Over the Line (3)

"I got lost," April fidgeted with her hands.

"Where do you want to go?" I sighed.

"I don't know where they are on the tour," she admitted.

Villas were relatively small compared to mansions. I messaged Luke on my phone, a device where my marble was connected. Less than a second later, I discovered they were in one of the living rooms. I gestured to April to follow me, abandoning my plans to use the extra time to sleep. Maybe she expected a tour from me, her eyes were full of expectations for an explanation. I gave into her, thinking it was a pain.

"This floor is where the main bedrooms and closets are located. There is a living room on each floor and the one on this floor is the smallest," I recalled.

"Were you heading to your bedroom?" She noticed.

"I was, I need some sleep," I stifled a yawn.

"Can I see your bedroom? It was one of the places Luke didn't take us," April's eyes glimmered.

"Why not?" I didn't mind.

A few steps later, I opened my bedroom door, and April was unable to close her mouth. She stared at the large canopy bed, surrounded by pastel pink curtains, decorated with laces. The wide windows occupied an entire wall, showing the beautiful garden underneath. Automatic blinds to cover the scenery with a single button. Meanwhile, multiple crystal lights hung from the tall ceiling, bouncing off the sunlight to create streaks of rainbows.

Creamy white walls embellished with elegant cravings near the ceiling and above the carpets. A sleek and modern table in front of a mirror surrounded by dazzling pink diamonds. Attached to a row of drawers underneath, having dazzling white gold handles as its knobs. Instead of standing around, I flopped onto my bed to conduct the rest of the tour. My eyes were droopy as I mumbled, "there's nothing much inside here. It's just a place to sleep."

"I want to sleep here," she was envious.

"We can sleep together. You can take this side of the bed," I gestured.

"Really?" April brightened.

"Wake me up when you think of leaving," I slipped into my blankets.

Ignoring my phone and marble vibrating, I closed my eyes. The low quality sleep I was lately getting consumed me, and I melted under my fluffy mattress and pillows. Until someone kept on shaking me, making me groan and pull on my blankets to cover myself. Eventually wrestling with the other person for my blanket back, getting more ticked. As my half-awake state slowly vanished, I was faced with an annoying set of ocean blue eyes.

"What's your problem?" I grumbled.

"It's time for dinner. We have guests with us, I can't have you skipping it for more sleep," Luke explained.

"Where's April?" I remembered her existence.

"She's with your family. From now on, I don't want you to bring anyone to your bedroom other than my family members without letting me know," he tried to pull me up.

"Why?" I couldn't find an issue.

"I had to order the servants to change your bedsheets and clean your room while you were sleeping. We don't know what kind of things they could be potentially carrying," Luke thought she was unclean.

Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a counterargument, healed from catching a virus from Adam a few weeks ago. Slightly traumatized from that event, I maintained a fixed distance away from him, some by my choice. Most times, Luke led me to another direction when I unconsciously got close to Adam. However, I still couldn't understand Luke's line of thinking. I was likely only a bit better than Adam. Since I was covered in dirt when catching bugs and got messy from making rice.

"Aren't I dirty in your eyes too?" I wondered.

"You're not dirty and you won't ever be. All your surroundings are relatively clean, and I always make sure you take a bath often. Otherwise, I wipe everything whenever I have the chance," he revealed.

Was this why we always had an enormous supply of wet wipes and other sanitizing products? Going through my memories, they were always easily accessible. There were several in my inventory when I didn't remember placing them inside. In addition to the dorm room having an overflowing number of boxes. Luke was sensitive to unclean things and I never realized until now. I didn't remember when this started, recalling how we lived in the basement in elementary school. Our prior dorm room was also filthy compared to how Alex lived with Shelly. And when Alex moved in with us, our dorm room remained unorganized.

There were always piles of documents nearly toppling each other, and boxes of medical supplies filling the rest of the space. Messy to the point our living room nearly resembled a storage room, struggling to fit everything inside. I was surprised when Alex wasn't picky about where things were placed, accepting it couldn't be helped. Instead, we tried not to invite anyone, choosing to meet inside the club room.

"You weren't like this before," I realized.

"I have always done this for you," he lightly pushed me out of the door.

"We're not going to the dining room?" I was confused with the direction.

"You have to change first, your dress is wrinkled," he pointed out.

