Chapter 20_ Don't make dinner

If she thought she was going to scare him with that tone of hers, she was wrong.

" Yeah, older than you look" he scoffed sarcastically " You look like you're barely eighteen" he blurted.

She strode into kitchen while answering him. The nylon bags she was carrying was perhaps heavy that she was in a haste to drop them " Well, my body is nineteen not eighteen" he heard her say.

" Yes, what's the difference " he shouted so she could hear every sarcasm that was in his voice.

She seemed to not get tired of talking as she saw into giving him a reply to his every word until he gave up " Don't act like you're thirty yourself. You are just twenty"

Damn Zakariah! He must have told her everything about him even his age. Now, he could not act like he was the one in charge in front of this sloppy mouth Kate.

Soon after, she came out from the kitchen and sat on a sofa. He had already put the television set on and had his attention fixated on it.

Kate also focused on the hockey program LSR was watching and there was complete silence except for LSR who would jump on his wheelchair and exclaimed whenever a player missed the hole.

" I see the old haunted building has been bought" Kate talked and broke the silence.

LSR, his attention still settled on the program replied her absentmindedly " Yes, the new owners just moved in"

And then, he remembered he was going to go join them for dinner later in the noon of the day.

"Who are they?" Kate's faint voice questioned him.

He turned to her, she got his attention now " What's your business with who they are? And how am I supposed to know when they only just moved in" he frowned, irritated Kate was starting to poke nose after just meeting him for barely twenty minutes. She sounded like a young version of Old Mrs. John.

" What?" she bellowed, not in the least bit scared of him.

Girls!

" I am just surprised to see the old and almost demolished abandoned house being bought and renovated. It seems crazy of them, don't you think? I'm sure the whole neighborhood is curious too" she further explained to him.

So, she was a residence of their neighborhood and he had never seen her before " You live around here?" he asked.

"Yes, just down the Fairlux Avenue" she replied to him, her attention back on the Hockey program.

He knew she might not find the program interesting. Girls usually find watching good sports boring. The reason why she had her eyes fixed on the screen as if she had a likeness for it, he had no idea.

Or maybe she was one of the few girls who liked sports. If so, maybe he would like her a little.

As he was about to return his attention back to the game, Duncan's loud voice shrieked from outside.

Kate stood abruptly " Your fat friend" she announced calmly.

" Don't call Duncan fat, he is extra sensitive about his body" LSR quickly admonished her before she said that to Duncan's face.

Wait for a second!

She had not even moved towards the entrance to check for who was by the door. How did she know it was Duncan?

How did she even know he was fat?

LSR tilted his head suspiciously "Hold up, How.. How did you know that was my friend and that he was fat?" he interrogated.

Kate, whom he had discovered had little or no regard for him continued to approach the door as she answered him with a shrug. Well, he couldn't blame the girl. Everyone in the neighborhood had little or no regard for him. But he did not for once thought of the fact that people outside of his neighborhood could have gotten a hint of that incident in his first year in college.

What the hell was he saying?

It was in the news, it was no news.

" Your brother wanted no mistakes. He bored me with narrating all your information and everything there is to know about you. Said you had no friends except for the fatso" she wrinkled her nose and turned the lock then, the door shut opened.

He was not aware she had locked the front door.

And fatso?

She was calling Duncan fatso still. She just wouldn't listen.

Duncan had his eyes opened widely when he saw Kate after going inside. " Whoa, man! What the hell are you two doing behind closed doors?" he whistled and his annoying grin stretched across his face.

LSR hated that he had to deal with only annoying set of people all the time. Duncan was already a workload now, Zakariah sent Kate!

He was flabbergasted when Kate spanked Duncan in the back " Come on you silly thing. Your mother would be less pleased to hear those dirty words come out of your mouth" she scolded and returned to sitting on the couch as if she hadn't just slapped someone so was just seeing so casually and was even acting nonchalant about it.

" Who the hell is she?" Duncan blurted out, also making his way to sit on the couch.

LSR sighed loudly and patted the poor sofa " Zakariah got me a seventeen years old nanny"

" Nineteen!"

" Only an idiot would believe you're nineteen" Duncan pouted at her.

" And only an idiot would believe you're twenty! You look like my grandpa Silas!" Kate fired back at Duncan and a hot argument ensued between the two.

Kate had a fat mouth and she had no problem attacking Duncan with her tongue on all his soft spots.

LSR thought his ears would ring all through the night if he didn't interfere in the brawl.

Slam!

He slammed his hand on the parlor desk and its glass cringed.

"Break it!" Kate retorted.

LSR shot her a deadly glare " Shut up! Go to school or something. How are you supposed to nanny me?!"

"Nanny you?" Duncan frowned. " Learn your vocabularies man"

Arggh, the stupid boy was going to argue with him " Shut up you too! I just said whatever" he fumed and with a corner of his eye, he saw the Kate and Duncan who wanted to rat each other out some few moments ago exchange glances behind his back and acted as if he was the crazy one.

He could care less. He had other things to worry about, like who was it that hit him and sent a note to the detectives who later ended up dead and missing.

He wished there was someone he could trust and tell all that to, his worries, they were big and he was tired.

" Damn! Who did this to your freezer?" Duncan gasped from inside the kitchen and only then did LSR realized his friend had gone ransacking the kitchen like always.

" All thanks to me" Kate supplied and giggled as if she was proud of herself.

Duncan materialized from the kitchen with a packet of honey-nut cheerios stuffed in his mouth.

" Dude, did you add something to this Cheerios? They taste better every time " Duncan muttered indistinctly as he sat beside LSR on the couch.

" How many pounds have you lost so far?" LSR asked him.

" Don't know, don't care"

" Quit gym, you're wasting your time and money"

Duncan gave no more replies to LSR. He knew where the conversation was headed. LSR would only scold him on and on for overeating.

After a few minutes of watching the tv which had now been changed to LSR and Duncan's favorite evening series which they have made a ritual of watching together every evening where Duncan would come over to LSR's place and the two would lazy around the whole evening every day, Kate stood up. " I'm going to make dinner now. What do you want for dinner?" she asked LSR, completely ignoring Duncan.

" Don't make dinner" LSR answered her absentmindedly.

It was Duncan who replied him " Dude why?!" he gasped.

" Okay" Kate was already walking towards the kitchen nonetheless " I will make only my dinner then"

" I'm going over to eat with the new burnt haven owners. I saved their asses now, they wanted to compensate me by treating me to dinner in their house" LSR boasted, feeling like a hero again, and told Duncan.

Kate halted in her tracks almost immediately and she turned to him " You are?" she gulped.