Leaves

The Nephew

The man with sun-shaped eyes blinked at me in a languish and flittering way before snapping his hand out in front of my face. "The name's Zio, I'm more than sure my uncle has talked about me."

Squinting I make no move to take his hand or continue this interaction. "I've never heard your name before in my life, move along kid." he shifted from his booth into mine swiftly and leaned in so close that I could smell and see the gravy he'd just eaten on his tongue.

"How could you not know of me?! My Uncle has repeatedly written me letters telling me about you SINCE I WAS 12! Has he never returned the favor and nagged you as much as he has me!?" the guy by this point I realized has no type of volume control and I wanted nothing more than to try my luck with my traveling companions instead of him.

"Uncle Emmett did me a disservice here." by now he'd taken to a more thoughtful position of leaning his chin on his hands as he contemplated aloud.

"Well I mean it could be a little fun with you not knowing me and me knowing almost too much about you," he side-eyed me before continuing in his thought," I should send a letter to Aunt Mara and discuss with her."

Recognition cleared my mind as I realized who he'd be speaking about but I felt no need to continue this back and forth with the weirdo. I was already in enough trouble with my travel group and I didn't want him to ask to tag along.

I cleared my throat when I noticed he'd stopped talking to look at me. The sunlight shining through the window created jewels out of his golden brown eyes and I couldn't help but touch my hair. Was it out of place? Was there something on my face? My hand shifted to my face almost self-consciously as he continued to stare.

"Why are you staring at me?" he smiled before leaning in a bit too close for someone he'd just met.

"I just think that Uncle Emmett wasn't as big of a liar as I thought," he smirked and pulled away.

"What does that mean? Just what did that old man write in those letters for you to feel this comfortable with me?"

He laughed, "Ah I see you've decided to acknowledge that you do know who I am talking about. Earlier you were pretending that I was a madman." people at the tables not even close by turned to stare at him as he obnoxiously laughed.

Annoyed I scrunched and balled up some napkins from the table and stuffed it in his wide open mouth. Who laughs like that? He choked at the unexpected gift I left in his mouth for a moment before pulling it out and glaring at me. "That was rude you know?"

He threw the wet napkins at me and I gave a small screak and scooted away, but was unable to completely avoid the wet napkins slapping my hand in my attempt to deflect. Why was his mouth so wet? He's so gross. He was grinning at me again and I saw he had no intention of leaving the table anytime soon.

Rubbing my hands on my pants tiredness seeped into my chest and I couldn't help thinking about what Raike was doing. Was he happily meeting his new bride's family? Was he truly happy? Memories of our childhood, of us laughing together, us pretending to get married sat in my thoughts. Raike was married now. The tired feeling became a heavy weight on my shoulders and all I wanted to do now was sleep.

"Alright honeybun what can I offer you to eat?" Jem smiled at me expectantly with her notepad and the sounds of the restaurant picked back up.

Glancing up at Zio and then down at the menu, I quickly scanned the menu only to realize I no longer desired to eat. And looked back up at Jem to tell her that I wasn't hungry when Zio beat me to it. "She'll have a double ham and cheese special with cheesy potato bites. Oh, and a mug of pine soda. That'll be all, thank you!" Zio flashed her a bright smile and the sun reflected brilliantly on the gold strains in his red hair.