Chapter Ninety- Seven: The Unwanted Guest

I stood with my hands by my sides dragging the sides of my clothe as I stared at the big wooden door in front of me. How did I even agree to this? This is all his fault; he shouldn’t have called. Now I feel dragged into this. I can't do this alone. It's just for a few hours and I will be out of here. Just smile and mingle but don’t forget it is not all about you. I exhaled with my eyes shut, tightening the lids of my eyes. I felt the warmth in the continuous deep breaths I took. There were a lot of people around by the time I got there, Thomas was right, it wasn’t the usual small welcome parties that I was used to. Joyce and Anthony really did know how to handle things whenever they worked together. “Regina, I didn’t think you would make it.” “Surprise,” I said to Angela as she walked out. I still didn’t know why she hadn’t mentioned it to me earlier but at that point, what mattered to me was to get to speak to Joyce. “It’s so good to see you here, you are right on time, the scavenger