Blue Eyes

HOW DO I FEEL NOW?

"Hello," she says after swiping the receive-call icon. 

"Hello. Annaya, did you receive our guests properly? These people are important to me. You better not have made me look stupid in front of them." The curt voice is that she hasn't heard in real-time in ages, but she doesn't particularly miss it.

"You can manage that by yourself," Anayya whispers inaudibly into the mike."What?" "I said I managed all that by myself," Anayya said, hurriedly masking the disdain she felt.

"I should hope so. Those people are too kind to complain but, we must not take advantage of this, of course." Hearing this made Anayya smile to herself. She knew those three men were not 'kind'. Jonathan was polite, sure, but his sweet words just made it even more clear to her how experienced he was with playing with words.

"Am I clear?" The demanding tone made Anayya furrow her brows in annoyance. She saw no reason why her mother was being so unreasonable today. Well, she was always intolerable but, usually, she would never act so blatantly  irresponsible.

Anayya sighed exasperatedly and decided to put all pretenses aside. "Why would you send two men, who you've never met before, to live alone with your daughter?"

There was a pause, then the sound of laughter filled the phone speakers."Oh, honey, you don't need to worry about that. These boys are from the city. They must have been around dozens of girls all their life. They wouldn't give a second glance in your direction. There are a hundred thousand girls that look exactly like you. They are way out of your league."

Still my mom, then.

"But, mom, why did these people come to this town anyway?"

"No. Anayya, what is my number one rule if you continue to stay in my house?"

The edge of Anayya's lips twitched. "Don't ask questions about what happens after sunset," she replied monotonously.

"That's right. And you would do well to remember that if you wish to continue living under my roof and writing those romance stories that you do. I can't tell you how embarrassed I still am that you could not even get into a college. I'm hanging up now. Keep in mind that you must take good care of my guests if you don't want me to start cutting rent from the measly amount of money that you make." And with that, she uneventfully cut the call.

Anayya's mom had no idea that Anayya was a straight-A student. Her mom just knew that she had average grades and wasn't failing in any subjects. It was impossible to keep track of report cards when traveling the world to locations where network towers do not exist. Anayya told her that she had too many detentions and suspensions so no college had wanted her. Her mom had been more than willing to believe her. Anayya had then told her about her novel writing and that she did not need college anymore. Her mom had agreed, not wanting to be someone whose child goes to community college.

After ending the conversation with her mom, Anayya proceeded to open a drawer. From inside came a burner phone. She dialed a number and impatiently tapped her fingers on the table. Soon, a feeble 'Hello' came from the other side.

"Hey, Norr, listen-"

"Anayya. Can't we talk in a couple of hours? I'm kinda sleeping right now."

"You're still sleeping. It's almost 10 p.m. now. Wake up and take a bath. I don't want to have to live through your stink again."

"Th-that was because I had too many burritos for lunch." This time, the voice sounded fresher but, just then, a groan in the background.

Anayya gasped.

"Are you having a one-night stand again? U is going to kill you when he finds out."

"NO. nononononono. You can't tell him. No." By now, no remnant of sleep remained in the boy's voice.

"Fine. I won't tell him. But, you need to get up right now and find all the details of six people who came into town today, for me."

This sentence was greeted by a long sigh, followed by shuffling."Fine. Names." "I only know three. Jonathon, Andy, Reo. The other three arrived separately around ten minutes ago. They are supposed to be meeting up right now. They are rich and from a big city. They all looked handsome - at least the three I gave you names for did. They have rented out three houses in town, including mine. And they are here for Alleyway business."

"Huh. They are renting out your house? No wonder you hate them."

"I don't hate them. I just want to be prepared for them."

"Oh, please. The last time you ever asked for information on someone from me was two years ago when you wanted to know why your pizza guy was two hours late. If you don't hate them, they must have captured your interest another way."

At this, Anayya grew thoughtful for a few seconds. Then, she spoke up again,"Anyways. Was the information enough for you or, do you need to hear some of my deductions as well?"

"No, thank you. I don't need to hear about what their childhood might have been like or what their favorite color could be. I'll have it done in a few hours."

At this, Anayya rolled her eyes and cut the call. Then, she went around the house removing any personal items that she did not want anyone to see. 

__________________________________________

"So? Did you think she was lying or hiding something?" Reo asked while leaning back on the wall. He had been sitting on this single bed with a sunken cushion for the past one hour. It was highly uncomfortable and, the sight of the mold in the corners of the room or the spiders making webs just above him was not helping.

"I think that she is not trustworthy." Andy, who had been fidgeting on the chair for the past hour. "So, you two should stay somewhere else. Andrew and I will live in that house instead."

"We will buy new furniture for this house."

"Oh, thank God." Andy rubbed his palm over his face. He had complained a lot about the plain state of the Willow house as soon as the three had stepped out. But, that had ended once they had reached this other house, two streets down, and climbed up to unite with our other three members who were waiting in their rooms.

"I think, " Jonathon spoke up, completely disregarding the conversation between Andy and Reo, "There is no need to be overly cautious. There were no signs that she was lying."

Jonathon had special training since childhood that helped him determine whether someone was lying by studying their body language. He had also studied psychology from Harvard and was licensed in New York, where they lived. 

But, there was a small sense of discomfort that Reo had been unable to shake. He knew it was virtually impossible to cheat both his personally constructed information system and Jonathon's eyes - at least one of them would have caught her, like they had for any veterans that had tried to impair Reo till date - but every time he thought back to her eyes .... he could not help but feel fascinated by their depth. This was weird to Reo but he thought it was probably the kind of fascination others had told him they felt with his eyes. Except, of course, that his eyes had an actual 'curse' entwined with them

"Then, you are moving in tomorrow?" Kayden asked from where he was leaning by the doorframe. Beside him, Warren hitched his spectacles up his nose, something he did when he was genuinely curious about something. All six people were standing in a semi-circle. The bed on which Reo was sitting was the central point.

"Yes," Reo replied. Everyone nodded and left to prepare.

************

Hey.....this update was a lot slower than it should have been.  I just started getting a headache after writing the third chapter. I needed a break.

Please comment and let me know your thoughts. I am new to all this so, constructive criticism is welcome.

Thanks a lot for reading.

XOXO