Repeat and Retribution

Chapter 23

“What happened and what are you wearing!” her mom’s voice was stern and deep, hands on her hips as they walked into the eatery.

Crystal was wearing Larse’s shirt and jersey shorts along with a pair of flip-flops, holding a black plastic bag were she put all her wet stuff. Luckily, her things didn’t get that wet from the incident.

“Hi mom,” she just greets her with a low voice, then gives her a kiss on the cheeks when she finally got close.

Knowing her mother she was probably thinking of something else, specially seeing a man with her. It was the same reaction as before during her old time line, when she introduced Clyde to them.

“Good afternoon mrs. Aimely,” Larse politely greeted, giving out his warmest smile.

If she didn’t know the man, she would have been melted by it, since the man seem to be using all his charms right now.

Yet, her mother seems unaffected by it. “And who is this young man?” she says, hands still on her waist, eyebrows furrowed and lips straight.

“Mom, this is Larse, my classmate,” she introduces, which makes her mothers brows rise up.

“You haven’t answered my question, what happened and what are you wearing,” the woman asks once more this time her tone was much slower and deep.

Sensing that Crystals immediately did her best impression of a poor little child. “Someone spilled a bucket of water while I was walking by, can you believe that,” she pouted.

That quickly changed her mothers face, her eyes went from timid to round and she had this now angry shocked look on her face.

“What! How can someone be so stupid!” Her voice boomed at the thought, seeing as how Crystal hair was still a bit wet.

“Thankfully, Larse had an extra set of clothes with him. So I managed to shower and changed at school,” she explains while gesturing to the clothes that she was wearing.

She really didn’t have much choice as it was the only clothes Larse had that didn’t looked so revealing, plus it was big enough to cover almost her entire body, since the man was quite taller than her.

“Oh my god, my poor girl.” her mother bawled, hugging her tight.

Crystal ended up tapping her mom as she was looking like a big baby in front of the man.

“We’ll, c’mon in then, I bet the two of you are hungry,” her mother signals them to follow her inside.

The man quickly obliged as the two of them got inside the eatery. It was already late afternoon and there were already a lot of people coming and going because of the rush hour, a lot of the table’s were already occupied, so they ended up taking Larse into the kitchen.

“Larse, have a seat, I’ll prepare something for you,” she says to the man.

“No thank you, I’m still good,” the man says patting his stomach.

“Oh, don’t be shy now, sit, sit!” her mother grab on to the boy, forcing him to take a seat at the worn down table were they prepared the food.

Crystal quickly cleaned it up, as there were still pieces of cut vegetable, plates and cups. The man seemed so out of place right now because of his size and looks. It was like a model was suddenly thrust into an old worn down kitchen. Yet, the man seemed a bit flustered, there was no denying that he had an air on him as he sat straight but quietly on his chair, chatting with his mother once in a while whenever there was a chance.

Several of the helper there couldn't help but look take a peek once in a while at him, making Crystal giggle at the attention the man was getting. She hurriedly put on a change of clothes that her mother usual had for her then immediately puts on an apron.

“Just wait for me there okay,” she says to the man as Larse had managed to stay comfortable in his chair when he saw her.

Knowing that Crystal manages to focus her full attention to whipping up a full meal for the man, as a means to show his appreciation for what he did a while ago.

Her hands were quick, precise and fast as she began chopping the spring onions, garlic, bell pepper. Larse could not help but stay still, amazed at what he was seeing, it was like watching a cooking show as Crystal began tossing the ingredients, pinching, mixing and tossing some of the large woks.

A piping hot garlic fried rice was done in an instant, along with a serving of beef sisig and spicy sweet adobo, she then returns to the man with a full tray of her cooking.

“Here, try these, these are my specialty,” she proudly says placing the food one by one in front of the young man whom was having a glass of ice cold soda.

Larse smiled. “Oh, really?” His eyes kept glued to Crystal.

“Mom, you need any help?” she looks back outside to check on them, making sure it was okay for her to slack off for a bit.

It was already rush hour and she was sure that several of their local patrons and regulars would be coming in any moment now.

“No, no, you just take care of your friend, were good here.” Her mom waves from the counter as she was busy manning the cashier.

Seeing as everything was still good she then joins Larse at the table.

“Wow, your parents run this place?” Larse says as he was now taking a spoonful of the garlic rice.

“Yes, my mom does, my dad drives a jeep and usually come’s here before we close up,” she tells him.

“Oh, wow,” Larse nodded.

Feeling that the food was not enough, Crystal then goes back to the kitchen to get a fresh set of wrapped vegetable cover with nutty sweet garlic sauce.

