Twisted Strings [MONSTER EDITING - Read at your own risk]

When life gives you lemons

4. When life gives you lemons

A day before my next Camp day, I was helping Dad with the café again. It was a Sunday afternoon and the weather was hotter than usual. I was sweating in my plain white top and fanning myself with a piece of cardboard, I had ripped out from the pantry earlier. Linda had not been happy with that, but she didn't stop me either.

Thankfully, there wasn't much to do and the day was laid back. I sat on one of the tables, the one beside the window and stared out frustratingly. Rhodes had gone to a family lunch with his parents, leaving me incredibly bored. I bet he was bored too, he hated spontaneous and random family gatherings the most. But Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan were fussy regarding these matters, leaving him with no choice. Unlike Rhodes, our relatives were scattered across America, and the only time we got together were Christmas and Easter. The closest to Lakesville was Aunt Kelly, my Dad's first cousin, but she lived five hours away.

Family from Mom's side were close but we weren't too cozy with them. They didn't like to mingle with us and the feeling was mutual.

''I'm boooooored.'' I groaned. Elliot was wiping a table nearby and he glared at me.

''Then clean the floor. You've been sitting there since you came.'' He shot at me, looking annoyed. Elliot was annoyed at almost everything, it was hard to please him. I gave up long ago 

''No thanks, and it looks clean to me.'' I replied, kicking my legs against the table. I wanted to practice with Rhodes, but he was currently stuck 'trying to pronounce Consommé', (his words, not mine).

Elliot sighed and continued his cleaning, pinching his glasses up his nose, with every two seconds. The tables seemed okay to me, he was wasting his time. 

''If they ask you to sing something tomorrow, what will you chose?'' He asked out of blue. If Elliot was willingly asking me stuff, it meant he was legit bored. He beat Rhodes and myself to having the most boredom. I picked up the comic book he was reading earlier and flipped through the pages absentmindedly. There were complex looking drawings of characters with swords and weapons of sorts, they were battling.

''Fame', you know 'Fame' right?'' I hummed the tune for him, but he didn't seem to recall. Elliot was the sort of guy who dug anime openings rather than the nineties hits. It was a shame, he was missing out so much.

''Why 'Fame?''

''Mmmm, Rhodes says it's my lucky song. Do you remember when I was in eight grade? I won the talent show because of it.'' The memory of getting that huge ass (most likely fake) trophy was sweet.

''Are you kids hungry?'' Elliot and I turned when Dad came back from the kitchen. He was carrying a plate of cupcakes. They were dark red and had a white icing on top. He set the plate on my table and Elliot joined us.

''Is that strawberry? God, it's amazing.'' I said after swallowing a mouthful. Elliot had his down before I could take a second bite and was already reaching for another one.

''Red Berries, taste's tangy, don't they?'' He asked,

''A bit, is it a new recipe.''

He nodded, not appearing as pleased as he usually did when we devoured his creations, ''What's wrong?'' Elliot asked him,

Dad sighed, ''Nothing is wrong.''

''Oh ok, I thought something was-''

''Your Mom called.'' He admitted,

I immediately dropped the piece of soft cupcake I was holding, ''No!'' I groaned. Elliot seemed to agree, he was grossed out by the idea of Mom calling. We both knew what that meant.