DANIELLA✔

Chapter twenty-eight

"I'm no longer playing! You keep winning!" I said out of frustration, dropping the game pad I was holding on the bed.

I was sitting on the bed, in between Peter's spread legs as we both played Mortal Kombat game on his TV. He had defeated me five good times after I had bragged that I was going to beat him flawlessly. Technically, I really wasn't good at handling the game pad, let alone playing the game so it was best I gave up trying to defeat Peter, who apparently was a pro in the game, instead of deceiving myself.

"I've been playing this game since I was in my mother's womb, so you really didn't expect me to lose to you, did you?" Peter asked. Since I had my back resting against his chest, I could feel the vibration of the bass in his chest voice.

I nudged him and said, "Haha! In your dead mind! Anyways, speaking of your mother, where's she?"

Peter wrapped his arm around my waist and rested his jaw on my left shoulder. "She's not around, obviously." He said and I noticed the bitter tone of his voice.

"Okay?" I stressed in askance and furrowed my brows. "What about your dad? You've never talked about him to me before."

"That's because there's nothing about him that is worth telling you."

I adjusted in such a way that I was sitting sideways Peter. His arms were still around me.

"I don't know if it's just me, but you don't sound cheerful talking about your parents."

"Why would I be cheerful talking about two people that don't care about their son's happiness. My mum claims to love me, but I know all she really cares about is her job and how she can move ahead of her colleagues in rank. For my dad, don't even get me started with him." Peter said resentfully.

I studied his face for a moment and for the first time, all I could see was a forlorn boy who was filled with resentment towards his parents.

"Are you the only child?" I asked.

"Well that's the worst part of it all. Yes I'm the only child. I'm the only one that stays in this big house with no sibling to talk to. You can imagine how lonely that is for me."

I felt so sad hearing all these coming from Peter and even more than that, I couldn't have felt more disappointed in myself for not having being able to tell sooner that Peter was going through depressing moments.

"Hmm, I understand how lonely that must be for you. Your parents are rarely at home?" I asked.

Peter let go of me and fell on his back on the bed with his arms spread apart. "Talking about them just makes me feel sleepy." He drawled.

I cocked one of my brows at him. Intermittently, my eyes travelled down to his lower body. The sweatpants he was putting on showed off the shape of the budge between his legs. What am I doing? I immediately took off my eyes from his down side and smacked his thighs.

"Get up and answer my question joor!"

He groaned as he got up. "Yes they are rarely at home, especially my dad. My mum comes back from work late at night and leaves for work very early in the morning. I only get to see her when I decide to stay up at night or on weekends when she doesn't go to work. For my dad, he comes back to this house only at the end of the month. He had been doing that since I was eight years old. Before then, he usually comes back from work everyday but ever since he and my mum got into a fight, things suddenly changed. He barely came home. When I asked my mum why, she told me it was because of his job description. I suspected she was just making up excuses for him, but then I was still young so I couldn't question her further." Peter took a breath before he continued.