Beth’s P.O.V.
We go back to Kyle’s house to hang out after school because his family is all out doing “some stupid church thing”. I really don’t feel all that comfortable alone with him in this house. He opens the door for me to walk into the house and I’m greeted by 2 little Shih Tzu dogs, both white wearing cute little bandanas around their collars. They jump at my legs and give cute little barks and I lean down to pet them.
“Get down you stupid dogs!” he yells at them. At once, both of the cute little puppies turn into rabid dogs and start to bite at his ankles. Kyle winces in pain and tries to kick one but it gets away.
What kind of asshole doesn’t like dogs. Dogs like everyone but they don’t like him. I think I read somewhere that dogs and children are a great judge of character. I smile a little and then follow Kyle into his living room. We both sit down on the couch and I pull my Chem 2 book out of my backpack.
“Chemistry?” he asks, looking surprised. “I was thinking maybe we could study… something else.” He raises an eyebrow suggestively. I brush it off with a giggle. Not on your life, Cassanova.
“You mean like English?” I ask innocently.
“No,” he says. Suddenly, it seems to get through to him that I’m not in the mood. “Chemistry is fine. Let’s talk about Chemistry. We sure seem to have a lot of it.” I am going to shove a pencil through your trachea.
“Not really,” I shrug. “25 equations isn’t too bad. Besides, balancing equations is easy.” Kyle rolls his eyes and begins to look a little frustrated. He smiles at me and opens his book.
“Yeah, I guess it is,” he shrugs. “Do you want any snacks or something to drink?”
“Sure,” I nod. Anything to get you to leave the room.
Thankfully, he leaves the room. I stand up and carefully look around. His dogs are playing with each other in a big white fluff ball in one corner of the room. It’s a really nice house, inside and out. The exterior is a light tan and has burgundy roofs with golden colored accents and a few towers and domes. I think it’s called a Queen Anne style house. The interior is just as beautiful. It looks like something out of a movie set in the 19th century starring a rich white family. Like a house out of an old murder mystery where the butler is the murderer while the maid was embezzling thousands of dollars from the family but “they won’t get away with it this time!” The half-spiral staircase that leads to the second and possibly a third floor sits in the corner. The walls are covered in framed paintings and faded floral wallpaper. All furniture is modern, made to look vintage. I felt like I wasn’t fancy enough to be standing here. There’s a fireplace in the front of the room with a plasma 60 inch flat-screen TV above it. There’s a big china cabinet on either side of it, the one on the left with porcelain angels and the other with family photos.
I walk over to the photos. There’s one with a 5 year old Kyle and an older boy, probably his brother, sitting in a pool in their backyard eating ice cream. Kyle seems to have more of it on him than in him. There’s a family picture with Kyle, two other boys, his dad, and his mom. They’re actually a cute little family, dressed black tie formal. The picture next to it is fairly similar, they’re all in the same spot but the boys are making funny faces. At the bottom of the cabinet it a framed diploma from Harvard School of Law awarded to Kathryn Arnold and a doctor’s license to James Arnold. That would explain the money.
“Find what you were looking for?” Kyle asks suddenly from behind me. I jump and squeak a little.
“Kyle! I wasn’t- I was just looking at stuff,” I stutter out. He just laughs.
