employed for the entire summer, for the express purpose of ensuring that Lila would meet the entrance requirements for Port Charles Day, a local private school), she requested to be dropped off on the docks, nearby the one establishment in Port Charles that she remembered.
A tiny diner that her mother had taken her to for hot chocolate one Christmas, before her great-grandfather died and her mother stopped coming back at all.
It had been about that time when Lila’d been given over to an endless stream of nannies and boarding schools, and her mother became a person that Lila saw only occasionally and never for extended periods of time.
She supposed that’s why she wanted to see that diner again, she mused, as she stood outside the doors and peered in the windows. Because the place certainly didn’t meet her standards otherwise.
She gave a little sniff, and pushed open the door, bell overhead ringing cheerfully.
The place was almost empty, she noted critically, which didn’t speak well for it. Just a scattering of senior citizens that she assumed must be regulars, and two boys that looked to be about her age, maybe a little older sitting at the counter. They were chatting with the man standing behind the counter, which immediately discounted them in her opinion.
One didn’t fraternize with the help.
Still, they were boys and that made them more interesting than anything else she’d so far in this Podunk little town.
She approached the counter and slid onto the stool next to the boy with the black hair.
The three men glanced her way.
“Could I see a menu?” she asked.
The older man’s eyes narrowed, but silently he pulled a menu out from under the counter and set it down in front of her.
Lila smiled at him briefly, before looking down at the menu. She glanced at it for a moment, before setting it aside and turning her attention to the boys to her right. “What would the two of you recommend?”
“Not talking to strangers,” was the immediate retort of the boy farthest to her right. Lila glared at him for a second, quickly taking in his brown hair, devious eyes and smirk. Dismissing him, she turned towards the other boy, smiling up at him winsomely. “What about you?”
“Well, ignoring Spencer for one,” he said.
Her smile deepened. “I’d picked up on that already.”
“Sitting right here, you know,” the boy named Spencer reminded them as he bit into a French fry.
“And that’s such a shame,” Lila returned cuttingly, smirking at Spencer.
The man behind the counter laughed. “You might finally have met someone with as much attitude as you, Spencer.” He clapped the boy on the shoulder, as he headed around the counter. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you decide what you want.” He stepped through the swinging kitchen doors and disappeared from sight.
Lila turned back to the still unnamed boy sitting next to her. “I didn’t catch your name.”
He smiled down at her, dimples winking out. “It’s Morgan.”
“It’s very nice to meet you, Morgan.” Lila extended a hand delicately. “I’m Lila.”
He shook her hand automatically. “So what brings you to Port Charles, Lila?”
“Oh, I’m being punished,” she said matter-of-factly.
Spencer laughed. “Punished? Do tell.”
She gave a little shrug. “I got into some trouble at my last school, and my mother sent me here to bury me. She’s under the misapprehension that a small town will be free of temptation.” On the last word she smiled innocently up at Morgan, already having decided that he was exactly the distraction she’d been hoping for.
He chuckled nervously and looked down at his watch. “I’ve got to get going,” he rushed out, sliding off the stool and pulling out his wallet to toss some bills on the counter. He started backing way, bumping into an empty chair. He blushed a little and turned around so that he could exit facing the proper direction. “Nice to meet you, Lila,” he called back over his shoulder. “See you later, Spencer.”
The bells overhead jangled merrily as he made his escape.
Lila, who’d watched the whole thing with interest and a knowing smirk, turned back to the counter and found Spencer shaking his head and chuckling to himself. “What?!” she demanded, angry with herself for letting him get to her.
He looked at her with something close to pity in his eyes. “Princess, it’s never going to happen.”
She rolled her eyes and shot him a withering glare. “I’m sure I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”
He laughed again and moved to the stool next to hers. “Please, you’re not nearly as good as you think you are.”
Lila propped her chin up on one of her hands. “And just what is it that you think I’ve decided to do?”
“You’ve decided to seduce him,” Spencer said bluntly. “Or let him think he’s seducing you, I’m not sure which way you’re intending to play things yet.”
She had to give him points. Very few people could read her that well. “Okay, so assume you’re right and that is my plan,” she said, stressing the last word dramatically. “Why would it never happen?”