By the time I entered the dining room, everyone was already in their seats, eating without me. Did Luke really have to wake me when they appeared to be fine? I sat in my usual seat, staring at the plates since I wasn't hungry.

"You seem very tired," my mom noticed.

"It's only right of me to join our guests," I wearily repeated Luke's excuse.

"We're your guests," my mom sadly smiled.

"Aren't you? You don't own this villa," I wanted more sleep.

"You don't own this villa too," Ally pointed out.

"Rika and I both own this villa in our joint bank account," Luke revealed.

It was equally new information to me as much as my family who stopped eating in shock. Although I knew the Roselia family was placing assets under my name, I never had any control over them. In reality, everything belonged to Luke, separate from the ones my friends gave to me as presents. However, I didn't mind having Luke managing everything, knowing it would be a pain if I did it.

"Your family created a bank account for Rika?" My dad realized.

"I always had one," I wondered if they never knew.

"You really didn't have to do this for Rika," my mom was burdened.

"My parents and grandparents made our accounts," Luke was confused.

"I would really like to meet your parents if possible," my mom asked.

"I can make the arrangements," he agreed.

Up to this day, I didn't know why people in the first district tended to always respond, no matter how inconvenient it was towards them. It was like I was the weird one for avoiding someone's messages and calls. In less than a second, Luke received a reply, letting my parents know, "my parents are available at the end of the month. I can give you the location and time so you can check if it works with your schedule."

"The location is in another country," my mom read the details.

"Would you like us to move the location someplace closer?" Luke offered.

"If that is possible," she didn't want to travel far.

"The closest location possible is the capital city of this country," he got another response.

"That should work," my mom hesitantly accepted.

To travel to the capital city, a normal person from the third district needed an airplane ticket. However, for people who came from the first district, we could use one of the teleportation gates. As I studied my parent's expressions, it was clear they were wondering why Luke's parents couldn't use this villa. They didn't know this villa had insufficient offices, more focused towards education and leisure.

"You're not eating," my dad noticed.

It was because I was waiting for Luke to pass me the sliced food. He was focused on contacting his parents, he didn't have the chance. My hands uncontrollably shook whenever I picked up a fork or knife. Although I knew this couldn't last forever, I didn't want to face the sharp weapons. Maybe I would get the courage later in life, the day I could laugh the hunt off like a past memory.

"I never saw you eat on your own," my dad discovered from living together.

"I'm using a spoon," I showed them.

"Why can't you use the knives and forks?" He finally asked.

"Rika has some reasonable circumstances," Luke warned not to dig further.

"You're spoiling her," grandma observed.

"You were the one who took their money," I held a grudge.

Grandma went silent, remaining ignorant as she continued to eat her meal. In fact, my entire family was oddly more focused watching us than eating. I noticed they were nosy, interested in things that weren't their business. I pretended they didn't exist until my mom targeted me again, "you're throwing out all this food again."

"Does it even matter? I'm not hungry anyways. I could have gotten more sleep, but I was dragged down here to join you for dinner," I was ticked.

"You can't talk to guests like this Rika. I apologize in her place," Luke turned to my family.

"What were you even doing inside the villa?" Ally wondered.

"I was forced to practice without a break to get ready for high school while you enjoyed your tours," I found it unfair.

"Your study sessions," she knew.

"Do you want to see my schedule for today? The reason why I didn't want to come here," I pulled out my phone.

"Pass me your phone Rika. We can talk after we finish dinner," Luke didn't want them to know.

I hid my smile as I had a paper copy that I secretly slipped out. Once everyone was finished with dinner, I bumped into Ally before joining them in one of the living rooms. She was oddly pointing out every fault about me today. I wondered where her sudden change in attitude came from, her pity for me had completely disappeared. I stepped to the side to avoid her, "I apologize."

"I feel sorry for my aunt and uncle. I'm telling you this since I want to let you know you're hurting them," Ally kept on blocking my route.

"I can't live with them since I attend school in the first district," I knew.

"It's not that. You're nearly treating us as strangers," she revealed.

"How?" I didn't believe her.

"We're not your guests. We're your family who came to visit you," she explained.

"I apologize, it was my mistake," I must have been too drowsy to care.

"Whenever we want to know more about you, you always draw a clear line," she pointed out.

"I'm confined by a certain set of rules. I can't reveal many things from the upper districts," I thought they would know.

"It's not that. You always looked annoyed like we were a pain ever since we came here," Ally clarified.