Not Some Princess ✓

32. Second Chance

32

Second Chance

Here's my soul to keep
I let you in with all that I can
You're not hard to reach
And you bless me with the best gift
That I've ever known
You give me purpose
Yeah, you've given me purpose
—Purpose
Justin Bieber

ROAMING THROUGH the park casually, Raymond looked around the surroundings and felt a sense of nostalgia as he remembered his football days and what a ropy captain he was. All the kids hated him. But he got the team to victory and in the end, that's all that mattered.

Simple days.

Now you bark at someone and they can as much as sue you for indecent behaviour. Life wouldn't have been this giving had he remained his child self.

Even though it seemed as if he wasn't winning at life right now, he was still a better version of himself. Sad optimistic thought Raymond. Great going.

Raymond sighed as he sat on a nearby bench and looked at the different types of swings the place had now. In his time, it was just a couple of slides, a see-saw and the swings. Now they got merry-go-round, a rope climber, and other new stuff that made Raymond feel a bit old.

Raymond was staring into nowhere when he felt a presence beside him.

"I knew we shall meet again." A familiar voice made Raymond turn towards it and feel an almost primitive blood boiling sensation.

Raymond stood up and sneered at the tan man and glared at him thinking how could he dare to show up in front of him after all these years.

"Calm down, I ain't here to get myself kicked." Edward looked at Raymond and resisted to roll his eyes. Raymond's anger towards him was deadly. But he was the closest to her that he could find.

The same green eyes and the same face that could kill you and love you and you would gladly let it all consume you.

Edward smiled slightly at Raymond and patted the seat on the bench beside him.

"It has been long, hasn't it?" Edward peered around the park and sighed with relief. A relief that was as temporary as life. He would know.

Raymond knitted his eyebrows and sensed a change in the man he used to know so well once upon a time.

This man didn't have devilish smirk, those challenging eyes and that dark feel.

This man looked as if he was the personification of acceptance.

As if he was much higher at life than him. He looked so put right that it unravelled Raymond a bit. He seemed at...peace.

And somehow Raymond decided to let go of that anger and just sit beside this man whose only thing that seemed familiar was his face. Rest all appeared distinct from what he knew of him.

"Its has been five years. Jason would have been five now." Edward sighed and smiled at Raymond though his eyes reflected a tinge of longing. And likewise, the smile reflected some high emotion that Raymond just couldn't comprehend.

"Yeah." Raymond stared dubiously at the man and leaned back on the bench. Raymond decided he could beat him up later.

"You know, it's quite strange that for the very reason Laurel let me go, that was the least important thing in life. And something that you could have anywhere. But it's obtruded by the world one can never recognise unless...unless you do." Edward sighed and blinked into some kind of trance. As if he was somewhere else.