The Lemon Meringue Boy

Part 47

Bill and I looked at each other. His face was paler than usual. He was panicking. I grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the kitchen, leaving Mabel in the T.V. room.

"Okay Bill. Calm down. Just stick to your story and you'll be fine. Remember; you're LIAM CODES. We met gaming and you ran away. That's it."

"But it's SIXER! He'll find out! I know him! I've been in his mind! He'll figure out who I am one way or another!"

Had Bill just complimented Ford? I'd never heard him sound so paranoid.

"Bill, listen to me. He will not find out. He thinks you're dead just like everyone else. He only knows you as a triangle. Most of all he trusts me, so if I say your cool, that takes away a good amount of suspicion right there. I'll even do most of the talking."

I felt a little bad about lying, but it had to be done. Bill seemed to calm down a little, his pasty skin returning to a healthy-enough greyish ivory. That's when Mabel and Ford found us.

"Dipper! Mabel said you had a friend over! Greetings! What's your name?"

Ford put out his hand to Bill. He flinched back and stared at it uneasily. After kneeling down and inspecting it at all angles like a cat inspects a piece of meat, he finally took it in his own.

"Pleasure to meetcha Mr. Pines. It's Liam. I like your extra digit there."

"Thanks. Jumpy are we? Reminds me of when I was a kid. I hated meeting adults. It scared me."

"Really? What about meeting monsters? Dipper here has told me all about your work. What's it like...?"

Whatever nervous jitters he had before, they were gone now. I was thinking of a way to get Bill to put a cap on the monster talk, but fortunately Ford laughed.

"Well we'll have plenty of time to talk about that later. Right now we need to get a meal going. Then we should work out the arrangements of your stay. Mabel said you ran away?"

"Yessir. My parents were arrogant, drunken oxygen wasters with no business raising a child."

I drew in a sharp breath. A little too harsh. Even still, Ford laughed.

"I always have believed in the value of independence at an early age. It allows a kid to mature in ways they never could with a parental figure present..." He drifted off with a distant look in his eyes.

"Uh... do you need help making dinner, Great Uncle Ford?"

"Oh! Of course! Yes. Thank you."

"And Liam could help!"

Bill whipped around and looked at me.

"Liam could WHAT?!"

I lowered my voice to a whisper, keeping a smile on my face as I turned to Bill.

"You want them to trust you right? You'll have to help out a bit. You have to carry your own weight if you expect to be welcomed. Get it?"

"But COOKING? If your goal is to make me seem trustworthy then you probably shouldn't put me near open flame..."

"Then just roll dough or something, I don't care!"

We both turned back to the family with smiles plastered across our faces.

"What are we making?"

Ford smiled and pulled out one of Grenda's recipes. (She had left us a cookbook after she learned that Soos had been living off macaroni, pizza and ramen during the school year.)