Soul Mates (English) (Boyxboy)

Chapter 10

Dante proceeded to go through the door, but still remaining some distance behind Eric, he couldn't save the cold water balloon that crashed on his head, soaking the hair he had endeavored so much in mussing. A second balloon fell on his left shoulder, soaking equally his shirt. The boy didn't say a word. He just released a sigh and dried the lenses with the last few inches of the skirt that didn't drip yet. They weren't perfect, but the rest would dry on its own.

"What the hell?!" Uttered Eric and drew closer to him. They heard laughter coming from somewhere above them. "It can't be... Laura!" He yelled.

Two tiny heads appeared over the railing of the rooftop. As they saw that the ground wasn't wet around the person they expected, the laughter stopped and the girls sprang back to their hiding place.

Eric led the boy inside and disappeared trough the right door to appear few moments after with a clean towel.

"Dante, I'm so sorry."

"No, it's fine. Be grateful to my bad luck it wasn't you," the other said, wiping his hair carelessly, so that he ended up all disheveled.

"Bad luck?"

"This kind of things happens frequently to me."

"Your clothes are soaked. C'mon, I'll borrow you something."

Dan followed him up the stairs to the third floor and to his room. The place was bright and quite spacious, very clean and tidy; even the wooden floor seemed to have been waxed that morning. Perhaps medicine was the right path for Eric, even if it was only a stereotype.

"Wow."

Eric didn't say a word about it, beginning to rummage through his clothes.

"I think it's a li'l big, but it might work 'till yours gets dried," Eric said, emerging from the closet with a dark blue t-shirt in his hands. Dan left the backpack aside and began to undo the buttons of his green plaid shirt. He saw the taller turn around, avoiding the gaze. "Ah, I'll go see Laura for a moment. Be right back."

'What's wrong with him? Is not like he hasn't seen me shirtless before. In fact, that day I wasn't... wearing it... either...' Dan knew how Eric felt and hurried to put on the t-shirt, which still smelled like fabric softener. It wasn't a lil big, rather hung from his shoulders. He swore for not being slightly taller when Eric came back with some drinks and kept a forced straight face, however, he held back his laugh for another moment, because he was accompanied. Two girls came in after him.

The shortest child's cheeks were covered with freckles and that lovely auburn hair hang on the back of her head in a ponytail. Obviously, she was Eric's sister. The other girl was completely different, sporting a curly black hair that reached her waist, wearing a simple white dress and her chocolate eyes avoided Dante's in full shyness.

Eric stood behind them and pointing at respectively said: "She is my sister Laura, and she is Ana, our neighbor."

"Hi," Dante greeted with the best smile he had that moment.

The girls didn't say a word, but Eric spotted a hand on their shoulders, preventing their escape plans. "Kids, don't you have something to say to Dante?"

"W-we're sorry, sir" 'Sir?!'. "It wasn't our intention to wet you. It had to be my brother."

Eric pulled a face and Dan gave them a beam that made the other flush. "It's fine. Some water can't kill anyone. But, please, don't call me sir. My name is Dante."

"Well, you can go back play. We had a lot to study, but if you need something, tell me." Eric asseverated, letting go, and soon they were alone.

Once Margaret had arrived home, she found the floor slightly wet. It looked like someone had cleaned it some time ago, but the window was closed, so there remained some wet patches on different zones of the corridor. Caring not to smear the floor again, she got inside the kitchen and unloaded the bags she had on the counter. Soon she heard rapid footsteps coming down the stairs, while others, arrhythmic, followed them slowly. Laura appeared as an arrow and clung to hers waist, while Ana stayed a couple of meters behind, waving her hand to the woman timidly.

"How are you, girls? Where's your brother?"

"Eric is in his room. He said they had a lot to study."

"They?" The woman echoed, blinking twice.

"Yeah. By accident we wet his friend when they were on the garden."

Margaret remained quiet, completely ignoring the fact that the girls had been throwing water balloons from the rooftop again. Because right now Eric was with a boy, that boy was his mate. They had arrived earlier without her aware of it. They were studying, alone. 'Do they think I was born yesterday?!'

The veins burned in her body as she climbed the stairs as fast as she possibly could without making too much noise. When she reached the third floor, she stopped a moment to take a breath and went to the room of her child. From the hallway she could hear the two guys talked. Since she couldn't understand the words, Margaret put her ear to the door.

"Hey, I won't be doing the work for you." An unknown voice stated.

"I know! Shut up and let me take responsibility, OK?"

Imagining the worst of the possible situations, Margaret knocked a couple of times and, without waiting for an answer, opened the door at full speed, hitting the dresser beside the entrance. It was the sound of the lamp bulb crashing on the ground what cleared her senses again.

The boys were petrified, watching her. When set, Margaret noticed that they were sat on the carpet; at least two meters of open books and mountains of sheets between them. The unknown boy holding an exam with a grade of D- with Eric's handwriting on it, noting some of the lines with a pencil; glasses hung crooked on his nose and his eyes were pure surprise. Eric on the other hand, had such frown that it almost seemed there was not an inch of space between his eyebrows.

"Mother!" He snorted.

"Oh, you didn't tell me we would have a guest so early, Eric," she said, moving aside the thought with wave of her hand and smiling innocently.

Once the few hairs on his arms were back in place, Dan adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose, pulled the book that lay open on his lap and stood up, approaching women.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Richmond," he said, extending his hand. She shook it, staring into his eyes, her twenty years as attorney firm in each of her manners, that made Dante feel clearly alarmed. "My name is Dante Henson."

"It's a pleasure, young man," she said, slightly loosening the tension in her hand and smirking  a convincingly cozy smile.

When Margaret asked why Dante was wearing the t-shirt of his son, Eric cleared the room, saying that he must talk to her alone for a minute. The guy excused and closed the door behind him.

Being alone, Dante breathed slowly, processing what just happened and suspected that dinner would be more complicated than his last walk in the park.