Chapter 18 CHAPTER 18
SERA'S POV
Sunday was spent giving Naomi all the savoury details and the house burning with a tension that could be cut with a butter knife.
But Monday rolled around and I prepared for school with excitement in mind.
Kane promised to take me somewhere special and I was on edge about it, Tori's sour mood could never dampen it.
I wore one of the outfits I'd gotten last weekend, a purple gown that stopped on my thigh with sheer leggings to match the boots.
“Oh wow, someone went shopping,” Aunt Kelly said as I got downstairs.
My heart nearly jumped out of my chest..
Stupid of me to be surprised, the woman is in her own house.
“Naomi insisted on my having this. I hope it's not too much?” I quickly recovered, taking a dash towards the door.
“Sera!” She called before I could leave. “Come back here, why aren't you eating breakfast?”
“I'm not hungry Aunt Kelly, I'll eat in school.”
“Your lunch break is four hours from the first class. There's no way you're not going to be dying of hunger by that time. Edgar, how long has she been skipping breakfast?”
I moved from one foot to the other in tension. She was making a huge deal out of this and it made me feel bad.
It's not like I was rejecting her food, I just hated how much I wanted to eat these days, it got worse even though I was trying to contain it, like a demon was camping in my stomach, demanding sustenance.
“She's been that way for the last two weeks,” Tori answered angrily, “you should keep a closer eye on her Mom. Something is up with her, I just can't put my hand on it “
At least she didn't rat me out for Saturday night so I don't take her jabs to heart. Besides, I know how cruel she can be now so I'm grateful for the leniency I was getting.
“Sera what is the problem?” Aunt Kelly asked in a more gentle voice, coming to grab my hand. She pulled me to the dining room and made me sit down. “I know it's hard adjusting to life without your Mom especially in a new town but I promised to take care of you. Talk to me, what is wrong?”
“Aunt Kelly nothing is wrong. I just hate how hungry I get all the time and I'm trying to control it. If I get fat on top of everything happening to me just because of my appetite, I don't know what will happen. Besides it's just breakfast, I've skipped it nearly every day since my Dad died. I don't understand why it's suddenly a big deal.”
“You need to have breakfast Sera,” Uncle John’s voice boomed from the stairs, “that is not negotiable. I don't know why you're cuddling her, Kelly. She's an adult and she knows she has to eat.”
How is he saying I'm an adult in one breath and still trying to force me to eat in another?
“I know John, I just want her to understand why. Breakfast is very important, we don't want people thinking we're not taking care of you.”
“How will anyone know I'm not eating breakfast if I don't tell them?”
“Girl we can hear your stomach growling from our classes,” Edgar chuckled.
“Wait, what?” I gasped, “You have advanced hearing too?”
“Advanced hearing?” Aunt Kelly asked, her voice smaller.
And I realised how crazy I sounded.
“I'm sorry, I don't know where that came from. I'll eat breakfast now. I'm sorry for giving everyone a headache.”
“No one's having a headache. Just eat very well, don't guilt yourself over it. Your body won't ask for that much food if it doesn't need it. And Tori,” she pointed at her daughter, “stop being mean to Sera. She's your sister. Take care of her and keep those vultures you call friends away from her.”
“Don't worry Mom, they don't want to hang with her either.”
Ouch.
I got up and went to the kitchen, grabbed the food and sat down with everyone else.
We all had breakfast like a normal family, as though a wolf wasn't lounging around Edgar's leg, as though I couldn't hear everyone's digestive system processing the food.
After the eventful morning, I drive to school and I can't lie, I feel so much better with food in my system as the day begins, the downside is all the pitty patter of feet grinding in my ears louder now as everyone went about their day, their speeches and laughs and packets of snacks opening… it was a lot.
I quickly found my way to class and rushed to sit near Naomi.
“You're unusually late today,” she noticed.
“I was forced to have breakfast this morning,” I complained.
“That sounds intense.”
“You should have seen Uncle John making it a law punishable by hanging and quartering or something.”
She laughed.
“It's not really bad, I mean you look livelier, your skin supple. Or maybe it's this date you've been yapping about since last night.”
I blushed profusely.
“He's really sweet when he wants to be, y’know?”
“When he wants to be? Not all the time?”
“You know what I mean,” I said defensively.
“No I don't. Have you felt any weirdness about him?”
“No of course not, Kane is really sweet.”
“Hm. I hope so. He'd better treat you perfectly well or I'll introduce him to my fist. I've been practising, don't worry.”
We joke on and on for about thirty minutes before someone points out the fact that Mr Valkori isn't in class yet.
Very unusual.
It's a well-known fact that math teachers will walk through a storm, swim across heavy floods and walk through fire so they don't miss their classes.
So why did he do that? No warning, nothing at all, just disappearing into thin air.
And why did my heart cinch painfully at the thought of not seeing him at all today?
“Maybe his wife gave birth or something,” Naomi joked.
“Wife? Does he look married?”
“No but it's those pretty ones that get rushed off the market so fast. My aunt's words.”
“Ugh, why do you get all the cool family members?”
“I can trade my mom for your aunt any time or day.”
“No thanks, I'm good. What the hell are we supposed to do now? I finished all the assignments last night.”
“I don't know what I'll do but you definitely have something or someone,” she winked, “to be doing.”
“What are you…” My nose picked it up before my eyes as Kane sauntered into the class with confidence and cockiness only he can embody.
“Hello pretty girls,” he delivers with a handsome bad boy smile.
“Hi Kane,” Cara greets sweetly from the front.
Naomi rolled her eyes. I had omitted the scene from the party involving Cara, if only she knew, she'd be seething now.
“I came to take my girl for a bit since I heard from a grapevine that her morning is freed up. Do you mind?”
“You can have her but return her before the next class. Miss Ellie has a thing for her that I don't understand.”
“I'll take care of Miss Ellie, don't worry.”
His words made me feel mushy inside and I placed my hand in his and he led me out.