The Boys of Summer

7.

"Charles do you want some potatoes?" Raven offered the bowl of the steaming mass to me.
"Uh sure, this is a nice dinner." I commented, looking down at my food. It was a scrumptious mix of steamed vegetables, pita bread, and a batch of crispy calamari all topped with a layer of 100 Islands dressing.

The entire family sat in the fancy dining room complete with lit candles and some jazzy music from the record player. Raven and I sat together with Erik near the end. Uncle Logan, Mom, and dad were chatting about plans for the yacht trip.

"This tastes so good. Did you cook this Rave?" I asked as I indulged on the calamari. She shook her head. "Of course not! Why would I even be able to cook this? Credits should go to Erik he cooked this up real good." She said as she sipped on the red wine.

I glanced at Erik who was smiling at Raven then to me. If I had a shot for every time we made eye contact, I would be diagnosed for pancreatic disorders. Probably even die in the process.

"Well credits should go to you Rave, you helped  cook anyway." Erik humbly said. My sister only waved her hands on front of him. "Uh hello! I only chopped the freaking carrots and they didn't even look like carrots anymore when I did them." She set down her wine glass and nudged me. "Charles here has more experience in the field of culinary than me."

I opened my mouth slightly when I glanced at Raven who was doing an 'okay' sign. Erik then cleared his throat as he cut one of the calamari. "So you cook too? Raven never mentioned that you cooked."

I was divested of words when he spoke. My hands froze with a dollop of dressing still on my fork. I simply nodded at the divulge of such information. "Uh yeah I do cook but... uh it uh was um just for fun."

Erik nodded, eyes still upon me. "What did you cook for fun exactly?" He asked in a docent tone. For some reason I became docile to his manner of talking which seemed strange whenever he was near.

"Charles? Erik is asking you what you cook for fun." Raven repeated; tearing me away from my thoughts. "Uh nothing just um very boring food like pancakes and stuff."

Erik doubtfully groaned. "Aw that doesn't mean you can't cook. Anything you can cook means you can cook. Simple as that."

"You sound doughty when you speak. Are you always that assuring?" I asked, curious on what he would say. He opened his mouth but my blasted mother interrupted.

"Oh Erik, honey, I head you graduated in Harvard. What did you major in?" She asked, seemingly hoping for a palatable answer.

Lehnsherr patted a napkin on his mouth before answering. "Engineering and Biology miss Xavier." Gosh the way he said them made me shudder. My dad butted in as well. "Woah, thats nice. Charles here graduated in Oxford for Genetics and Psychology." He proudly proclaimed.

Erik turned to me. "So I guess I now know where you got your prophetic acclaims and non-prosy personality." He smiled again.

I stifled a small weak laugh. "Yeah... I guess so."

Erik beamed. "Good."