“Oh … yeah, of course,” I tell Melody.
“Really?” Her eyes begin to glisten, and now I’m beginning to wonder what I’ve gotten myself into.
“Here’s the refried beans and the rice,” Aspen’s mom says as she puts more plates on the table. “And some veggies of course. Can’t forget those.”
“Hmm … delicious,” Xavier says sarcastically.
“I call dibs on the toilet after dinner,” Silas says.
“Silas!” her mom growls. “Can you not?”
“What?” Silas shrugs. “We’re all thinking it.”
Her mom snatches his plate and throws on not one but three spoons of chili along with some rice and veggies and drops his plate back in front of his nose. “Here. Enjoy your bathroom break later.”
Silas just stares at her with a blank stare, and it makes me snigger.
“What’s so funny?” he barks.
“Don’t start a fight with our guest,” Felix barks back. “He’s a friend.”
“For now,” Silas growls, stabbing his food with the fork.
“Don’t you dare, Silas,” Aspen says, pointing her fork at him. “I know what you do. Stop it.”
“What? Who says he can be trusted?” Silas quips. “For all we know, those Torres fuckers planted him in our family as a spy.”
“Silas!” Penelope barks as she fills up my plate, then hands it to me.
“Don’t mention that name at this table,” Dylan hisses at him.
“Can we eat now? I’m famished,” Alistair mutters, but he can’t get over the ruckus at the table.
“What does Levi have to do with any of this?” Aspen says.
Oh shit.
Her mother’s face has darkened in a way that I have never witnessed before, and it’s kind of reminiscent of when Aspen tried to light the Phantom Society on fire.
Now I get where she gets her spark.
“That motherfucker better not be anywhere near you, Aspen,” she says, her hand tightening around her own fork. “You know as well as I do the only thing he deserves is the death he gave Mavis.”
Holy shit, this got bad really quick.
Aspen folds her arms. “What I do is my business.”
Her mother’s eye twitches.
Well fuck.
“Can we get through one family dinner without a fight, please?” Melody asks.
“She’s right, you know,” her dad, Alistair, adds.
I quickly pick up the fork and stuff my face with the chili. “Hmm. Delicious!”
Her mom immediately breaks eye contact and looks at me instead, the darkness briefly lifting from her face, like a parting cloud after a thunderstorm. “You like it?”
