Vincent’s Perspective
“Despite the image you have to maintain, you keep finding ways to try and destroy it. I’ll have to schedule a new workout plan for you,” I said to my sister who continued to eat whatever appeared on the table.
“I can’t help that your food is so delicious,” she retorted, “Besides, you wouldn’t make your girlfriend fat so I know you changed the ingredients to something healthy. I’m still not entirely sure how you got such a beautiful girl to come to our house.”
“First of all, I don’t ever recall developing or announcing a relationship like that between us. Furthermore, she goes through more exercise daily than a racehorse so I’m sure she could handle something with more substance than your lazy ass,” I replied.
“So cold, you’re all “tsun tsun”, but I bet as soon as you leave you’re going to be all “dere dere”,” she said taunting me.
“I seriously think you spend more time watching shows than doing work,” I said.
“You should worry less about me and more about your princess, there isn’t much food left and she’s already here,” Jessica said clearly enjoying the fact that she cleaned out the food I cooked earlier.
I turned around to see Emma walk down the stairs in some of my sister’s clothes. Although I had seen the clothes many times before, I was surprised at how well she wore them; for one my sister was right in that she resembled a princess. Then again that applied to the underlying fragility of her current state. I took a quick look at the table and saw that my sister had gone above and beyond in her efforts to eat as much food as she could. All that was left were a small plate of salad and a bowl of soup, it would take someone approximately ten minutes to eat the food at a moderate pace. In other words an order from my sister, satisfy the girl with a meal made in the allotted time. I covered up the ghost of a smile and turned back to Emma,
“Give me a little bit and I’ll make a proper meal for you,” I said.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine with what is left,” she said sitting diagonally from my sister.
For some reason the tone of her voice irked me. Instead of opening up like I had expected she retreated behind her emotional barriers. Someone interfered causing enough trauma to override my work and reset her guard. I already had a considerable head start because of the guilt trip I caused her when she knocked me over, but now I had to work past the full wall she had. In a way I could see why people nicknamed her the Ice Queen, getting her to open up was like breaking through a glacier, a painstakingly long task. But just like she was ready to stop any advance, I was ready to follow through with my plan until the end.
I grabbed the meat I was going to use for dinner tomorrow out of the refrigerator and started shearing thin slices off of it. At the same time I skimmed the top layer of the remaining soup in the pot with a ladle. Setting a burner on high heat I place a pan on it pouring the ladle and meat onto it. While the meat started to sizzle I grabbed a few spices and cornstarch out of the cabinet. Halfway through the time I spent adding spices to the soup I stopped to flip over the meat. Despite the situation I hadn’t enjoyed cooking like this in a long time. The pure immersion I experienced made the rest of my time pass quickly as I shifted everything around to form the final product. As Emma was finishing the last of the soup I finished placing the meat on top of some risotto I had on the back burner.
“If I let you go home hungry it would look bad for my family so please eat,” I said placing the plate next to her.
She looked at the plate for a second and then said, “Thanks for the food,” as she replaced the soup with the plate.
I hoped by switching from something formal to a more comfortable food like curry I could loosen her mood by a bit. Unfortunately whatever she felt stayed beneath her skin. Undeterred by her demeanor I decided to move to a verbal attack.
“Sorry I didn’t show up as usual today, I could’ve helped you before you got hurt,” I said taking the seat across from her.
“I only got these scratches from searching for a hairpin I lost in the bushes,” she replied, “It’s not a problem at all.”
I could easily tell she fed me a poorly thought out lie. First of all I found her by the side of the track away from the bushes. Secondly, she never had any ornaments on except the occasional bracelet that was meant to match Kelly. Despite this I went along with her story to see how she would back it up.
“Wow, that must be a really important hairpin. Did you find it?” I asked.
“It belongs to my mother so I had no choice but to find it. I don’t usually wear it, but sometimes my mother insists on me wearing jewelry,” she said.
“Speaking of your parents shouldn’t you give them a call?” I asked nonchalantly.
“I was supposed to meet someone else, so this is essentially the same thing,” she said, “It would be hassle to make my parents to worry over some scratches.”
“In any case, it’s getting late,” I commented, “What’s your address?”
“What for?” she asked.
Before I gave her a witty response I realized that she had given a serious response and wasn’t being sassy. “So I can give you a ride home,” I said.
“Oh, right,” she said with a hint of embarrassment, “I couldn’t trouble you anymore, I’ll just take the bus home.”
Before I could deliver a finishing line Jessica interfered with her own intentions.
“Don’t worry, as a proper adult I wouldn’t think of sending you home with a boy your age,” Jessica said, “I’ll have my assistant take you home and naturally I’ll be coming along; I still have things to discuss with you as well as giving your parents a real explanation for why you’re out this late.”
Defeated by my sister’s responsible adult act I couldn’t do anything except agree with her.
“Right, that would probably be for the best since I need to prepare for tomorrow,” I said in resignation.
“Should I get ready to leave now?” Emma asked looking at the remainder of her food.
“Go ahead and finish, it’s like Vincent said, it would be bad if we didn’t give you adequate care,” Jessica replied, “My assistant will take her time getting here.”
“Then I’ll be in number five while you two get ready to leave,” I said excusing myself from the table.
As I walked towards the food preparation room I let the bitter taste that had been sitting in the back of my mouth wash over me. It wasn’t that Jessica just stole my target away, but that someone else at school wanted to get at Emma before me. Whatever they wanted to do would have to wait until I was done. Of course that didn’t mean they would standby just because I told them, but if they were somehow to become incapacitated then they wouldn’t have a choice. In a way it wasn’t so bad, I always wanted to try being the savior, and as a bonus I would have the chance of getting more than just my foot in the door.
“You know, it’s really satisfying having an advantage over you,” my sister said coming into the room, “It’s a little thrilling to steal someone’s girlfriend”.
“First of all, as you already know, she’s not my girlfriend,” I responded to my sister, “And secondly, no matter what you do I will find out what happened as much as you’re trying to hide it. There’s no way someone can get bruised from searching for a necklace.”
“Sometimes I think you’re so smart that you over think things,” she said nonchalantly,
“That girl is going to be one of my next models so please don’t scare her off.”
“And how did you manage to do that?” I asked, “Threatened her parents into bankruptcy?”
“How rude,” she sniffed, “Not everyone is completely unreasonable like in the business world. All I did was explain what a great asset she would be to my work. And of course they get to review every potential image before it is released.”
“Fun…” I said considering my options, “Then as your brother and resident of your house I will support you in bringing over your new employee to your studio.”
“Che. What’s with that one eighty attitude,” my sister said, “Just when I thought I would get to have fun teasing you. Well, either way I don’t lose out.”
“I’m going to sleep now,” I said passing my sister as she dug around the fridge.
“Don’t stay up too late,” she called out before drinking from a carton of milk.
Lantern Dragon Works 