Hate To Love You

8

🌹Elora🌹

To avoid a full shut down, I threw myself into work, pretending they weren't home and everything was okay even when I knew it wasn't.

As a result, all homework I had was completed, including ones I had two to three days time before the deadline and my entire room was spotless.

No matter how hard I tried not to, my eyes seemed to have a mind of their own, glancing at the alarm clock on the vanity beside my bed ever so often, counting down the seconds and minutes until the time I knew someone would come to get me for dinner.

It struck 6:30 and my pacing intensified, my feet seemingly ready to drill a hole through the white stained, midnight black glossy tiled floor of my bedroom, the anxiousness slowly being replaced with dread.

With a heavy sigh, I let my body fall freely, back first on my bed and I ran my hands down my face, steeling my resolve and getting ready to once again mask my emotions and wear the smile that made people believe the false reality I'd learnt to show.

I glanced at the clock again, it was 6:59:48 and the last two digits were rapidly increasing, inevitably decreasing the seconds I had left.

I looked away, standing and adjusting the pajama I'd opted for and I almost immediately heard a knock. I glanced at the clock, 7:00:00, right on the mark.

"Dinner?" I asked opening the door even when I already knew the answer. The maid, different from the one who'd brought the phone the other day nodded without a smile.

I stepped out, closing the door behind me and following behind the maid.

River and Sophia were sitting at the dining table, discussing in hushed voices which silenced almost suspiciously once I stepped down the last few stairs.

River smiled wide and I almost believed it was genuine before quickly schooling my emotions. I returned the smile settling on my chair by River's left hand side and in front of Sophia. I turned to River who sat at the head of the table.

"Good evening dad, good evening mom." I said, keeping the smile on my face.

"Hi Lora. I've missed you dearly the last few days I was away with your mom" River said.

"I missed you too dad. You too mom" I said, making sure my voice was even no matter how much those words left a bitter taste in my mouth every time I said them.

"How was the trip? Enjoy it?" I asked not leaving room for silence to force me to withdraw and put an end to my facade.

It was something I'd come to learn. The longer the the silence, the easier cracks appeared in my act and I couldn't afford that right now.

Both their smiles faltered. "I wouldn't say enjoyed. There were scarcely any interesting moments hence the lack of enjoyment but it was fruitful. We got most of what we went for Sophia was the one who responded and I smiled even though the response poked tiny needles repeatedly in my heart.

That answered my earlier question though. It explained why they were back home so soon. They wouldn't have been here were it not for the fact that they weren't enjoying the trip.

I couldn't think of anything else to ask apart from the purpose of the trip but they wouldn't disclose any valid information to me.

The first two years I'd been adopted, the trips were a common thing, the only difference being I always tagged along... until I didn't.

There wasn't any reason given to me except the fact that my presence wasn't needed on the trips anymore. At least that was the reason I inferred from the guilty rambling and question evasion that I'd gotten from them when I first asked why I wasn't going with them on the trips anymore.