TORTURE LUNCH (LEIRA)

"Ugh, you smell like shit." Leira's father groaned in disgust. "Yaya, can you please clean her room? It smells more disgusting than our garbage bin."

"No, Yaya, don't you dare get inside my room! No one should!" Leira glared at their housemaid, who flinched after what she said.

The house helper glimpsed on Leira's father while her hands pressed together down in front of her as she pulled her elbows up.

Right then, Leira's dad understands, her house helps hesitation.

"Okay, don't bother anymore, let her live in the junk. She's practicing to live in a dumpster anyway. Especially if she goes against what we planned for her." As her dad walked away and back to his room.

Leira was about to slam back her bedroom door when… "Miss Leira, please, I would never dare to get inside your room, but please, you have to prepare yourself for lunch, and your mom is waiting for you at the table." The sweet little voice of Yaya made Leira submissive. Yet, synchronically with her deep sigh.

*****

Leira showed herself in her usual tattered jeans, boots, and a plain black sleeveless shirt with a denim jacket tied on her waist in just several minutes.

Her mom was sitting alone inside the beautifully mixed modern yet traditionally quaint dining room. Since most of the materials they used deliberately showed their parent's love of woods. Tables are made with mahogany woods as well as their dining floor is laminated mahogany woods. Yet a hint of modernity is shown with the fixed glass wallings and the gray olefin-covered parson dining chairs. The chandelier has a complete mix of a less traditional layered light and got the shape of a morning glory flower at the bottom that gave the diners ample and beautiful lighting on their foods.

"Did you sleep well, my princess?" Her mom greeted her, a way that was so annoying for her to hear. However, she just woke up and was not in the mood to banter with her mom on the way that might ruin their mood for the rest of the day.

Although, it's not for her mom. It's more actually for herself. She was still too overwhelmed with how she felt last night. Even though she can't deny that some part of the night was quite crazy, it doesn't bother her much. She, in fact, wouldn't want it another way, especially the best part that she had spent too much of Dennise and her new friends.

She had never felt that overwhelmed in her entire life again—something about that night that really felt special for her.

"Of course, I slept well. In fact, I can actually sleep more," Leira smiled secretly to herself. Did she just actually say that she wasn't in the mood to banter with her mom. Then, there she goes again with her repartee.

"Hmmm," her mom moaned while trying to ignore Leira's antics again. "Why don't you just eat, so we can go."

Leira scanned the food on the table and frowned while staring at it. She wondered, what was her mother trying to do with her? She even thought of her mother treating her like a pet goat.

All she saw were raw green leafy vegetables, raw tomatoes, cucumbers, or was it cucumbers or apples, and more and more leaves. She doesn't even want to know what this food's name is. They are colorful, yes, but how can she force herself to eat those things when she was too hungry and deemed herself to have a full protein meal.

"This is a special day for you. So, I prepared nothing more but special salads that you must try. So, when you have a formal date with him, you will order nothing more but salads," while her mom was busy, putting the vegetables on her plate.

Leira, breathe out. She was scared that she couldn't keep her patience towards her mom furthermore. Even for a second, she can't imagine her life, like what her mom imagined. She was scared to see the future that way, and she didn't know how to survive.

She wants to hold it, but she doesn't know how, so she gibed. "Mom, how could I eat foods like this that I don't even know the names of?"

"Then, now was the opportunity for you to know them. See this, this 'Asian apple slaw,' 'and try this one, it's more common, the herb salad, and, Oh! This … this… the watermelon feta salad. I really loved the feta," Her mom almost overflowed Leira's plates with different kinds of salad. While Leira almost wanted to throw up by just simply looking at it.

She doesn't know how to escape this kind of torture for her taste bud. She leaned her back to the backrest of her chair. And stub one watermelon in her fork and apple next. After eating three pieces of what's on her plate, she drank her juice and stood up.

"Where do you think you're going?" Her mom asked without looking at her but instead to her phone.

"Pee?... Can I?" Leira's brow creased, and she looked to her side. She halted while waiting for the mom to answer for a moment before she shook her head and went on her way.

She doesn't actually have a plan to pee. She just wanted to escape from the dining table and sneak into the kitchen.

With the perfect timing as the house helpers are having their lunch at the kitchen working table. On these tables are fried dried fish and native vegetable soup. There were five of them at that moment. Three female house helpers, including Yaya and a driver and gardener, were all laughing hard while enjoying their meal as she got in. They looked like they were enjoying their meal a lot while eating with just their bare hands.

However, they all stopped and in a daze after they noticed her.

"Can I join you?" Leira asked unhesitatingly.

The driver smiled first, then the cooked, and then all of them as they all nodded.

"Sure come here kid. You should try this, it will give you so much appetite that you won't know how to stop." The middle-aged women, who were working there as their cook said in response.