The Gods Among Us

Chapter 8: Emotion and Feeling

A:

"Please let me do this," I say, taking the plates from Alfred and Alieen. "You fours have offered me so much, this is the least I can do."

"Knock yourself out," Matt says, shoving his plate toward me. The second his plate falls onto the two I am already holding, he runs into the living and jumps onto the sofa. He places his hands behind his head and kicks up his legs.

"That may not have been a soup and a pizza," Matt sighs, "But that was still amazing."

Matt lets out a burp and, once again, Lafayette throws a potato chip at him.

"Thanks again," Matt says, smiling as he throws the chip into his mouth.

"Don't mention it," Lafayette says, before unrolling the bag and dumping everything on Matt. Screaming as potato chips rain on him, he shakes uncontrollably and rolls off the sofa. Landing in a pile of chips, he looks up.

"Really," he asks.

"Yes," Lafayette replies. "Really."

As I watch from the kitchen, I place the plates in the sink and turn back to Matt and Lafayette. I hold out my hand and am about to use my power to clean up the mess when Alieen steps in. She grabs my hand and pushes it down.

"Hey," she says, looking me in the eyes. "Uhh, do you think you can clean the dishes later?"

"I believe so. Why?"

"There's something I'm wondering if you could help me with. Please follow me to my room."

"Your room," I repeat, my head feeling hot all of a sudden. Almost immediately, I feel sweats start to form, despite being in an air-conditioned room. My hands and my legs go numb, and I nearly trip just from standing.

"Uhhh," I say, clearing my throat over and over. "Uhhhh, sure. Yeah. Sure. Of course."

I put the plates down in the kitchen skin before following Alieen up the stairs.

"Hey," Lafayette says, stopping us halfway up the stairs. "Where do you think you're going?"

I have no clue what to say, but very luckily, Alieen answers for both of us.

"I'm just going to give him some clothes before sending him away."

"Some clothes," Matt says while picking up some broken potato chips. "No offense or anything, but from where I'm kneeling right now, A looks a little bigger than you. I don't know if your clothes will fit him or not."

"My aunts and uncles gave me some old clothes a while back for donation," Alieen says, "And luckily for A, I haven't been able to donate them yet. Come on, from the look of it, you could use a new jacket."

As Alieen said those words, I look down at my jacket.

"I think my jacket is okay," I think, "But then again, this is my only other jacket besides the one I was wearing when I woke up. Maybe it would not hurt to have some other jackets."

Once more, I follow Alieen as she guides me to her room. When I am following her, I can hear Lafayette growling.

Leading me through a small, narrow hallway, Alieen pushes open a door and holds it open for me. As I enter her room, I immediately make notes of everything hanging on her yellow walls. It seems to be one list after another of things to do. The lists are all side-by-side with colorfully marked calendars.

"Buy foods," one of the lists starts. "Cook dinner. Help Matt and Alfred with their car."

There is a date at the bottom of the list. It seems to be a year old.