For the second time that day, I blacked out. A calmness swept over me. It was different from the first time. Although it was pitch black, I felt as if I were on cloud nine. It was like time itself froze and is worshipping me. I don't want to leave.
I just want to close my eyes and stay here forever.
But I still have a life. A life that no one can run except for me. Once it's over, I can rest. I tried fighting the darkness. I want to get up. This time, it is harder. Then it sinks in. Negative thoughts of being stuck swelled my mind.
I can't give up just yet.
I force myself to come back. I can't go. Not yet.
"Sonia...Sonia...Sonia" a voice called. I immediately detect whose it was.
"Ryan," I mumble.
"Wake up," he whispers.
For the third time, I force myself to open my eyes. It works. A blinding light flashed and I place a hand over my eyes. I finally adjusted to the bright light and searched the room for Ryan. I find him on the floor laughing like there's no tomorrow.
"What's so funny?" I hiss.
I get up and sit properly. Ryan's still laughing. I place my hands on my hips.
"What's so funny?" I repeat.
"Your...face," he says, laughing in between words.
"What about it?" I asked, not understanding.
My hands flung to my face. My hood is still on.
Oh god, what's Ryan laughing about?
I pull off a puzzled face and his laughter finally died down. I slowly move from the bed hoping that my head would not plunge in to darkness again. Although my head was reeling, I force myself on top of him and give him a death stare.
"What about my face?" I growl, my own voice surprising me.
"You should've seen it!" he says before bursting in to laughter again.
He pushes me off and I grab a pillow. I swing it and it smacks him straight in the face, shutting him up. I give a bow.
"What was that for?" he whines.
"Revenge," I state.
He grabs a pillow and throws it at me. I dodge it gracefully and it lands on the bed. I stick out my tongue.
"What about my face was so funny?" I ask for the fourth time. I was getting pissed off.
"You see, everyone left to help with dinner and I stayed behind to look after you. While you were knocked out, something made weird noises. I figured it was you and..." he says, trying to hold in laughter.
"And what?" I urge him to continue.
"And you started drooling," he finishes before laughing all over again.
My hands flung to my face. It was wet.
No way did he just see that.
I slapped myself a couple of times to make sure I wasn't dreaming. No luck. It was all real. Ryan finally stopped laughing when Dylan came in to the room.
"What's going on in here?" he asks.
Ryan don't-
"Sonia-" he starts, but I clamp my hand over his face to make sure he doesn't reveal anything.
"Looks like Sonia's up and back to herself," he says and with that, he leaves the room. "Oh yeah and dinner's ready"
I take my hand back and haul myself to the washroom. I wash my hands. Ryan leaves the room, chuckling.
"What's for dinner?" I ask as I walk in to the dining room.
"Pizza," Chloe responds.
"Who made it?" I ask.
"Ivan," she says.
I glance at Ivan. Suddenly, I remember something.
"Enjoying vacation?" I tease Ivan.
I sit down and place a pizza slice on my plate. I take a bite. It was good. I look at Ivan and wait for his response.
"Cat's got your tongue?" I tease him some more, enjoying myself.
"Sure," he finally says.
He looks lifeless. His voice was monotone and sounded as if he were bored.
"Cheer up!" Chloe says, trying to cheer him up. The keyword is trying.
"The pizza's really good," Chloe states.
I quickly finish my pizza and I realize there's only one piece left.
"I call dibs on last slice," Ryan sneers looking at me for a reaction.
"Too bad," I say, but he grabs it before I can.
"Aww, don't cry," he says.
"As if," I reply, glaring at him.
Before he could take a bite, I snatch the pizza and eat it. He looks at me, stunned.
"Did I forget to tell you that Sonia has cat-like reflexes?" Chloe adds, joining my side.
"Aww, don't cry," I use his own words against him.
"Hey, you didn't even say 'thank you' for carrying you," he says.
I look at him, confused. Then I look at Jade who pulls a poker face.
If Jade won't spill, Chloe will.
"Spill," I tell Chloe. She opens her mouth to speak, but stops.
"Ryan carried you here after you passed out," Dylan blurts.
I felt like I was going to pass out.
That's why I was in a different room when I woke up.
"Excuse me, I'm going to take a shower," I say as I place my plate in the sink. Dylan snickers.
