Stop it! uncle

Chapter 7

CRYSTAL

I was awoken by a soft knock on the door. Groaning, I sat up in bed as I gazed fuzzily around the room,my eyes still groggy from sleep. 

“Who is it?” I asked softly. “It's Margaret, it's dinner time already, dear. Sir is waiting for you downstairs”. 

‘Dinner? Whose dinner? Where was I?’. It took me a minute of staring stupidly at my room for everything to click. 

‘Restaurant, my new guardian’s house, shower, room, sleep, dinner’. I glanced at the clock on my nightstand, it was 8.00am. I gasped. 

“I'm coming” I yelled as I scrambled out of the soft bed and rushed towards the door. I quickly opened it and was faced with the soft gentle face of Margaret as she was about to place another knock on my door. 

“I'm so sorry, I overslept”. “It's okay dear, sir is already waiting”. She stated as she began to walk away. 

“Is he angry?” One thing I knew was that adults never liked waiting. Or one being late for any appointment. I learnt that the hard way from my step mother. The scars on my back were a subtle reminder of the fact. 

“Well I can't say, sir has always been difficult to understand”. “You too? Thank goodness, I thought I was the only one who thought of him that way”. I heaved a breath of relief. 

“Well, not to worry dear, as long as you do the things that pleases him, you would always be in his good book”. 

‘As long as I do what pleases him’. Those words echoed in my head over and over again till it became a mantra. But what where the things that pleased him?. 

I was about to ask Margaret when I realised we had already arrived at the dining room. I guess I'd have to find out myself then. 

Margaret excused herself leaving me alone with my uncle. I stared at him as I observed him. He was dressed in a black round neck shirt and black joggers. 

He looked more approachable like this unlike when he wasn't dressed like someone ready to kill. 

If we removed his stoic and emotionless face, he could easily pass out as a very friendly man. ‘What kind of things pleased this man?’

“Not hungry?”, he asked as he finally looked up at me. Deep blue eyes stared straight into my brown ones and I shivered slightly. 

“What kind of things pleases you?” I blurted out before I could stop myself. ‘What the heck did I just say?’ Why didn't my mouth always wait for my brain to filter words before speaking them out?. 

I clasped my hand over my mouth but it was already to late. My uncle looked frozen as he stared right at me. I already accepted my fate that I was going to be thrown out of the house for my bad manners when his next words shocked me.

“Sit on that chair and start eating, right now”. I immediately complied and started stuffing myself with food already regretting my actions. 

“Eat slowly”, he advised without looking at me and I chewed slowly.

“Come here” he commanded when I was done eating as he patted the chair next to him. My feet moved on his command and I sat meekly on the chair. 

Right in front of me was a document and I squinted in confusion. I looked at him expecting a reply. 

“This is the document that binds us together. Once you sign. I shall be your official guardian”. 

He handed me a pen and I took a deep breath. This was a decision that was going to change everything. ‘Could I trust this man?’. But he gave me clothing and filled my belly. That should be enough reason. 

I signed the papers without hesitation and he signed his part too. “So you are officially my uncle now” I announced happily and he scowled. “Go to bed”. 

I wondered what I did wrong this time but I hurriedly scurried off back to the sanctuary of my room leaving the grumpy man behind. 

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

DAMIEN

‘What kind of things pleases you?’ I almost choked to death when I heard those words from Crystal's mouth. 

She didn't want to know what pleased me. I almost laughed at how adorable she looked or how her brows knitted in confusion when I scolded her for it. The little girl had a lot to learn. 

I almost thought the little girl would change her mind about living with me but gladly she didn't. 

She was trying so hard to get into my good books but little did she know she had found favor in my eyes from the first day I saw her battered and injured on the highway. 

I hadn't even realized it then. Right now, I was going to protect her no matter the cost. She belonged to me now 

But as she scurried off to her room, anxious to get away from me, I knew things were about to change.