Chapter 2

It wasn't long before the artificial sunlight came through the windows waking me up. I started to stretch but I couldn't move my left arm. When I looked over it was Khali who had wrapped her arms around my arm. I blushed profusely noticing that she was in my bed and cuddling my arm. I had forgotten she was even there. I started to slip my arm out trying not to stir her. She was still tired enough to barely move.

Once I stood up, I went to go get ready for the day. I remembered however that I still needed to call Riva to have a maid make a proper breakfast for Khali and myself. I went towards the door leaving out of my living quarters and poked my head out into the hallway.

I didn't see Riva but there was a young girl sweeping the hall.

"Excuse me miss" I called in her direction.

Her head shot up in surprise but quickly came over to see what I needed.

"Hello Mr. Weathers, how can I be of service?" she said casting her eyes down in respect.

I didn't like this behavior, but staff who aren't around me very often don't know this.

"Could you tell Riva to send breakfast down here for me?" I asked politely.

"Right away" was all she said as she scurried off.

As I shut the door again I wondered why this maid seemed more skittish than they usually are. Then I remembered how everyone now thinks that I just had a "fling". I just laughed to myself and headed to the bathroom.

When my gaze met the mirror, I could see how the maid's suspicions could be confirmed. It looked like I didn't sleep a wink.

Well, I would have to make myself more presentable before anyone else saw me. I splashed some cold water on my face and that seemed to help my sunken emerald green eyes. Even my usually olive-toned skin seemed paler than usual. Next, I brushed my wavy sandy brown hair, which was almost in my eyes. It wanted to stick up in all different places, so I decided to put on a grey beanie for the day. Once I was done with the rest of my routine, I decided on a white t-shirt with a blue flannel shirt, and then some old blue jeans.

It did feel slightly different having to change in the bathroom and not in my bedroom, but I didn't think about it much. Lastly, I put on some socks and some black converse shoes.

Khali was still passed out when I was done so I decided to go out into the living room. Ms. Riva was already there setting up the breakfast table. It looked like today we would have toast with blackberry jam, scrambled eggs, bacon, and some apple juice. I could be eating fancier foods like caviar and whatnot, but I learned from books and TV that regular families ate food like this for breakfast. So, as a child it was the only thing Riva could get me to swallow for breakfast. It still is today my favorite meal to eat for breakfast.

Riva knew I was there but was waiting for me to talk about how the evening went.

"Good morning Riva", I said while walking around the table to where I could see her. I knew she wanted to check in on me, and that is why she was setting the table and not the normal household crew.

"And how are you this morning Raymond?", she asked not looking up from the folded napkins.

"I am doing fine Riva, thank you for asking, and so is Khalida", I said this finally giving her the information she was craving, because I knew I had to open that door eventually.

At this, she set down the plates and just looked me in the eyes. I could tell by the way she looked at me, and how she set her hands on her hips that I should get prepared to have a stern talking to.

"Do you realize what people are saying about you around here? Carrying in an unconscious girl into here. People do not know you as well as I do, they think you have dark motives." she said this with concern for my reputation.

I knew Riva was right. I'm sure I was the talk of the house. But it's not like I had many friends over to begin with. I've never been the most social, and I learned early on that trust was hard when greed came between people. So, people were curious no doubt, but it didn't bother me as much as it did Riva, I think. She was afraid it would affect my building friendship with this new girl.

"Really Riva, soon they will see Khali in an unconscious state and not draping herself over me like some prostitute that I picked up off a corner", I said trying to sound reassured, but as I said this comparison I realized the setting wasn't that far off, but I wouldn't point that out obviously.

That seemed to appease her for the moment, because she started setting up breakfast again. It didn't take her long after her mind was clear and she left soon after she was done. As she was walking out the door however, I sheepishly asked her if she could bring back an outfit that Khali could wear. She just nodded and quickly left to retrieve the wanted items.

I wanted to sit down and start eating, but I thought Khali would be hungry as well. It was late enough in the morning where she should be ready to get up. Slowly, I crept down the hallway once more and entered my room.

