Just a Pen & Paper

8. a golden child

ftr: 2.9.2021 [9:09 pm, pennsylvania]

8 - A GOLDEN CHILD

gold·en child • one who is favored or the favorite (in a family, on a team, at work, etc.)

/ˈɡōldən/ /CHīld/ | noun

"Everyone says that the golden child is perfect, happy, and loved. But has anyone perhaps ever thought that the golden child is the puppet, with society as it's master?" - Me (Rayven)

*

He had attended 5 periods so far, on his way to lunch ━ his 6th period, shared with friends. Once he arrived at the cafeteria after walking through the empty halls, everyone noticed his presence ━ silencing to watch his moves, no, more like scrutinize. His mood became ruined when he saw that all eyes were on him, knowing that they were wasting their time ━ trying to find his faults, for gossip tea.

     He gripped a grey plastic tray, joining the line of rich kids who were critiquing the school menu ━ ungrateful and oblivious to the fact that private-school food was more luxurious than public-school slop. Once it was his turn to get share of a full tray, he received option B as he had chosen ━ he was given a 20 oz. Coca-Cola along with a cookies and crème milkshake, chicken sandwich and salted waffle fries. He thanked the professional chef that the private-school had hired, before taking a seat at the table he grown accustomed to ━ out of habit.

          "Hey, you didn't show up to the game. Everything good?" His 'closest, though not best' friend, Magnus, asked him.

               "I'm fine."

          "What did you do last weekend? Nothing new with your mom?" He continued to bombard Grayson with questions.

               "I hung out with Ramsha and Faija, and no."

          "What were you guys up to?" Grayson was beginning to feel as though Magnus was intruding ━ but knew he didn't mean harm.

           "Maggie. . . leave him alone." Madelime, his wife, hesitantly commanded. 

     Magnus and Madelime were children of powerful public figures, they'd been arranged a marriage for the sake of public ━ as soon as they turned 18. Magnus was a completely different person before he was married and changed after developing a soft spot for Madelime ━ same with her side of the story.

               "We just hung at Ramsha's house. Deryck was there to wreak depression on us."

Magnus could feel a scowl forming on his face at the sound of his name, a small smile on Madelime's, and a knowing one on the seemingly forgotten Leo's.

          "He didn't pipe down after Luna rearranged his face via plastic surgery?" Leo had gotten her name from Atlas, as he hadn't the chance to catch it from her.

Grayson just shook his head, sending the message that Deryck had a hard skull.

They quieted down after that, allowing the murmurs and chatters in the cafeteria to take over as the main sound ━  Grayson finishing his food before waiting for the rest to do the same. When they finished too, they all walked over to the place where the line once was ━ letting their trays join the already stacked ones.

*

          "Where are you?" Grayson was on the phone with his chauffeur, Beon Hyun-shik. 

               "Around the corner, sir."

               "Okay."

After around 2 more minutes of waiting, Beon showed up with a sleek jet-black SUV. Grayson stilled himself in the middle seat of the middle row ━ looking out of the window for the next 16 minutes, on his way to a place he inhabited, which didn't deserve the title of 'home'.

     When they reached, Beon opened the door wordlessly ━ waiting for Grayson to step out of the car. He stepped out of the car to see the estate, in which he lived. Every time he saw it, it'd always generate the same feeling of disgust within him ━  for the deception of perfection it provided to the average passing onlooker. 

An average passing person would wonder in awe at the beauty of the property, sure that the owners were just as perfect ━ and if they were to meet the owners, they wouldn't be disappointed in what they saw. Of course, that was only because what they were seeing was a delusion ━ an illusion, deception of sorts. . . trickery, if you will.

     He walked through the charcoal double-doors ━ paired with golden handles. There he was greeted by a white-gold themed living-room sized foyer, and one of the 13 maids ━ hired by his parents. 

     "May I take your blazer, sir?" Her eyes were averted to his finely-polished shoes and voice quiet, not daring to look him in the eyes ━ for fear of upsetting him, finding herself upset that it caused her to lose her source of income.

He nodded, shrugging off his blazer and handing it to her ━ not wanting to make her job harder for her, though the people that surrounded him did it as a pass-time.

               "Can you get Zea, please?"

          She nodded her head vigorously, before scurrying off like a timid mouse. "Yes sir."

Patiently waiting for Zea, he took a seat on one of the six mahogany benches which resided in the foyer. Zea, his 54-year-old personal maid, had done more than be a maid. She did more than her pay worth, raising him like her own ━ hired the day he was born, she was paid to care for him where his parents had failed. Anyone seeing his dynamic with Zea against his dynamic with his birth parents, would without a doubt argue to the death ━ sure that Zea had nurtured him, she did in fact nurture, but maybe not birthed. Though in this case. . . did it really matter?

           Zea, a plump, short, and dark-skinned beauty with raven curls, walked in ━ an ethereal glow to her skin. "Gray, c'mere boy." She smoothed out her snow-white apron before holding out her arms, welcoming him into a mama-bear hug.

     He grunted slightly, tapping out against her back ━ with a toothy smile on his face, a treasure to be seen. She released him from the hug and held him at arm's length, giving him a good look before pulling him down by the back of his neck to her height ━ she planted a gentle kiss on his forehead, letting him go back to his original 6'1".

