Better on our own - English

Caught

"I can't believe those two had actually..." James said quietly, so his mother behind the counter wouldn't hear, and shook himself as I took another bite of my breaded fish fillet. I didn't fully understand his reaction. Neither Penny nor Sam were old in that sense. Sure they were older than we are, but that didn't mean they couldn't have a love life anymore. It was probably just this block in the head because of that, at our age, we always found it disgusting when older people got cheesy in any way. It didn't bother me much...except when the mayor did it with Penny...or my parents, yuck! On the other hand, I wasn't a fan of public displays of affection and cuddles, so I didn't care about the age of the people who did it. On the other hand, I had never found it difficult to keep my hands off of another girl but it was different with Sarah now. I had to constantly fight this constant urge to pull her close, to kiss her on the cheek, or to bury my face in her hair or her neck...Just the thought made me blush again because Susen kept giving me attentive glances. She suspected something, I was sure.

We had met James and Susen at the Whole Fish Cafe, where Susen had now become a good customer and a welcome guest, not only because of James. I definitely didn't promise her too much. She loved the food here at least as much as I did. Although after 6 weeks I would like a pizza again. Maybe I should invite Sarah to that restaurant Mr. Davies took Penny to? It had looked quite romantic.

"What's worse is that Penny is still not ready to admit that she still wants our uncle," argued Sarah, who had been picking at her food rather listlessly the whole time. Was it really bothering her that much? She had been so thoughtful the whole way here. Or did her cloudy mood have something to do with the fact that she had spent the night with me and was now having doubts like Penny had?

Whatever it was that was on her mind, she had to eat something! We had already overslept breakfast time.

I quickly loaded my fork with a piece of fish, some vegetables and mashed potatoes and gently poked Sarah in the side with my finger. The moment she jumped and opened her mouth in shock to gasp, I shoved the fork into her mouth with a grin and she froze, but then accepted my offer with an annoyed smile. I turned back to my plate, but not before Susen's and my eyes briefly met and I noticed that she was looking at me with a skeptically raised eyebrow because of what she had just observed. Embarrassed, I focused back on my plate.

"Are you sure she still wants him? If what she says is true and she really doesn't have any nice feelings anymore when she thinks about your uncle, then Ellie is wrong and Penny isn't lying to herself," Susen now stated and I subtly took a breath so that she didn't ask any questions about my behavior to Sarah. Sarah and I had talked on the drive here about keeping it to ourselves for now, since no one other than me and of course Norman himself knew that she had broken up with Norman. The last thing I wanted was for people to somehow think badly of Sarah. How could they anyway? She was perfect!

"Then why did she go into bed with him? Nobody does that if you don't have feelings for the other person," James said, perplexed, tearing me out of my daydreams while I watched Sarah furtively from the corner of my eye.

"There are people who can do that. Men are generally at the top of the list, but there are also supposed to be women who just want to have fun and are very happy with that," Sarah replied to her brother, but left no doubt about it herself that she didn't approve of such behavior - just as I didn't.

"But you can't put everyone in the same box. I can't imagine doing that with someone who is a total stranger and especially not with someone I don't actually like a lot. It's not possible without feelings," I objected, at least to defend the male world, and saw Sarah looking up at me with interest. Did I say something wrong or was she still hungry? I offered her another forkful of my food and with a cheeky smile that I was only too happy to return, she accepted my offer.