'I don't care about the presents

Underneath the Christmas tree

I just want you for my own

More than you could ever know'

(@￣ρ￣@)

"Are you sure you want to do this now?" I ask Ray as I speed down the road back to the hotel now that I'm sure most Antonio's guys are gone.

She doesn't answer. Instead, she folds her arms on her lap and stares out the window lost in thought. I sigh and turn the radio up, driving through the dark sky on the deserted street.

"We're here," I say, waking Ray up.

"Five more minutes," she says, which is an unusual thing since she is usually the liveliest person.

"Well, do you want to stay at the hotel?" I ask, thinking it'll be more comfortable to sleep on a bed.

"I just want to be left alone for five more minutes," she says which once again surprises me.

"That's fine," I say as I put the car in park and let my head rest for a bit.

"Alright let's go," after ten minutes have passed, Ray is still just as tired so I decide to get our hotel room back.

"No it's fine, I'm awake," she says with her eyes closed.

"Clearly," I roll my eyes.

"Just give me a second," so I wait for a few moments as she slowly wakes up from her nap.

Usually this behavior would be normal for any other person since it is three in the morning and we've only slept for a couple of hours, but Ray is known for her all-nighters and energetic personality.

"Are you sure you don't want to wait until later to meet up with him?" I refer to her father.

"No, I can slowly feel the adrenaline rush back in me. I'm good to go," she gives. a tight smile and I decide to not question it.

On the way in, she goes to grab a cup of coffee while I try to get the same room we had before leaving. Once all the ordeals are in place, we head up to our room.

As we're walking towards the room, I catch a glimpse of a shadow in the hallway but I blamed it on sleep deprivation and nothing serious.

"Are you sure he was here?" Ray asks, feeling disappointed we haven't seen him yet.

"He sure was here," I shrug.

"Well he's not here though," she groans in frustration. Her sudden mood swings can only be explained by the reason her period is starting soon, which means I have to keep calm when speaking to her.

"How about we go walk around then? This hotel is huge and maybe we'll see him?" I watch as she perks up slightly, making it look like she's giving it thought.

"If you insist," she smiles.

As we're walking around, Ray starts asking me about my relationship with my dad.

"I mean, I admire his patience when dealing with my mom," I joke. "He's old school, but he parents well."

"That's a boring answer," she teases.

"Well, excuse me," I laugh.

Just at that second, Ray bumps into a bunch of guys in suits heading towards our room.

Both Ray and I look at each other before calmly following their footsteps from afar. When I couldn't hear any more movement, I stopped Ray and tried to take a peek at what they were standing in front of.

"You think they're with Antonio?" Ray whispers, but I couldn't answer her because I barley looked at their faces.

"Who are they looking for?" She whispers once again.

"I think that would be me," a guy from behinds us speaks up, and naturally I push Ray behind me, on guard. But the sight I see makes me sigh and conflicted because I didn't know how Ray would react.

"Who is that?" Ray tugs from the back of my shirt.

"Ray," I step aside. "Meet Noah."

"Are you sure I can't get you young lady anything?" Noah asks Ray hesitantly.

She only nods and fidgets with her necklace some more.

"Actually, can I get water?" I ask in order to distract him from Ray.

"Sure son," Ray tenses next to me when the words leave his mouth. He leaves to the kitchen and I turn to Ray.

"We can leave anytime you want, you don't have to talk to him now," I assure her.

"I need to know what happened to my family before that's leading to all this mess. Don't you want to know as well?" She says, determined.

"Here you go," Noah snaps me out of my thoughts by handing me the water. "Please excuse this mess of a house, I didn't expect any visitors."

"It's alright," I say, glancing at Ray to see what she thinks but she only nods in agreement.

"I bet you have a lot of questions for me and I need you to know that I'm willing to answer all of them. It's the least I could do," he gives off a warm smile but Ray only scoots closer to me on the sofa.

"What happened to my mother?" Ray finally speaks up after a minute of silence.

What seemed like pain flashed Noah's wrinkled eyes but his smile remained on his face.

"Your mother was a really stubborn woman," he begins it. "We met in high school where she was an artsy nerd and I was the quiet kid in her classes.

"I'll save you the cliché story, but she slowly broke down every wall I built up and became the single most important thing in my life. She knew about my work with gang I was in at the time and tried to warn me a couple of times but I just didn't listen. I thought the gang would protect her and give her the safety she needed.

"However, she started to get more frequent threats and nasty comments that she soon had to drop out of public school and go into a private one. I was infuriated with that but I supported her anyway and didn't think the gang had much to do with her threats. I just thought everyone in school were trying to take revenge on me by using her.

"Eventually, we survived high school and she decided to skip college and go straight into a studio to paint her feelings out. It's not like school did her any well. I continued my work with the mafia and it was smooth riding before I got a call from her boss telling me she collapsed while tending to a customer," Noah looks at the ceiling taking a deep breath while Ray tightens her hold on my hand.

"In the hospital, we learned that your mother had stage 3 hip cancer that apparently runs in her side of the family. And that's when we also learned that your mother was pregnant with you.

"She knew she didn't have much time left to begin with and refused all treatments that wound harm the baby, making her condition only worsen," he trails off.

"Your mother died 43 minutes after she gave birth to you, and not a single one of these minutes did she complain or regret her decision," he finished off, fighting tears while Ray has buried her face into my shoulder.

I sit there, watching this broken family sit in the same room but their minds being worlds apart.

i'm so sleepy

edit: yeah, i really can't stay up.. my wifi has been sucky and no one is going to fix it on christmas day so hopefully it'll be back and running tomorrow morning for the new chapter