          "Go lay down. Your parents want to see you at 5:30 sharp." She checked her the time on her wrist-watch. "It's 4:26 pm. You got time."

She beckoned him to bend down again, to which he obeyed ━ she ruffled his wavy-raven locks, lightly slapping his honey-colored skin before letting him stand regularly again.

     Knowing he'd have to miss his therapy session, Grayson decided to jog up two flights of curved stairways ━ to his bedroom. He properly undressed out of his school uniform, putting on a white V-neck shirt and grey sweatpants as house wear ━ putting his clothes in his walk-in closet, being mindful of the maids' workload.

          He walked over to the head of his bed, getting underneath the covers ━ grabbing his laptop off of one of the two nightstands, putting it on his covered lap. Grayson logged into his laptop, before checking his shares in some companies he had invested in ━ looking around at possible companies to invest in afterwards. Other 18-year-olds wouldn't be worried about stocks, but his parents were well-known in the business world ━ so they pushed, pressured, and forced him to follow their footsteps.

He wanted to be a lawyer, bring forward proofs to support his claim ━ change lives for the better. But his parents wanted a businessman for a son, so they isolated him and surrounded him with business and tutors. He stayed surrounded by maids in place of his "parents", his whole childhood had traumatized him ━ programmed him to be his parents' puppet, to be society's entertainment, and to be a golden child.

     But that changed last year, when he "fell out" and began pursuing his career as a lawyer ━ he hoped to maybe even open a law firm, someday. His parents livid, flushed with anger when they found out ━ they threatened to cut off his bank accounts and take his rightfully-earned money. But now that he's 18, he planned to move out and make his dreams a reality ━ the only thing he was waiting on? His graduation, he was waiting until he graduated his current year ━ senior year. Until then, he'd have to be their puppet, act in their plays, participate in their schemes, and play by society's rules.

          Eventually "5:25 pm" hit, he wasn't certain to why they wanted to speak with him ━ after all, they practically stopped talking to him, unless they wanted something from him.  He leisurely walked down the stairs, not caring if he wasn't on the dot ━ if they didn't care about him, why should he care about them?

Once he reached the lavish white-gold dining-room, he took a seat at the table ━ which had 12 seats stationed at it, taking a middle-seat, reasonable distance from his parents.

He tapped one hand of fingers rhythmically against the marble, his other hand thumbing the earring-like mole on his ear ━ a skin defect he had from birth, which looked like an exquisite black earring. He was a bit nervous, the afore mentioned habits revealed it. He waited for them to speak, tell him what they wanted from him.

          "We have a deal proposal." His father wasn't really looking him in the eyes, he seemed more interested in cutting through his well-done steak.

               "Okay."

     "We're expecting to see you at LAX Business Connections function this weekend." Abramo, his paternal unit, communicated in a professional voice.

There was only two words to describe Grayson's relationship with his parental units, business and professional. A connection which they shared, should've been beautiful ━ yet ruined by the stale of a professional mask and the topic of business.

               "What's in it for me?"

Grayson knew they wouldn't propose a business deal without benefits for him being included, that's just how deals worked.

          "Well for one. . . you'll get to make some lawyer connections." His mother muttered 'lawyer' with scorn, before reluctantly saying her next words. "We'll stop trying to control your friendship group."

               "Deal."

          "Make sure to behave." Paternal unit asserted.

          "I'm sure you know what's expected of you." Mater familia, Helen, added on ━ swirling her wine-glass.

*

     Grayson had just checked his phone, it was half-past 10 in the night. He wasn't really sure what to do, being someone who had a hard time sleeping at night ━ he was left to suffocate in his thoughts. Until a knock crashed that train.

          "Gray-baby?" He could hear Zea's voice, though muffled ━ there was no way he wouldn't recognize his "mama's" soothing voice.

          "Mh?" He got up from his covers, walking over to the door and opening it up ━ walking back over to his bed and getting under the covers again.

               "Did you tell Atlas about missing the session?"

Grayson shook his head.

          "It'd be best if you did. Anything on your mind?" Zea spoke soft and easy, she made herself comfortable on the foot of Grayson's king-sized bed. She asked him that question every night, wanting nothing but to take away Grayson's pain. She knew how unloved he felt, so she tried her best to bring him up smothered in it ━ but for some reason, Grayson still sought approval and love from those who were too stingy to give it.

     Grayson was hesitant to spill, he was conflicted about it himself ━ so he wasn't too sure about sharing it with another person before he could figure it out. But then he remembered who he was talking to, Zea, she never meant him harm ━ and did him more good than his 'parents' could ever. "Yeah."

          "What?" Zea c****d her head like a curious bird.

               "Someone."

     "Okay. . . tell me, boy. Who is it?" Zea just wanted to know already.

               "Luna."

               "Tell me more."

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[A/N]: I really enjoy introducing new characters. . . I try my best to make them have as much depth as possible, so that they don't seem like flat characters. I'm trying to make even extras appear more rounded so that it's realistic, and isn't just a boring plot that rushes to reach the ending. This chapter took long because I wasn't sure how to write Grayson's POV, but I finally did it!