She was still sound asleep, but now she was taking the advantage of using the whole queen size bed. When I got close enough, I reached out and rubbed her shoulder while whispering quietly "Khali, it's time to wake up. There's breakfast ready on the table." At this she stretched and inhaled.

She sat up then, rubbed her eyes and smiled sleepily at me. I smiled back and we both made our way to the dining room. As we both ate, I saw again how she really enjoyed the food, and it didn't take long for all of it to be gone. I finished soon after, and was ready then to brief her on our situation, and how the rest of the morning would work.

"Was the breakfast good?", I asked making sure she was done.

"Oh yes, I loved the blackberry jam on the toast." she said while licking crumbs off her finger.

"Well, after breakfast we'll get around, and go looking for your friend. But first, I need to inform you about some things", I said this dreading on what I'd have to explain.

At this, she just sat up straight and waited for me to speak, noticing my uncomfortable tone.

"Okay well, yesterday was interesting because we carried you in here unconscious past all of my security and most of my personnel." I said embarrassed, already started to have a slight shade of pink on my cheeks.

She just nodded at this and waited for me to go on, like it wasn't anything.

"The thing is, i'm not known to have many friends, and even rarer a girl, and I've never brought anyone home with me. So, when I come home with an unconscious girl, people seem to expect that we…" I couldn't bring myself to say the rest while Khali was just looking at me with the most innocent look of questioning.

"They thought that we were… what?" she asked slightly tilting her head not knowing what I was talking about.

I was fully red now, and wanting to crawl in a ball as I knew I would have to spell it out for her.

"Well… people have assumed that we just had a one night stand sort of deal", I said the words practically at a whisper, looking at the floor, not being able to look up.

After a few moments I didn't hear anything so my eyes gradually made them up back to Khali. She wasn't shocked, or angry, it just seemed like she was thinking.

When she finally spoke, she said in a matter-of-fact way, "That must not be good for your reputation! You were just helping me is all. Let's see, how can I help fix this."

She started to think again, as I just sat there shocked at how well she was handling this.

"Oh, I know! I could pretend to be your girlfriend!" she said excitedly.

From this statement I almost fell out of my chair, "A girlfriend? How would that solve anything?"

"When people see that I wasn't just a one-night fling, and that we're a couple, your reputation will remain intact, as the gentleman you are", she said while smiling at me.

All I could do, was sit there and try to process her reasoning. Well, it would satisfy everyone's gossiping, and Rita wouldn't mind if I was closer to someone. Eduardo would give me a hard time, but be glad that I had someone. I was still shocked how calm she was about the idea.

Khali i'm pretty sure could see how uncomfortable the idea was for me because she interjected, "It's the least I can do for what you've done for me", which made it hard to turn down.

"Okay, I'll accept, but if at any time you're uncomfortable or want to stop, we can." I said apprehensively wondering if she knew what she was getting herself into.

"Okay!" she said excitedly, glad that I accepted her help.

Other than the situation that we had ourselves in, I still needed to explain who I was exactly to her. I had put it off until now, because I was afraid it would change the way she looked at me, like everyone else I'd ever met.

"Before we start this Khali", I paused preparing myself for what would happen next, "I need to tell you about myself. Now, you've seen where I live, and how it works, but I haven't told you why it's like this. My mother invented an important piece of technology. From its great success she generated great wealth, and since I am her son, I too, am wealthy as well. But, as a result of this, anyone who I was ever close to, like friends, would always use me. They only wanted me for money, and never really cared about me." I said this with a little sadness, but over the years I had come to just accept that, that was the way things were.

After I had said this, I didn't expect much to happen from Khali. I expected that she would then be like everyone else, and use me, and try to be fake to make a good impression on me. To my surprise though, that didn't happen.

When I looked back up at Khali she had tears streaming down her face as she sat staring wide-eyed at me.

Before I had even time to be shocked she quickly leapt from her chair, and ran to me and tackled me in a hug while sobbing. I hugged her back. After a few seconds we both sat up.

I nervously laughed as my eyes welded up a little with tears. Khali was still teary but was now smiling at me.

