Double Life - Book 1 of the Vaiya Series (27 page)

Once they’d all filled up their first plate,
they sat down around the booths again, Hazel eyeing the large fudge
brownie on Jimmy’s plate next to three chicken legs drenched in
salt and pepper, a few carrot sticks, a piece of wheat bread
smothered in butter, and two juicy orange slices. It was an unusual
selection for a first plate and it warranted a question. Besides,
Jimmy had been very quiet, and it was time for him to join in the
fray.

“Already moving onto dessert, are we?” Hazel
asked, a colorful smile on her face.

Avoiding her eyes, he blushed while mumbling,
“I like having a bit of everything,” before neatly picking up one
of his carrot sticks and nibbling on it.

That should have been it right there, but
Hazel wasn’t done with him. “You’re Ian’s friend, right?”

“Yeah,” he murmured, as he sipped down his
cold glass of ice water, eyes focused intently on his drink,
ignoring Hazel like she were Medusa and would turn him into stone
if he so much as glanced at her.

Yet in spite of his blatant disregard for
her, Hazel persisted, as if trying to break him out of his comfort
zone. “So what’s your name?” she asked, interest still resonating
in her voice.

“Jimmy,” he murmured painfully, biting his
lip and gazing down at the silverware next to his plate. Likely, he
was very irritated by the question, as it hinted that she only knew
him by his unflattering nicknames and had no clue what his real
name was.

If her expressions meant anything, the
surprise in her eyes showed that she truly hadn’t known his name
before. “Cool,” she said lightheartedly, as if trying to be
positive. “I have a second cousin named Jimmy. Nice to meet you.”
Hazel stretched out her hand across the table, but Jimmy just
ignored it, his face reddening. From his nervous disposition, his
hands were most likely cold and clammy, so it only made sense that
he wouldn’t shake her hand.

Hazel didn’t seem to realize this though. “Um
… ok.” She immediately retracted her hand. “You really are shy,
aren’t you?”

Jimmy, who’d likely only stutter and stammer
if he replied to her, chose to answer the question by staring at
his napkin.

Seeing his timidness, she just shook her at
him and scolded him playfully: “We can’t have this, man. You’re too
handsome to be bashful. How will you ever get a girlfriend … get
married?”

Like two expertly thrown daggers, these words
embedded themselves in his chest, causing him to undergo what could
have been construed as torture. Squeezing his hands underneath the
table, his eyes nearly shut, he crossed his legs, which were
trembling violently, as he took many short, rapid breaths.
Fortunately, the scene didn’t last that long, and within ten
seconds, he’d composed himself fairly well, and, except for an
expression of foolishness written across his face, he looked just
as he had before the incident--which really wasn’t saying much.

Watching this sort of event wasn’t exactly
conducive to conversation, so it was with welcome relief that
Tianna broke the tension, using a flash of purple lightning, which
had illuminated the darkening sky, as an icebreaker. “This better
not mean another storm is coming,” she said, her eyes looking
briefly out of the window, before refocusing on the juicy
medium-rare Delmonico steak she was cutting into. “I don’t think I
can handle another.”

Eddy looked up at her in mild amusement,
though quite possibly he was still chuckling from seeing Jimmy’s
reaction to Hazel’s words. “It does seem like we’ve been having a
lot of storms recently.”

“Yeah,” added Hazel, keeping an eye on Jimmy
whose now neutral face showed that this rather mundane topic was
doing wonders for him. “And it’s calling for thunderstorms the next
seven days as well.”

A faint cloud of depression and fear slipped
over Tianna. The bad news animated her. “That’s ridiculous,” she
shouted, as a middle-aged couple adjacent from them stared at her
critically and then muttered to each other, causing her to lower
her voice again. “What kind of weather pattern is this?”

As none of them really knew much about
meteorology, the question stood there for a while, before
succumbing to its death as the waitress returned, her chestnut
brown eyes smiling, her words eerily similar to what they’d just
been talking about, almost as if she’d been listening to their
conversation: “Nice weather we’ve been having recently,” she said
jokingly, while casually refilling Jimmy’s glass of water which had
long ago been drained of all but ice.

“Yeah, if you like storms,” said Eddy
offhandedly, not even concealing his sarcastic smirk. “You sound
like my cousin Blake now. He’s obsessed with them. He says the
lightning’s so cool, and the thunder’s music to his ears.”

