"My question is how did that happen? How was it that suddenly everyone in the world was saying music has charms to sooth the savage 'beast' when it was written 'breast?" Mom complains to me and Rory. We were walking to Luke's before me and Rory got the bus to school.
"I don't know. At some point someone misspoke and it just caught on." Rory explains
"How do things like that catch on?" Mom asks
"Mom, please, you are driving me crazy." I moan
"Did some guy say it at a big rally of some sort and everyone started saying it that way and it spread from there?" Mom continues
"Yes, exactly." Me and Rory answer.
"Oh, now you're just trying to shut me up." Mom mutters as we enter Luke's. "Oh, my god!"
"What?"
"Look. Wow. Empty." Mom justifies as we lok. around at a completely empty Luke's.
"Just one of those weird lulls. Happens occasionally." Luke explains
"Oh, can we sit wherever we like?" Rory asks him
"Wherever you like." Luke confirms
"Such a luxury I never dreamed of." I joke
"Where do you wanna sit?"
"I don't know. Um, how about this table with its unobstructed westward view of the wide, cosmopolitan expanse of clump street?" Mom suggests
"Tempting. Do you know that on a clear day you can see all the way to the garbage cans behind Al's pancake world?" Rory tells us
"Or we could sit in the corner, mafia table, so that no one can come up behind you and whack you with a cannoli." Mom points to the table in front of us.
"Whack you with a cannoli?" Rory asks
"Because he left the gun and took the cannoli." I explain to her.
"You are so my daughter. Hey, let's sit at the counter." Mom states
"No, those seats are not the power seats." Rory tells mom
"Yes, but with no one here, we can sit at either end and someone in the middle and play bagel hockey." Mom points out
"Ooh, bagel hockey!" Me and Rory exclaim
"Just sit at a table." Luke tells us
"Oh, you're awfully rude for a guy who only has three paying customers." Mom takes me and Rory by the shoulders and guides us to a table.
"Okay, 3:30 on Friday, my debate at Chilton. Write it down." Rory sets her files down on the table.
"Already written down." Mom replies
"You prepared?" I ask Rory.
I would be doing the debate if I could. However, me being off school a lot of the time because of the girls, resulted in the school saying I couldn't participate in it.
"Please. Paris had us beyond prepared. I know more about doctor assisted suicide than I ever cared to." Rory scoffs and the phone rings.
"Cheery topic." Mom mutters.
"Luke's. Uh-huh. Hold on a second." Luke picks the phone down on the counter. "It's for you."
"What?" I question
"Yep." Luke murmurs.
"But who knows we're here?" Rory continues to ask.
"This whole morning has been a little 'twilight zone-y.'" Mom says
"Or 'outer limits-y'." Luke states
"What?" Mom asks
"Great show, just as eerie, Same era, but no one references it." Luke explains as I walk over to the phone.
"Hello?" I ask the person on the phone.
"Tori?" Lane questions
"Lane? How did you know I was here?"
"Telescope. Ive got a clean shot at Luke's. I saw you, Rory and your mom go in." Lane justifies as I walk over to the window. The phone was cabled to the wall meaning the wire knocked over a salt shaker.
"Hey, watch it." Luke warns
"I guess you're still grounded over that whole Henry thing?" I assume
"Are you kidding? It's the mother of all groundings. My moms down everything but slap a Dr. Dre ankle bracelet on me. I'm not even going to school." Lane tells me
"Isn't it illegal to keep a kid out of school?" I question
"She talked my teachers into allowing me to be homeschooled for two weeks. I believe the words 'highly contagious' were bandied about. I only get five minutes a day of outside phone time but unlimited time to call the psalm-a-day line — a big rip off because psalm 79 has been on there for 3 days. That's not in keeping with what their name implies, which is a new psalm every day, not the same one from the previous two days!" Lane rambles
"I have never heard anyone get so riled up about psalms before." I laugh slightly.
