See No Evil (Anthony Lockwood)

chapter 33

Violet wiped the sweat off herself with an old raggedy towel, trying to make herself look somewhat presentable as she heard Lockwood call out that they had made it back. She had already put her rapier back in the holder about 30 minutes prior, hiding away the custom strap that George had made her so they wouldn't suspect a thing.

Violet threw the towel into a corner and ran up the steps before she quickly skidded into the kitchen and plopped her butt down into a seat, pretending to write her journal exercises. Hopefully George wouldn't throw her under the bus.

Lockwood popped into the kitchen and lit up as soon as he saw Violet, "Hey. We're back. We got plastic cups."

Violet looked up, her brow raised, "Plastic cups?"

Violet assumed it was so they wouldn't break when she inevitably dropped them.

"They're reusable. This one's for you," Lockwood grabbed one cup out of the bag and set it in front of her.

Violet stared at the plastic cup that had some ridiculously cheesy motivational quote printed on the side along with a leaf, "Ani...what the fuck is this?"

Lockwood had a cheeky smile as he read off the quote, "'encourage mint.' Get it. 'Cause that's a mint leaf. And he's saying you can do it. The mint leaf is encouraging you."

Violet gave him the most annoyed look she could muster, "Is it returnable?"

"Nope. Encourage mint. And I got a book. Wait for it," Lockwood dug through the bag again and brought out a book, "'It Gets Better Bitch.' Eh? Thought you'd enjoy that. I'll start reading it to you tonight."

Lucy snuck in with George, carrying the rest of the bags, "I tried to stop him, Vi. As you can see...it didn't work."

"You should've taken his wallet," Violet suggested, turning back to her writing.

"Or punched him in the face," George added as he cringed at the cup, "Don't tell me you got all of us cups like that. I think I'll stick with my own mugs."

Lockwood pulled out another cup, "In fact I did, George. 'World's okayest employee.'"

George looked like he wanted to chuck that cup right out the window and smash it to bits with a hammer.

Lucy took out another cup that was for her, "Look, mine's not much better. 'You don't have to be crazy to work here. We'll train you.'"

Lockwood took out the last cup with a smug grin, "'The tears of my employees.' It's great."

George, Lucy and Violet were all giving him deadpan stares.

"Come on, guys. Lighten up a bit," Lockwood set his grocery bags on the table.

Violet turned back to her workbook with a deep breath, "Thanks...I guess."

Lockwood continued to grin as he put away the groceries. He clearly just wanted to make buying those cups a fun thing rather than something they had to correlate to Violet's new inability to hold anything for long periods of time. Now it was a thing they could laugh at rather than a reminder.

Lucy looked down at Violet's notebook, "You have not been practicing this whole time, Vi. The whole top half of that page is from yesterday. It's date marked."

"I didn't say I was!" Violet defended, "If you have to know, I was hanging out with George the whole time. Right, Georgie?"

George made eye contact with her, noting her desperate look, so he just nodded, "Yep. She was with me."

"Convincing," Lucy said blankly.

Violet sat back in her seat, "Luce, i'm fine. I've been relaxing."

"Yes. As you should be," Lucy gave her a pointed look.