“It so nice of you to have us over,
Mr. and Mrs. Piper,” Lily said, and Jean was almost certain she was turning her
charm on. Gushing. It made him sick. “I was so sad when my parents said that
they were going to be out of town. We usually have a nice family Thanksgiving
too, but this year they’re helping my uncle, Randolph, with his farm.” Her
voice dropped conspiratorially. “He’s having his fourth child soon.”
Jean snorted, glad he was
technically in the other room so no one would see his eye roll. He highly
doubted her uncle was having the child.
“She’s great, isn’t she?” Mat said
in a low voice, joining Jean in the dining room. They could still hear the
chatter of voices as his parents started asking polite questions.
“Just wonderful,” Jean said sarcastically.
He relented when he saw his friend’s star struck and nervous expression. “I
dunno. She seems really intense. I mean, she’s in five million different clubs,
and she’s always doing things. Was it last year or the year before that she
visited Africa to help with schools there during the summer? And she’s always
trying to raise money for orphanages and stuff.”
“I can’t believe she actually agreed
to come over for Thanksgiving,” Mat sighed.
“I can,” Jean frowned, moving around
his friend to get back into the kitchen. Mat caught his arm, though.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s kind of obvious that she likes
you. I mean, the son of a doctor and a novelist living in a big house. You’re
in enough clubs, even though no one can match her achievements. You’re team
captain of the football team. Your parents are public figures, and they always
donate to her causes. How could she say no?”
“You don’t think it’s because of my
natural charm?” But his joke seemed flat and he frowned.
“Lily Connor is not won over by
natural charm. That’s just a bonus that makes agreeing to come over easier,”
Jean said apologetically. He hated seeing his friend so completely head over
heels, but he also had no intention of tailoring the universe to fit his
fantasies. It would be better if Mat knew right from the beginning what he was
getting himself into.
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” he
nodded, following Jean into the kitchen.
“Oh, I almost forgot!” Lily chirped,
her face lighting up. She was pretty in the way a finely crafted porcelain doll
is. Her features were delicate and petite. Her skin was pale and smooth with a
light dusting of faint freckles. Her hair curled into natural ringlets that
shone in the light, a soft and unobtrusive caramel color. Her eyes were large
and blue, her nose slightly upturned, her lips plump. Every man in school knew
her name, but most of them were smart enough to stay well away. Under her
delicate appearance was a girl of fire and steel. She was never known to lessen
her moral perfection and expected the same from others. She was also so driven
that even her parents had trouble keeping up with her. There was no doubt that
she would be valedictorian and attend an Ivy League school, probably on full
scholarship even though her parents could definitely afford to pay her way.
All of this shot through Jean’s mind
as he tried, desperately, to put on a smile similar to the ones plastered on
the Pipers’ faces. Lily had won them over in a matter of minutes.
“My parents absolutely insisted that
I not arrive here without something to bring to the table. So I brought my
famous tofu and soy cheese stuffing,” she exclaimed, bouncing over to where her
bag sat on an armchair and pulling out a covered dish.
“That’s so thoughtful, dear,” Mrs.
Piper smiled, taking it from her and peeling back the aluminum foil covering
it.
“It’s a microwave safe dish,” Lily
explained. “So you can just heat it up for about five minutes and it should be
ready to serve.”
Jean found himself taking the
repulsive dish because he was standing closest to the microwave. It looked like
the contents of someone’s stomach that hadn’t yet been fully digested. It was
pale and lumpy with what could be rice but also resembled maggots. He
swallowed, briefly considering accidentally burning it beyond recognition. The
Pipers’ microwave oven was known to have temper tantrums and he was especially
good at eliciting them. But no. This was for Mat.
“Is the table almost ready?” Mrs.
Piper asked her son. “Perhaps you could fetch your brother from his office.”
“Of course, Mom,” Mat nodded,
jogging off to find Ethan. Jean had never actually met the oldest Piper son,
but he had heard plenty about the college graduate who was now head of his own
small company.
“How many siblings does Matthew
have?” Lily asked curiously into the resulting silence.
“Ethan’s his older brother. Then
there’s Thomas, the younger boy, Sophia, the youngest, and Emma, who’s a year
younger than Ethan,” Jean supplied, ignoring the fact that Mrs. Piper was about
to answer. He felt a twinge of guilt that he was being so unpleasant, but he
really couldn’t help it. The Pipers might be like his second family, or rather,
his first, but Lily just rubbed him the wrong way.
