My Neko Soulmate

Part 11 - An Awkward Feast

Voices echoed around me as I looked about to see strangely happy faces. Food was passed around as giggles and exchanges crossed the table.

This... is so different from my family dinners...

"Dad, pass the potatoes already!" Riku let out, pointing towards the surrounded potatoes.

The table was covered with steaming food made with love and care. Everyone scrambled to reach for more chicken, potatoes, veg, and there were parsnips too. The mountainous bowls of food soon emptied as the family wasted no time.

The atmosphere felt like a fresh wave of life and love. I'd almost forgotten what happiness can come with a meal. That it was meant to be shared and enjoyed with a loving family. That there are intended to be words of conversation shared throughout.

All these things are practically foreign to me by now... I'd love to say this atmosphere at least reminded me of founder memories... but unfortunately, times like this never really existed for me...

"Uri, darling, help yourself to anything you'd like! I made plenty for everyone, so eat up!" Neko's mom told me.

"Oh, right. Thank you," I replied, too awkward to sound genuinely thankful.

"So what time is your sister bringing your stuff round, hun?" she asked.

"Oh, erm... she finishes her swimming session at five today so she should be here in about half an hour," I told them.

"Oooh, swimming??" Neko beamed.

"It's one of the extra-curriculum classes she takes..." I elaborated.

"What's your sister's name? Is she in the same school as you?" Rin, Neko's Dad, asked.

"Oh, right, sorry. Her name's Ellie. She's actually doing her last year of A levels right now, so we don't really see each other around. And she takes after-school classes and goes to her group revision sessions in the morning, so honestly, I don't see much of her," I explained.

I wish I had revision as an excuse to stay away from home for as long as she does... I hardly ever see her around. Yesterday was a one-off since her tutors have meetings on Mondays, so can't offer the after school sessions. But every other day of the week, I don't see her in the morning. And I work most nights. She doesn't walk with me from school, won't speak to me in school, never even asks how my days been... When she gets home, she locks herself in her room and then the day repeats...

I reckon I probably exchange about 25 words with her each week - max. And considering this paragraph is 30 words... I'm sure you can see the servility of the situation.

"And what about your dad? What does he do?" Naname wondered as everyone chewed down everything on their plates.

"Oh, he's a writer. Nothing too exciting. He works from home a lot so..." I soon lost interest.

"Ooh, a writer? What does he write about??" Naname asked.

"Uh.... erm... w-well..." I struggled to admit that I couldn't answer.

I know Dad writes... I've never once been curious what about. He has a few books and stuff and an online account on some writing website I think, but I don't really care about any of that. He hardly puts thoughts into words to tell me, so why should I care what he tells anyone else? I doubt what he has to say is any less valuable to the silent words I hear from him. As long as he gets money from it, I don't care about his writing.