I knew that he wasn’t going to stay, but I still found myself disappointed by his words.
"Your nails, Eli," Javier said as he leaned forward and squinted at them. "They're..."
"Beautiful?" Millie asked with innocent anticipation.
"Beautiful,” he replied with a smile which sent the child into a sea of giggles. She was proud of her work just as she should have been. My nails turned out better than I expected from a young girl. Sadly, I was going to have to take it off the moment I made it home.
Javier made his way to the front door and opened it but didn’t walk through. He turned his head over his shoulder. "See you at school tomorrow?"
Returning the smile, I nodded. "See you at school tomorrow."
He wanted to see me at school tomorrow.
Twenty-one
Eli
"Bring me that bottle of water,” my aunt demanded.
I had just arrived home from Alex and Killian’s place and I had my mind set on a nice longer shower. Of course Aunt Macy had to give me a side quest before I could make myself comfortable. She sprawled out on the couch and stuffing her face with chips as she watched a game show. The water bottle that she wanted me to bring her was on the console table directly in front of her. She was simply too lazy to reach over and grab it.
"Where were you?" Macy asked, her tone sharp and nasally.
"A friend's house."
I handed her the bottle with a neutral expression. She was munching on chili cheese chips as she snatched it from me, and I held back the urge to roll my eyes as I turned to walk away. If I wasn’t in her view, then she wouldn’t use me as her personal servant.
"Be useful and get me some more chips out of the pantry," she ordered, not bothering to swallow the food in her mouth before speaking.
I rolled my eyes since it was safe to do so because my back was toward her. I quickly walked to the pantry and grabbed the only bag of chips left on the top shelf. Once I brought it to hershe took it from me without another word and I thought the interaction was over. However, she did a double take.
"What the hell is on your nails?" she asked, her tone laced with disgust.
Shit. I had forgotten I had even had nail polish on by the time I made it back home. I didn't want to take it off in front of Millie out of fear of her thinking I didn’t like it. I told myself that I would wipe it off as soon as I got home, but my aunt's orders made it slip my mind.
"Uh," I gulped. "I don’t know."
“Don’t play dumb with me, boy,” she barked, unsatisfied with my answer. "How long have you been wearing nail polish? Do you go around school like that?"
"I don't wear nail polish. I've had it on for a couple of hours and I'm about to take it off, I swear."
It seemed that my explanation only pissed her off further. "This is definitely something that you would do. You understand that you are a reflection of me, right? If my nephew is running around with colored nails, then I look like a bad guardian. I don’t need anyone getting the wrong idea."
I parted my lips to speak but couldn’t find anything worth saying.
“At least the twins are smart enough to not pull stunts like this. You get that hard-headedness from your daddy. It makes me sick that you take so much after him instead of your mother.”
My aunt hated my father. Everything I had ever heard about him was rude, degrading, and harmful because it all came from Macy’s mouth. She hated him from when he and my mom first started dating and it only grew worse as time went on. Aunt Macy was not upset when he passed four months after my mother’s death. If anything, it probably made her feel in some twisted way that her sister got justice.
Macy’s whole thing was that if my mother did not get to live, then neither should my father. Though, she didn’t think about how their three offspring would become her new burden after becoming orphans.
“Stop talking about my dad,” I said, my tone low.
Her head cocked to the side and she took a step toward me. “You’re good for nothing father that corrupted your mother and created you three assholes? I’ll speak about the bastard all that I want.”
I wondered what stories I would hear about my dad had I lived with a family on his side. I had never met any of his family because my aunt kept my siblings and I isolated from them. She never gave us an explanation why other than that they were not good people. I never believed her.
“I’ve never worn nail polish before. I only have it on because…” I trailed off when I saw my aunt’s jaw clench and a vein begin to pop out of her forehead. “Never mind.”