“Well for one, when Morgan finds you’re not legal, he’s not going to touch you with a ten foot pole,” he drawled, smirking with satisfaction at the slight narrowing of Lila’s eyes that revealed that he’d guessed correctly.
“How did you know that?” Lila demanded, eyes flashing.
He shrugged. “Like I said, you’re not as good as you think you are.”
Through gritted teeth she managed, “Apparently. Please continue, though. Why else would it never happen?”
“The age thing wasn’t enough? Because I assure you, it will be a deal breaker.”
She shook her head, trying to keep from reaching out to strangle him.
“Well then, because of who you are.”
Now Lila looked confused. “Who I am?”
“Or maybe it’s more who he is,” Spencer mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
“I really could strangle you,” Lila threatened, giving voice to the thought she’d had since seeing his smug face for the first time.
“Ah, but then you’d never find out why exactly my dear cousin Morgan won’t ever sleep with you,” he pointed out.
She rolled her eyes. “Would you just get on with it please?”
“Fine,” Spencer said, shaking his head sadly. “Ruin the suspense. Well, my dear, Morgan won’t touch you because his name is Morgan Corinthos and yours is Lila Alcazar.”
She shot straight up in her seat. “I didn’t tell you my last name.”
“You didn’t have to,” he countered. “It’s a small town, princess. Just how many redheads with family in town that go by Lila did you think there were?” He shifted a little, stretching his arm out along the back of her stool. “Besides, we were almost cousins once upon a time.”
“How is one almost a cousin?” Lila asked acerbically. “And what do our last names have to do with whether or not Morgan would sleep with me?”
“I’ll make you up a family tree,” Spencer offered. “We’re all so inbred, they’re like score cards.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “As for the rest, did your mother never tell you about your father’s history in Port Charles?”
“No,” Lila said flatly. “Should she have?”
Spencer raised an eyebrow. “Before sending you here? Absolutely.”
He slid off the stool and threw some money on the counter. He moved behind her stool and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “It’d be much easier to just give up on Morgan and play with me instead. I assure you, I’m much more fun.”
“I think I’ll pass.”
He straightened. “Your loss. See you around, princess.”
She turned and shot him a devastating smile. “With any luck, I won’t be here that long.”
“Well, then I’ll just have to hope for your continued misfortune.” He smirked at her one final time, before turning and strolling nonchalantly out of the dinner, calling back over his shoulder, “See you later, Lucas.”
At that, the older man, Lucas, Lila now presumed, pushed his way out of the kitchen. When he spotted her sitting alone at the counter, he asked, “Did you ever decide what you wanted?”
“One very large serving of crow for Spencer,” she muttered under her breath.
“What was that?”
She stood. “You know what, I think I lost my appetite. Thanks anyway.”
As she headed out the door, the bell overhead chimed once more. She grimaced at the cheerful sound and stepped out into the blistering summer heat.
She’d call her mother first, she decided. And once she knew what was going on, she’d prove that idiot Spencer wrong.
Lila never let anyone tell her what she couldn’t do.
Author: empressearwig
Prompt: 67 - Whispers
Pairing/Character(s): Lila, Spencer, Morgan
Rating: PG, maybe
Disclaimer: Not mine, sadly.
Word Count: 1891
Spoilers/Warnings: Part of the extended Lana!AU.
Summary: If she did, who would people talk about?
Author's Notes: Written for theechochorus.
Lila Alcazar blew into Port Charles with the whispers of Manhattan’s elite at her back.
When one was kicked out of four schools in three years, people tended to talk after all.
The latest incident, at the posh boarding school in Switzerland her mother hand sent her to as a last resort, had rendered her exiled. Sent to live with one of her mother’s cousins in upstate New York, Lila was certain she’d be bored to death within a month, which she knew was her mother’s plan.
Seeing where she could be forced to spend her last year of high school if she didn’t behave was supposed to make her straighten up and fly right.
Lila figured she’d let her mother think that the plot had worked. She’d play obedient, well behaved Lila for a few weeks and earn a reprieve. Then she’d be back in the Hamptons or Milan or the south of France, or wherever her mother was summering this year, not that she’d actually see her mother, but her mother was big on pretenses.
