Painfully Ours

Six. Grateful

*Eleanora Elliot*

We ate in what mostly was silence.

I didn't realize I was hungry until I finished my food quicker than both the guys.

But they said nothing.

"Have you accidentally bit one one of your tongue things?" I asked Lore and he looked at me, mouth full, eyes wide before he busted out laughing, covering his full mouth with his hand.

"Have you never bit your tongue?" Hale asked.

"I have but it hurts my whole tongue."

"Yes I have and it hurts nearly the same." He nodded.

I smiled, slightly embarrassed but it was a genuine question.

"What still feels weird is brushing my tongue though." He nodded.

"Why?"

"I use the scraper things to make sure my breath isn't bad and I have to do them almost individually because the slit between them is sensitive to it. It's weird." He said, sipping his water.

"That's interesting though." I said.

"Interesting..." Hale was thinking.

"Fascinating? Cool but questionable?" I tried.

"Oh okay. Say it again?" Hale watched my mouth as I said it.

"You say the T so sharp. InTeresting." He was saying it, repeating it how I said it.

"Some people just make it sound like in-CHUR-esting instead? I say the T I don't know." I shrugged.

He tried both.

"I like how you say it better." He said it again.

"It means to find something cool but in a questionable or maybe strange way. Like your tattoo work I find interesting because it's so intricate and I don't know how to do it myself." I offered an example.

He nodded.

"Got it. Interesting." He confirmed.

"I thinks it's interesting too." Lore smiled at me lightly.

"I have to be back at the shop. I have to go over Lia's tattoo and finish it to make sure the ink stays. Meet me there?" Hale looked at Lore.

"Yeah."

He stood.

"You should come too. Not to work. Just to be there." He said to me and I nodded.

He gently placed his hand on my hair before leaving.

"I'm gonna give you a warning." Lore said.

"What?"

"My dad knows the words married, and wife. He will probably say those to you. He thinks we need to get married. Since we're "old" in his eyes." Lore sighed.

"Gotcha. I don't mind if I have to be there the whole month. I can get a hotel and just have time to roam if you have things to do, I want to explore." I said.

"You won't be staying in a hotel. We have a place there. It has a spare room for you and we can get you a rental car."

"How do you have the money for all this?" I asked.

He smirked.

"We just do. Maybe one day we can mention it."

I nodded. "Thank you."

"No, Nora. Thank you our father is a pushy, arrogant, brutal man. He loves us in his own way, same with our mom, but if you wouldn't have agreed he would've stalked you and pinned you down himself. But it'll be good, I appreciate you being open minded about this." He said.

"Of course."

"Let's go." He dropped some bills on the table and we left to the shop beside the restaurant.