DINNER

It took a lot more effort than I had expected for Nathan to take Emma on that movie date.

Taking into account how cute Emma is, regardless of her personality, anyone would accept a movie date with her in a heartbeat. But not Nathan, apparently.

He kept dodging my request for him to take her out. Instead, he asked me if I wanted to go with him, which angered Emma so much that she dropped her cover and came stomping towards us. She then ordered Nathan to come along for the movie in the most disdainful manner humanly possible.

Then without a word Emma left alongside Nathan, without fulfilling her end of the deal. I tried talking to Emma before they left, but her glare was so fierce, I decided otherwise. Later, I sent a couple of messages and phoned her numerous times, but to no avail. The girl wouldn’t reply.

Two days passed without a word from her or her brother. In all honesty, Steve wasn’t actively trying to avoid me, unlike his sister.

It is Friday evening. I layed in my bed, feeling slightly groggy after I had finished reading “I’m so hot, I’m the sun”. I had gotten back from school early today because Steve was busy with his Soccer practice today as well. He hasn’t talked much to me since our fight about a week ago on the soccer field, but I think it is more to do with his upcoming tournament than him still being sulky.

While I lazed on my bed, my dad put his efforts into cleaning the house. He was so into it that the vacuum cleaner hadn’t been turned off for a few hours now. Amongst the chaotic thunderous noise of the antique vacuum cleaner and an equally chaotic room, I lay in disbelief, as more and more questions churned into existence in my mind.

Two days prior, when Emma wanted to ask me for help, how did she know that I was there in that park? Was it a coincidence? I think not.

And what about the fact that Nathan casually said he would go to a website and simply do something about the refund? I mean, he might’ve been referring to some sort of cancellation of the tickets and getting a refund, but my intuition said otherwise.

Hm… the very existence of the Millers family was a mystery and so was everything associated with it.

Wait, if that’s true, since I am also associated with the Millers, am I mysterious and weird as well? What if I am, and I don’t even realize it?

The doorbell rang and my dad finally turned the vacuum cleaner off and got the door. “Annie, your friend is here for you!” He yelled from the living room.

Steve?

I rushed to the door and found Emma standing there, with a warm smile on her face. “Hi Annie.” She greeted me.

“Today’s my birthday. There’s a little dinner party at my place tonight, so I came to invite you. My brother will come pick you up.” Without waiting for a reply, she left.

***

I fidgeted nervously, waiting for Steve to pick me up.

As per our plan, he was to be at my home by 6 pm, but because of other unforeseen complications, I changed it to 7. The complication, a.k.a my dad, was suddenly overprotective of me because I was going to my boyfriend’s house. He spent about 30 minutes drilling the fact that if Steve tried something funny, he would skin my boyfriend alive.

I turned to my dad, who flinched and looked away when our eyes met. Then he started staring at the vehicles on the road as if he was trying to avoid an uncomfortable situation… He wasn’t very successful at that. The air was already heavy with tension. And my dad’s upcoming meeting with Steve didn’t help ease it.

My dad took an audibly loud breath and then said, “Annie… um, don’t you think maybe you should get yourself a jacket? It looks like it’s going to be a cold night.”

“Nope, I’m fine this way,” I replied with a shrug. To be honest, taking a jacket with me would be a rational decision, considering I wore a sleeveless black top and light blue jeans. If the night indeed got cold, it would be an annoyance. But I didn’t want to spoil my appearance either. Not that this was anything incredible, it looked decent and wearing a jacket would just make it bland.

“You’ll catch a cold.” He said, making a point.

“I know. But I have nothing that matches.”

“The blue jacket would look good.”

“First off, that’s not a jacket, it’s a sweatshirt. And second, no, it won’t go along with this dress. It’s an oversized sweatshirt.”

“You’d look really cute in that, though!” He tried.

“Dad, I don’t want to look like I’m drowning in that sweatshirt . Drop that, won’t you?” I annoyed-ly responded.

He quieted down for some time. “You never told me what Steve is like.”

I paused, trying to process the sudden question. After sorting my thoughts, I answered. “He is nice. Kind. Handsome. And rich.”

“He’s rich?” He repeated, with obvious distaste in his voice.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Very,” I said with confidence.

