My Million Dollar Boyfriend

Chapter 54

"Mother, this is absurd!" Florence shouted as he slammed his hands on the table. Elisa and Adrian didn't flinch at his outburst and continued reading the documents Adrian brought about Raymond. "Why was Adrian allowed to take me home without my consent?!"

She put her drink down and eyed Florence. "He explained the situation to me and I don't think that being home would do any damage to your social life," Elisa replied and put her focus back on the stack of papers she was going through. "And it's also nice for us to see your face once in a while," she added as Adrian nodded in agreement.

"I suppose, but was it really necessary to take this route instead of calling me? I even could've brought Claude if I knew that this would've happened," he said, making Adrian shake his head with a disapproving look on his face.

"Why do you think that I would even allow that? That defeats the whole purpose of you being here," Adrian sighed while putting some sugar in his tea and tasting the level of sweetness. "I told you already, it won't take that long to deal with Raymond. I'll definitely allow you to go out during your next school vacation. And we'll have some of our people ride you around for your side jobs."

Florence stared at him with a look of disbelief. "But that's in five weeks?" he said and Adrian shrugged. He let out a "tch" sound and stood up from the dinner table. "If you two don't allow me to go back home, I'll ask father about it."

Adrian loudly put his mug on the table, which made Florence flinch. "Don't even try. Father is already updated on the situation and he's definitely not against it." His cold eyes met Florence who was trying to keep his cool. "And stop acting like a brat, Florence. You won't gain anything from it," he added and continued with his paperwork again.

With his head raised high, Florence turned around and walked out of the dining room without glancing back.

"Was that really necessary?" Elisa asked as Adrian instantly regretted what he said when Florence wasn't in sight anymore.

He nodded, convincing himself not to go up and apologize to him that quickly. "If I hadn't said anything, he would've kept trying to bicker with us," Adrian sighed. "He'll see eventually that I did this for his own well-being."

Florence shut the door of his room and sat on his bed with an irritated expression. "What am I supposed to do here?" he whispered as he lay down on his back. "It's already been a few hours since I've heard from Claude. How am I supposed to explain this situation to him? Because I know that Adrian won't even bother to tell him about it."

He turned over to lie on his stomach and saw his PC and stream set up on his desk. "I'm not going to expect that much from him but I'll check discord again," Florence thought and went to his desk. He sat down on his chair and booted it up. After typing his password and dusting off the keyboard, Florence opened discord and rolled his eyes when he didn't see any new message from him.

"Then I have to go with plan B," Florence thought and updated a game they've been frequently playing on their time off.

After staring for a few minutes while it was updating, he furrowed his eyebrows and reached for his pockets. "Why am I doing this? I can just open it on my- Oh," Florence whispered as he remembered that Adrian took his phone from him. While it continued, he thought about all the options of the social media accounts that Adrian didn't have any access to but that idea was quickly scraped from his list.

"...I see why Claude judges Adrian's overprotectiveness sometimes." Florence kept himself occupied with some work and without him realizing it, the game was ready to start. When he was logged in, he saw that Claude sent a message to him and Florence started spamming for Claude's attention in the chat. After a few minutes of playing the game, Claude responded to him.

Skyhigh: so you ARE still alive

Skyhigh: I thought something bad happened TT don't u have ur phone??

Florence clenched his fist and let out a relieved sigh. "Totally worth it," he thought and started typing.

Lore: do you still have DC downloaded

Lore: I can call you on there but be quick pls

Skyhigh: sure give me a sec I'm preparing to go out with Sora

A few minutes later, Florence heard a discord notification. He closed the game as fast as possible and clicked the call button. It took Claude one ring to pick up.

"Hello? Can you hear me, Flory?" Claude asked as Florence heard how worried he sounded.

"Yes," he whispered as he started fiddling with his fingers.

"Syd and I were texting you the whole time when we saw that you weren't online for a while. Did something happen to your phone? Or did you forget it at home?" Claude asked.

Florence sighed loudly. "It's kind of complicated," he said and explained why Adrian brought him home and how long it could take for him to go back home. The other side of the line kept quiet. "Claude? Are you still there?"

"Yeah," Claude replied, staring with a dazed expression at Soraya who also heard what Florence said. "And how is he planning to deal with Raymond?" he asked as he remembered how one of Adrian's options was to literally get rid of him.

"I don't know yet," Florence said and heard someone knocking in his room. "I'll call you back later at night."

"Alright-" Claude saw that Florence had already ended the call. Claude looked back at Soraya. "Rich people are crazy."

"You don't say..." Soraya said as she pushed Claude out of the door. "C'mon we have to be quick if we want to be on time for the metro."

It didn't take them that long to reach Manhattan. Before they went to eat, Soraya wanted to go to a clothing store which Claude didn't mind. As he was following Soraya, he heard a familiar voice behind him. He ducked away behind a clothing rack and Soraya looked around to see who Claude was hiding from.

"The fuck are you doing?" she whispered harshly and saw that he was hiding for Noah. "Yikes. Give me a minute, we'll leave soon."

"Good," he sighed and tried to keep his face out of Noah's view. But that didn't seem to work for someone else who noticed him.

"Claude?" Claude turned his head and saw Raymond looking at him with a puzzled expression. "Who are you hiding from?" he asked, which also got Noah's attention.

Soraya glanced at Raymond and saw Noah approaching them. "Let's order a pizza next time."

A/N this "break" wasn't on my schedule... but I only have two weeks left until I stop working so I'm gonna be a little strict on myself again. My proofreader is also busy I guess so I'm planning to just pump out chapters like how I used to with PM. And I was brainstorming for a new story idea but I don't know if I want to do opera singer x (ballet) dancer or idols. But I still have until November to figure that out. Seasonal depression is gonna hit soon too so that'd definitely make me more productive too. Till next week and for real this time. I'm gonna draw more new OCs and don't kill mice

-Rey

BTW thank you for 40k! Thank you for still sticking around or being a new reader who read all the 53 chapters! I'll start uploading every Sunday (unless some personal things happen but I doubt it) and I'll draw a new cover soon!!