“Yes, sir,” I smile pleasantly. I want to give him a good impression of me since, well, this is Zeke’s dad, and I kinda want to explore more on that topic.
“Come on in,” he directs as he steps to the side, allowing me to walk into his office first. It’s lined with bookshelves and a conference table directly to the left of the door. There is a coffee table and sofa to the right, and his desk in the back left corner. His entire office is in deep red colors, yet his carpet is all white. The first thing that pops into my mind is that he probably enjoys making a mess and dribbling his food on the floor.
I wonder if he’s ever spelled out words on the white backdrop. I know I would if I was him, then watch the Queen B on her knees scrubbing it out.That thought brings a smile to my face until I picture him kneeling behind her and pulling up her skirt…NOPE. Not going there. EWW. I mean, not that Zeke’s dad isn’t good-looking, but just the thought of Emer makes my stomach roll.
“Here, have a seat.” He walks over to his desk, settles in, and points to the chair in front of him since I was too busy to notice it while I was checking out the carpet. Sitting down, I try to get comfortable, but it’s useless. It must be a power play. I would be more comfortable sitting on the damn carpet than this chair. He can pose all he wants though, I just want this phone.
“Thanks. So, you wanted to see me?” I ask, not wanting to stick around here that long. I have people to see and places to go, like home.
“Yes, it’s come to my attention that you’ve been causing some disturbances in my city.”
WOAH. I did not see that coming. At. All. Thank God, I was already grinding my teeth; else, my jaw would have cracked, hitting the floor. I was expecting something more like“Hey, how ya feeling? Heard you almost died, are you okay?”Something. But no, as long as I can walk, let’s throw some fucking missiles my way and see if I can dodge them. Okay then? I see how it is.
“Really? And what are those?” I ask, giving myself a mental high five for keeping a straight face.
Abernathy looks at me for a few moments trying to make me squirm, but he’s going to have to do better than that.Good try, but I woke up to tiger balls this morning, mister!He’s had practice though, he’s like a damn statue, not even breathing. Is that a Vampire tactic? Can Zeke do that?
“Some shop owners have brought to my attention that since you’ve been attacking customers that frequent their establishments, it’s now affecting their business. Bad reviews are pouring in that’s influencing our economy,” he states, not moving an inch. I should know because I’ve watched him so long that my eyes are now doing that unfocused thing. You know, where everything gets blurry but the littlest thing, your eye catches.… yeah, and he hasn’t moved one bit.
Blinking a few times to unstick my eyes, I look back up at his and find the colors in his pupils swirling. Huh? That’s weird. Yellow and brown are mixing together.
“Yeah, that’s a load of rubbish, and you know it. If that was true, the part about me attacking customers, I would be talking to the cops and not the Mayor. I’m human, not dumb.” I wave away his false accusations and look down to fix my sweater, unaffected. “Besides, it was one business I walked into, and they refused me, so I left. That’s the only business I’ve been to that treated me like a bloated elephant that ate beans.” Glancing back up, I see that he’s now sporting a confused look on his face. But the good news, his eyes are back to yellow.
“What? Did I say something wrong?” I ask.
He clears his throat and reaches for his desk drawer. “Ah. No, but thank you for clearing that up. Here you go,” he says and pulls out a box, opening the lid to show me a pink phone. Typical, I’m a girl, so I should like pink, huh?
He sees the expression on my face and looks down at the object in question.
“Something wrong? You don’t like the brand?” he asks.
“Oh, no, thank you. Pink just isn’t my color. But it’ll be fine, I’m just grateful to have one again,” I say and reach for the phone. I’ll be happy with anything at this moment.
I power it on and see that it has the school’s picture as the background.
“Sorry it took so long to get you a phone. It takes a while to get it on the network here. You should be able to use it like you normally would on Earth. We even set you up so you can talk to your family back home,” he says, and I perk right up.
I can talk to my family? Oh, thank God. They are probably worried about me. Hell, I’m probably on the police station’s missing persons board as we speak.
“Thank you. That’s probably the best thing to happen to me today.” I stand up with a small salute, not waiting to be excused, and start walking towards his office door when he speaks up.
“Nerezza,” he calls after me.
Turning around, I come face to face with the man.Holy crap, when did he move?
“Please do be careful out there. No more instances with businesses and their shoppers, okay?” His eyes are more brown than yellow this time, and he has some flecks of green in there as well.
I can’t help what comes out of my mouth in my fascination, “Your eyes are so cool. Is that a spell? Is there something I can buy so mine will do that too?”
He blinks, and they are back to yellow. Looking at me with horror, he walks in front of me and opens the door.
Well, that’s just rude, but I don’t call him out on it.
“Emer,” he says. “Call a council meeting for me. Tell them to be here in 30 minutes.”
Emer smiles sweetly to him, “Yes, sir,” she says and starts typing away on her phone as she pulls out a sheet of paper. As soon as the door closes, her face flips the script, and a sneer appears on her face, but I don’t wait around to hear the poison she spews.
* * *
