Chapter 15: Look at Me There

THUD!

From within the kitchen, Shirley and Lynn heard a loud crash. Judging by the direction of the noise, it came from somewhere upstairs. They turned to one another with questioning expressions on their faces.

“What was that?” Lynn asked.

She looked completely different from yesterday. It was to the point where she was almost unrecognizable.

Her black hair was tied into a bun and secured by a pair of chopsticks. Loose strands fell and covered parts of her face. The pale pallor and weariness from last night had disappeared, replaced by a healthy ruddiness. A white kitchen apron was draped over the rest of her clothes.

She held a plate full of eggs in one hand and a spatula in the other.

“I-I don’t know.” Shirley shook her head in surprise. Her gaze subconsciously moved towards the direction of the stairs.

“Did that boy drop something? He’s been back for less than a day and already, he’s breaking things… Geeze, what a handful.” Lynn let out an exaggerated sigh as she shook her head. Although her words appeared harsh, there was a small smile etched on her lips.

As if infected by her positivity, Shirley also smiled. After a moment’s pause, she suddenly offered, “Then, I’ll go back upstairs and check on him again.”

“Alright,” Lynn nodded. She walked across the kitchen and placed the plate down onto the table. “Do remind him that breakfast is almost ready. Tell him I made his favorite too.” Bacon and eggs. It was a bit plain, but Theo had a fondness for simple foods. Bacon and eggs just happened to be his favorite.

“Sure thing.” She responded.

“Good,” Lynn made her way back over towards the stove top. Just as she was about to drop a strip of bacon into the frying pan, she suddenly stopped and turned back around to face Shirley. “And you better eat with us too, Sher. I cooked enough for three people and I don’t want to see any food wasted.”

Shirley meekly nodded her head. “Okay, I’ll be sure to eat here. Thank you, Aunt Lynn.”

“Well get going then.” Lynn shooed her off and soon started working on the bacon. “Go check and see if that damn kid really broke something.”

Shirley left the kitchen and quickly headed back up to Theo’s bedroom.

She briefly stopped at the top of the stairs and placed a hand over her stomach. A low rumbling echoed through the air. In truth, Shirley had not eaten anything for dinner last night. The smell of breakfast that wafted through the house was like a burning aphrodisiac. Her hunger had nearly reached a peak. Even without Aunt Lynn’s earlier prompting, she would have surely stuck around for a plate or two.

“I better hurry,” She mumbled to herself as she walked up to his room.

Standing just outside of his bedroom door, she called out to Theo. To her surprise, there was no response. She furrowed her brow and tried once more, this time she knocked on the door.

“Theo?” She called out, “Are you in there?”

A few seconds of silence passed before she heard a muffled groan coming from somewhere behind the door. Shirley opened the door and almost jumped back in surprise.

There he was. Theo, the vanishing boy, the person that she had so dearly missed for more than half a year. Right now, he was sprawled on the carpeted floor. His body slightly twitched, while his hair stuck up on end. Looking closely, parts of it were singed. A faint burning smell wafted through the air.

“T-Theo?!” Shirley unconsciously exclaimed. “Are you alright? What happened to you?”

He groaned in response.

Truth be told, Theo was feeling a tad bit groggy right now. Back then, he had passed out for half a second. Luckily, he woke up just in time to see Shirley barging into his room.

“I… I um… ay um…” He tried to speak, but all he could manage was a string of incomprehensible sounds.

His mouth, tongue, lips, cheeks, everything felt numb and foreign. Things moved when he did not want them to, and parts froze when he wanted them to move. It was as if he had lost control, his whole body detached from his mind.

He struggled to get up. Theo attempted to push himself off the floor, but his limps stubbornly resisted. His bones were noodles, and his spine was jelly. He managed to get a few inches off the ground but quickly toppled back to the floor with a resounding thud.

An ugly expression contorted Theo’s face. No matter what he did, no matter how much he tried to move, his body simply couldn’t do it. He felt like a drowning fish out of water.

All of a sudden, a shadow covered his face.

Shirley kneeled down next to him and stared at his face with inquisitive eyes. An odd smile twisted her lips. After confirming that Theo did not look seriously injured, she eventually calmed down. She pulled on a strand of singed hair, which caused Theo’s entire body to unconsciously twitch.

