Not Some Princess ✓

30. Hiding

30

Hiding

Ended up on a crossroad
Try to figure out which way to go
It's like you're stuck on a treadmill
Running in the same place
You got your hazard lights on now
Hoping that somebody would slow down
Praying for a miracle
—Life Is Worth Living
Justin Bieber

THE NIGHTS were the worst for Raymond.

He missed her. And then he made himself not miss her. He wanted to run back and check on her. His heart wanted to hold on to the little hope that maybe, just maybe, she wanted to see him. Maybe she might even need him. Though that was unlikely. She had much better people around her. People who weren't a threat to her. At least.

Raymond turned on his bed for the umpteenth time. He picked up his phone and saw no message from Joe about Emilia, if she was out from the coma or not. Except the usual where was he? And other related texts. Raymond sighed and stood up from the bed. Here went another sleepless night spent thinking about things he was not supposed to be thinking.

He checked the time, it was 6 AM.

Raymond decided to get up and begin his existence already.

He had never felt this useless ever. He had no work. No goals. No margins to hit. His days here at his childhood home were much more different than from back home.

To distract himself, Raymond had been working on his physical. He would run for no particular time daily morning, though usually it lasted about two hours. One day it was three hours and he nearly passed out from dehydration. Then he would come back and have whatever he found in the kitchen, Mrs Pillsbury made a point to make something wholesome for him everyday though. Despite his protests, she was like a nagging mother he never had.

His parents. He hadn't come across them yet. He had gotten all their schedule information form Mrs Pillsbury and he made it a point not to roam around the house during those hours. He stayed in his wing. He knew none of the both of them would care to visit his supposedly vacant room. He was in no condition to face his parents. It required another level of energy that he currently did not possess.

After Laurel, they hadn't been in touch at all. His parents were completely against Raymond putting all his funds into lawyers. Said what was done was done, nothing could be done now. They had resorted to mourn their daughter than to stand up and fight for her. Raymond wasn't like that at all. He had been on and of the hearings for two years straight. And he didn't regret a minute of it.

Their difference of opinion had been the reason for their strained relationship or rather the absence of one not being in the first place. Raymond knew he should have booked a hotel rather than coming here but he knew Mrs Pillsbury wouldn't like that. She was quite sensitive.

"I don't think you should avoid them like this, junior master." Mrs Pillsbury said when she put a plate of sandwiches on the breakfast table.

"And I don't think you should call me that Mrs Pillsbury." Raymond pursed his lips and proceeded to pick a sandwich and place it on his plate.

"Oh look who's here!" Raymond's eyes widened the moment he heard that voice. He looked at her mother standing there in one of her signature conservative dresses and her bronze hair in their usual bob perfection. Raymond sighed and looked at Mrs Pillsbury, who just shrugged and went towards the kitchen.

"Mom." Raymond stood up and her mother embraced him in a tight hug.

"Oh love, I missed you so much." Elena squeezed Raymond's shoulders and looked at him, with her beautiful heart-melting eyes. Her grey eyes smeared with mist which she quickly wiped away.