Beast Behind the Mask

Chapter 21

"It looks like you haven't eaten in days." I remarked, taking a bite from my own plate, it was pretty good.

"You have no idea. The food I usually eat is like sandpaper compared to this. Martha only cooks lasagna for Hunter. No one else."

"Really? Why?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe because it's his favorite. Or maybe because he's the Alpha. But I've tried countless of times to get her to make me some, but she doesn't budge."

"Oh. Why don't you just ask Hunter to give you some?"

He scoffed, "Yeah right. Like he would share it." He continued fervently, "He gets a sick sense of  satisfaction by depriving me of this holy grail."

I raised my eyebrows, "Okay." I drew the word out, "So what do you do at work?" I asked, trying to move on from his obsession with Martha's lasagna. I mean it was good, but not that good, my mom's was better, or maybe I'm just biased.

"Oh, I'm an architect. I draw all the designs and prepare the blueprints for all our projects."

"That sounds interesting. Did you always want to do that?"

He nodded, "Yeah, pretty much. I would always draw on the walls of our apartment. Even though Dad bought me countless blank drawing books and papers. It drove Mom crazy. Until one day, she brought me a small easel with a board and everything, and that finally got me to stop ruining the walls and hooked me to art for life."

I tilted my head, regarding him, "So why didn't you become an artist?"

"Well yeah, when I was a kid, it started out as drawing sceneries and stuff but as I grew older I became more interested in building and their designs." He shrugged, "You know, how they're made, the different types of construction styles, so I just naturally drifted towards this profession. What about you?" He inquired, "What are you interested in, you know, as a career?"

"I want to become a marine biologist, then go into the line of teaching. Become a professor."

"Wow, that sounds great."

He took another big helping of lasagna, I wanted to ask him to slow down and save some for Hunter, but after hearing him raving on about it, I didn't have the heart to do it. And I don't like Hunter much right now, so...

"So, you don't have any siblings right?" Jace asked, taking a sip from his water glass.

I shook my head, "No, and you?"

He chuckled, "Oh I wish I could say the same, but I have 2 she-devils of little sisters that made my life hell while growing up."

"Why? What did they do?" I asked as I pulled up my shirt, that had slipped down again back over my shoulder.

"What did they do? More like what didn't they do. They're five years younger than me, twins, and every day they would plot some new scheme to torment me. They've gone off to college now, thank God but one time when I was 15, they glued my hands to my torso."

"What?!" I exclaimed, amused, "But how?"

"I don't know. That's the thing, I never knew how they pulled off everything. And my hands wouldn't move, they were completely stuck. I had to walk around like that for a whole day before my Mom was finally able to pry them off. And don't even ask about how I put on a shirt."

I laughed, imagining a 15-year-old boy traipsing about with his hands glued to his torso.

"Yeah, go ahead, laugh at my pain."

"Sorry, sorry." I apologized, trying to control my laughter.

He grinned, "In retrospect, I realized that the shit they did to me was pretty funny. One time, they swapped the cream in my Oreos with white toothpaste. And the taste..." He grimaced, "I still feel nauseous just thinking about it."