"My world has become very small. Okay, I'm dying for news. Give me some headlines." Lane pleads
"Well, the girls are both nearly crawling, Rory has got a big debate coming up at school, me and Tristan's are nearly finished planning the wedding, I have to talk to you about that when you are not grounded, oh, and mom and Rory haven't done laundry for two weeks. At least, I'm responsible and get to wear fresh clean clothes everyday. Sorry if that all boring." I apologize
"Are you kidding? That's the most stimulation I've gotten in a week." Lane thanks me. "It's tea and Melba toast time. Gotta go, ding forget me in my solitude."
"Never."
"Bye."
I walk over to put the phone back before stopping.
"Think fast." I shout to Luke and throw the phone, and he catches it one handed.
"Whoa! Impressive. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Mom asks me and Rory.
"What?"
"Goalie for the bagel hockey team." Mom laughs
"And bump Schmitty?" I jokes
"Schmittys over the hill. He's washed up. Put him in cooperstown. Suit up, kid." Mom yells to Luke
"Call me if anyone Sane walks in." Luke tells us before he walks into the kitchen.
"Baby, I have to go and see if the girls are alright. Mom had had them for three hours now." I tell Tristan as I kiss his head. His head was on my chest and I was ruffling his hair.
We had decided to go out to dinner as mom had offered to have the girls tonight. Her and Rory had made some popcorn and we're going to find a movie to watch.
After dinner, on the way home, things got steamy between me and Tristan and we decided to go straight into the garage when we got home.
"Five more minutes." Tristan looks up at me.
"Look, I'll go check if they are alright, and then I'll come straight back." I tell him as I get up and out my clothes back on.
"Okay." I lean down to kiss him before leaving to head inside. "Hey, mom. Hey, Rory. Oh, hi Paris. Paris, what are you doing here?"
I walk into Rory's room and see Paris and Rory sitting on Rory's bed.
"Rory reads too slow." Paris simply says and goes back to looking at notes. I look over at Rory and laugh at her facial expressions. She seemed annoyed and angry.
"Mom, are the girls o—" I begin but stop as I see Charlie and Mia fast asleep on mom. Charlie was in the left side of mom, and Mia was on the right. "Aw, thank you mom."
"No worries, hon. Did you and Tristan have a nice night? I'm guessing you did after the way you ran into the garage after you got home." Mom smirks at me.
"You saw that?" I giggle slightly as it was awkward.
"Yes, I did. Were You safe? I mean, as much as I love these two..." mom gestures to the girls. "...I would much prefer to have another grandchild a little later on."
"Don't worry, mom. We were." I reassure her.
"Okay. Good. Well I hope you both enjoyed your night. I'll keep the girls here until they wake up." Mom tells me
"Thank you. If they take too long to wake up, I'll come get them." I state and kiss their heads. Charlie and Mia had a small 'mop' of brown curly hair now which made it even harder to tell them apart, but you get used to it.
"See, I wasn't long." I smile at Tristan as I enter the garage again.
"You were!" Tristan laughs
"I was not!" I defend myself, partly joking as I took longer than I thought I would.
"Well, for me it was long." Tristan says as I lay back in bed.
"I'm sorry for taking too long." I whisper in his ear whilst laying my head on his chest.
"How are the girls?"
"They are fast asleep on mom. Paris is inside too." I tell him
"Why is she inside?" Tristan questions
"Apparently Rory reads too slowly." I explain. "I think you should go inside without a shirt on and talk to her. That way, I can brag that you are mine and not hers because I swear she's still got a thing for you." I joke
"She does. And it's annoying too. I mean, everyone knows that we're engaged now, and the fact that she can't wrap her head around it." Tristan scoffs but starts laughing.
"It's funny in a way. She hates me for barging in and 'stealing' you. Apparently, she was close to getting you before me and Rory joined." I tell him
"No she was not! No where near close!" Tristan exclaims
"She seems to think so." I laugh
"If that's what makes her happy, then so be it." Tristan laughs quietly and I close my eyes, drifting off to sleep.
This chapter was 1596 words!