Our Own Angels

Chapter 7

"Time for dinner!" Alice yells. The three of us get up and walk to the kitchen. I was about to sit down at the table until Silas taps my shoulder.

"It's okay, I can go home. It's kind of getting la-" Silas says but then Alice interrupts him.

"What time do you have to be home?" She asks and she pulls out a chair next to mine for him to sit in.

"I don't have a curfew." He states and takes a seat.

"It's only 6:30. We don't mind having you here and it's been a while since one of Ro's friends came over, other than Cleo." Alice explains. I look at Alice and she just shrugs. I'm having mixed emotions right now. I don't want him to feel that he needs to stay but I don't want him to leave either.

"I guess I can stay for a little longer." He smiles and Eli claps his hands. He awkwardly shifts in his seat and his forearm slightly rubs mine.

"Eli do you want to lead grace?" Alice asks him. He nods his head and we grab each other's hand. Of course it was awkward but it would've been more awkward if I didn't. The three of us said the prayer except for Silas. Afterwards, we all got served our food. As Alice places crispy chicken on our plates with handfuls of white pasta and vegetable, Eli starts to quietly laugh.

''Why are you laughing?" I ask him and he points at Silas. Silas' eyes goes wide and he looks at me. I just shrug my shoulders.

"What about him?" I ask.

"He's sweating, he-he.. a lot." Eli chuckles. For the first time, I see Silas blush. He starts to sweat even more and his cheeks are a rosy pink-ish color.

"Feel free to take your jacket off, you don't need to ask permission." Alice smiles and takes her seat. I really feel like she's doing this on purpose now. Silas excuses himself and walks to the living room. I stuff a fork full of pasta into my mouth and wipe my lips with a napkin. A few seconds later, Silas returns and I nearly choke on my food. I raise my eyebrows as he comes back in a plain white t-shirt. The slight transparency shows off his toned upper body well. When he sits down, his muscles move against the shirt and I can't help but stare.

"Ro." Silas raises an eyebrow and I snap out of my trance. Immediately, I could feel all of the blood draining from my face. I could feel all of their stares on me and I excuse myself and go to the bathroom. I lock the door and splash water onto my face. What is wrong with me? Why am I staring at him? He's only here for tutoring, nothing else. I had to repeat those words a couple of times before I went back to the table. I take my time and take a seat next to Silas.

To relieve the tension in the air I ask Silas, "What do you want to work on next?"

"Can we keep on working on Spanish?" We both take a spoonful of our food. I nod and the rest of dinner was quiet but surprisingly not awkward. I help Alice load the dish washer after dessert and then Silas and I head back up to my room. The sun was already going down so I turned on the lights. We sit in our usual spot and I continue to tutor him.

"What are the direct object pronouns?" I repeat myself once again.

He shuts his eyes and taps his index finger. "Lo and la...Los and las..and nos and os?" He questions. I proudly nod and clap.

"You only need to us 'os' if you're in Spain." I inform him and he writes it down in his notebook. A half an hour passes by and both of our brains turn into mush.

"I think that's good for today." I take a deep breath and lay down on my bed. I shut my eyes for a moment and I hear Silas walking around my room.

"Are they your parents?" He asks and I sit up. I hug my knees and nod.

"Where are they? If you don't mind me asking." Silas makes eye contact with me and I look away.

"My mom passed away two years ago and my dad's away in Europe for the year." I fiddle with my fingers and his eyebrows raise in shock.

"That must be pretty tough, not having your parents around. Especially for Eli." He states and sets the picture down. I stare at the picture and the nostalgia hit me. The picture taken at the local country music festival in the park. The four of us were sitting on the bench eating ice cream. The autumn trees were behind us and it was the perfect scene, everything was perfect. Eli and my father even had ice cream on their noses.

The four of us sit on a bench and begin to eat our ice cream. I got my favorite, butter pecan. Eli got chocolate, and Mom got pistachio and Dad got Neapolitan.

"Hey honey guess what?" Dad says with a big smile. We all turn to face him.

"What?" Mom asks with a big smile.

"You make me melt." Dad laughs and I just smile and cringe. Eli laughs and so does Mom.

"Get it, cause we're eating ice cream." Dad explains and my mom nods her head to support him and his puns. He gives her a simple kiss on the cheek.

"Excuse me! Do you guys mind if I take a picture of you all? It's for the brochure for next year's festival." A tall middle-aged man with a large camera around his neck came up to us.

"No problem." Mom yelps.

"Okay, now squeeze together and hold up your ice cream." The photographer says. Eli took it literally and as he held up his ice cream and it hit Dad's nose. There was a big, wet chocolate spot on Dad's face. Eli laughs and Dad does it back and they both start to laugh hysterically.

"Say 'Cheese!'" The photographer yells.

"CHEESE!"

"It's nothing we can't handle." I force a smile and Silas takes a seat next to me.

*ring ring*

"Who's that?" I ask. He pulls his phone from his pocket and answers it.

"Hello?" He looks at me an shrugs his shoulders.

"How the hell did you get my number?" He asks.

"Well what do you want?" He went from relaxed to annoyed real fast.

"I'm kind of busy right now...yeah sorry... I can't, I'll be busy the whole week actually." He says and rests his elbows on his knees. I watch him until he hangs up the phone.

"Who was that?" I ask and lay back down on my bed. The urge to sleep has overtaken me.

"Emma. Did you give her my number?" He looks at me with rage in his eyes. It is actually kind of scary.

"What? No, I'm not even friends with her." I back away but my back hits the headboard. He notices that I'm frightened a little and his eyes look back down at his phone. He closes his eyes and takes deep breaths.

"Are you okay?" It comes out in a whisper. He doesn't answer, he just keeps on doing his breathing excersizes.

"Sorry if I scared you." He finally says after a few minutes of collecting himself.

"You didn't scare me." I lie.

"Bullshit." He smiles. His perfect teeth are actually showing.

"You backed away fast. But you should know, I only resort to violence if it's the last option." He says.

"That's good." I say.

"What time is it?" He asks searching my room for a clock.

"Around 8:30."

"It's getting pretty late..." He suggests.

"Yeah it is. Well...it was a good first day." I awkwardly fidget with my hands and wait for him to say something.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow." We both stand up at the same time and head downstairs. There's a cloud of awkwardness around the both of us and its suffocating. He puts his flannel back on and he says goodbye to Alice and Eli. I watch him drive away and I head back inside.

"Well he's quite the gentlemen am I right?" Alice comments as she sweeps the kitchen floor.

"I guess.." Everything went surprisingly well. This isn't going to be as bad as I thought. I hope.