Inject Me Sweetly / Dusk Until Dawn

:Inject Me Sweetly: Thirteen

Solomon laughed. "No. He has a free day so he requested to spend it with you." 

"How cute," Vincent sneered. "Too bad he's going to court now." 

"No, you're going to court, Vince." 

"I don't want to." 

"You have no choice." 

Vincent scowled. "Isn't Joel enough? He was there!" 

"You're going and that's final," Solomon stated firmly. "You were ignorant enough to take Emily out of the house in the first place, so this is your responsibility." 

"Whatever." 

"Be ready by seven tomorrow morning. As your punishment, you're grounded for the next month." 

"Grounded?" Vincent repeated dubiously. "You're grounding me?" 

The King gave him a disapproving look. "Don't think I won't know if you don't listen to me." 

Vincent laughed without humor. "Okay, Father." 

"I have to go have a word with Joel, so I'll take my leave now. Don't forget to eat dinner, Emily." 

I gave him a thumbs up to show him I'd heard. 

"Ice cream doesn't count." 

"Ah ha ha," I laughed nervously, glancing at the upside-down bowl on the floor. "I'll clean that up..." 

He shook his head. "No, I'm sure Vincent wouldn't mind doing it for you." 

Vincent gave his dad a sarcastic look. "Of course. My life revolves around cleaning spilled ice cream." 

"That's perfect then," Solomon replied, just as sarcastic. "Have a nice night, Emily." 

"Night!" I called as he turned his back to leave the room. When he was gone, I turned to Vincent. "I can clean up my own bowl." 

"I know, stupid." 

A frown crossed my face. He was going to go back to calling me stupid? "Jerk." 

He rolled his eyes. "Good comeback." 

"Sorry about this," I apologized, turning away so I wouldn't have to face him. "You know, being so bothersome to you. I wouldn't have gone to Walmart if I knew it was going to cause you this much trouble." 

"I wouldn't have let you gone." 

My lips twitched in irritation. He couldn't just accept my apology? This technically wasn't my fault, so I didn't need to apologize, but I decided to be a nicer person and do so, and yet he couldn't even accept it? Why did I even bother? I huffed angrily, glaring at the corner. 

"It's not your fault." 

I paused. 

"It's not like you told Claire you were living here," he continued, sounding tired. "If it's anyone's fault, it's mine, so you don't need to apologize." 

I turned to him now, smiling. "I think this is the first time I've ever heard you say something was your fault." 

He shrugged. "Whatever. It's not a big deal." 

"It..." I trailed off, deciding just to let it drop. If he wanted to be modest, I'd let him. "So do you have to dress up fancy for court?" 

"I don't know." 

"Have you ever gone before?" 

"No. We don't usually have humans whose memories we can't erase around."