Dad took a long look at me and sighed. Rubbing his temples, he continued, “Whatever. I’ll still screw him over if he makes you even slightly uncomfortable.”

It wasn’t until much later that I remembered that this wasn’t a date with Steve, instead it was Emma’s birthday party.

Soon, a car stopped in front of our house. Steve stepped out, wearing an elegant black suit, paired with black shoes. His silky blond hair combed backward, unlike his usual ‘Too-lazy-to-comb-let-the-hair-go-brrrr’. The clean-shaved face, missing the prior peachy strands of facial hair that I was used to, looked cuter than ever. The boy walked towards us and greeted my dad first with a polite but confident handshake and threw a glance my way.

He put his heart into this. Even the smell of his perfume emitted an aura of dignity. His attire showed just how serious he was about impressing my dad.

Hmm, looks like the gods have planned on making me lose my v-card today. Sorry dad, it probably will be me who is going to try something funny.

My dad took Steve’s hand, gripping it firmly, making his assertion of dominance painfully obvious. “I have heard a great many things about you, Steve.”

“That’s nice to hear. Thank you.” He said politely, albeit sounding a tad bit nervous.

Before my father could say anything further, I interrupted, “Um, dad, we need to be going. See you later.”

My dad’s face immediately drooped into a melancholic expression.

God, he is such a drama queen.

I grabbed Steve by his hand and walked to the car. Dad followed us to the car and before we drove off, he simply finished with, “Keep my daughter safe. And I want her to be back by 10.”

On our arrival at the Millers residence the gates opened automatically when the car got closer. I shuddered slightly, remembering the past incident, but this time we passed without a problem. The car stopped in the driveway and Steve insisted on opening the car door for me. He was trying to show his ‘chivalry’, apparently.

The driveway curved and opened onto the doorstep of a majestic house, so big it took up the totality of my field of vision. Following the driveway further, it led away from the house, where a pretty enormous building stood, which I assumed to be the garage. There were multiple other buildings on the other side of the garage, but before I could bother myself with trying to deduce their utility, Steve ushered me into his house.

The entrance itself was as big as my house, after which I decided to not pay much attention to the place, for I too was prone to envy. I followed Steve in a daze, parallelly reminding myself of all the questions I needed to ask Emma.

After we arrived, Steve introduced me to his family sitting at the huge dining table.

And weirdly, there was absolutely no one else, other than their family. Wasn’t this supposed to be a birthday party or something?

After some wishes to Emma and a cake cutting ceremony (that’s what the royalty call it, apparently), we went on to have dinner. It was the most extravagant and delicious meal I have ever had in my entire life. Period.

The dinner dragged on for a while. Even after the dinner was over we sat at the table and talked about various things. Well, they talked.

It felt less like a birthday party and more like a family reunion. The way they talked to each other made my doubts even more concrete.

The family consisted of six people, but only five of them were at the table for dinner.

The father of the family is a big man, who showed his love for beer as he chugged mug after mug of it, filling his round belly until he reeked of it. Occasionally he cracked an authentic dad joke and then gave the rest a huge smile with a puffed chest and expectant eyes waiting for someone to laugh, like a dog waiting for its owner to pet it. Sadly, no one would. After several such failed attempts and multiple mugs of beer, the dad laid his bald head on the table and instantly started snoring.

The mother of the family was quite the opposite. From her meek voice to her slight gestures and the way she did absolutely everything screamed lady-like. Apparently she cooked the luxurious meal herself, which came as a surprise. Given the huge mansion I expected them to have butlers and maids, like the royalty. My disappointment aside, the mother was a great cook. And she looked amazing too!

She literally ticked all the boxes for proper wifey material. Hot, mature and kind woman that probably looks 10 years younger than her actual age. An amazing cook. A caring mom. What is stopping guys from not lining up for her?

Being married? Don’t make me laugh.

The younger sister, Emma, sat beside me and was the most talkative during the dinner. Most of it was taunting her twin brother for being useless and trying her best to know how far down me and Steve were in our relationship. One interesting thing was when her dad asked her about how her school went, she somehow steered that conversation into the parents telling Steve and I to practice safe sex. That girl was as manipulative as one could get.