She wouldn’t be spending the entire summer in Port Charles.
If she did, who would people talk about?
*
Lila’s first morning in Port Charles began with a very rude awakening.
Accustomed to late nights and even later mornings, Lila was not expecting to be shaken awake by a very beefy woman in a maid’s uniform at seven a.m.
As she pulled the sleeping mask off her face, and blinked rapidly up at her attacker, she demanded, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
The maid pulled the covers off Lila’s legs, leaving her frantically trying to pull them back up as the chill from the air conditioning hit her mostly bare skin. “I have orders from your mother and Mr. Ashton that you’re to be prepared to work with your tutors by eight o’clock, Monday through Friday.”
“What?!” Lila spluttered, giving up the war over the blankets and scrambling out of bed to pull on a robe. “My mother didn’t tell me that!”
The maid shrugged. “Not my problem. Breakfast is being served downstairs if you want to eat.” She walked out and let the door slam shut behind her.
Fuming, Lila snatched her phone off the night stand and dialed her mother’s number, leaving a blistering voice mail.
Things were most definitely not going as planned.
*
Later that afternoon, after being released from the clutches of her tutor (a tutor, Lila was horrified to learn, that had been employed for the entire summer, for the express purpose of ensuring that Lila would meet the entrance requirements for Port Charles Day, a local private school), she requested to be dropped off on the docks, nearby the one establishment in Port Charles that she remembered.
A tiny diner that her mother had taken her to for hot chocolate one Christmas, before her great-grandfather died and her mother stopped coming back at all.
It had been about that time when Lila’d been given over to an endless stream of nannies and boarding schools, and her mother became a person that Lila saw only occasionally and never for extended periods of time.
She supposed that’s why she wanted to see that diner again, she mused, as she stood outside the doors and peered in the windows. Because the place certainly didn’t meet her standards otherwise.
She gave a little sniff, and pushed open the door, bell overhead ringing cheerfully.
The place was almost empty, she noted critically, which didn’t speak well for it. Just a scattering of senior citizens that she assumed must be regulars, and two boys that looked to be about her age, maybe a little older sitting at the counter. They were chatting with the man standing behind the counter, which immediately discounted them in her opinion.
One didn’t fraternize with the help.
Still, they were boys and that made them more interesting than anything else she’d so far in this Podunk little town.
She approached the counter and slid onto the stool next to the boy with the black hair.
The three men glanced her way.
“Could I see a menu?” she asked.
The older man’s eyes narrowed, but silently he pulled a menu out from under the counter and set it down in front of her.
Lila smiled at him briefly, before looking down at the menu. She glanced at it for a moment, before setting it aside and turning her attention to the boys to her right. “What would the two of you recommend?”
“Not talking to strangers,” was the immediate retort of the boy farthest to her right. Lila glared at him for a second, quickly taking in his brown hair, devious eyes and smirk. Dismissing him, she turned towards the other boy, smiling up at him winsomely. “What about you?”
“Well, ignoring Spencer for one,” he said.
Her smile deepened. “I’d picked up on that already.”
“Sitting right here, you know,” the boy named Spencer reminded them as he bit into a French fry.
“And that’s such a shame,” Lila returned cuttingly, smirking at Spencer.
The man behind the counter laughed. “You might finally have met someone with as much attitude as you, Spencer.” He clapped the boy on the shoulder, as he headed around the counter. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you decide what you want.” He stepped through the swinging kitchen doors and disappeared from sight.
Lila turned back to the still unnamed boy sitting next to her. “I didn’t catch your name.”
He smiled down at her, dimples winking out. “It’s Morgan.”
“It’s very nice to meet you, Morgan.” Lila extended a hand delicately. “I’m Lila.”
He shook her hand automatically. “So what brings you to Port Charles, Lila?”
“Oh, I’m being punished,” she said matter-of-factly.
Spencer laughed. “Punished? Do tell.”
She gave a little shrug. “I got into some trouble at my last school, and my mother sent me here to bury me. She’s under the misapprehension that a small town will be free of temptation.” On the last word she smiled innocently up at Morgan, already having decided that he was exactly the distraction she’d been hoping for.