After a while, she asked, “What were you doing?”

“I… nothing.” A bit of feeling returned to his lips. Although for the most part, he was still paralyzed, at the very least, he was now able to form coherent sentences again.

“I just tripped, that’s all.” He lied.

Shirley frowned. She obviously didn’t believe him, but that didn’t really matter right now. Theo did his best to shake his head, before he asked her to help him up.

She straightforwardly complied. She got Theo off the floor and placed him back onto his bed. The moment his back touched the firm mattress, a sigh leaked out from his lips.

“Are you really okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just fine.” Theo nodded. This time, he wasn’t lying.

If he really wasn’t ‘fine’, then the only other options left on the table were either severe bodily harm or death. Those might sound like extremes, but he did just stick his finger inside an electrical plug socket. Normally, doing that sort of thing can cause hearing loss, cardiac arrest, third-degree burns, and yes, even death.

Well, Theo was slightly exaggerating, but the essentials were the same. A lot of bad things should have happened, but they didn’t. It was all verifiable proof that the runic circle had worked.

As if to further confirm this, he turned towards Shirley and suddenly asked, “Pull up my shirt.”

“W-what?” She looked at him with a face of utter confusion. What did he just say?

“Pull up my shirt.” He repeated. “Pull it up and expose my stomach.”

“What, w-what are you saying?! Y-y-you want me to do what now?” Her cheeks flushed red.

She did not know what sort of thing Theo was trying to pull. Suddenly making such an outrageous request like that… he did not even give her any time to prepare herself… I wasn’t that she did not want to, but just, things like this needed time, preparation… Her heart was not ready. No, they were moving too fast… A date first or at least maybe a kiss before they moved on to the next step…

A jumble of various thoughts and ideas filled her steaming head. Staring at her flustered expressions, Theo helplessly sighed. “Just do it, okay? It’s not that hard to do.”

Worn down by his incessance, Shirley eventually agreed.

She grabbed the hem of his shirt with two fingers. Shirley noticed her hands shake. Why wouldn’t they? After all, they were about to do that… It would be her first time. It was only natural for her to be so nervous. What’s more, Aunt Lynn was still downstairs!

She closed her eyes shut. Shirley took a deep breath and tried her best to calm her thumping heart, not that it actually worked.

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“Yah!” With a determined shout, she vigorously pulled his shirt up, exposing his stomach. Theo felt a cool breeze blow over his abdomen.

“…”

“…”

“Well, what do you see?” He interrupted the awkward silence and straightforwardly asked her.

Right now, he was lying on the bed, his feet dangling over the edge. Shirley sat beside him, her fingers still firmly clamped onto the hem of his shirt.

“W-what do I— You want me to look?!” She shyly asked, the heat literally exuding out from her flushed cheeks.

“Of course, why else do you think I asked you to pull up my shirt?”

“But…”

“So, what do you see?”

“Theo…”

“What is it?”

“You big pervert…”

“Just look already!”

Faced with Theo’s continued pestering, Shirley eventually complied and looked at Theo’s exposed abdomen. She wasn’t really sure what it was she was supposed to be looking at. All she saw was Theo’s smooth, olive-colored stomach.

His body was a bit on the skinny side, although he did still possess a few traits that she found attractive. For instance, the faint V line that ran down his abdomen… If Theo was just a bit more muscular, then it would have been even better…

“Well, what do you see?” Theo’s impatient voice snapped Shirley out of her reverie.

“I, um… w-what exactly am I supposed to see?”

“Like, is there anything unusual?

“Unusual?”

“Yeah, like what’s the first thing that pops into your head when you’re looking at it?”

“The first— I, I don’t know… I, skin, all I see is skin!” She stuttered out in a panic, her face reddening with each successive question.

“Anything else?”

“Uh, no, I don’t… y-you, your muscles… um pubic, no your pelvis…”

The longer she blabbered on, the less coherent her words became. Theo eventually stopped questioning her. He feared that if he continued on any longer, then Shirley’s head might really just explode from overheating.

“Alright,” He leaned his head back against the firm mattress and breathed out a sigh of relief.

The fact that the runic circle disappeared meant that the magic had worked. The rune had sunken into his flesh and entered his body, just like he had originally intended for it to do. Although he was currently too numb to feel any of its effects right now, given enough time to recover, Theo would surely be able to feel it coursing through the pit of his stomach.

