BONDED

Chapter 7

“… And this is the bow of Serias. It is said to have the power to summon water. Weird that a bow could do that but it can.” Tory spoke with a passion that Maurice wished would disappear. She looked back and forth between the TV and Tory, and wished she could turn both of them off.

To ensure that Maurice would hold her end of the bargain, Tory had forced her to watch a beginner kit into the supernatural. That’s what he had called it.

Maurice wanted to leave but this was her home and on top of that, all the exits were blocked, as she sat in the middle with Tory to his left and Michael to his right. Maurice glanced over to Michael and was glad she wasn’t the only one being tortured, as Michael wore an exhausted look.

“In the next thirty minutes, the professor is going to explain how they believe the sword can be used to communicate with the dead….” Tory kept going.

How Maurice was going to survive this, she did not know. All this could have been avoided if she had made Tory ordered only 2 yogurts. Or better yet, if she had bought the yogurts herself. She could definitely afford it, but she loved to tease Tory. She would have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for Michael.

Maurice kicked Michael awake as he had dozed off. There was no way she was going through this alone. Michael side-eyed Maurice but she did not care.

“Tory dear” Michael called out, breaking Tory from his geeky trance. “I think Maurice has suffered enough.” Michael paused and rephrased so as not to offend Tory. “I think She get the gist of it by now.”

“we’ve been watching for about an hour, right?” Michael continued

“No, it's only been 15 minutes.” Tory gleefully replied. “we have a lot more to go.”
“uh huh” Michael replied back with a forced smile. “but Tory, I think for Maurice’s sake” Michael looked at Maurice as he continued. “for her sake, we should take a break. We don’t want to overwhelm her on her first day, do we?”

Michael tried to sound as honest as possible but the sleep in his eyes and fatigue in his voice betrayed him.
It wasn’t that Michael did not like the supernatural. He loved it and all the theories that came with it. But after building the wardrobe all afternoon, he felt exhausted, which was really weird because he had had a good night sleep. A really good night sleep. He had slept for more than 12 hours. but as he sat on the sofa, it felt like he had barely slept at all.

Tory’s excited facial expression had turned into one with a mixture of disappointment and worry.
“Oh Okay” was all Tory could say as he looked at Michael with those puppy dog eyes.

“But I think it’s fine. Maurice can definitely sit through this.” Michael backtracked as he'd always found it hard to resist his puppy dog look.

Maurice shot Michael a look that said. “don’t give up now!”
Maurice had quickly avoided Tory’s eyes as she knew the power they held but naive Michael had stared into them and was trapped. She needed to snap him out of it.

“It’s fine actually.” Tory had said, before Maurice could block Michael's view of him. “Are you okay? You look a little tired.”
“I’m fine.” Michael lied.

Maurice saw an opportunity and took it. “No. you’re not. You need to rest. Go lay on my bed. Actually, let me take you there.”
“But first, let me turn off the TV so that nothing will bother your beauty sleep, you sweet poor thing.” She added in a sweet motherly caring tone.
“Too much?” She had said with a nervous smile when she noticed the guys were not buying it.

Michael wondered if it had something to do with the dream as he straightened himself up on the sofa.
As though Tory could read Michael’s mind, he asked. “Is this because of the dream?”
“What actually happened in there?” Tory continued in a caring tone that was a million times more believable than Maurice’s. “Sorry we were too occupied to ask” he added apologetically.