Amaranthine

Chapter Thirteen

© Copyright 2011 

All work is property of Leah Crichton, any duplication or reproduction of all or part of the work without explicit permission by the author is illegal.

 Loquacious: (low-kwey-shus)

talking too much or too freely

excessive chatter

 

The next morning I rushed around like a lunatic, trying to decide what one should wear sailing. Since I had never been sailing, I was at a loss. I thought Orion would have found it as ridiculous as the fact that I'd never been skating, but instead he'd held his arms out and grinned widely. “The world is yours for the taking, Tiger, so what are you waiting for? Just take it.” 

I settled on black cargo pants and a red and white striped t-shirt. I thought it was nautical, and I added a black military style cap. I inspected my reflection, deciding it wouldn't get much better than this, and approved. I headed to the kitchen and found Luke making pancakes with an open book on the counter.

I grabbed the orange juice from the fridge. “What’cha reading?”

“A book about Plato.”

 The philosopher guy?”

“Yep. Exactly. Very interesting.” He flipped a pancake, again without looking up from his book.

“Interesting, ha. You need to get out more.”

He raised his eyes, spatula in hand. “Pancake?” he asked, ignoring my razzing.

“Please.”

I sat at the table, drank my orange juice, and watched Luke alternate from reading to cooking. Every now and then he would take a few of the pancakes and put them in a tray in the oven, which was set high enough to keep them warm. “Here.” He put a plate in front of me. On it were two blueberry pancakes shaped perfectly to make an ‘I’ and a ‘Q’. I laughed. My Dad always made special shaped pancakes for us when we were little. Luke was trying to keep up with tradition.

“Thanks.”

He put a pancake on his own plate and sat. “What are your plans for the day?”

I debated lying. Luke didn't like Orion, but I did; surely he could understand that. In the end, the truth won on my moral measurement scale. “Orion is taking me sailing.”

Luke looked disgusted. “Ugh. Why do you insist on hanging around that guy?”

“Maybe the same reason you insist on judging him,” I said with a mouthful of pancake and syrup. "He is a really nice guy.” I left out the fact that he was a really nice guy with a really bad temper.

“I don’t like you being around him.”

“Luke.” The way I said his name reminded me of someone scolding a child. “You’ve no legitimate reason to feel that way. He has never done anything to you.”

“Maybe not, but I’ve heard stuff about him. None of it too good.”

“I object.” I held up my hand like we were in court. “Hearsay.”

“Well, whatever, I.Q.  I guess you’ll have to find out for yourself.” He stuffed his mouth full of food to avoid saying anything else that might start a fight.

“I guess so.” I stood up and put my dishes in the dishwasher. Walking back, I stopped and kissed the top of Luke’s head, trying to lighten the tension between us. “Thanks for the pancakes and the concern, even though it’s not necessary.”