The waitress stifled a laugh. “I suppose I do
remind you of one of your boy cousins then,” she began wryly, as
she collected the dirty plates and stacked them on her arm. “And
how old is he?”

“Twenty,” he replied, with more than a
chuckle. “Yet he’s just like a child when the thunder starts
rolling.”

Amanda, Hazel, and Tianna exchanged amused
glances with each other. Eddy sure had a way with words.

Apparently, the waitress thought so too. It
took her a few seconds to stop laughing so that she could
indirectly ask for his name. “You’re amusing...”

“Eddy,” he said, answering her, still
retaining the same famous smile on his face as he observed her
gold-trimmed name tag. “Nice to meet you, Kali.”

“No fair,” she murmured, losing a lot of her
dignity, as she covered her metal name tag with one hand, though it
was far too late by now. “I wanted you to ask for my name the
old-fashioned way.”

A dry smile immediately crossed his face.
“Seeing as how you’re in such an establishment … that comes as no
surprise.”

As nearly everyone at the table burst out
laughing except for Jimmy, Amanda kicked Eddy lightly, as if
proving her point about the waitress liking him. Not saying a word,
the waitress, Kali, glared at him amusingly, but within a few
moments, she’d given in and had started laughing as well.

Amanda wouldn’t let this moment pass.
Stealthily pulling out her cell phone, she snapped a quick picture
of the waitress hovering close to Eddy, laughter in their eyes. If
this picture weren’t on Facebook by tomorrow morning with the
caption,
Eddy’s medieval girlfriend
,
Amanda had probably gotten terribly sick.

As soon as she’d taken the picture though,
she hurriedly switched her cell phone focus to a knight statue,
just as the waitress looked her way. Apparently, seeing nothing
further of interest, Kali, still a pleasant smile on her lightly
tanned face, left after leaving them with a warm, “Let me know if
you need anything.”

When she disappeared from view, Amanda stared
at Eddy and grinned deeply. “I’m sure she likes you now,” she said
in a teasing manner, as she deftly slid her cell phone into her
purple purse.

“Yeah, no surprise there,” said Eddy
casually, as he squirted a huge pile of ketchup onto his plate near
his barbecued curly fries. Then his face suddenly grew serious, as
he looked at Amanda. “So, you plan on putting that pic on
Facebook?”

“Of course,” she replied, almost offended by
the notion that she wouldn’t.

“I’d suggest otherwise,” he said, in a less
than humorous tone.

“And why’s that?” asked Amanda, clearly
confused from the way she stared at him. It was not like Eddy to be
so offended over something so trivial.

“Because I know she’d hate to have her
picture on there,” said Eddy, sparing a glance at the waitress,
seemingly not caring about the implications of this for himself.
“Besides, it’s not fair, cuz she didn’t even see you take it.”

As Amanda sat there baffled, Hazel appearing
to be in deep thought, Tianna spoke up. “That’s awfully nice of
you, Eddy. Usually you only think about yourself.”

“Hey, that’s not true,” he shot back.

“Ok, sorry,” she said. “But it just didn’t
sound like you.”

“So, you’re saying it was weird?” he asked,
looking completely unoffended.

“Definitely,” she replied, a half-formed
smile on her face, as if she got a kick out of calling him
strange.

But Eddy just grinned, not a bit affected by
her words. “Yeah, and so what?” he asked, with a cutting smirk, as
he nudged Ian with his elbow. “At least I’m in good company.”

Ian, who’d been quietly eating his banana
pudding, coughed as Eddy’s nudge forced him to swallow faster than
what was good for him, as he too quickly realized the implication
of Eddy’s words. Since, no one was talking, he assumed that the
focus had switched to him--and, unfortunately, it had.

“That incident at the party was just a one
time deal,” said Ian impassively, after he felt at least eight eyes
bearing down on him. His unemotional tone reflected none of his
inward concern. “Besides that I’ve been consistently normal.”

The words didn’t even sound true coming out
of his mouth, but apparently, Eddy realized that Ian wanted to get
this topic over with, so he let the point drop. Either that or he
just didn’t want the girls to see them get into an argument. Maybe
a bit of both.

Still, this didn’t mean that Eddy was done
questioning him, for his focus was still sharply directed at him.
“So, Ian, what’s on your mind?” he asked, after a lengthy pause.
“You’ve been awfully quiet.”

