Oh My God, They Were Roommates

21 | Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

Of the things Ray expected to become of that day, being called "Sora's boyfriend" was not one of them. Erin Ikeda-Clarke pointed a finger at him, quizzically, and oh-so triumphant as she said, "You two are dating, aren't you?"

Ray's heart stammered to a halt. "Oh! Um, I—"

Erin let out a thrilled laugh and sidled over the threshold, exclaiming, "So that's why he moved out! You must spend a lot of time here, huh?"

"I-I don't know about that—" Ray stammered, tripping over the entry step. He cursed under his breath as Erin continued on, heels clicking across the floorboards. "Could you maybe take your shoes off? I don't—Sora doesn't like shoes on the floor—"

"Oh, he won't mind," Erin said, hands now resting firmly on her hips.

Ray's shoulders slumped, and he only then realized that he missed his opportunity to dispute Erin's theory. He had no alternative ideas as to why Sora would give him a spare key. It was only a matter of time now before Sora's fury came crumbling around him for encouraging Erin's preposterous notions.

Ray wanted to gag.

Sora's significant other? he thought, resisting the urge to throw up and laugh at the same time. He'd rather eat dirt!

It was a miracle that Sora's bedroom door was shut. Since it was off from the kitchen, it looked like an extra pantry. As for Ray's room, the door was still open and Erin strode right in with her heels clicking beneath her, skirt swishing around her ankles.

"Wait! Wait—Sora doesn't like people going into his room—" Ray started, frantic, as Erin started going through the boxes he had his clothes stored in.

"He really doesn't have a dresser for these? How sad," she hummed. She dropped to her knees, pouting, "I should have taken him furniture shopping. That's what older sisters do, right?"

Ray picked the clothes out of her hands and stuffed them back into the boxes. "I don't really know. I don't have older sisters. Could you please take off your shoes?"

Erin got to her feet and went to Ray's mattress. She lifted it off of the ground and said, "No bed frame... No mattress cover... This just won't do—"

She dropped the mattress down and left the room. Ray hurried to fix his sheets before chasing after Erin as she said, "As Sora's older sister, I have to make sure he's properly taken care of."

"R-Right," Ray said, only to startle when Erin ground to a halt. Ray skidded into her back and scrambled away, flustered and red in the face when she eyed him.

"And clearly, he has someone half-decent on his side for once," she said. Ray blinked. Who could that be? he thought.

He cursed internally.

Shit, that's me. She's talking about me, he realized.

"He hasn't had the easiest life, you know," she explained before Ray could dispute it all, come clean right then and there. He wasn't at all the person she thought he was.

But at the mention of Sora's life, the intrigue was there and too tempting for Ray to ignore.

"O-Oh. Really?" Ray said, the lilt in his voice prompting Erin to continue.

"Yeah, I mean, what with our mother grooming him to be the heir to the family fortune..." she started, walking towards the kitchen as Ray stumbled over that nugget of information as he chased after her. "So he didn't even go to university for what he wanted. It was a good thing he graduated early from high school, you know. He's on track now and all that—"