Royal love

Chapter 84

"What's up with him?" Mateo asks as he takes a bite of his egg.

"He must be in one of his moods," Grayson offers.

"I've never seen him in a mood like this before," I say. "He's always been the calm type."

Everyone stares at me wide eyed, as if I just spoke nonsense. I don't understand why they're all acting like this, Hayden has never been mean to any of us.

"Oh right, she wasn't there," Daniella says covering her mouth from surprise at the realization.

"Okay, can you guys just tell me what's going on?" I ask, annoyed.

"When you were kidnapped, he went crazy," Jody says with wide
story-telling eyes.

"Crazy how?" I ask. I feel my eyebrows furrow and my eyes narrow.

"Well, when you first got kidnapped he probably ran (or got a ride but by the way he was huffing and puffing...)" Jody raises his hand as if to say "just saying" before he starts again. "back to the school to get us to try to help but when we did and still couldn't find you, he paced around all the time mumbling things under his breath, he constantly yelled at us and would disappear for long periods of time, when we saw him again and asked him 'hey man, where'd you go?' He would say something along the lines of 'when did you become my f*cking mother?' Before going in his dorm to devise another plan," Jody says.

"Oh," I say, in my mind, a very small part, I'm happy that my absence made Hayden worry about me. I remember feeling hopeless and alone and remember just wishing I would die, to hear he wasn't in good condition while I was gone made me feel a little better, despite it being cruel of me.

"Then one day he disappeared for a long time and we had to start looking for both of you—not as if we hadn't been looking for you before but now we had to look for both of you—. Turns out you were both in a cabin with some Sebastian guy who got shot after Hayden's dad like— I don't know— bombed the place. Then we had to do a whole investigation—in which we found out Hayden was a high profile gang member who's the son of the leader of the gang— just to find you at his dads building, and now we're here. But hey, we're all reunited so it's okay."

"So he never told you any of that?" I ask. Everyone shakes their head. "That's why you're all scared of him?" Everyone nods. It makes me laugh.

"Wait, he told you?" Sam manages to ask before cringing at the pain from moving too much.

I nod. "He... well I did have to share a dorm with him for a while so he and I got to spend a lot of time together."

"Tell me about it," Daniella says lifting and dropping her eyebrows in a constant pattern.

"Ewww" everyone in the group says at the same time. Jody sticks out his tongue and acts like he's gagging.

"You all know that's not what I mean."

Everyone laughs but I just roll my eyes and cross my arms, annoyed at their childishness.

Then I remember how this conversation started, Hayden. I don't want to excuse myself and make them all know I'm going to ask Hayden what happened because they'll probably make something weird out of it which is the last thing I would want for him right now.

I wait for everyone to finish their plate. I help clean up. I sit and talk after we're all done cleaning. But the whole time, I'm thinking about Hayden. I want to talk to him.

When Jody starts to break out the cards for card games, I find a way out.

"I don't like card games," I lie.

"How is that even possible? There's so many kinds of card games, how could you hate them all?" Jody asks, handing out the cards.

"I don't like how they feel in my hands," I lie. It was the first thing that came to mind.

"These cards feel nice, why don't you try holding them? They're soft at the edges and not pointy, they feel crisp—"

I reach over Daniella and touch a card. "Hate it." Then I excuse myself.

I go down the hallway into Graysons room, where Hayden is. When I open the door, he doesn't flinch. He doesn't even move. He's laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Hayden?" I dip into the room and whisper his name quietly, I think he's sleeping. I close the door behind me only letting go of the handle once the door is fully closed.

I make my way over to the bed and sit on the opposite side Haydens laying on. After a few minutes I make myself comfortable and lay down. Hayden doesn't move.

I take a deep breath and feel myself starting to relax. Everything has been so crazy recently, I haven't had any time to process everything. I can hardly imagine what Hayden's feeling right now. But it's probably much worse than I am.

I turn only my head to face Hayden. His eyes are closed and he's looking at the ceiling. He's breathing steadily. I hate that that's what I notice now, breathing steadily? A few months ago I would have noticed his messed up hair or his slightly chapped lips, now I notice his breathing.

But at the same time, watching him breath is soothing. His chest rises and falls in a steady rhythm and soon I find myself in the same rhythm.

He looks relaxed. As of recently he always looks stressed. I know he'll go back to that the second he wakes up but right now, he actually looks okay.

I look up at the ceiling and take another deep breath. This bed is very relaxing, I feel like I'm sinking into it. Soon I can't help but start to feel sleepy. Why fight it? So I close my eyes and fall asleep.

Word count: 1023
12-26-23
12:24 pm
(Not revised) I literally never revise my chapters 😭 maybe I'll do a read through were I fix all my mistakes 🫣
More chapters soon guys!!!