PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

BONUS CHAPTER 1.3

She smiled again, but this time it looked strained. "What are you doing here in San Francisco, honey?"

"I, I came for Kenji, but I'm staying for Darius. He is one of my best friends, after all." Eva offered a smile, scared for his mom's reaction.

The woman nodded quickly, then turned to her son. "Darius, help me bring the groceries inside?"

"Yeah, sure thing, Mom."

"Can I help?" Eva asked, nervous.

Not nervous about carrying in groceries, of course, but she could already tell the adult was teetering between whether or not she liked Eva. She was acting how the Rutherford faculty acted after the incident, and Eva hated seeing the reaction towards her again.

Darius's mom hesitated, then agreed, and the two teenagers followed her out to the garage.

The front end of the garage space was filled with tools and half- constructed things, while the back corner held toys, another two bikes, water guns, frisbees, and boxes. The car itself took up the last half of the garage: a big, silver SUV van with blueish windows and those window covers that are supposed to be used when you park in the sun, but they were up in the garage, instead.

Darius grabbed a few bags and headed inside. As Eva grabbed the rest of the bags— a dozen at least— she felt eyes on her, and knew she was under careful watch from Darius's mom.

"I'll get the hatch," she offered when Eva tried to reach up and shut that, too. "You must be strong to handle all those groceries."

"Definitely stronger physically," Eva joked. "Just in the kitchen?" She asked from the doorway.

Darius's mom nodded. She closed the garage door, then followed in after Eva. Eva heaved all the groceries onto the kitchen island, while Darius watched.

"Did you really grab all of those—?"

"I think someone's slacking," the woman said, giving Darius a knowing look.

"Yeah Darius," Eva said through a grin, "Why'd you only grab four bags?"

"What? But I— yeah, well, Eva is like, really strong, Mom. This one time—" He froze, his eyes wide.

Eva immediately thought about the time she caught him on the zip lines, and was wondering if he was thinking of the same memory.

"This one time, what?" His mom questioned.

"Nothing," he laughed nervously. "She's just, really strong. Always has been."

His mom narrowed her eyes, watching him closely. When he didn't let up, she simply shrugged her shoulders and began unloading the groceries. Eva wished her grandmother would forget about slip ups like that as easily as this woman did. Oma was losing her memories, and still, she questioned Eva about everything like a cop.

As they were putting away groceries, Jacqueline— Darius's mom— formally introduced herself and insisted Eva call her by her first name, rather than the Mrs. Bowman she had been using. She also insisted Eva stay at the house, and to cancel her hotel plans and save her money. So, that was exactly what Eva did.

Eva exited the bathroom after her phone call with the hotel, and relayed she was getting eighty percent of her money back— the rest was lost since she was cancelling within twenty four hours of check-in.

Jacqueline already had two blankets and a pillow set up on the couch, where The Velocipastor was still stuck on pause on the tv. Darius was who knows where, and Jacqueline was in the kitchen, clanking around.