You Taste Different

"You start learning once we get back."

Most of the time, Iris was indifferent to Calixto, however, right now he had her full attention and she was staring at him with a mixture of anticipation and excitement. Her eyes were glistening like a well-polished mirror.

"You aren't joking, are you?" She asked in a hushed tone of voice like a child scared to have something that was given to her to be taken back. Something that wasn't new to her. She had given something only to be taken back in the past and the trauma of it lingered despite the years that had passed.

"Yes, " he answered curtly, giving her a disgruntled look before he leaned back on the backrest of the passenger seat and closed his eyes.

Iris grinned so wide she thought she was going to tear her cheeks. She was too excited that if Calixto didn't give her an annoyed look she could have hugged him with the happiness she was feeling.

When she twisted her body to sit properly, she accidentally met Monette's eyes in the rearview mirror that were full of envy.

She gave her a wide smile but in return, she stuck her tongue at her.

Iris shook her head and just ignored Monette. She didn't want her to steal her happiness and excitement because of her envious heart.

She avoided her gaze and turned her eyes outside the window, enjoying the view that she didn't usually see, seeing those views flying fast outside the car's window as Monette drove by. Iris promised herself that she would really take learning how to drive seriously not only because she likes watching the changing scenery from a moving car. But because now she saw the potential of knowing how to drive in her plans.

After she got taken, one of the reasons why it was easy for Minerva and Theo to keep her at home was because she got trauma from any kind of car.

She forced herself to overcome her childhood trauma when she had decided that she wanted to leave the mansion. She knew that she could not leave that house if she was scared of a car or other moving vehicle.

Now that she was inside of a car and seeing how it could give her much better freedom of moving, she wondered if her money was enough to get her even a secondhand car.

"Get off the interstate."

Iris pulled herself away from her musings when Calixto yelled orders at Monette. Until now, she cannot fathom how Calixto changed his mood in a snap of a finger.

"Where are we really going?" Monette asked, whining. "I've been driving for hours and I'm tired."

"I could put you in hypnosis just like what I did to your parents, that way you won't get tired."

Monette gasped and whimpered like a wounded animal. She did what Calixto asked without any more complaints after that. She drove quietly, darting a look to Iris every now and then. She wanted to call her attention but her eyes were glued outside like a child seeing something so amazing for the first time.

For the rest of the long drive, she was so bored and tired. When Calixto asked her to drive, she didn't expect it to be this long. She had never driven this long in her life. Her father employed a driver for her. She only learned how to drive because of all her friends' know-how.

She glanced at the dashboard and saw the time. She had been driving for more than eight hours nonstop. She wanted to ask Calixto if they could have a stopover but after his threat of putting her in hypnosis, it scared the hell out of her that she didn't try to ask him at all even when she felt like her bladder exploding from keeping her pee down.

"Uhmm, Monette, excuse me, can we stop for a bathroom break?" Iris leaned forward and whispered.

"Ask him if we can!" Monette snapped at her, tears brimming in her eyes. "You think you're the only one who wants to pee? I want to pee so bad, I think I have already messed up my seat!"

Iris pulled herself back to the backseat, surprised by Monette's outburst. She glanced at Calixto who was sitting rigidly to his side of the seat, arms folded over his chest. He has his eyes closed, thus, Iris had no idea if he heard what Monette said or not.

"Excuse me, can we stop for a bathroom break?" She asked quietly.

"I didn't know you could speak politely," he said, oozing with sarcasm.

Iris creases her eyebrows. She didn't expect Calixto to think of her that way. Why does it matter to him if she was always sarcastic and indifferent to him.

"Uhmm, can we?" She asked again. She wanted them to stop as soon as possible not just for her but for Monette as well.

"Stop whenever you can."

Monette stepped on the gas when she heard what Calixto said because she wasn't joking when she said her bladder was about to burst.

Luck was playing on her side for she saw a gasoline station just up ahead. She hurriedly parked the car in the parking space nearest to the store and got out of the car and ran to the toilet.

Calixto looked at Iris who didn't move from her seat.

"Aren't you going to use the toilet?" He asked with a raised brow.

"Hmmm…hmmm," she nodded and got out.

Calixto followed Iris with his gaze. A while ago, when she looked straight into his eyes, which was the first time. And her eyes were so expectant as though he held the answer to all of her questions.

He closed his eyes because he was afraid that she would notice that he was agitated with how she could stare through him. He was scared for her to see his soul or his lack of it.

He wondered why he cared if Iris would see through him. He wasn't Fleur. They have the same blood but she wasn't her. They don't even taste the same.