I Refuse to be a Named Character

Part 5

"Graham."

What an annoying situation. I frowned at my uninvited guest.

"Why are you here?"

He sat down at the table, seemingly unconcerned by my unwelcoming attitude, returning a happy smile to me.

"I wanted to see you!"

I shuddered. "Well, you've seen me, can you leave now?"

Graham chuckled. "You're already in such a hurry to get rid of me, huh?" His grin was gentle, affectionate, showing only silent laughter to my increasingly hostile expression. "You know, most girls would kill for a chance to spend some time alone with me."

"Good. Go find them, little prince. I'm not in the mood to play with you right now." I waved him off.

"Really?" He leaned his elbow on the table, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "What to do? I just feel so happy being near you!"

Ugh. I didn't remember the hero of deadly crown being quite so... clingy. Shaking my head, I walked towards my kitchen off to the side. I made myself some tea, sitting down across form Graham with a sigh.

As I drank my tea, he watched me with an amused expression. "Aren't you going to offer me anything?"

"I don't remember inviting you in. As far as I'm concerned, you're an uninvited annoyance at best, an intruder with bad intentions at worst. Make you tea?" I snorted derisively. "You're lucky that I don't shoot you with an arrow."

"That's okay, I'll just take it as that means you want be to feel at home rather than be a guest." With a chuckle, he entered the kitchen, coming to sit across from me with his own cup.

I stared at him. "Are you high?"

That caught him off guard. "Pardon?"

"What is wrong with you?" I shook my head. "I was never even your friend, much less anything more. Why on earth would you come bother me here instead of being in the Western City where the third test is about to start?"

Graham leaned back in his chair, sipping his tea quietly, not answering. I felt an increasing frustration as I watched him, feeling the control over my life slipping away once more.

I've worked so hard to avoid the plot! I even let Luke go back alone, just to stay out of this awful story. So can someone please tell me why the main character is sitting in front of me, trying to flirt instead of scheming for the throne with his group?

As I fumed silently, he slowly finished his tea, setting it down on the table with a regretful expression.

"All my life, I have always been a commodity to others, a means to an end to achieve a goal." He stared at the empty cup, not looking at me. "Even my mother... her support is so that she might achieve power and glory. I thought that was all there was to people... those that use and the ones that are used. Since there were only two options... I decided to be the former rather than the latter."

I sighed, fighting off successfully the desire to feel sorry for him. "So is that why you're here? To use me somehow?"

"Use you?" He finally met my gaze and I was surprised to see sadness there, a deep frustration simmering just below the surface. "How could I? You never wanted anything from me." Standing up, he brought both of our cups to the kitchen and poured us some more tea. I watched his movements, thinking over his words.

"So you're here because I don't want anything from you?"

Graham slowly nodded, but then shook his head. "Yes... no... I want you to want something from me. To want everything." He looked back at me, his gaze too intense. It made me uncomfortable.