"I don't care if you're some billionaire's son. I like you for you. You've been so kind to me these last couple of hours. I wish others could see that too." she said this as she held my hand.

Now I had tears rolling down my face, but I was smiling at Khali. All I could do at the time was say, "Thanks, I really needed that", as I sniffled. I should have been embarrassed at showing my feelings, but I somehow felt comfortable around Khali.

She just squeezed my hand, and then said "Well, now that I understand everything, we should probably get ready to go."

As Khali said this there was a slight knock on the door. It was another maid sent by Riva with a change of clothes for Khali. It was a white tank top, white undershorts, a high-low blue skirt, a pair of socks, and a pair of white converse tennis shoes.

I saw Khali's eyes light up at the new outfit, and she quickly went into her room to try it on. I sat on the couch waiting, while thinking about how this would play out.

We were going to look for her friend, who by this point, could be anywhere. Also, we will have to put up a facade that we're dating. I don't even know what that looks like, other than what I've seen in movies. I sighed at the task I had before me. I had a feeling it would be another long day.

After Khali came out, I was about to open the door out into the rest of the building, when I paused. I wanted to make sure she was ready to do this.

"Are you sure you want to carry out this facade that we're dating? You don't have to do this." the whole idea made me uncomfortable, and I thought maybe she'd get tired of it, and think she was obligated to do it. I didn't want that.

"No, really I want to do this. Besides, it's like acting for a role in a play. I've always been really good at that," she said sounding like she knew what she was doing.

I was reassured by her confidence. So, I finally turned the handle and walked through.

As we started down the halls you would see a flicker of people's eyes, and then they would cast them down. I felt embarrassed at how everyone was reacting, and I think Khali could tell because she gripped my hand and gave me a reassuring squeeze. This somehow made it feel better.

It wasn't long till I had reached the security office where Eduardo was. At first, when we entered he was talking to someone about some paperwork, but when he noticed everyone else's eyes had wandered, his eyes also followed.

All he did was smile and came over to hug me. I could tell that this meant "glad to know the night went well."

"Well, I'm glad I finally have a chance to formally introduce myself to Raymond's friend. My name is Eduardo Suarez", as Eduardo said this, he bowed and kissed Khali's hand.

"Nice to meet you Eduardo. My name is Khalida Moon." khali said cheerfully.

Now Khali might not have noticed what Eduardo was trying to do, but I could see right through him. Now that he had gained her name, I could see he was just itching to do a security check on her, and find anything he could about her.

Before Khali started to nonchalantly start another conversation where Eduardo would take advantage of it, I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and interjected by saying "Well, Eduardo I need you to drive us to this shop that's in town. Khali told me it has some cool original art." I remembered an art gallery that includes local artist's works that was near the alley.

Luckily Khali didn't say anything, and Eduardo didn't seem suspicious on the outside, but there was no telling with him sometimes.

I started walking briskly towards the garage with khali practically being dragged behind me, while we held hands. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Eduardo followed silently behind, but I know that he noticed our hands.

As we approached the car, eduardo opened the back-seat door and ushered me and Khali in. I had almost forgotten that me and Khali were acting until Khali made a point by sitting rather close to me. I was trying to stay calm, and hoped we'd reach the street soon.

I told Eduardo the location of the store, and we started to drive. While in the car, I never saw Eduardo glance back at us, but I knew that he was trying his best to absorb everything he could about my new friend. I tried not to think about it and stared out the window.

Luckily for me it wasn't very far, and we were there in a few minutes. Since it was still early in the day, there weren't many people on the streets yet. Eduardo dropped us off, and gave me the signal to call him when I was ready to be picked up. I nodded in response and started walking with Khali into the art store. We both entered the store and pretended to browse until I thought it was long enough after Eduardo left to go to the alley.

I grabbed Khali's hand, and headed out of the store after several minutes in case Eduardo didn't leave immediately. When we crossed the street, I looked down both ways, but didn't see his car. The alley looked the same as I'd left it yesterday after finding Khali, and I definitely didn't see a second person around.

I looked to Khali, wondering what to do next. She looked just about as lost as me.

