It All Started with a Lie

Chapter 10.1

He sounded no better as he shook my hand. "Likewise." His skin burned against mine, like a mini heater that wasn't so mini.

I pulled my hand back, turning to Richard, a much more comforting view. "Should we eat?"

Richard nodded, pulling out my chair for me. The table was a circle, making sitting between them almost less intimidating if it weren't for the gaping hole only a fourth person could fix. But Sonny couldn't make it tonight, as much as I wished he could save me from my misery. I remembered helping Beatrice carry this table home after she found it in a dumpster outside of a diner. It still had the diner's logo printed on the top. The chairs we sat in came from one of the local bar's trash. An ominous silence falls amongst the three of us as we eat. I cannot find it in myself to take a bite so I resort to poking the meal around, spreading out the food in an illusion of consumption. I can feel Richard's gaze shift between me and her brother, as she thinks of something to say. "You guys go to the same university," she picks as her topic of choice.

He answered the statement first. "I remember you mentioning that." So did I, however I never thought we would run into each other. He was a biology major with a focus in premed. I was a psych major. I thought if I ever did meet him, I'd know, that he would look so much like her that I'd know instantly. As I look at him closer, I don't understand how I couldn't see the resemblance. They have the same piercing blue eyes, and the same smile. His nose is the same as Sonny's and they all have the same soft spray of freckles across their it. How did I not see the resemblance?

Before I get a chance to answer, a searing pain shoots up my leg as a white ball of fluff darts across the kitchen hissing. I yelp in pain, grabbing my ankle, pulling my hand up to find it covered in blood. I hate that damn cat. I should have gotten rid of it when I had the chance. "Estrella!" Richard scolded the demon.

The cat only pouted in response, only to hiss at me the second Richard turned her back. It was lucky throwing it into the river would be animal abuse or else that cat would be long gone. I've been trying to get rid of it since we were kids. She tried to claw out my eyes once while I was sleeping. I still have a small scar by my eye. Estrella waits until Richard leaves to grab me a bandaid to make her attack. She lets out a long hiss as she lowers herself into stance, her bum wiggling in anticipation. I stare her down to let her know that this is my final straw and I will not hesitate to throw her out the open window and lock it. She doesn't get the chance to gouge my eyes out. "Estrella, dejalo!" Richard's brother scolds in a voice that almost makes me stop everything I'm doing, and an accent so thick it hardly sounds like him, and it certainly gets Estrella attention. "Vete a tu cama!"

Estrella whimpered before sulking away to her bed in the corner of the living room. Since when does Estrella know Spanish? "Are you kidding me?" I practically yell. "How the hell did you get her to listen to you? I've been trying to get that demonic flee ball to listen to me for years."

He laughed, handing me a tissue for my bleeding ankle. "I taught her commands as soon as Bea brought her home."

"You taught that thing? And it listened?" My jaw was practically hanging open in disbelief.

"It?"

"Yes it, that thing is a demon it deserves no respect from me. I mean look at this." I stood up and turned around, pulling my hair to the front of my body so that he might see the true monstrosity that was my brother's cat. "Do you see what it did?"

He mumbled some expression of disbelief at the sight of the claw marks running down my ear and to the back of my neck. His hand is warm as he runs his finger along one of the scars and shiver runs down my back. My whole face burns red at the motion and he practically doubles over in laughter. "Shut up!" I shove his shoulder, moving away from him and back to my seat. Idiot. How am I supposed to like him when he does stupid stuff like that?