I rush in to the washroom and take a long shower.
I need to scrub all of Ryan's germs off me. I also need to wash my dirty, dirty clothes.
As soon as I'm done and I was changed in to my pyjamas, I hear my phone ring. I grab my clothes, stuff them in the washer and look at the caller ID. Unknown. I answered it, not caring.
"Hello?" I say, waiting for an answer. I start the washer.
"Is this Sonia?" someone asks. I recognize the voice.
Oh. My. God.
"Yes," I slowly respond.
"Good evening! I am calling to invite you to the annual Angel Masquerade hosted by Miss. Fortune. The invitation will be sent to you tomorrow. Please RSVP by Friday. Thank you!" the woman says and she hangs up.
I'm so not going.
"Who was that?" Ryan comes out of no where.
"None of your business," I respond.
"Or is it?" he asks slyly.
"Nope. Not at all. Not even close," I reply walking towards the door.
"You sure?" he asks and blocks the entrance.
"More like are you sure you want to block the door? Ask Dylan what happened to him," I say smoothly.
"I'm sure. Your turn," he replies.
"Yes," I reply.
I locked my eyes with his. I bit my lip out of habit. I always bite my lip to get my nerves to calm down. It usually happens when I'm lying to someone one on one. Hopefully, he doesn't notice that I just lied. I picked up the habit from Chloe.
Thanks a lot Chloe.
I prey he doesn't notice, but he does. He tears his eyes away from me and makes way for me.
"Thank you," I say as I hurry to leave the room.
I shut the door and flop on to my bed. I grab my book. I try to calm myself after lying to Ryan. It was the same feeling I had felt years ago. I wasn't really paying attention to the book. I kept on attempting to calm myself.
Stay strong, you can't get hurt again. You've suffered enough.
I finally relax and read my book. That's when there was a loud bang on the door.
"Liar," someone calls.
"Excuse me?" I say.
The door flies open and Ivan walks in to the room followed by Ryan.
"So you told Ivan?" I ask.
"Yes, Miss. Obvious," Ryan says, teasing me.
"What do you want now?" I ask, returning to my book.
"You lied to me," he says.
"About what?" I say, not caring even though I knew what he was talking about.
"You said that phone call was nothing associated to me," he says. Ivan pulls out my phone.
Why did I have to forget my phone?
"After Ivan hacked in to your phone, we checked through your history. We replayed your conversation and turns out you've been invited to a Masquerade. I figured out you're going to take us their and use us," he says with confidence.
Man, this guy has some nerve.
"What makes you think we are going," I reply with a smirk and look up from my book.
"Miss. Fortune is Mali's business partner," Ivan states. He's got a point.
"I've got you so why would I need Miss. Fortune?" I smartly respond.
"How are we supposed to know? We don't even know why you need Mali?" Ryan explodes.
"Classified," I reply and continue on with my book.
I guess Ivan gave up because he left, but Ryan wouldn't leave. He shut the door. I ignore him. He lays next to me. I continue to ignore him. He takes my book. That's what caught my attention.
"Give me my book back!" I scowl. I prepare to wrestle him.
"Not until you tell me why you need my dad," he says and quickly jumps out of bed.
"Oh no you just didn't," I say.
"Yes, I just did," he says, chuckling.
Before I could tackle him, a loud ding came from his pocket. He pulls out a phone. I recognized the phone. It was mine!
First my book and now my phone?
He unlocks my phone. I zone out, trying to figure out how he learned the password.
Was my password too easy? Maybe it was the fingerprint sensor. Is Ryan a hacker?
By the time I come back, he was clicking 'send'.
"What did you just send?" I snap.
"An email, what else?" he replies, snickering.
"To who?" I ask, desperately trying to figure it all out.
"None of your business," he replies, throwing my own words back at me.
"Yes, it is," I say, sternly.
"And so is Mali," he replies, smartly.
That idiot just tricked me!
I take him down and pinch him. He looks at me wide-eyed.
"What was that for?" he exclaims, yelping in pain as he runs his cheek.
"First, you take my book and then my phone? You're a thief, Chance," I spit at him.
I grab my phone and book as he rolls on to his side and smirks.
I really want to slap the smirk right off his face.
I checked my sent folder in my email. My jaw dropped.
What has he got me in to?