"Is there anywhere else we should look? Or do you have a way to contact her like a cell phone?" I asked hoping that Khali would have another idea.

"No, this would be the only place I'd know to look, and we both don't have phones" she said while looking down dejectedly.

So, we both just sat against the brick wall and both thought of what to do next. We were only there for about ten minutes until I noticed something strange.

I saw a white dog about the size of a lab walking down the street towards us with it's nose to the sidewalk. All of a sudden it looked up and started to run towards us. Just as I was about to get worried, and grabbed Khali's arm, she looked up and gasped.

"Semira!" she squealed and stood up.

I slowly stood up, and processed this new information. Semira was a dog. Khali had never mentioned this, but I guess she never said anything about her being a human either.

Once the dog had finally reached us, it jumped up and licked at Khali's face excitedly. I stood back happily admiring the reunion, glad to see that Khali was happy. It wasn't a second later though that the dog was done with the greeting and then stared at me with icy blue/green eyes, almost as if it was judging me. Khali noticed the change in the dog's behavior and turned back towards me.

She laughed at the dog's behavior and said, "Semira, this is Raymond he saved me yesterday."

At this, the dog sauntered over to me cautiously and started to sniff me. I just laughed nervously and offered my hand to the dog palm-side up. Again the dog smelled me, but this time licked my hand in approval. I sighed in relief that I was now safe from a potential dog bite and relaxed.

"Well, now that we've found Semira, are you ready to go back to the house?" I asked.

"Sure", Khali said happily. She was still kneeling on the ground rubbing Semira's head. Now that she had found her, I don't think she had a care in the world.

But, now we had a dog to deal with, which could cause some problems. The dog seemed like she stayed near Khali well enough not to need a leash, but I didn't know how she reacted near other people. I guess I would just have to hope for the best. It seemed a little soon still to call back Eduardo, so I decided we should walk around some before calling him again. I also had to think of a reason why we were bringing a dog back with us.

"To kill some time before I call Eduardo back, do you want to walk around in the park?" I asked. The park should be pretty safe, and it is a good place to bring a dog along.

"I'd love that!", she exclaimed as her eyes lit up.

I was slightly unprepared for her enthusiasm as she gripped my hand and practically started to sprint down the sidewalk, dragging me behind her.

Once we started to reach the outside of the city, it didn't take long till I saw the entrance of the reservation. Here, there wasn't much security since it was a public park but there was a guard in case someone ended up getting lost, or needed directions.

When we finally were inside I was out of breath and put my hands on my knees. Khali however, was right as rain and was now admiring the view around her as Semira sniffed the ground and explored the area.

Even though I lived in this same park, I never actually enjoyed it before. I was always afraid a lone guy in a park might creep people out. But, with someone with me, it was a nice experience. The nice cool air, with an almost mist like cloud floating in the air just added a dream like quality to the area. I was admiring the pale blue sky through the trees when I realized Khali and Semira had walked ahead of me. I looked around but I didn't see them anywhere.

Travelling down a lesser used path for a few minutes I soon found the white dog, which stood out against the dark brush laying under a tree. I still didn't see Khali, so I sauntered over to the dog and stood next to it. I leaned against the tree and leaned my head back. The thick trunk of the massive evergreen tree didn't even have branches till about two feet above my head.

This calm and serene scenery helped slow everything down for me. Processing that all of this was even happening was hard to comprehend.

Suddenly I heard a snap above my head and felt some brush hit my face. When I opened my eyes, I was met with sparkling sea green eyes inches from mine.

Immediately, my legs gave out under me in fright and I fell to the ground.

I heard the sound of laughter like bells and saw Khali was giggling, while still swinging upside down from a branch.

In between her fits of laughter she managed to say, "I'm sorry Raymond I didn't mean to scare you that badly."

I just looked at her with the expression of "I hope it was worth it" and that only made her giggle harder. But, she soon vanished into the foliage once again, climbing higher.

I turned my head to Semira who was not phased by what had happened, and just looked rather unamused. I just sighed, stood up, and dusted off old needles from my jeans.

