Power & Control

35: Giselle

~A

"Autism." It was the only thing Kat needed to say for me to understand why Peter acted the way that he did, why he barely talked or interacted with anyone, or why he'd throw a tantrum whenever a loud noise would disturb him. I let the chopsticks in my hand drop back into the box I was eating out of, looking up at her. I didn't wanna say I felt sorry, because I knew she's probably heard that hundreds of times.

"When did he get diagnosed?" I asked instead, hoping I wasn't pushing the limits of what she was willing to share with me. I was nothing but a stranger to her after all, a girl that appeared in her house out of nowhere along with her brother.

"About a year ago, though I had noticed unusual behaviors on him since he was a baby." I glanced at Peter, immersed in his own little world as he quietly chewed on some chicken, eyeing the rest of the things on his plate carefully. Niall's attention was on him too, though he wasn't really taking part in mine and Kat's conversation.

"Is there any treatment available?" Kat pushed her chopsticks around the contents of her box, not really picking anything up. She shook her head, looking down at her hand.

"Not for someone his age. Maybe when he's older, he might start some sort of medication. For now, I can only make sure he gets enough nutrients and that I take him to therapy. But it's hard. I have classes most of the day, and I don't have time to get a job between that and taking care of him." I didn't even need to ask either of them to know who was paying for Peter's therapy. I glanced at Niall, who had turned to look at his sister. He had a stern look on his face, as if he was telling her to stop.

"What are you studying?" I ignored his reaction, deciding to continue my conversation with Kat in an effort to get to know her. She seemed willing to talk to me so far, showing signs that she may end up liking me. She chuckled at my question, leaning forward to place her box onto the coffee table.

"He hasn't told you anything about me, has he?" She rose a brow at Niall, a gesture he ignored and continued eating.

"No, sorry. We don't really talk about our lives that much." I nervously laughed under my breath, feeling cornered over my answer. We haven't explained to her what I was to him exactly, or how we even knew each other. But she wasn't dumb. Niall has barely left my side, it was so painfully obvious there was something going on between us. But if it was something serious, something long term, I would've known about his sister's life. The fact that I didn't probably gave away that our relation to each other was a lot more complicated than what she initially assumed. Kat went to speak, about to answer my question before Niall cut her off.

"She's a ballet dancer. Has been since she was little." He revealed, making me dart my eyes back to Kat. Her lean, muscled figure made sense now, her prominent bone structure and slender frame being one a professional dancer would dream of possessing.

"Oh, so now you wanna talk about me?" She scoffed, an amused smile adorning her face. Niall rolled his eyes at her, turning back around to look at Peter as he tossed a half chewed piece of chicken away to grab a different one. I turned to her, giving her my undivided attention as I anticipated more information on her life.

"But yes, I'm a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet. I've been living here for about three years now, and my work schedule has definitely been more hectic lately. I do make some money from that, but Nikki helps a lot." It was still odd to me to hear Niall be referred to with that name, but it helped remind me of his life in Russia, of how much of a different person he probably was. He had changed his name to get away from that life, and that meant his sister must had followed too. That had me curious, urging me to make my next question that steered the conversation to a completely different subject.