Ian’s heart raced with annoyance. This sort
of question was acceptable on a one-to-one basis, but in front of
three girls, it was downright rude. Wiping some vanilla wafer
crumbs off his chin with a red napkin, as the girls turned his way
as if he were about to share a juicy secret, he replied, “Oh, you
know, just the usual.” Apparently, Eddy didn’t want the girls to
see this empathetic side of him so he was throwing off the
attention by asking questions. It seemed to be working.

“And that would be?” Eddy asked bluntly.

Could he tell them that Hazel’s words about
the news forecasting lightning for the next seven days unnerved
him; that he felt bad for inviting the girls, as Jimmy looked
thoroughly miserable; or that he could already picture himself
being tortured by Master Thargon or freezing to death in a barren
tundra? No way. So he killed the question. “I can’t say.”

“You and your secrets,” said Eddy in mild
frustration, though in reality it appeared as if he hadn’t expected
Ian to say much differently, especially out in public.

Feeling entirely relieved that Eddy was
finished with the unpleasant topic, Ian, who’d been listening
attentively to the ever increasing claps of thunder with a heart of
fear--though he’d been pretending to be interested in the girl’s
discussion about favorite Disney movies--finished his banana
pudding and then drizzled some spicy barbecue sauce onto his
Cajun-seasoned pork chop, before plunging his steak knife into it.
It wouldn’t cut.

Frustrated, he sliced into it vigorously,
sawing back and forth impatiently. For fifteen dollars, he’d
expected much better buffet food than this. Sure, it looked and
smelled sumptuous, yet none of that mattered if he couldn’t even
eat it. It might as well be plastic food or a lump of charcoal.

As Eddy gave him a dry look which mocked his
losing battle against the four-inch slab of meat, Ian drew forth
all his strength and gave it another go.

Yet, as he did so, the pork chop slid off his
plate like it was greased with oil and landed right on his lap,
covering his shirt and jeans with blotches of thick barbecue sauce.
Unfortunately, this did not go unnoticed, not for even a
moment.

Amanda instantly covered her mouth in shock;
Tianna stared at him with sorrow in her eyes; Eddy burst out
laughing; Jimmy remained emotionless, while Hazel just shook her
head at Ian in pity.

“Better clean yourself off,” said Hazel
matter-of-factly. “There’s a restroom in the back.”

“Thanks, Hazel.” As the cheerful fiddle song
ended, the musicians took up a haunting, foreboding melody the
conductor announced as the Tower of the Guardians. Somehow, it fit
Ian’s emotions all too perfectly. Disgusted with himself for being
such a slob in front of the girls, Ian brutally skewered the pork
chop with his fork and plopped it back onto his plate, before
wiping off his yellow shirt and blue jeans with a couple napkins to
try to get most of the sauce off them.

After cleaning up as best as he could without
the proper tools of soap and water, he stood up from the booth, as
Eddy moved off to provide him with an exit, and excused himself
with “I’ll be back.” Then he strode over to the men’s restroom,
covering up his nice yellow shirt with his hands so nobody else
would see the stains on it, especially not Kali, who’d definitely
make a joke about something like this.

As he entered the bathroom, noticing he was
all alone, he suddenly heard a powerful rumble of thunder, which
shook the whole building as if it had it tightly in its grasp; his
blood nearly stopped pumping.

Not again,
he thought, panicking, as
he dashed to the sink and stuck his hands in front of the motion
sensor to activate it. Once the water started running, he sloppily
splashed it onto his shirt and pants, many large droplets
spattering against the red-checkered floor. Seeing the stains still
weren’t coming out, he slapped the soap dispenser once, soon
rubbing the pink liquid onto his clothes vigorously, lathering them
up, causing them to a exude a white frothy foam.

Realizing he hadn’t planned this out well as
his clothes would likely be sopping wet before he was done with
them, he still brought out the water again and rubbed them over his
clothes until no white spots remained. He had no other choice
now.

Stains effectively removed, he darted his
head around, looking for paper toweling, but instead saw only a
hand dryer, a high tech, high-speed one that was attached to the
wall and was nearly as high up as his waistline. Hearing another
jolt of thunder, he furiously untucked his yellow shirt and stuck
it inside the dryer’s crevice, not even wanting to know how he’d
dry off his jeans.