The Saint Jones [Completed]

chapter 5: Meeting Sether

Sether

I'm standing in front of the oven, waiting for the puff pastry to be amply cooked.

My hands are in the pockets of my white pants and my eyes are fixed on the oven—standing straight, feeling the bones of my back stiffening.

"Hey Sether, what did you do again?" I hear Barry's voice behind me but I don't turn around, I stay in the same position, looking ahead, pretending to be deaf for the millionth time.

He sighs, the sound is clear in my ears. I always make him sigh, because most of the time, I don't acknowledge him when he speaks to me, for the mere reason that he annoys me and that he speaks too much or sometimes I'm not in the mood to open my mouth to say things that are definitely useless to their ears.

Mister is an adviser, his second job— catch the irony. He is always giving advice on every single thing in life when he needs advice himself. Pathetic.

For him, life is gloomy, like a bubble on the verge to pop. I know that he is suffering, but he is hiding it, like all of us, we hide our pain and attempt to show another face, the happy face. We catch the pain and shove it deep down our souls, hoping it will never resurface.

"You should stop playing with women's hearts, I'm telling you," he says and I can feel him walking from side to side behind me. Suddenly what was once a peaceful room has converted into chaos by a furious Barry.

"What are you talking about?" Finally, my voice comes out of my throat but rather like a rough groan.

"A woman came today... again," he says the word 'again' as if it were obvious and disrespectful.

"And you know what?" He asks, waiting for me to answer, which I do.

"What?" I force myself to ask. I still haven't moved my eyes from the oven, I don't want to look at his rough face, surrounded by redness.

"This time she was asking for Julian," he says and stands beside me. From the corner of my eyes, I can see his large hands on his haunches and I can feel his iniquitous glare on me.

"I wonder who this one is," I say and chuckle.

"Stop Sether, stop. I know what you're doing and it doesn't work," he says and I can hear my father's voice telling me that.

"What am I doing, huh?" I can't take it anymore, I avert my eyes from the oven and look at him, through my tinted sunglasses, I can see his eyes which looks like they are about to pop out, right now.

"You're playing with these innocent... women." He almost yells, but he keeps his cool, he knows better.

"I'm not playing with them, on the contrary, I'm pushing them away from me. You should thank me for being polite and honest rather than being selfish and... disrespectful," I say.

Damn it, is it a bad thing to repel women? Because I don't think so, I don't see the problem, instead of making them believe in a fairy tale that won't happen, I prefer to play it my way, so nobody will be hurt. Simple and straightforward.

"Do you think it's a good thing that you're giving each one of them a different name every single day?" He asks, his eyes widen.

"Yes," I shrug.

I don't see any inconvenience here, I'm just not interested by them, and the worse is that they always ask me my name, and I'm not the kind of person who will reveal my name to everyone, I'm not selfish or spiteful, I'm just me.

"Are you gay, Sether?" He asks and I don't see a glimpse of pleasantry in his tone. His face is as hard as a rock. His Mexican eyes are piercing my body.