"Riley....Riley...Riley.......RILEY RIILLLEYYY" Alex forcibly brought me out of sleep by calling me from right next to my ear, and I groaned before opening my eyes and looking at him, hardly fazed over the fact his face was covering nearly 100% of my view.
"What??" I asked before sighing and then stretching slightly. I looked over to the window to see it was about midday.
"Can we go do something now??" He asked and I groaned before rubbing my face.
"Seriously Alex??"I complained before thumping my head back down onto the pillow.
"What? You said we could go exploring!" He defended and I huffed.
Crap, I did, didn't I? How am I supposed to explain to him that I actually want to stay here standing around all day waiting for an opportunity to get into my father's office?
"Do we have to?" I asked and he gasped at me.
"Are you going back on YOUR WORD???!" He exclaimed dramatically and I rolled my eyes, now being forced to get up in order to get away from his loud voice.
"Okay okay, what do you want to do?" I asked as he hopped happily off of the bed.
"Go into London!"
"...Can't you do something a bit easier, like explore the manor?" I asked and he made a face.
"No way! Not interesting enough!"
I shook my head at him as I went to put my shoes on before hurrying after him when he shot out of the room.
I'm gong to spend the whole time child-minding aren't I.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs Alex was stood awkwardly in front of Matías as he just stared down at him silently like he didn't know what to do with him.
"Going somewhere?" He asked before looking at me and I gave a polite smile.
"Yeah, just into London for a bit" I replied as Alex gave a forced smile before backing away from him. I gave him a questioning look about his strange behaviour but he didn't look back at me.
"I see, well make sure to come back before its too dark, I guess." He seemed unsettled about the idea of us going out of the house, but didn't say anything else before carrying on down the hall to my father's office.
I narrowed my eyes at the office, I'm going to get in there soon.
"Alex don't go outside yet we have to wait for a taxi." I called when Alex made a quick escape out of the house and sighed.
I followed him and closed the door, the breeze was slightly chilly and you could tell it had been raining.
"So? It's nice out here!" He replied before walking over to the side of the manor.
I followed him and smiled as we walked into the stables. There was only a new horse I didn't recognise in one of the stables, as everyone else was out in the fields.
"Damn, rustic." He said and I scoffed.
"It's an ancient manor of course the stable's going to be old."
Layla was just down the hallway, cleaning out a stall and listening to really loud music from her headphones.
She jumped when she noticed us before smiling happily.
"Hello! The horse's are out to pasture at the moment, apart from Rufus over there because he's an asshole!" She informed immediately and chirpily making me smile at her.
"Great, thanks."
"Oh! And you've got to go see Patty again, she's doing great!" She exclaimed and Alex looked back at me.
"What happened to Patty?" He asked and I smiled.
"Patty's a rescued Dairy cow." I stated and he made a weird face making me chuckle.
"Why..do you have a dairy cow?" He asked as we started walking in the direction of her field.
"Don't ask me, came home one day and my father had rescued a cow." I explained and he just blinked at me.
"I see."
"He likes to think he's all compassionate and warm-hearted" I commented as we approached a grazing cow. She'd fattened out since I last saw her, seemed to be shinier as well.
I looked further into the field and smiled when I noticed Ziathe and Noah among the small gathering of horses. Meanwhile Alex was still staring silently at the cow.
"You have a fucking cow." He stated like he was trying to sink it in and I chuckled at him.
"It's not THAT strange." I said and he pffted at me.
"You're in the city!"
"It's England."
-
Once the taxi had finally came I was left really concerned over the fact Alex just said 'go to the centre!' without having any idea where that actually is.
It's not like I know my away around, so I fear we may get totally lost.
He ran off when we arrived after an annoying journey of him not staying quiet for more than 15 seconds. Believe me, I counted.
Luckily he didn't seem to be interested in leaving my side among the large crowds so I didn't have to worry about that. Loyal puppy.
"So, anything interesting around here??" He asked and I made a face.
"I have no idea."
"Don't you know your way around?"
"Um, no?"
"But its your hometown!"
"HomeTOWN? It's my home MEGACITY!" I exclaimed and he made a shrug of agreement before getting out his phone.
"Hmm..."
"Finally noticing that your phone won't work properly in the UK?" I asked with an amused raised brow.
"Yep how about yours?" He replied, hardly fazed.
"Mine is fine, because I have a UK compatible SIM card." I said and he frowned.
"When did you get that?" He asked making me want to facepalm.
"-Anyway that doesn't matter, let's just go to that art gallery place!" He exclaimed before i could say anything and I sighed.
"What art gallery place? There are plenty in London."
"Good point. Closest?" He asked and I shook my head at him with an amused grin.
"The TATE I guess."
"So you DO know your way around?"
"Oh my god Alex stop."
"What?"
-
"Why do you want to be here again?" I asked as I winced at the bright lights flashing at the entrance to this huge gallery. Apparently lights flashing to music is modern art.
Can tell I'm going to see very expensive blobs of rectangular paint in here.
"ART, duh! I may be a digital artist, but I can still appreciate the traditionals." He explained and I rolled my eyes.
"Okay, let's just get this over with." I said and he immediately bounded off in the direction of the stairs.
"Let's go to the roof first!"
"WHAT? Did you see how tall this building is??"
"Yep! That's why it'll be fun!"
Ugh. I could be stealing large amounts of money right now.
...Can't believe I just thought that.
Wow. America's changed me.
"How do you have the energy for this?" I asked Alex in exasperation as he continued to happily bounce up our 12th set of stairs.
I did try to convince him to take the elevator, seriously.
"What? Don't tell me you're out of breath??" He teased and I rolled my eyes.
"Me? You're the one that's breathing heavily! You could avoid that if you'd just walk normally instead of bouncing up and down!"
"What? I'm getting rid of my daily calorie intake!"
I laughed in response to that and he just shrugged at me.
"Finally!" He exclaimed as we reached the top. I walked out of the building and up to the railing, looking down at the ground below.
"Glad I'm not afraid of heights..." I commented to myself because at this point I wasn't paying attention to where Alex had run off to.
I looked out into the dreary overcast cityscape and sighed. Now I'm in England there's nothing I can do but get that money and sit and hope that Erin is okay. I will just hope that the test results on Monday are positive.
I've got to make sure he can still contact me...I has still have Facebook messenger so it's okay.
I feel so useless...
"Why so serious??" Alex made me nearly jump out of my skin when he suddenly wrapped his arms around me from behind and started suffocating me.
"Jesus Alex!" I exclaimed in a strained voice and he loosened his grip slightly.
"Whhhatt? You're being all grumpy and shit, brings down the general mood you know, so what's wrong?" He asked with a smile as he rested his chin on my shoulder and I huffed at him.
"I'm not moody." I grumbled and he raised a brow at me.
...Okay maybe slightly.
I looked around to the few people that were around us and then back to him before trying to shrug him off.
"Can you let go?"
"Not until you tell me what's wrong!" He chirped and I huffed at him.
Tell my new step-brother who owes me nothing that I'm stressed about stealing a very large sum of money from my Father? Um, no.
"I'll tell you later!" I said after a few moments of him not letting go and he pouted.
"Finnnnee." He said then snuggled his head into the side of my neck and squeezed me again.
"Allleeexx!!"
"What? Hugs make you happier!!" He stated and I could only respond with an exasperated laugh.
How does his mind even work like seriously.
"You can be really annoying sometimes." I said and he smiled at me.
"Thanks!" He chirped before pecking me on the side of the cheek and letting go.
I touched my cheek and blushed as I looked at the people staring at us before quickly following him back into the building.
He does realise that's slightly gay right?
Ugh, god help me.