Her twin brother, Eric, was… the exact opposite of Emma.

Eric was a quiet, nonchalant boy that pretended to be listening to the conversation, when in fact he wasn't. Even his appearance said that he wasn't all that interested to be present at the table. He showed up in sweatpants and a faded green tee with orange smudges all over it.

Eric was so uninterested that when he was dragged into the conversation by Emma, he mostly killed the topic after a dry and concise answer, trying his damn hardest to not utter a single extra syllable than necessary. Hm… this kid's personality is a little too reminiscent of yours truly. Is he my real soulmate?

Ugh, why is my mind like this?

There was a momentary discussion about the absent elder brother, Adam, but just like I was unaware of why he didn't show up, their family was too. They didn't even know when the last time they saw him was. Eventually, that topic ended when the father said that he would make a call later.

Throughout the dinner, I saw Steve staring at me from the corner of my eye, but he would turn away when our eyes met.

Eventually the dinner ended and Emma pulled me into her room, telling everyone else that she needed to talk to me about something. Locking the door behind us, she sat me down on a chair in her dimly lit room.

Emma then turned on her computer and proceeded to show me the surveillance footage of that day without saying a word.

The video started with me beginning to climb the gate. And then, just like I had remembered, an invisible force pushed me away.

In the peripheral view I saw Emma tense up.

After I was knocked out… a similarly invisible force lifted me off the ground? Then it continued to carry me out of frame.

“Why did you check the surveillance footage?” I broke the silence that settled upon the room since the video ended.

“I thought I heard something, so I decided to check the footage… And then I found this.” Emma replied gloomily.

Both of us fell silent again.

“Annie, it’s 9:30.” I heard Steve’s muffled voice through the door.

Steve drove me back home after I bid my farewell to the family and a really awkward handshake with Eric about which he was skeptically insistent.

“You are not mad at me anymore, right?” Steve asked on the way home.

“Well, I am.” I replied. Steve’s face became unpleasant suddenly. “You told me nothing about this dinner thing earlier today.”

“I didn’t know about it until 5.30 either. Emma insisted that I needed to pick you up, and when I asked why, then she told me about the dinner plan and how everyone else was coming too. ”

After a few minutes Steve spoke again, “My family isn’t as weird as you pictured it to be, right?”

I nodded my head in agreement.

“See, I told you. You were worried about nothing.”

We reached home by 9.40 and my boyfriend left after some small talk with my father, which was basically my father making sure I had no complaints with Steve and threatening Steve in advance for further dates.

After my boyfriend left, my dad sat me down and told me he needed to talk.

He turned on his laptop and presented me with a newspaper article on a website dated from 19 years ago.

The article read:

Shocking Murder Shakes Mellston Town: Alleged Culprit Surrenders, Links to Infamous 'Gain Gang' Leader

By Carl Pearsi, Mellston Gazette Staff Writer | August 9, 1992

Mellston Town — In a startling turn of events, a gruesome murder unfolded in a quiet alley of Mellston Town yesterday, leaving the community both baffled and relieved. William Miller, 26, walked into the local police station and surrendered himself, confessing to a murder. The police suspect the murdered individual to be the notorious leader of the 'Gain Gang,' Dominic "The Gainsman" Rossi. The incident occurred in District Whisperbruk, where the Gain Gang had held the region under its sinister grip for the past six years. Authorities have yet to release the specific cause of death but confirmed that the victim had suffered fatal injuries.

Law enforcement officials are currently interrogating Mr. Miller to determine the motives behind his actions. While the Gain Gang had been responsible for a series of heinous crimes, ranging from racketeering to extortion, the specifics of what led Mr. Miller to allegedly kill the unidentified individual are unknown. Authorities are actively investigating the matter and have yet to confirm the accuracy of Miller's confession. Meanwhile, the district remains on edge, awaiting further updates from the police regarding the true motives behind the murder that has shaken Mellston Town to its core.

The 'Gain Gang,' which controlled the Whisperbruk district through fear and intimidation, had managed to evade capture by local law enforcement for years. The Sheriff said, “If the unidentified individual happens to be Dominic Rossi, either the gang's reign of terror might finally be over, or the district might have to face the repercussions from the remnants of the gang.”