I nodded and he smiled down at Eden.
“Well, I’ll let you get the rest of the introductions out of the way before dinner,” Eden said, eyeing Nox.
“Right,” Nox nodded, grabbing my arm and pulling me along with him through the dining room and into the kitchen.
“Fucking hell, Nox. When you said family dinner, I thought you meant, like, with your parents and a sibling or something,” I hissed into his ear, using his body as a shield as he entered through the doorway first.
Nox, the pisshead, chuckled and shook his head, pulling me away from the shelter of his body so the room could see me.
“Hey, honey,” a woman greeted us from the doorway, her eyes landing on me for a long moment before she smiled. “You must be Shiloh. Welcome. I’m so happy you’re here.”
The rest of the kitchen crowd turned towards us, and I swallowed against the lump of nerves in my throat. My stomach growled loudly at the smell of the home cooked meal, and I coughed trying to cover up the sound, only to then wince at the sharp pain in my ribcage.
Fucking cumwipe dickweasel.It’s a fucking family reunion and I look and probably smell like I got ran over by a fucking dumpster truck. Thank fuck I had the foresight to steal a spare toothbrush from Nox’s bathroom and brush my teeth.
I quickly surveyed the group of adults and what looked to be someone my age surrounding a kitchen island cluttered with food, a pile of mail and various knickknacks.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, ma’am. I apologize for intruding on your family gathering, Mrs.…”Fuck me, what is their last name?
“Please, just call me Miss Shelby, I know it’s a mouthful of a last name. And nonsense. We’re always happy to have company overanytime.”
I was surprised by her drawl, something we didn’t hear a lot of in our part of Texas unless you weren’t local, like Mr. Crane who was from Tennessee.
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” I was fucking sweating under everyone’s gaze, and I knew I was making a fucking fool of myself. I tried to discreetly wipe my hands in the pocket of my sweatshirt in case anyone tried to shake hands.
“And this is my husband, Daniil,” she said, elbowing the man who had yet to turn around from whatever he was doing at the stove. “My brother Quintin, his wife Ha-Eun and my nephew Jae, who you probably know from school.”
Everyone gave me a wave, and I could tell some sort of silent conversation was happening between Jae and Nox based on their facial expressions. I gave a wave and a smile back, clenching my nails into my palms to try and distract myself from all the attention I was receiving.
“Uh, dinner’s got about ten more minutes, why don’t y’all three go set the table? Make sure everyone has a table settin’.”
“Sure, come on Jae,” Nox said.
I followed behind them, anxious to get away from the crowd.
Seven
October 5, Tuesday
Shiloh
Ilet out a sharp breath of relief, no longer being the center of attention, and watched as Nox pulled placemats and cutlery from a sideboard in the dining room. Jae cleared away the clutter of textbooks and household junk and left the room to presumably relocate it somewhere.
“So…how come you speak so much Spanish?” Nox asked, breaking me out of my daze. I looked up to meet his eyes, and he gestured for me to grab a pile of placemats. “And what was he calling you? Way-ruh?”
I almost smiled at his attempt at Spanish and shook my head, following him around the ridiculously large wooden table as we set each place.
“This is going to sound extremely racist, but I promise it’s not. It’s like a term of endearment,” I started to explain. “Literally though, it means white girl or blonde girl.”
He raised a brow in disbelief.
“Oh-kay,” he said, stringing out the word, “so did he teach you Spanish ‘cause you were neighbors?”
“Huh? No,” I shook my head, watching as his brows were scrunched together in a look of confusion. “It was my first language. My dad’s Mexican.”
His eyebrows shot up beneath his hair, and he looked me up and down.
“Is he, like, your stepdad? Or…were you adopted?”
