Venom

chapter 2. The Mansion House

I woke up the next morning, jumping right away to the bathroom. Today, I have my suitcases to unload and a town to socialize with.
I quickly finished washing myself and dressed up.

I went down to the kitchen. Neil was sitting on the counter, watching news on a small flat screen television hanging from one of the walls.

"Good morning, Neil." I greeted, chanting in a glee.

" 'morning, Gwenaëlla. Tight sleep!?" He took a sip on his coffee. "Don't call me that, it's Gwen." I said sitting down beside him. We had had a lot of catching up the night before and he'd started pissing me off with that huge version of my name.

"Want some omelette?" he asked handing me a plate. "There's some beacons too."

"I thought the fridge was empty." I said eying my plate, confused. "It was... I filled it up this morning."

"It's eleven thirty, don't tell me you got up early just to fill your fridge," I said throwing a big portion of omelette in my mouth. "And...," I swallowed. Damn, it was delicious. "Since when have you been such a good cook?" I asked taking another gulp.

"Since one of my dates dumped me because I stuffed her with fast food,"

"No!" I broke into laughter.

"My teammates, at the time, bragged about it none stop and it got on my nerve." I was laughing hard almost chocking on my breakfast, Neil threw me a sheepish smile, his eyes full of amusement.

"I didn't know Mr. Casanova had heartaches." I said between laughs.

"Well, I do have a heart, honey," he said "I'm not like you. You should be consoling me." he added, pressing his hands on his massive chest dramatically. I laughed even harder.

We ate our breakfast talking about Neil's baseball team. He had played for an impressive number of teams before deciding to come back here. He had had his glorious moments and still did. A good strike.
His current team was only too glad to accept him. His place was here. And I had a filling that mine was too.

"I have to go to the club. This season is kinda rude and the coach is hard on us," he said " I guess you'll have to knock yourself out for today." his voice was sad.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll be fine." I said "I have to unpack my luggage anyway."

"Okay...and, umm, I've inscribed you to the local school, I won't like you to loose track with your studies, that is." he said lifting his sports sack from the floor.

"What? I thought I'd be having my own tutor!?" I was scandalized, not liking the idea at all. "I'm sure you'll do fine in a good school." he said turning to leave.

"But...but, Neil I've never been in school before, I don't even know what to expect in those places, and I'm not a very sociable person." I complained running after him. " I'm sure you'll be fine." he said halfway to his black ford pickup. It was an F-50 and quite impressive, but that wasn't the question right now.

Neil threw his sack on the passenger's seat and turned to face me. He was three heads taller than me and his large size, quite intimidating, was more obvious next to my tiny body.

"Gwen, I can't let you stay in the house alone with some stranger I won't trust," he said seriously.

“Neil! I'm not five. I'm a grown up I can take care of myself.”

"Well, I clearly don't have the same state of mind as you.”

“And what's that supposed to mean?”

He sighed “Look, I know it is not a familiar situation to you, I know it can be hard to integrate, but I also know you can make it," he said slightly patting my shoulders.