Kevin Died

28. Baited

28. Baited

_______________

I stopped at home before officially heading out to the church. There was about fifteen minutes left before we would meet with Danielle.

I had hung out with Sayora and Travis after school at a local cafe. It was nice. For so long I had been shutting people out. Living in fear of what would happen if I let people get too close to me. Too close to what I'd been hiding. But everything was different now.

Travis and Sayora knew the truth, at least the main idea of it anyway. And in them knowing that, I was able to be open up again. It also helped that at the moment they were the only two people I trusted, of course.

They were currently outside waiting in my car. I'd decided to just drop off my school things at home. No use in dragging everything along.

School.

How backed up on homework was I again? It'd been a challenge keeping up in my classes recently for obvious reasons. Not like I was ever a real top notch student, but to my credit I did try to get work done. Now school seemed to be so frivolous.

I'd simply thrown my backpack on my bed before heading back downstairs. On the way down, I passed Mom, who'd been making her way up. We made brief eye contact, her giving me a slight smile.

I'd been out far longer than I was supposed to be, given that I technically was still on punishment, but she said nothing about it as we passed by each other. Probably figuring it was best to not speak on it for fear of worsening our shaky relationship as of late.

I hadn't paid much attention to the bags and suitcases in the living room when I'd first entered the house, but they finally registered in my brain just as I was about to leave.

Raymond came waltzing in a second later from the downstairs bathroom. He noticed me and gave an awkward smile.

"Hey, bud."

"What's this?" I asked, getting to the point.

Raymond looked around at the luggage. "These would be mine. I'm leaving finally."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

"Finally got approved for a place then?"

"Actually," Raymond started. "I've had my own house here for quite a while."

I gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I moved to Hillbury a while ago."

"Then why would you pretend you're staying here just until you get your own place?" I inquired.

Raymond hesitated for a moment. "Ricky, I think it's time we had a talk."

"Talk?"

"The talk," Raymond said. "About... Everything."

I was intrigued, but I couldn't sit here and talk now. I needed to get to the church. Why out of all the times did he want to have this conversation at this moment?