After I recollected myself, I turned my ear up to the tree again, but heard nothing. Slightly worried I started to walk further from the tree so my sight could look higher. Finally, I found her three quarters up into the tree, holding on to the trunk, and looking out into the distance.

With anxiety crawling down my spine, I put my hands around my mouth and shouted "Khali, it's not safe up there. What if you fall!"

Luckily she heard me, and glanced down. She didn't say anything, but just smiled excitedly while making her way down, rather skillfully too.

When she reached the last branch however, she paused and looked like she was thinking for a second.

"Are you stuck?", I asked hoping we wouldn't need to call anybody.

"No, but I just thought of a compromise. I'll come down, if you'll climb to the top once with me", she said willfully and looking rather mischievous. .

"You're kidding right? I've never even climbed a tree before, what if I get hurt or fall?" I asked skeptical of her idea.

"Well, then isn't it time you've tried it? I promise you won't get hurt", she said, sounding rather secure in her promise.

She seemed rather adamant about the idea, and confident in the safety of my wellbeing so I started to climb the trunk.

It was difficult on the lower parts because there was little to grab on to. Khali instructed to me to grab on the knots, and placehold my feet in holes and crevices. Slowly, but surely, I finally met her on the first few branches.

From there we spent about thirty minutes moving from branch to branch. I knew it took only moments for her to scale this, but she was carefully instructing me step by step on where to put my hands and feet.

By the time I was starting to get tired, and I noticed the branches were started to thin out I noticed Khali stopped and sat down saddle style on a limb and looked off in the distance.

I sat down on a branch slightly below her and was about to ask what she was doing, when my eyes followed hers.

I was speechless. With the height of the tree and the hill it was placed on, we were above many of the other trees, and could see a great distance. The sun was midway to noon, and the blanket of mist was starting to disappear, revealing the tops of trees popping out. The sky was a bright sky blue with few remaining tints of purple from the early morning. It was breathtaking.

"It was worth the climb up here", I gratefully said.

"I'm glad you took the chance to enjoy it", she smiled and stretched.

After a few more minutes Khali stretched and stated "Well, I guess we should start climbing down. Are you ready?"

At this I nodded and followed her instructions as we made our slow trek back down the tree. This time it was a little nerve racking, to make sure my feet and hands went to the right place I had to look down. I tried not to let my eyes wander to the ground below.

About another thirty minutes later, my feet reached the soft earth once again. I almost wanted to kiss it. That experience was worth it in the end though. I was glad Khali had pushed me to do it.

Semira had been sleeping during our little adventure, and at our return stretched and stood, ready to go.

"Ready to go back to the house?", I asked Khali who was still admiring the scenery with a grin.

"Yep!", she said as she grabbed my hand, and we both started to head out on the trail.

When we reached the entrance, it was almost noon and it was crowded with people, compared to earlier. We slithered in between the roaming bodies and finally made it to the exit along the parking lot, and road. I called Eduardo, and told him our location. I knew it wasn't far, so he should appear in a few minutes.

We were actually in an area that wasn't too far from where my house was. It was apart of the same forest, just a more tourist attraction spot. It took Eduardo only about seven minutes to pull up the sleek black car beside us.

At first glance, Eduardo was confused about our extra passenger, but said nothing. Semira set herself up by the right side window. Eduardo even rolled down the window for her. Reclining back into the black leather seat I was feeling very relaxed. I was tired, and my hands smelt of sap. I felt like a nap was in order after the early morning exertion.

Arriving back on base, we exited the car, and I waved goodbye to Eduardo. He just smiled at me, and continued on to park the car. His expression seemed to have changed since this morning, but I couldn't put my finger on it. His eyes just seemed a little softer today.

None of the staff payed much attention to us this time, but all seemed rather happy as well.

Once we had returned to the living quarters, Khali plopped herself down on a black couch and stretched out her body. Semira hopped up onto the club chair and went curled herself up as well. I decided to take Semira's lead and go take a nap myself. I told Khali what I was doing and she only mumbled a drowsy "ok" as she too was about to drift off into sleep.

I barely had time to put my head to my pillow before I was succumbed to the comforting blackness.

END OF CHAPTER TWO