Family Issues

Chapter 7

He was in a very... indecisive mood when the others arrived.

Of course they asked, but he couldn't tell them. Besides... Burt was sleeping, he didn't want to wake him up yet, and he had to go get their food. Which should be a great opportunity to... talk. Earrings wouldn't let him go so easily though. He couldn't possibly carry food for five people on his own, but she didn't want Burt to wake up in an empty room either so, as his sister, she agreed to stay and wait while Hattie and Henry accompanied him. Which wasn't bad. If at all, he just wanted to talk... and he could do that while the two were out of earshot.

Right when they entered the lounge, Ellie spotted them and came over for a little chat. Stickmin wasn't there yet so Henry was comfortable enough to stay a bit longer. After a few minutes they moved over to the buffet, together with Ellie, and he could see a few more of the present elites. Ahnoldt Schwarz was pouring himself a cup of coffee while Gene Fredrickson and Albert Poshley were filling their plates, chatting about their assets down on earth. Not who he was looking for...

He barely registered how Ellie started to help pile food on plates, in a way that they would actually be able to carry it back to his room. He had spotted his dads, who seemed to have a serious but quiet discussion with someone else. Whose identity he discovered when Reginald leaned back in his seat, seemingly frustrated.

His body tensed and he grit his teeth. "I'll... be right back" He didn't wait for a reaction from the other three and walked over to the table at the other side of the room. Just talk... Burt had trusted him, because he believed that he wouldn't do anything stupid, unlike Earrings. He understood that. And he respected that. But he couldn't just do absolutely nothing with this information...

Reginald noticed him first and relaxed a bit "Good morning, Sven", he paused and his smile faded a bit "Is everything alright?"

"Not exactly..." he had a hard time taking his eyes off of the womans' face who was sitting on the opposite side of the table. Her yellow eyes just stared right back. She seemed displeased but other than that she didn't show him any emotion. He couldn't tell if that was on purpose or not...

Right hand man sighed. He seemed to understand what was not alright. "You found Curtis yesterday?"

"Yes..."

"'s he alright?" Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Right hand man wasn't even looking at him while asking. He was looking at her too.

He didn't know what to answer at first. Burt was terribly self-conscious about his state but these weren't people who would carry it out into the world and they were far enough from the other elites. "No. He's doing very poorly in fact"

"Oh my..." Reginald was visibly uncomfortable after hearing the accusatory tone in his voice.

A small voice in the back of his head was questioning his dads' reactions, but he was still focused on her. She scowled at him. She knew that he knew, and now they were staring each other down until one of them would give up and walk away. He wasn't going to do anything like that anytime soon.

"Don't you care about that at all?" it was a little bit of a challenge to keep his voice calm. Her lack of actual reaction was agitating him immensely...

"I do care", Carol Cross picked up her cup of tea "I did what was asked from me and I tried to talk to him but he doesn't accept my calls and refuses to meet up with me in person"

"Oh, I wonder why..." watching her calmly sip her tea made him want to punch her...

"What else do any of you expect me to do?" she set her cup down with a bit more force than necessary.