“Okay, you can stop now.” He said as he looked up at Shirley’s face.

“Huh?” She absentmindedly responded, her eyes still feverishly locked onto his stomach.

“Pull my shirt back down. I’m getting cold.”

Shirley’s hand mechanically pulled down his shirt, as she numbly listened to his words. After a few seconds, she looked back at him with a blank expression. “That’s it?” she couldn’t help but ask, a trace of disappointment hidden within her voice.

Theo stared back at her with a weird look on his face. He had been with Shirley for a long time. He knew of the various expressions that she so often wore, but the one that she currently sported was unfamiliar to him. There was a hint of her usual shyness, but there was also something else, something extra added to the mix.

Just what sort of face was she making?

After a few seconds, Theo nodded. He then followed up by saying, “I’ll be down in a few minutes. Just let me rest for a bit longer.”

Shirley hesitated for a moment, before her lips contorted into a pout. She sulked her way out of the room, slamming the door shut in the process. Theo heard stomping footsteps descending down the stairs.

“Why was she so angry?” he muttered to himself.

After a few minutes, some feeling eventually returned to his body. Although he was still pretty numb all over and his sense of touch still wasn’t working quite properly, Theo was at least well enough to move about and walk.

It was a feeling similar to forcing yourself to move, even when your legs had fallen asleep after sitting down all day. It was like that, but instead of just his legs, such a sensation spread throughout his entire body.

Most people probably wouldn’t even be able to stand, much less move and interact with the environment, but Theo wasn’t most people. He was different. He was someone capable of fighting perfectly well even with three of his five senses impaired. Much less actual paralysis, what did a little bit of numbness count for?

He slowly made his way to his closet and picked out a random t-shirt. After replacing his old shirt, and putting on the new one, he looked down towards his lower half. He was only wearing a pair of striped boxers. He wondered whether or not he should change, before ultimately deciding against it. Shirley had already seen him like this, so why even bother? In fact, why the hell did he change his shirt in the first place?

With a sigh, he quickly made his way downstairs.

Once in the kitchen, he was greeted by a plate full of food.

“You’re finally here.” Aunt Lynn smiled at him. “You’re right on time, the bacon just finished cooking.”

Looking around the room, he quickly spotted Shirley. She had always been a slow eater, so it did not surprise him to see that she had already started breakfast without him.

As he quietly sat down by the table, he couldn’t help but glance up at his aunt. More specifically, he was in awe.

She looked completely different from the her from last night. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the her now and the her then were two completely different people.

The smell of alcohol was gone. Her hair was neatly combed and tied into a tight-fitting bun. In addition, she had changed into a clean set of clothes and even wore an apron that matched well with the choker on her neck.

Aunt Lynn looked like an actual, honest-to-god, proper adult.

Even though he should be used to it by now, he could never really get over her ability to make such a miraculous recovery with just one night’s sleep. It was almost like a superpower.

Aunt Lynn brought over the last plate of food, before she sat down and joined the two teens. With her arrival, Theo did not wait any longer, and immediately began wolfing down the food on the table.

Seeing such a scene, Lynn subconsciously smiled. The feeling of a family… how long has it been since she last felt like this? She remembered back to the lonely meals that consisted of cup noodles and instant television dinners. Restless nights that could only be quelled by the bitter rush of alcohol. She never wanted to experience those days ever again.

“How is it?” Lynn suddenly asked.

Theo swallowed a mouthful of food, before he vigorously nodded his head. “It’s good. Better than I remember.” He complimented.

“That’s good.” She responded with a smile.

“…”

A long silence filled the room. Theo returned to his meal, while Lynn followed shortly after. As for Shirley, she absentmindedly stared at the cup of coffee in her hands. She was lost in her own cloud of thoughts.

After a while, Lynn spoke up once more, “You’ve heard about it a little from Shirley, but you’re still enrolled in Valery Heights. Right now, your current status is that of a student whose skipped the last seven months of school. It’s certainly better than being a dropout.”

Theo nodded in response.

“I talked to the principal this morning. I informed him of your return… although I didn’t explain the specific details. If he pries, then you handle it.” She looked over at Theo with an odd expression. “I told him not to make a big deal out of the whole thing, so he shouldn’t give you too much trouble.”

