The Prince and His Pauper

Chapter 66: The Pauper's Search

Here I am again. In front of my laptop with the search engine page on displayed but I haven't typed a single word yet. I know I shouldn't because it's just too weird but what choice do I have? I'm not going to get anywhere with Antonio running away from me every time he sees me. So, I should just type it in. Right?

"Ugh! Why can't I do it?!" I groan in frustration and got up from my chair. I walked away from my desk so I could calm down by pacing back and forth across my room.

It's been one day since I had that talk with Antonio and like the coward I was, I didn't searched him. I even made a pros and cons list for looking him up on the internet but I had like three points with pros having the most. My only con was that I felt weird to search someone online. That was it. I decided that I should sleep it off and I can do it the next day after school which is today.

"Come on, Cassiel. Just type his name in the search bar. It's not that hard." I order myself in hopes to gather whatever courage I'm lacking. Unfortunately, that didn't work.

I was just about to shut down my laptop when I heard a knock on my bedroom door and my mom's voice calling, "Cassiel?"

"C-coming!" I shout as I went to open the door for her.

"Cassiel, we talked about this. You can't have your door closed unless you're going to sleep. Were you sleeping?" Mom asks me and crosses her arms.

"No. . . I'm sorry. . . I'll leave the door open. . ." I apologize which she nods in approval.

"Good. Are you busy?" Mom replies, though her question kind of threw me off.

"No, why?" I answer a bit perplexed by it. Why does Mom want to know if I'm busy or not?

Mom's expression immediately brighten up and took my hand as she dragged me out of my room. "Great! You can help me bake then!"

I didn't object to my mom because then I would be in my room staring at my laptop again. I'll gladly help my mom out with whatever she's planning to bake. Especially since it'll mean I get to taste test them. So I followed her to the kitchen and saw that she had everything she needed to bake a cake.

I guess she wants to give Dad a nice surprise, I thought to myself and went to the kitchen sink to wash my hands. Today is one of Mom's rare days off and she wanted to help Dad around the house by cooking dinner for the family. Maybe even bake something to brighten his day which explains the cake ingredients. Better to help Mom out with her cake than waste my time over searching Antonio or not.

"I got everything we need to make your father's favorite cake. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit for me, Cassiel." Mom instructs and I nod my head.

After I set the oven at the designated setting, Mom gave me more things to do which I happily obliged. While we worked on the cake, Mom was telling me about her company's well being. She was really excited about her new spring line collection that she's been supervising for months and she was excited about a lipstick that she kept pushing for its' approval. She even said that she is trying to get someone to be her model for a photo shoot but this person is a sponsor and friend of hers. Cool, I'm happy for her but I didn't really contribute to the discussion since I was still thinking about Antonio.

I can't forget the expression Antonio made when he thought he said too much. He was beyond afraid like his life was ruined type of fear. For a guy around my age, he shouldn't be afraid of anything. The worse I can think of that would give me that same expression would be if my parents died but, hopefully, that won't happen. So why did Antonio made that face? What was he so afraid of when we talked?

"Honey? Sweetie? Are you listening?" I heard Mom calling to me which I nodded my head in response.

"I'm listening." I fibbed while turning to look at her.