| SIX |
IT'S EIRA
"Are you guys here for dinner?"
This was the first thing Isaiah said to his friends. It was, however, met with a silence.
The Treacherous Three entered the house and greeted Charles the Butler (who was directly beside Isaiah), as they made their way to the coatroom to leave their shoes in. Isaiah trailed behind them, wondering if ignoring him was like a sport, or something people just liked to do as a hobby.
"Are you guys not here for dinner?" He asked, in an effort to direct their attention his way. When he didn't receive an answer, he sighed.
"It's French night, so Hélène is making galettes." He sang teasingly, in order to coax them into staying over.
Themed nights (yes, they had those) were originally his mother's idea, but didn't include the elaborate, foreign foods that Hélène had introduced. While his mother had simpler ideas, like spaghetti and Mexican, Hélène had more elaborate ideas that included creating an ambiance with the food. Music, props...the whole shebang.
To Isaiah it was tacky and cheesy, but to his father and his sisters, it may as well have been the greatest thing since sliced bread.
When his friends still didn't bite, Isaiah twirled his car keys and shrugged more to himself than to them. He wasn't in the mood for begging, and things had to be done. Particularly, he had a quiet girl to woo.
"Well, whatever you're here for, go get it. Could you let me know when you want to hang out?"
He crossed his arms over his chest and watched them for any sign of interest. The only sign of interest he found was Shiro at Amèlie's light up Cinderella shoes. And that wasn't really interest– he had accidentally kicked at them and the shoes were now creating a disco light show in the coatroom.
"Oh. I'll be right back,"
That seemed to snap them to attention. Isaiah was simply saying that because he had to go grab his jacket from his room, but The Treacherous Three seemed to think he meant he was leaving. He didn't bother correcting them, since they finally spoke.
"We're not here for dinner." River blurted.
"Uh...I am, actually." Karim injected.
"So am I." Shiro seconded.
"Fine. Maybe we're here for dinner." She amended, probably thinking about the wonderful galettes that Isaiah's stepmother made. "But we're also here because...."
"Because what?" Isaiah asked a little impatiently, voice muffled. He was bent over to double check if his shoelaces were tied (he didn't need a reason to further embarrass himself in front of her), so River (the designated spokeswoman), was talking to his bum.
"Because we want to meet her." River finished chirpily. "And you've got a really nice bum."
Isaiah blinked at his Converse. Not because of her comment, but because of what she said earlier. About meeting someone.
They couldn't be talking about...Her-Her, could they?
"You're talking about–"
"Your girlfriend." Shiro explained. "The coffee girl."
"Oh." Isaiah nodded to himself. Shiro, River and Karim nodded too, glad that they were all on the same page. "Oh,"
He twirled his keys in what looked like contemplation about the situation, but was actually Isaiah contemplating whether or not he'd done his English homework, and whether or not he really needed a jacket. Because, see, it wasn't that cold. Surely, if he went out without his jacket, the world wouldn't spin faster?
He wasn't even thinking about the Treacherous Three meeting his Nameless Girl. In actual fact, his mind was made up the minute they started laughing at him. Call him anxious or paranoid for not wanting them to meet her.
He wasn't going to be out of his element when they was there, probably laughing at his inexperience and her impassiveness. And, he didn't really want them there when he'd started making so much progress. Not since she'd started smiling around him. No way.
They were like giant toddlers, too clumsy for their own good and easily forgiven because everyone expects it. Imagine a world that of antique glass memorabilia. And imagine three, mischievous giant toddlers. Unattended. And hyper.
The Girl is the antique glass memorabilia, and the Treacherous Three were the giant toddlers. Was it clear where he was going with this?
"Well?" River huffed impatiently. "Is this introduction happening with ease or by force?"
"Huh?" Isaiah asked absently. He faced the expectant friends of his friends. "Oh. No."
River's head recoiled, and she gave him a funny look. Her voice was incredulous, almost like Isaiah had said that little cockroach people lived in the clouds.
"No?" She spat disbelievingly, like the word was an insult. "What the hell does that mean?" She frowned.
"It means no, Pinky. Now, I've got to go Beans n Stuff."
He made a move to leave the coatroom, but River stepped in front of him, mirroring a side step whenever he stepped. Eventually, she was the one who got irritated, while Cool Calm Collected Isaiah only smiled in amusement.
"Enjoy your workout, Pinky?" Isaiah teased. "I found it a little too boring and basic for my taste."
"Oh puh-lease, Isaiah. You're a straight white man. You're the epitome of boring and basic." She huffed with the effort.
"Easy, children." Karim placated. He sent the two a sarcastic smile as he dramatically clutched his chest.
He turned to Isaiah in a business-like manner only when River glared at him. "Right...So this is how this is gonna go,"
Isaiah crossed his arms and regarded his best friends with an amused smile. He got the impression River wanted to punch him in his straight white male face.
"We're going to get in the car. You're going to drive us to Beans n Shit–"
"Am I, now?" Isaiah asked, positively amused.
"–then I'm going to order three of those little almond muffins, and then we're going to meet this girl. Then we're going to come back home and eat the galettes that your hot bitchy stepmum made."
"I like that plan." Shiro agreed.
"Needs some tweaking." River shrugged. "It'll do."
