by C. J. Anaya
Chapter Sixteen
One thing my father insisted on was a tour of the house. I assumed he wanted to locate any and all available exits for future reference. The absence of Ms. Mori and my father left behind an uncomfortable silence. I had no idea what to say to Victor and was doing my best to avoid eye contact as much as possible. Tie didn’t seem to notice the awkwardness of the situation or if he did he most likely couldn’t have cared less.
“This is great,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to attend a slumber party.” He waltzed over to me and threw a casual arm around my shoulder, causing it to tingle all over. “So, do we have a tickle fight first or are we kicking the night off with some mani-pedis?”
“As if,” Angie responded. “We’re more into chocolate and chick flicks.”
“Tie, can I speak to you in private?” Victor growled.
He stood a few feet in front of us looking displeased with the physical contact between Tie and myself.
I wanted to tell him to back off. I wasn’t his property. I wasn’t his wife.
Tie, gave Victor a dark look and released me, following the kami warrior out of Ms. Mori’s study.
“Why is your dad agreeing to this?” Angie asked before I could say anything.
I looked over at the entrance to the study, making sure no one would hear us.
“I don’t think my dad really intends for us to stay here tonight, but we need to be able to communicate with him without the other kami listening in.”
“You don’t think they’ll force us to stay do you?
“I‘m almost positive they will. To be honest I’m surprised Ms. Mori was sitting there trying to reason with my father. With all the superhuman strength Victor and Tie seem to have they could easily overpower all of us and force us to go wherever they want.” I noticed Angie’s nervous glance passed me. I turned, but didn’t see anyone there. When I looked back she was pulling a can of mace from her resilient, pink purse. I shook my head knowing it was going to take much more than a can of mace to overpower three gods. “I think the initial argument was just a formality. Ms. Mori was trying to see what she was up against, and she is up against an extremely pissed off father. ”
“Not to mention an extremely pissed off best friend. She best not mess with me, Hope. I’ve got serious rage issues.”
I smirked at that. Angie could inflict some damage if she wanted to, but we were dealing with a situation we didn’t perfectly comprehend. There was no telling what would happen if getting out of here involved a face-to-face confrontation with Ms. Mori, Victor and—
“What about Tie?” she asked.
I thought about the way Tie and my father had been silently communicating with each other throughout the evening.
“I’ve got a funny feeling he might be on our side. My parents were hiding me for a reason, and I’m beginning to think they had some help.”
I could hear someone walking down the hallway toward us.
“We’ll talk about it later,” I whispered.
Angie nodded.
Ms. Mori entered the room.
“Girls, your room is ready. I assumed you’d want to share?”
“Oh, yes. Thank you,” I mumbled.
All three of us stood in awkward silence.
Hello! I’d just found out she was my mother. Was I supposed to ask her how she’d been doing over the past one thousand years?
“We’ll just hop right into bed then,” Angie said, grabbing my arm and hurrying me past Ms. Mori and down the hallway.
That woman made me nervous.
