The Princess of the Moon

Chapter 5

There was another knock on the bathroom door, this one sharper than all the others had been. "Syn," a gruff male voice said, causing me to groan out in annoyance. "Open the door, fiică (daughter), now."

I bit back another groan, knowing that I wasn't in any position to disobey my father. "Of course, tată (father). Just a minute." I washed my face one last time before grabbing a paper towel and getting rid of the excess water off of my face.

"Acum (Now)."

I rolled my eyes and limped to the door. I took a deep breath and opened it, facing my scowling father. "Yes?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I kept my face blank, knowing that my father would be able to know what I was thinking. I did not know how he knew, but it peeved me to no end.

"You went out without my permission," he said, his Romanian accent out in full force. He narrowed his eyes at me and folded his arms across his chest. There was a scowl on his face, and if I weren't used to it, then I would have been scared. "Why?"

"You were in your meeting," I replied. "And I did leave a note that stated that I would be at Damion's baseball game and the time that I would be at home." I paused, knowing what he wanted to know. "It was going to be before dark."

"You are leaving now." He reached to grab me, but I stepped away from his reach.

"No," I replied flatly. I lifted my chin and stared at my father. I knew that it was better to respect him, but I knew that there were sometimes that I needed to stand my ground. And this, this was one of those times. "I want to make sure that Damion is all right before I leave."

Andrei was his name, and just like his name, he was a warrior. He stood around 6'7 and towered over me, even though I was a foot shorter than him. He had a scowl on his face while he looked at me, and I couldn't help but wonder if it had been frozen like that. My father had black hair and striking gray eyes, better than mine.

"Pardon? (Excuse me?)" he asked. "We are going back, Synthia Anca. You need to get home right now."

"But why?" I asked, tired of being treated like a kid. I was eighteen years old and was about to graduate from high school. Only Matthew knew this, but I would leave the nest and move far away from my father. I was sick and tired of all the rules he placed on me, and I wanted my freedom.

After my mother's death, he had become too... controlling. He made sure that I would tell him every place I was at, who I was with, and when I would be going home. Somehow, he knew when I wasn't at the place that I had told him, which caused countless arguments to happen between us.

"Why doesn't she see him for a bit and make sure that he is alright?" Matthew offered, interrupting what my father was about to say. He looked at me and gave me a 'you owe me' look. "Then, I'll call you if anything happens every hour or so."

"Fine," Dad gruffed. "Cinci minute (Five minutes)." He gave me a warning look before walking towards the car.

I huffed and glared after him. I turned to look at my friend and raised an eyebrow. "I have five minutes before I'm supposed to be back at the car," I muttered, translating what he had said. "Come on, the quicker we get there, the longer that I can stay."

***

"There you are," Cillia said, seeing me. She seemed so much better, and I was sure that she was out of shock. She clutched the blanket around her, showing a bit of her bare shoulders. "I was wondering where you went off to." She gave me the one up, causing me to roll my eyes.

"I was sick," I replied. "And my father wants me home." I glanced at the door before looking at her. "How is he?"

Cillia shrugged, giving me that act that she didn't care about her boyfriend. "He won't be able to play baseball anymore. So, he's all yours." She patted my face, causing my mouth to drop.

"What the hell?" I barely contained my inside voice while I glared at her.

She shrugged again. "I only date jocks," she said. She looked at Matthew, who looked just as shocked as I was. "So, you can stop trying to woo me." She walked away, leaving us to watch her with wide mouths.

"Did that just happen?" I asked, incredulous that Damion got dumped because he couldn't play a sport anymore.

"Un huh," Matthew replied. He cleared his throat and shook his head. Pain filled his eyes, and I could tell that what she had said hurt him more than he was letting on. "Come on, let's get you in there so you can leave." He grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me into the room.

***

I walked out of the hospital five minutes later. I was still shocked that Cillia could dump him like that. I mean, Damion was such a great guy. He had been my neighbor for years, and he always told me 'good morning' or walked with me to school before he started to pick Cillia up.

My feelings started to develop when we were around eight, and his mother would take him and me to school. The first time he had met me, he pulled on my pigtails before running away with me following him. His mother had yelled at me when I called him incuiat, which meant butthead in Romanian.

And so, every time either one of us did something, the other didn't like, we would call them "incuiat." It became our thing, and most of the time, people would give us weird looks. This caused us to laugh, and I fell more in love with him when he laughed.

I shook my head and huffed, clearing the past from my thoughts. I didn't need to think about it because it usually broke my heart. It crushed my spirit and made me act more like my cold-hearted father.

I paused when my gut clenched, breaking me, again, from my thoughts. My whole body tensed while I looked around, hating the fact that it was cloudy. My whole body screamed danger!, and I knew that I would have to disobey my father.

I looked towards the truck to see my father watching me, leaning against it. I looked towards the woods before looking towards him again. My heart thundered in my chest because I knew that whatever was out here would try and hurt him if I went towards him. "Îmi pare rău (I am sorry)," I said before turning towards the woods and making a run for it.

"Synthia!" my father exclaimed, shocked that I had disobeyed him. "Come back!"