“Oh my,” Lily gasped. “That’s a lot
of children.” She turned to smile at Mrs. Piper. “You must be such a good
mother.”
“I like to think so,” Mrs. Piper
sighed. “It’s been hard, but I think they’re all turning out okay.”
“Of course we are, Mom,” Ethan
grinned, walking into the room and kissing his mother on the cheek. “Now, what’s
this I hear about dinner being ready?”
“Ethan and Mat are the only one’s
home for the holidays,” Jean said in a low voice when he saw Lily looking
around curiously. “Tom and Sophie are at boarding school and Emma is working on
her final project.”
“That’s so wonderful,” she said,
turning so that it looked like she was responding to Mat. He smiled at her,
nodding.
“Yeah. It gets a little lonely with
everyone away, but it gives me more time for my after school activities.”
“It must be great to have such
driven, achieving siblings,” she sighed. “I only have the one brother, Elliot.
He’s adopted, and the same age as me, but he has absolutely no direction in his life. I mean, he isn’t
in any sports or clubs and he doesn’t volunteer unless I really twist his arm.”
Jean raised his eyebrows at Mat over
her shoulder, trying to gauge whether or not his friend was as intimidated by
her statement, or if he hadn’t noticed. He saw a brief, horrifying flash of Mat
volunteering beside Lily, wasting his summer, and his weekends. She would take
up all of his time, start micromanaging his life to be as perfect and planned
as her own.
He was saved by the chime of the
microwave and removed the still revolting dish. Now it had a smell, but it
wasn’t like anything he had ever encountered before. He wasn’t even sure how to
begin describing it. Maybe lemony. Only there was also something distinctly
Italian about the spices.
“That’s the last of it, right?” Mrs.
Piper said, smiling. “Why don’t we all grab a dish and move it out to the
dining table?”
Jean bit down on a retort about how
he’d been doing all of the heavy lifting for the past half hour. There really
wasn’t anything to grab, other than the drinks and the gravy. He was stuck with
the hideous stuffing.
“Shall we say grace?” Lily asked
once they were all seated. “At my house we always say a thank you for how the
year has been.”
Jean froze with his fork already
reaching for a slicing of turkey. He was stuck sitting beside Ethan, as Mat was
sitting beside Lily. And, of course, Lily was across from him. That didn’t stop
Mat from shooting him an annoyed glare.
He barely managed to last through
Lily’s long and rambling rant about how wonderful her year had been and how
grateful she was to be in the Pipers’ home, partaking of their delicious meal.
Then he started to pile his plate full of everything that was passed by him.
“Slow down there, Jean,” Mat
laughed. “Don’t forget that there’s dessert.”
“I’m sure it’ll all fit,” Jean
shrugged, reaching across to accept what Lily was handing to him. Then he
froze. It was her dish. The
disgusting one with tofu and soy and maggots. Suddenly it felt like every eye
in the room was on him, watching, waiting. When he looked up, Lily was staring
at him, as though daring him to pass it on without taking a serving.
Swallowing, he put a spoonful onto
his plate, but when he risked a glance up, she was still staring. Another
spoonful, another. Finally Mat took pity on him and asked something about her
time in Africa and her attention was diverted. Breathing a sigh of relief, Jean
passed the dish on, furrowing his brow as Ethan took an equally sized portion.
The older boy glanced at him and winked, a mischievous look in his eyes.
Careful to be sure no one else was watching, he leaned closer to Jean.
“I’ll eat every last bite if you
do,” he murmured, grinning.
“Deal,” Jean nodded, picking up his
fork. He hoped it wasn’t a race.
The first bite was hideous. It was
slimy, covered in some kind of viscous sauce that had the tartness of a lemon,
but also tasted cloyingly sweet. Once he got past that, there was the powdery,
tasteless cubes of tofu, and some kind of melt-in-your mouth cheesiness that
was far from pleasant.
Beside him, Ethan let out a choked
cough and took a sip of water. Jean fought down a smile and doubled his
efforts. By the time he was halfway through his throat had stopped working. It
was revolting against the alien substance, refusing to swallow as smoothly as
before.
Changing tactics, he started to
disguise it with bites of the other things on his plate. Turkey and gravy was a
good cover, but when he tried a bit of cranberry sauce with it, he nearly
gagged. Mashed potatoes ended up being his savior.
He was about to take his last bite
when Ethan elbowed him. Looking over, he saw that Ethan, too, had his last
forkful at the ready. Not breaking eye contact, they put the goo in their
mouths, and swallowed.