He nodded again.

“Oh yeah, you’ll also need to meet with someone on Monday. It’s to sort out all the paperwork and stuff. I don’t know the details, but its too make sure that you can graduate on time. Don’t even think about skipping it.”

Theo nodded for the third time. He swallowed down another mouthful of food, before he curiously asked, “What did you tell the principal about my disappearance?”

She paused. For a moment, Lynn looked at him. A particularly unnerving smile stretched her lips. “I told him that you ran away. You met with some hussy who tricked you into moving across the country. After seven months, you came back to your senses, or rather, she cheated on you. Heartbroken and in despair, you crawled back home with your tail between your legs.

“It’s a fantastical story filled with the indiscretions of youth. Nice, right?”

Theo almost choked on his food. After sputtering out a throaty cough, he stared bitterly at his Aunt’s taunting expression. “Why did you have to give me such a pathetic sounding backstory, Auntie?”

In response, she smirked. “If you don’t like it, I can always tell him something else. The truth, perhaps?” She looked challengingly at him.

Theo laughed wryly. He shook his head. “No, well, you already told him, so it’s a little bit too late for that.”

At the sight of his noncommittal attitude, Lynn could only nod her head. She let out a defeated sigh, as she shrugged her shoulders and leaned back against her chair. “Alright, since you’re going to act like that, make sure to clean the whole house this weekend. Think of it as a punishment for being gone for so long.”

He let out a groan. He knew it was coming, but still, no sane person was willing to clean up such a mess out of their own free will. As he silently sulked, Theo suddenly thought of an idea. He turned towards Shirley. His eyes watered, a mock puppy-dog expression colored his face. Although he did not say anything, his intentions were as clear as day.

Seeing Theo acting like that, Shirley felt somewhat helpless.

In contrast, Aunt Lynn immediately flared up in anger. “You better not think about making Shirley help you! The girl comes here every weekend to clean up your room. I told her not to bother, but she insisted! Don’t you dare get any funny ideas!”

Theo sank back into his seat. You were the one that made the house into such a mess in the first place, yet you’re not even willing to help? Life really wasn’t fair. He returned less than a day ago, and this overlord of an Aunt was already bossing him around like this…

Just as he was about to nod his head, Theo suddenly thought of something else. Without hesitation, he turned back over to Shirley and asked, “So, what’s Aunt Lynn’s book called again?”

“Oh, its—” Shirley almost answered the question, but before she could get any further, Aunt Lynn immediately stopped her. She covered Shirley’s mouth with her palm. Shirley widened her eyes in surprise, but after seeing the rare shyness that colored Lynn’s face, she immediately understood.

Theo, you big pervert, you almost made me say it!

A cold sweat ran down her back. Shirley sympathized with Lynn. How could she not? She had read the book after all, and knew full well what its contents implied. If the roles were reversed and Shirley had written the book instead of her, then she would have long jumped off a bridge by now.

Theo watched the duo’s silent exchange. Their cooperation only fanned his curiosity.

Just what sort of thing did she write?

“What is it, come on Shirley, tell me…” He blithely begged, as he reached across the table and tried to pry Aunt Lynn’s hands off of her lips. Unfortunately, his attempt was met with a slap to the wrist.

“Back off, idiot!” Lynn shouted with a flustered expression on her face. “I told you last night that you’d never, ever, ever get the chance to read it, so stop trying!”

“What’s with that? So stingy…” Theo complained as he bitterly massaged the top of his hand. “Come on, just tell me. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Unfortunately, Lynn was as firm as limestone. Before Theo could do anything else, she suddenly grabbed onto Shirley’s waist and lifted her up. Lynn practically ran away with the girl still in her arms. Shirley, on the other hand, was as stiff as a statue. She was so caught off guard, that she still held onto her fork even as she was being dragged away.

A few seconds after they left, Theo let out a long sigh.

He shook his head, but it did not mean that he had given up. In fact, he grew even more determined to find out the truth to this little incident. He looked down at the food on his plate, before stuffing another spoonful into his mouth. He chewed mechanically.

The zap from earlier had temporarily fried his taste receptors. He had lied to his aunt back then. The food was completely tasteless.