“Okay,” Aaron said, as he sat on the chair opposite Tyler. “Here are the rules.”
“Rules?” Tyler repeated incredulously, looking the teenage boy over with his eyes. “You’re giving me rules?”
He’d come to pick Praise up as they’d agreed on a few days ago, waiting in the living room as the secretary took her time. Zoe was nowhere to be found, but her brother was, and Tyler wasn’t sure he liked the idea of being left alone with the serious looking teen.
Aaron nodded and lifted up one finger. “One - don’t challenge Praise to any drinking contests. You will lose no matter how much you think you can take your alcohol. Two - Even she says she can, Praise can’t stomach romance movies. Except you want suspicious looks from passersby because you have a frantic woman crying in your arms, don’t watch any. Dark places are also a no-no, you can’t drug her drinks and absolutely no intimacy.”
Subconsciously, Tyler leaned back into
his seat, silently miffed at being talked to like this by a teenager. “Intimacy?”
Aaron leaned back in his seat, mimicking Tyler’s actions, and his small eyes watched Tyler like a hawk. “I mean it man, no touching, no kissing and no you know what.”
Tyler’s mouth fell open. “What are you, thirteen?”
Grinning impishly, Aaron replied, “That’s my sister. I’m seventeen.”
He looked up and immediately, his face settled into one of perfect innocence.
“Praise, you look nice,” Aaron said as he got up and went over to her, placing his hands in his pockets. She was wearing loose slacks and a casual blouse, her ever present glasses perched on her nose.
“Thanks.” Praise smiled and kissed his forehead, although Aaron grimaced. “Take care of Zoe, and remember, no one’s allowed in while I’m gone.”
Waving her away, Aaron tried to steer her towards the door. “I’m not a kid Praise, of course I know that.”
Tyler watched them interact, something within him twitching with an emotion he didn’t understand.
It could have been how informal the situation was, how freely Aaron interacted with Praise. It was in sharp contrast with the way Tyler had been raised.
He’d never complimented his mother unless it was on formal occasions, putting on the impression of a wonderful, doting son, and he couldn’t remember any fond acts of affection from her after he turned nine.
He rubbed his chest through his shirt as Praise turned to him, giving him an apologetic smile, perhaps for making them run late.
Despite the warring emotions within him, Tyler nodded and stood up, ignoring the cutthroat sign Aaron gave him when Praise’s back was turned.
With a start, he realized what it was that gave him a sense of distant pain.
It was envy.
The envy of an relationship that lacked pretense and falsehood, and the realness it contained.
*
Sylvia. Mikel. Noah. Duane. Rhoda.
These were the names of the top five students Tyrese was due to pick his second aide from and he was undecided.
The fact that they were the top five out of the two hundred and twenty four first year apprentices spoke well of their potential and prowess but more than that, Tyrese was concerned about their attitude.
Stiff, formal types like his sister had turned out to be, he did not work with well at all.
He didn’t stick entirely to the rules, liked to twist and bend them to his whims and caprices. He was oil and he needed someone who was oil as well, who would mix in right with him instead of contrasting him.
YOU ARE READING
No Blessed ✓
Fantasy- Completed - For Mikel Ark, being offered a job by the world's biggest gaming company is a dream come true, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will launch his career as a hotshot programmer. But what Mikel hasn't been told is that his employer's...
