✨ A Little Bit of Magic || READER X RAY || The Promised Neverland

✨ Chapter Twenty Four

I'm gonna be late, I'm definitely gonna be late! Ray is going to kill me! God damn it. Just as I swung my backpack over my shoulder, an impatient knock pounded against my dorm's door. Emma, who had woken me up, glanced at me perplexedly. "Who's that?" She whispered, inching towards the knob. I shrugged in return, more concerned about the lecture Ray would give me than the stranger coming to visit. "Whatever, I'll open the door on my way out," I muttered, stepping past the orange haired girl. "He's gonna flip if I'm late, Emma." A boy's familiar voice startled me, the mysterious person who'd come wasn't as unfamiliar as I thought. "Yeah, he would. So thank god you're not." "R-Ray!" I shouted, stumbling backwards into Emma's arms. I heard her stifled laugh from behind me, greeting the black haired boy. "Here to pick her up?" She giggled, placing me back into my feet. Ray shook his head no, making himself comfortable in our room. He placed his bag at the foot of my bed, pulling the chair at my desk out. "The library is closed today. So we'll be staying here." Ab- Absolutely not! My room- It's a mess! I'd literally just thrown my pajamas off, my bed was still a mess, we haven't washed the floors or dusted the bookshelves and- "C'mon, stupid. You have a week's worth of content to make up."

Ray- Ray wasn't the type of person to overlook things. Of course he noticed my messy room. He just- He just didn't care. What he cared about was our class. And that was strangely sweet in its own weird way, somehow. Emma nudged the back on my legs with her chair, tilting her head towards my tutor. "You heard the man," She slipped on her own pair of sneakers, patting down her orange antenna. "Get to work, y/n! I'm hanging out with Norman! Bye!"

Ugh, liar! You didn't tell me you had plans! And now I'm left alone with this... Weirdo. "What're you spacing out for, stupid?" Ray flicked my forehead softly, slightly startling me. Usually... that would've been more painful... But Ray actually seemed quite lax, and a little tired himself. "Nothing, I was just," What was I going to say? That he was being weirdly nice? Ugh, why did I open my stupid mouth. "It's- It's nothing! Please, just teach me!" Another unusually relaxed expression settled on his face, a sharp amused exhale leaving his lips. He turned the textbook open to where we'd left off. "Okay, read this page. Tell me when you're done."

I was only half reading the chapter, another boring tale about the first pyro users. If I knew this was going to be such a bore, I might have stuck out Professor Yuugo's class, haha. If only I'd gotten a warning for that fucking reckoning of a first day. A lot of thoughts were swirling through my head. My parents, who I still missed dearly. Zack, who I wanted to be with now. The dying flower and unfortunately, Ray. He took up a lot of my time nowadays. Time that I'd rather be spending with my hot jock crush, or with Emma and Norman. But those two deserved their alone time, I guess. As for Oliver and Zack, ugh- I hope I didn't screw myself over by sort of hinting at Zack's feelings. Ray interrupted my train of thought, pinching my right cheek. "Hey, idiot, you're still not paying attention. Are you okay?" I batted his hand away, turning back to the book in front of me. "I could ask you the same thing, weirdo." His expressions up to this point had been... of a happier Ray, I guess. It was difficult to explain or really put into words. But the Ray I'd come to know was the same person I was friends with so long ago. Definitely a bit rude, blunt, and calls me an idiot way too many times to be a joke, but he was kind and truly had my best interests at heart. That happier Ray's silver eyes grew dull with my question, also turning away from me. "What're you talking about?" I shrugged, reading the page for real this time. "You just seemed like you let yourself go for a second. In a positive way, though. Did something good happen to you?" But the way he was looking at me now said the complete opposite. But he was just so happy- so... normal? What changed within a matter of seconds? "Well, not really anything good, per se. More like," He waved his hands strangely, struggling to find the words to express his feelings. "I'd just been reminded of something that was... good, I guess. Something that made me special- it was something I'd almost forgot." "Don't say some cringey shit like love or friendship, idiot," I giggled, punching his shoulder. It really did seem like the overdramatic introduction to a My Little Pony episode. Ray smiled back, shaking his head no. "Don't worry, y/n. It was something more like... power. My own strength, y'know? Something great that only I can achieve. I almost let myself get lost in the noise." For some reason, his words had a slightly eerie undertone to them, but I drowned it out with a laugh. "That is cringey shit, you fucking weirdo!" "No it's not!" He laughed back, his silver eyes still dull at the center. "Get back to work, or I'll fail you!"

Something was bothering me. It felt like the ghost of that flower was hanging over my shoulder everywhere I went, beckoning me to look a little harder. But for what? I was confused enough with everything else going on. And a stupid rose shouldn't have as much control over me as it did. What was in front of me now was Ray. Ray and a pile of work.