ɴᴇᴍᴇꜱɪꜱ ║ ᴛᴏᴍᴍʏɪɴɴɪᴛ

Chapter 29 : Inner anger

"I can't believe this is actually happening." Ranboo cooed, shuffling closer towards Ray who simply continued laughing.

Currently they were all having dinner at some Italian restaurant that had miraculously managed to fit the entire group. Ray was over the moon as soon as they had picked up everyone from the airport (where actually SHE got picked up, by Ranboo, and spun around until she felt dizzy). And now, sitting in the warm pizza-smelling room sandwiched between Ranboo and Alex, she at once felt happy.

But that of course didn't last long as she felt her new phone buzzing from her pocket, and upon looking at the caller, Ray's face immediately dropped.

"Excuse me, I need to take this." She muttered rather quietly, and with a small 'mhm' Ranboo let her out and she was quickly on her way out of the restaurant.

As soon as she exited through the door, the warm stuffy air turned into a cold autumn breeze. She felt her hairs stand up at the icy feeling against her bare skin, but ignored it, as she walked only a couple of more steps before settling down on the sidewalk. Her phone was still ringing, but Ray felt extremely hesitant whether she should actually pick up.

And in the end she did.

"I see that you've figured out my new phone number." She breathed out in a low, raspy voice.

"Where are you?"

Ray couldn't stop herself from scoffing, having to take a few seconds to recover. "So you've finally noticed. How long did it take you? Hours? The entire day? Because that's basically how long I've been gone for."

"Come home right now." She heard her father's voice grow in agitation.

But for once, Ray didn't feel scared. No, not at all, she felt angry. She felt the bottled up rage slowly starting to spill into her veins, forcing her to clench her fists and teeth to try to stop herself from having a screaming fit.

"No."
"Raelynn. I said come home now."
"And I said no, what don't you understand?"
"Are you in London? Did you go to that stupid video event?!"
"It's driving you insane that you don't know where I am, isn't it? I could still be somewhere in Nottingham, or I may be in London, or maybe I'm on the other side of the world. Who knows? Well not you I guess." 
"Stop being childish, Raelynn. This isn't how I raised you."
"As if you raised me at all. Throughout my entire life I've never learned anything from you."

The line went silent for a small moment, her father clearly taking his time with thinking of a response.

"You have an hour to come home. Or else there will be consequences."

Ray rolled her eyes, biting down on her tongue. All sorts of insults and swears begged to get past her lips, but she kept them sealed shut, instead clicking the 'end call' button. 

Her body immediately slumped along with the ragged exhale that escaped her mouth.

"Was that your dad?"

Ray almost jumped at the voice suddenly appearing behind her, and she whipped her head back to find the last person she wanted to see at that very moment.

Tommy had his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans, a small frown on his face and his eyes sharply staring into hers. Ray swallowed hard, having to avert her gaze from him in a short moment of weakness.

"Yeah." She breathed out quietly, pulling her legs up to her chest into her usual comfort position.

But to her surprise, she then heard the sound of footsteps and a presence sitting down beside her.

"Why are you here?" She asked, hands wrapping around herself to preserve the remaining warmth in her body.

"I just needed some fresh air." Tommy hummed casually, looking up towards the sky. "Being in cramped places for a long time makes me feel like shit."

Ray subconsciously nodded, agreeing with his statement. She felt like that too.

Her eyes slowly travelled sideways, eventually setting on the boy's side profile. She couldn't work out any details despite being so close to him because of the shadow casted on his face. But that didn't bother her, because staring at him wasn't the reason she had turned to him.

"Hey, listen..." Ray began, the hesitance clear in her voice. "I know this is a lot to ask, but could you please keep the whole me being a rich kid a secret?"

Upon hearing that, Tommy turned to face her with slight surprise. "Why?"

Ray felt slightly embarrassed, but kept up their eye contact. "Because no one really knows and I feel like it'll ruin their perception of me." Her sentence came out slurred and unsure. 

Tommy seemed to take a moment to take that all in, eventually shifting his gaze back to the street beyond them. "It's not like being rich is a bad thing."

"I know, it's just-" Ray cut herself off, trying to think of any justification for her brainless request. "I don't know. Just please don't tell them."

"Sure." Tommy replied dryly, clearly not caring about her constant worries. "So I guess us going to school together is supposed to be a secret as well?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind."

"I don't. It's just kind of weird." He shrugged.

Ray bit down on her bottom lip, having no idea how to reply to that at all. She felt all sorts of emotions stuffed on top of her rage: regret, discomfort and shame.

Maybe that's what caused her reaction when Tommy stood back up in an attempt to walk away.

"Wait!-" Ray called out as she grabbed a strong hold of the boy's wrist.

Tommy immediately stopped, turning his head to look back at her. He didn't utter a word, simply staring into her eyes in question.

"Do you hate me?" Ray asked in a low and hesitant tone.

But her question was only met by silence as Tommy simply pulsed his lips together and carefully took his hand out of hers before walking away.

omg tommy why you being such a sassy little baka