He chuckled nervously and looked down at his watch. “I’ve got to get going,” he rushed out, sliding off the stool and pulling out his wallet to toss some bills on the counter. He started backing way, bumping into an empty chair. He blushed a little and turned around so that he could exit facing the proper direction. “Nice to meet you, Lila,” he called back over his shoulder. “See you later, Spencer.”
The bells overhead jangled merrily as he made his escape.
Lila, who’d watched the whole thing with interest and a knowing smirk, turned back to the counter and found Spencer shaking his head and chuckling to himself. “What?!” she demanded, angry with herself for letting him get to her.
He looked at her with something close to pity in his eyes. “Princess, it’s never going to happen.”
She rolled her eyes and shot him a withering glare. “I’m sure I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”
He laughed again and moved to the stool next to hers. “Please, you’re not nearly as good as you think you are.”
Lila propped her chin up on one of her hands. “And just what is it that you think I’ve decided to do?”
“You’ve decided to seduce him,” Spencer said bluntly. “Or let him think he’s seducing you, I’m not sure which way you’re intending to play things yet.”
She had to give him points. Very few people could read her that well. “Okay, so assume you’re right and that is my plan,” she said, stressing the last word dramatically. “Why would it never happen?”
“Well for one, when Morgan finds you’re not legal, he’s not going to touch you with a ten foot pole,” he drawled, smirking with satisfaction at the slight narrowing of Lila’s eyes that revealed that he’d guessed correctly.
“How did you know that?” Lila demanded, eyes flashing.
He shrugged. “Like I said, you’re not as good as you think you are.”
Through gritted teeth she managed, “Apparently. Please continue, though. Why else would it never happen?”
“The age thing wasn’t enough? Because I assure you, it will be a deal breaker.”
She shook her head, trying to keep from reaching out to strangle him.
“Well then, because of who you are.”
Now Lila looked confused. “Who I am?”
“Or maybe it’s more who he is,” Spencer mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
“I really could strangle you,” Lila threatened, giving voice to the thought she’d had since seeing his smug face for the first time.
“Ah, but then you’d never find out why exactly my dear cousin Morgan won’t ever sleep with you,” he pointed out.
She rolled her eyes. “Would you just get on with it please?”
“Fine,” Spencer said, shaking his head sadly. “Ruin the suspense. Well, my dear, Morgan won’t touch you because his name is Morgan Corinthos and yours is Lila Alcazar.”
She shot straight up in her seat. “I didn’t tell you my last name.”
“You didn’t have to,” he countered. “It’s a small town, princess. Just how many redheads with family in town that go by Lila did you think there were?” He shifted a little, stretching his arm out along the back of her stool. “Besides, we were almost cousins once upon a time.”
“How is one almost a cousin?” Lila asked acerbically. “And what do our last names have to do with whether or not Morgan would sleep with me?”
“I’ll make you up a family tree,” Spencer offered. “We’re all so inbred, they’re like score cards.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “As for the rest, did your mother never tell you about your father’s history in Port Charles?”
“No,” Lila said flatly. “Should she have?”
Spencer raised an eyebrow. “Before sending you here? Absolutely.”
He slid off the stool and threw some money on the counter. He moved behind her stool and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “It’d be much easier to just give up on Morgan and play with me instead. I assure you, I’m much more fun.”
“I think I’ll pass.”
He straightened. “Your loss. See you around, princess.”
She turned and shot him a devastating smile. “With any luck, I won’t be here that long.”
“Well, then I’ll just have to hope for your continued misfortune.” He smirked at her one final time, before turning and strolling nonchalantly out of the dinner, calling back over his shoulder, “See you later, Lucas.”
At that, the older man, Lucas, Lila now presumed, pushed his way out of the kitchen. When he spotted her sitting alone at the counter, he asked, “Did you ever decide what you wanted?”
“One very large serving of crow for Spencer,” she muttered under her breath.
“What was that?”
She stood. “You know what, I think I lost my appetite. Thanks anyway.”
As she headed out the door, the bell overhead chimed once more. She grimaced at the cheerful sound and stepped out into the blistering summer heat.
She’d call her mother first, she decided. And once she knew what was going on, she’d prove that idiot Spencer wrong.
Lila never let anyone tell her what she couldn’t do.