Child of a King

Chapter eight - High as a rocket

I spent today entirely in my new bedroom, getting used to being alone in there, so I hopefully would be able to sleep in my own bed at some point. Nate wasn't pressuring me or anything, but I didn't want to overstay my welcome in his room if you could call it that.

The weather was dark and gloomy, and the spring temperature had decided to stay hidden behind heavy clouds and a constant breeze. It was one of those days where I hadn't changed out of my pajamas even though it was 3 pm and had only moved from the nest I had created on my bed when I was hungry.

I was completely engrossed in the TV-show that was rolling on the flat screen when Slade barged right in without knocking, scaring the life out of me. I jumped up, clutching my blanket tightly to my chest with big eyes.

Slade gave me a glare - nothing new about that - and strode closer to my bed.

"Get changed. Fast".

I didn't even have the chance to say anything before he walked out slamming the door loudly behind him. I untangled myself from my ton of comforters and sprinted into my walk-in closet, changing into the first pair of tights and blouse my eyes landed on, quickly putting on some shoes.

When I jogged downstairs, I was met by the same glare from before.

"You're late", Slade grumbled through gritted teeth.

"I came as fast as I could", my small voice answered nervously.

Slade somehow always managed to make me feel uncomfortable and I had a strong urge to just crawl further into my shell, hoping for it to close and make me invisible.

"Not fast enough", he replied sharply and turned around on his heel. I shivered slightly from his sternness but followed him like a lost puppy anyway.

Outside at the main entrance a shiny white sports car was waiting for us. I didn't even know that my brothers owned such cars. Without confirmation I was sure they owned so much more that I don't know about either.

The second my butt connected with the leather seat Slade pressed the gas pedal. At the speed he drove I had to hold on tightly from the bumps on the uneven gravel beneath us, otherwise I would have flown out of the opened window like a newborn bird who hadn't learned to fly yet.

After driving for a long time, we arrived at a big field with a playground. I squinted my eyes suspiciously when I noticed that there were more adults than kids.

What kind of place was this?

I tagged along behind Slade as he approached a group of four guys who were standing off to the side with their hoods covering their heads, a heavy cloud of smoke surrounding them. It didn't look like normal cigarettes though. These were more sluggish and looked to be homemade from the way it was rolled. It didn't smell like nicotine either but had a much more horrendous stink to it.

I stayed a few feet away from them, not really knowing what to do. As my eyes carefully scanned the area they connected with an unfamiliar pair of blue eyes.

"Who's the little girl?" His dark voice questioned, shifting his gaze between Slade and me.

"Don't mind her. She's not important", my brother answered without even looking at me. "Go do something else", he added with a hiss over his shoulder.

I gulped, feeling the well-known painful knot that twisted in my stomach and ached in my chest. Marc's rejection from a few days ago still hadn't vanished. It was just a reminder of the fact that they didn't see me as family and most likely never would.

Blinking unwanted tears away, I turned on my heel, heading for anywhere other than near Slade. Thankfully, the playground was big and there were a lot of things you could do. I sat alone at the swings for a while, watching as the boys in the distance talked and paced back and forward a few times. It was hard to tell from so far away what exactly they were doing but I didn't care anyway. I was in a bad mood.