Heartbreak hotel

Chapter 13

Soren thought things were calm, a little too calm for his liking. Was this the signature calm before the storm? Since the beginning of the month, it was always one thing after the other, first his dreams, then the Romeros’ appearing at their doorstep at three am, and then it was followed by Ravi being an odd little thing, but what next? When would the shoe drop?

To make matters worse, Soren had recently received some good news. By July 20th, the Romeros had promised to be out of their shoes. This had just been learnt as everyone ate their dinner in Alex and Nathaniel’s home.

And so, he concluded, this definitely had to be the calm before the storm.

“But as Rick put it, yes. We will be out of your hair by July 20th. The house just needs some deep renovations,” Roman said, taking a bite out of the mac and cheese Alex and Nathaniel had cooked, using a lot of cheese, and Soren meant a lot. He had never seen a portion of mac and cheese be more cheese than mac.

“You’ve had a home?” Wendy deadpanned, staring at her cheesy portion, before looking up at the two men in confusion. Her eyes eventually trailed back to the mac and cheese. She was bout to comment on it, but Thea elbowed her in the torso. She let out an oomph but decided not to say anything.

“What kind of question is-” Rick was interrupted by Ravi elbowing his uncle in the gut. The man glared at his nephew but decided he shouldn't have said anything, especially since Roman had taken over.

“Yes, we have a home. It’s just renovations that seem to be taking up the most amount of time, and with Ravi’s allergy to dust, we wouldn’t want the kid to suffer,” Roman added with a smile as he nodded over at Ravi. He sat on the couch beside Rick, staring at his mac and cheese.

“How thoughtful of you,” Luca muttered as he stabbed his portion of mac and cheese and stuffed his mouthful before taking a sip of the wine.

On the other hand, Ash was ready for a fight, which piqued Soren’s interest. He had always been curious about who would win between Rick and Ash. “So what I am hearing is that you’ve been crashing with us for the past three weeks for no good reason?”

Rick grinned, wagging his eyebrows at Luca, even though Ash had asked and replied, “You have loved having us around.”

Ash stared at him blankly. “You’ve clinically made my anxiety worse.”

The conversation died down soon after, and people began talking within their groups or with whoever was sitting closest to them; unfortunately, Ravi had been closest to him, and he had tried to strike up a conversation a few times, but when Soren didn’t reciprocate he sighed and gave up and instead began talking to Midnight, Royal and Isaiah who was also on the ground with them near the door, a few feet away. Silas and Soren had a mutual understanding that at family dinner, the two would just sit beside one another in silence and be allowed to ponder. It was an odd understanding. He was aware of that.

But when the two spent every single minute of every single day together, they needed time alone to think through their emotions and feelings. For some reason, they agreed that it would be family dinner time.

Soren’s topic of thought today was Scar. He was trying to figure out what about the man terrified him so much, and he had slowly learned it wasn’t only Scar he was somewhat afraid of. Rick, Roman, and Luca were also there. He concluded that maybe he was just scared of men, but that theory didn’t pan out, as he wasn’t afraid of either of his fathers or Silas. He found himself to be most comfortable around him.

After contemplating and awkwardly being caught staring at Luca, Scar, Rick and Roman multiple times, the thought came to him. The common denominator all the men shared was that they could snap him like a f*****g twig. That was it. He knew, realistically, the chances of any of them taking a swing at him were minuscule, but that didn’t change the fact that when he was younger, grown men two or even three times his size would use him as a punching bag.

Sebastian stood up, clapping his hands as he looked down at Ash, who had devoured his plate of food, “I am taking my family out for dessert, and no, Silas. You’re not coming along. Love you, kid, but take a breather from Soren. Come on, kid, we're picking up your sister along the way.”

Soren finished his plate of food despite the ridiculous amount of cheese. That was the best mac and cheese he had ever had. He nodded at Silas before following his father out of the house, not so subtly avoiding Scar sitting near the foyer entrance.

~*~