Fen and Mara - Open Novella Contest 2019 Short List

Chapter 15

Fen obligingly follows his mother through the store, pushing a cart filled with groceries. They're in the aisle with household items and his mother stops in front of the dinnerware, picking up a melamine plate. It has a white and light blue polka dot design and it looks like its meant to be used at a picnic.
"You see?" she says, waving the plate in front of his face. "This is what we have to resort to! Who would have known that we would have to use plastic dinnerware again, with two almost grown boys in the house?"

"Sorry, mom," Fen answers self-consciously. He watches her count eight plates and piling them in the shopping cart. She also adds cups in two different sizes, to replace all the broken glassware at home. He has been practicing hard and cups are the perfect size to try and move through the air. It's just that he can't always catch them in time.

Also, Vic has discovered that Fen's powers flare up when he gets angry or scared. So pranking his younger brother seems to have become Vic's main goal in life. It's super annoying, yet also helpful to try and get a better grip on his powers. Their parents see the value in that, though they are obviously less pleased about all the damage it does to their home. The lower half of Fen's bedroom window is boarded up after one of his sports trofees went through it. He'll have to pay for a new window himself.

"How's Mara?" Theresa Holt asks casually, keeping her eyes on her shopping list.

"Good," Fen answers non-committedly.

"You two still going strong?" It's as casual as her first question, though it has Fen slightly tensing up. His mother laughs, squeezing his arm.
"Come on, Fen. We all know you're head over heels for this girl. We told you to keep a distance, not that you listened..."
Fen isn't one to blush, yet his cheeks heat up when his mother pulls a little at the collar of his hoodie.
"And don't think we didn't notice those pretty little marks on your throat."

He swats her hand away. "Mom!"

His mother chuckles, turning to grab some cereal and put it in the cart.
"Does she know?" she asks. "About..."

"Yes." Fen is not gonna lie about that. When his family knows all about her and her father, he thinks it's only fair she knows about them too. And it's not like she didn't already know most of it anyway.

"You should bring her over for dinner."

And that's that.

There was no point in trying to keep them apart to begin with. Not when they see each other at school all the time anyway and Fen is happy his parents now see that too. His mother at least, and what Theresa says, goes in the Holt family, so Fen doesn't worry too much about his dad.

Mara's father still objects firmly to his daughter dating the son of Lion Heart, though he hasn't made work of his threat to have Mara transferred to another class. He is probably too distracted by that talk show host lady. Last weekend there was another picture of them in the entertainment section of the newspaper, much to Mara's dismay.

***

Bringing his girl home for the first time is as nerve wracking as you'd expect, especially with his father there. Henry Holt is not completely on board with having Mara in the house, it's clear he has difficulties with seeing Mara separate from her father. However, his wife decreed they will not talk about the kidnapping or the case when Mara is visiting, and the police detective is nothing if not a good husband.

"Your father keeps looking at me as though he would love to put me in an interrogation room," Mara whispers to Fen when she helps him do the dishes after dinner. She washes, he dries.

Fen puts the tea towel over his shoulder and hugs her from behind.
"I know," he says quietly, pressing a kiss to her temple. "He won't do anything though, mom has forbidden it."