Almost instantly, Jean felt his
stomach begin to churn angrily. He tried swallowing down some water, but it was
not appeased. Nor was the turkey and gravy doing any good at soaking up the
obviously poisonous substance.
“May I be excused for a moment?” he
asked softly, catching Mrs. Piper’s eye. She nodded, and he rose, gratefully. A
bathroom was in order.
He was retching into the toilet bowl
when he heard a chuckle from the doorway. Ethan was there, arms crossed as he
leaned against the doorjamb.
“I guess we found out how she stays
so thin,” he said.
“How are you still standing?” Jean
asked accusatorily as the older boy moved to crouch beside him, pushing his
shaggy hair out of his face. His hands felt cool against Jean’s fevered skin.
“I’m used to eating deadly
concoctions,” Ethan shrugged. “My girlfriend should not be allowed near a
kitchen. On the rare occasion that she gets the oven working, I’m usually laid
out for the entirety of the following day.”
Jean would have laughed, but another
wave of rejected material was making its way out of his stomach and he doubled
over again.
“I think that’s the last of it,” he
coughed when it was over. He certainly hoped so. He felt kind of empty, in any
case.
“That’s good. Let’s get your mouth
washed out, then,” Ethan said, helping him up and flushing the toilet as he
moved to the sink to rinse thoroughly and repetitively. After a moment of
watching, he held out a tube of toothpaste. “Helps get the taste out.”
“Don’t tell Mat,” Jean asked as they
headed back towards the dining room. “I don’t want him to think I hate his
girl.”
“Why would he think that?”
“Because I do,” he shrugged. Ethan
couldn’t say anything else because they were by then within earshot of the rest
of the dinner party.
“Where did you go?” Mat asked,
seeming confused to see his friend walking back into the room. He had been so
busy talking to Lily that he had hardly noticed when Ethan had left, and hadn’t
seen Jean.
“Had to floss,” Jean mumbled,
sitting back down. His stomach twisted slightly at the sight of food, but he
was starving.
“Stick to turkey and potatoes,”
Ethan said softly, leaning close when he saw Jean’s dilemma. “They’re easier on
the stomach. And I’m afraid that desert isn’t a good idea.”
Mat, of course, noticed when Jean
didn’t accept any pie.
“I told you that you were eating too
much,” he taunted. “And it’s such a pity, because Mom baked these fresh today.
Dee-licious.”
“I’m sure there’ll be some
leftovers,” Ethan pointed out. “Especially of Lily’s wonderful dish. I don’t
understand why you didn’t eat more of it, Jean. I thought it was spectacular.”
Lily beamed at the praise as Jean
aimed a sharp kick at the person sitting next to him. Later, as he was starting
the washing up while Mat said goodbye to Lily, Ethan joined him.
“Sorry about that last comment,” he
grinned, rinsing the dishes that were already washed. “But it was definitely worth
it.”
“Jean,” Mat said breathlessly from
the doorway, ignoring his brother. “That was an amazing dinner, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Jean mumbled. “It was
great.”
He determinedly ignored Ethan’s
surprised look.
“I mean, she’s such an awesome
person. I was thinking, maybe I’ll start inviting her over to Friday dinners.”
Jean winced. That was a special
tradition they’d started back in middle school. Friday dinner was just an
excuse to stay up all night eating popcorn and watching horror movies or
looking at pictures on the internet. It was no place for girls. Mat seemed to
have forgotten this in his euphoric haze.
“She even kissed me goodnight,” he
proclaimed proudly.
“That’s wonderful,” Jean said,
trying to make it sound convincing. “So, is this facebook official yet?”
“I dunno,” Mat shrugged, refusing to
be put out. “It might take a few more dinners. I mentioned that she could come
over any time and she said she’d make sure to bring more of her cooking. You
wouldn’t mind coming over when she does, would you? I mean, just the first few
times, so it’s not so awkward.”
“Of course not,” Jean ground out,
ignoring the way Ethan was struggling to keep his laughter inconspicuous. His
face was nearing a shade of purple before unseen on a man’s skin and his shoulders
were shaking something awful.
“I’m sure Ethan wouldn’t mind being
there, either,” Jean said, his voice turning sickly sweet. “I mean, I bet he’d
love helping his baby bro out.”
The horrified look this earned him
was definitely worth promising away his stomach lining just to help out his
best friend.
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