Among Us (boyxboy) [ON HOLD]

Chapter 4 - Not what was expected

“Why are you so cheerful, mom?” I sighed, I knew she’d been waiting for someone to ask her that question since dinner started. Dad knew too, as I could hear his chuckle on my left.

“Well, you know that case we’re working on?” I could tell she was giddy now, the words on the tip her tongue, ready to spill over her lips and enlighten everyone of what seemed to have made her day. So instead of answering her verbally, which would have only prolonged her jumping up and down on her chair, I just nodded and stuffed a fork full of spaghetti into my mouth.

“We got a new trace today. We were finally able to pinpoint an approximate location.” She bit her lower lip then, her eyes going back and forth between me and my dad. I swore I could even see her cheeks slightly redden with excitement. I looked over to my dad to see if maybe he would come up with some grand answer to that, because I had never been one to share her excitement over those cases she had to work on. I was failed by my own father though. He was staring at my mother in awe, mouth pulled into a smile with his lips slightly parted, he looked happy. I internally groaned. My parents were by far the most lovey-dovey couple you could find on this planet. It was cute, I could admit that, but seeing it everyday, I wasn’t even close to understanding how my dad would become such a goggly eyed puppy just because my mom was around. And frankly, both of them were so different from one another, sometimes it was scary. The only thing they had in common was their love for martial arts, which they excelled in with every style they tackled. They were just majorly weird.

I sighed. It made my mom frown, forgetting her oh so exciting success for a moment.

“It’s the second time you sighed at dinner alone Duncan, something wrong?” Today I seemed to forget who my parents were. None of them would let me get away with lying if they already sensed that something was wrong. So I decided to plead.

“Don’t grill me for it okay? You guys know I’ll spill if you do, but I really can’t talk about this now. Please?” I saw my mom open her mouth in a reply, brows even more furrowed now. To look at my dad I didn’t even dare, so I hastily added: “This is not just about me and I don’t think it’s my decision to tell or not.” I held my breath. This could go either way. Both of them were unpredictable in moments like this.

It was my dad that spoke first. “Love, what was that about your case you wanted to say again?” See, unpredictable. I was relieved though. For today, I was safe.

Mom took a moment to answer, but as always the two of them seemed to be in sync and she decided to follow my dad in just letting the topic drop for now. Wise woman. I wasn’t sure I was ready to share just yet.

“They found more victims and with their site of crime we could pinpoint the location I was talking about.”

“You don’t have anything else about the wounds though?” 

“No, not yet, but even the location is a major step to-” I stopped listening then. My father’s question had confused me. This case had been on my mom’s mind for weeks, if not months now and he had never seemed to care much and just asked to please mom. Today though, he looked the way he did when he was working on complaint issues. Focused and determined. I don’t think mom noticed, but I found it quite odd for him to suddenly show that much interest.

I didn’t ask him though, instead I went back to my thoughts about Oliver. I decided I would stop by his work tomorrow during lunch break. Hopefully, I would catch him then.

When I arrived at work the next day I just walked up and rang. I was determined to make a better impression than I had yesterday.

He opened the door but didn’t look at me. Instead, he was focused on a book he held in his left hand and walked away as soon as the door touched the wall behind it. I frowned. Well, that was strange. I walked in and closed the door behind me. Following Matthews, I reached his study and watched as he walked over to the desk, leaning on it and continuing to read. I decided that I was not getting a word out of him for now and sat down on the sofa. I had to clear it of some books and paper stacks to get to it. Then I just sat there, not knowing what to do with myself, so I watched him. He was wearing slacks today, a linen shirt on top and long, black shoes. His legs were crossed at the ankles and the hand that held the book was propped up on his right arm that was draped across his chest. He was wearing glasses today I noticed. He looked hot. I gulped. I hastily looked away, too scared of him catching me, but again, I didn’t know where to look, so my eyes just drifted across the room aimlessly, every other second chancing over him. My cheeks started to feel hot now, so I just tried to keep my eyes glued to my feet.