"I can't let you guys meet her."
"Why not? We don't bite." Karim frowned.
"Yeah. Unless she asks me personally." River grinned.
"She's joking." Shiro reassured Isaiah when he saw the look of mild horror and annoyance on the poor boy's face.
"Am I?" River asked innocently.
"You guys are like toddlers in a china shop. She's not even china, she's like a city made of glass. You guys are toddlers with butter fingers. Do I need more analogies?"
"You're exaggerating." River dismissed.
"I'm really not, Fleuve. I'm really, really not."
"I'm wondering if you're just being paranoid of creepily possessive." Shiro wondered aloud.
"I'm leaning towards both, but I think Isaiah is being really paranoid. We are hard to please, after all." River shrugged.
"You guys haven't liked any of my girlfriends. And I'm not saying she's my girlfriend, but I really–"
"Like her?" Karim supplied.
Isaiah glared at him. "You can't like someone you don't know."
Karim held up his hands in defence, and Isaiah continued. "I really think I could like her if I got to know her. And if you guys meet her..."
"Isaiah, if this girl is like Alice, count me out. If she's like Madison, let me know so I can rip out my expectations and feed them to Poopsie and Lala." River said bluntly.
"She's not. I don't think so. She doesn't seem to be." Isaiah muttered. He wasn't exactly sure enough to be making such assumptions, but he thought she wasn't like that.
"So what the hell is the problem? You worry too much, little straight boy." River shook her head.
"Everything will be fine." Karim assured him. "Can we go now?"
"You're not meeting her. But you can stay for dinner." Isaiah said after a few moments of silence.
"Isaiah, you're taking us to meet this girl, whether you like it or not." Karim shrugged.
River and Yoshiro exchanged glances, and Isaiah suddenly didn't feel so sure he could make his friends stay and leave him to go see her alone.
"That's not happening." Isaiah said firmly, for the last time.
But it happened.
+++
Isaiah's mother's religion believed in a hell.
He didn't, not really, he simply thought that it was an idea that made people restrictive and comfortable, that gave people a reason to shame others and not live life.
He believed a place similar to hell existed for those who were evil, heinous. He believed people like serial killers, rapists, apologists of the aforementioned, murderers, discriminators, radical supremacists...those people deserved to go to a place like hell.
Isaiah, however, did not believe he fit into that criteria. And since he didn't fit that criteria, it really was a wonder to him why he was in hell at that moment.
Hell (see: at Beans n Stuff, watching River, Yoshiro, Karim gape at Nameless Girl like starstruck super fans).
Nameless Girl stared back at them. Well, more like glanced. She gave them the same reception she gave to Isaiah at first. Uninterested glances and blank looks. But even then...Isaiah noticed something strange.
Granted, Isaiah had graduated from the blank looks and the curious stares, to close-mouthed smiles. Yesterday, he got at least two of those.
Before today, he thought the beauty was wary around strangers. Now, he realised she was wary around him.
Why?
Because five minutes into meeting his friends, she had smiled at all of them.
All. Of. Them.
She had smiled a beautiful smile and nodded at each of them. Isaiah would have been jealous if he had the right to be. Instead, though, he allowed his heart to flutter and sing while he scowled in silence.
Well...he was jealous regardless.
He had to pick at her frosty, walled exteriors for almost, what, two weeks? And his friends just waltz in and demand to meet her, and she just smiles at them? In which world, in which universe, was that fair?
Isaiah unknowingly let out a huff of indignation. River sent him a weird look, raising her eyebrows with surprise when Isaiah glared at her.
He didn't know why he thought this would be fair. His life wasn't fair. And he'd come to realise that life on its own, excluding his, wasn't fair to anyone else, either.
"...isn't that right, Isaiah?"
Isaiah snapped his head in the direction of Karim's eager, expectant smile. Pulled out of his bleak, melancholic thoughts, Isaiah frowned, glancing from friend to friend to friend, and to curious hazel eyes.
"I'm sorry?" He asked, feeling his cheeks heat up.
"Oh for Christ..." River muttered under her breath.
Karim grinned. "I was just talking about how much time you've been spending here."
"Uh, yeah. There's something about it that makes it...makes it feel like home." Isaiah said, trying not to stare at her.
There was a silence after that, the kind of silence that makes you think about the last thing you said and how stupid and useless it was.
So, Isaiah did what he always did when it came to her. He got ready to run away to feast on some of his stepmothers galettes.
He stood up, chair scraping unpleasantly and drawing the attention of most people in the café. This wasn't because of the chair, but because Isaiah Matthews was very tall, very charming, and very attractive. Whenever he moved, people would stare.
"I uh, I have to go." He muttered. His friends frowned at him, but he tried to school his expression into one of apology.
"River, Shiro, Karim." He nodded at them, going in for brief handshakes. When he got to her, all his seventeen years of speech evaporated and created one, blubbering mess of a teenage boy.
"Uh, uh..." He scratched the back of his head. "Bye...." He fumbled for her name, before realising that he had never been given one.
"Eira." She said, with the softness and gentleness of angels.
Her voice was melodic, like it was being wasted on speech and being wasted on him. Isaiah's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open as he gaped, looking very much the part of inexperienced loser. But he didn't care about that.
Because she spoke.
"It's Eira."