In Our Heads

Chapter 9

*****

Cassian felt the water splash onto his back as he let out an exhausted sigh. He was beginning to think that maybe slipping a couple of his parent's sleeping pills out of their bathroom cabinet was not such a bad idea.

He had gotten out of bed just past 6 AM after having slept restlessly for about an hour before finally giving up and heading to the gym downstairs to run for a while. This was his usual morning weekend routine, he just did an hour more of running and weight lifting since he had gotten out of bed an hour earlier than other weekends.

After working out, he headed to his room to get cleaned up which was where he currently was, in the shower trying to keep his eyes open as warm water ran down his skin. He stayed still, enjoying the warmth for a few more minutes before deciding it was time to get out and began drying off.

Walking into his room, he fixed his hair and then threw on a pair of trousers and a formal shirt before slipping his sock-covered feet into his Alexander McQueen Chelsea boots and tugging on his black blazer carefully. He was dressing extra formally because he was accompanying his father to a board meeting.

After examining the look, he made his way downstairs into the dining room where he found his parents mid-way through their breakfast and took a seat across them.

"You look good." His mother smiled at him.

He thanked her as he reached out to the glass jug to pour some juice out for himself.

"Did you read over the summary Matthew sent you?" Matthew was one of his father's personal assistants.

"Yes," he replied as he focused on buttering the slice of bread on his plate.

"Are you okay?" He looked up to see his mother furrowing her brows at him.

"Yes." He nodded, confused about why she asked.

"You're being awfully quiet," his father spoke.

"I'm just hungry." He was not really, but it was the easiest thing he could say at the moment.

He actually did not even want to eat the single slice of bread he was currently busy with but now he figured he had to prove to them he was hungry so he stuck it into his mouth to take a bite.

"You didn't tell us you were going to Jake's last night. What did you do?" he almost choked on his food as his mother asked.

"Uh – study group," he replied grabbing his juice as he tried to hide the fact that he had a lump of bread stuck in his throat before pushing it down as he drank casually. "I forgot to mention it, we just decided after school..." he said before adding, "How did you know?"

"I did not want to bother Jonathan by calling to ask, so I checked your location to see if you made it home."

He had forgotten about the tracker in his phone, his parents barely ever mentioned it so he figured they barely ever looked at it because it was not needed, they always knew exactly where he was. Now he was wondering how much they looked at it but never mentioned it.

"Guess what?" His mother suddenly grinned giving him a bad feeling that was only multiplied when his father gave a small smile too.

"Do I have to guess?" he asked slowly.

"We met with the Gilmores last night for dinner before the meetings and they were just as excited about setting you up with Ryan as we are, so we've gone ahead and scheduled a date for the two of you next week," she said. Cassian's jaw dropped slightly.

"What?"

"You two seemed to be having a hard time reaching each other with the difference in schedules, so we figured we would shuffle everything around and you'll meet him at 5 PM on Saturday."