“Here, you should definitely try this, It’s our specialty,” she says smiling at the man as she placed the side dish along with all the other food that she prepared.

“Okay!” Larse did not hesitate for a bit as he started digging in.

Crystal could not help the feeling of feathers inside her chest as she watches the young man gobble up and enjoy every bit of food that she had prepared.

It was the first time in her current life time that she actually managed to cook for someone other than her parents and the feeling was exhilarating and fulfilling the same time.

“Uhm, Larse, I’ll just leave you for a bit okay, I just need to help out for a while, will you be okay here?” she asks when she noticed the number of people starting to gather outside.

“Sure, don’t worry about me,” Larse just nods smiling.

“Okay, thanks, eat as much as you want, all right!” she taps his shoulder.

She was surprised when all of a sudden a jolt of electricity course through her when they touched. She could not explain the sudden rush and the heat she felt when she noticed how the man was looking at her, cheeks puffed from all the food in his mouth.

Larse looked so innocent, cute and funny at the same time, thought she could not help the sudden thumping inside her chest seeing a whole different side of him right now.

She just shrugs it off as she wanted to not lose focus as she was needed by her mom. Rushing outside she begins taking orders and helping send out food one by one until finally the crowd had subsided.

When she came back Larse was quietly cleaning up his table as he had finished eating all of the food she had prepared.

“Sorry I took a while, rush hours usually like this,” she says feeling a bit flustered for leaving him.

“So, is this where you also live?” Larse asks looking around the place as she sat beside him.

Crystal could not deny the fact that their eater were quite worn down, several of the walling were already breaking down, so were some of the tiles and the kitchen isn’t really restaurant grade either. Yet, she didn’t feel that ashamed of it now, unlike in her previous life. Now she had managed to see the value of it since this was the place that was actually their bread and butter.

“Nope, our house’s a few streets from here, but I usually go straight here afters school to help out,” she says a matter of fact as their little home wasn’t really far off from there.

“Yeah, I noticed a lot of the customers know you,” Larse chuckled before chugging a glass of water.

“Just the regulars,” she tells him.

“Crystal!” A deep, loud voiced boomed inside the whole kitchen.

Startling the two of them as they looked both looked at were it came from. Within the doorway was standing his father, eyes glaring and face dark and brooding while looking at Larse.

She immediately sense the reason for that, since she was sitting quite close to the young man. So, she immediately stands to meet his dad.

“Dad!” she says in her most sweet and cheerful way as she gives him a peck on the cheeks.

“Who’s this?” her father asks, eyes still sharp while looking at the young man from head to toe.

Larse quickly noticed that and immediately stood up from his chair, all smile but still a bit shaken.

“This is my friend Larse,” she introduces him.

“Good evening sir,” Larse quickly comes forwards giving out his hand.

“Good evening,” her father answers back giving him a firm handshake.

“Pa!” Her mom quickly come running in from outside greeting the man. “Your daughter had a rough day at school today, someone threw water at her,” she says in a frantic voice.

“No mom, it was just an accident,” Crystal quickly intervened.

“Are sure?” Her father turns to her, frowning.

“Yes dad, don’t worry about it,” she grabs unto his fathers arm, assuring him that everything was all right at school.

She didn’t want to have them worry like that, knowing full well how protective her parents were.

“Luckily, this fine young man help her and brought her home,” her mother says once again gesturing her hands to Larse.

That somehow quickly removed the shadow that was looming in her father’s eye, his face quickly became much more bright and peaceful as he smiled.

“Have you eaten young man?” he nods at him.

“Yes sir, the food’s really delicious,” Larse quickly answers, looking quite relieved at the changed in mood of the older man.

“You should try our sisig and adobo, it’s one of the best,” her father says cheerfully as he pats Larse shoulders.

“He already has dad,” Crystal just says.

“Uhm, Crys, I better get going,” Larse says pointing to his watch.

It was only then that she noticed that it was already seven o'clock, Larse had basically been there the whole day.

“Oh, yes, of course. Mom, dad,” she quickly turns to her parents to get their attention as the two were already having a conversation.

“Sir, mam, I’ll be going on ahead, thank you very much for the food, it was really delicious,” Larse said as her parents faced them.

“Oh, you’re not going to have dessert?”

“I’d love to, but I really have to go, thank you,” Larse politely says, bowing his head.

“I’ll just walk Larse back,” Crystal says as she remembered that the man parked his car quite some distance away from there.

“All right, you take care now,” her mother says all smiles being very pleased with the young man.

“Thank you mam,” Larse says back.

“Come see us again sometime,” Her father then waves at him.

“Of course sir,” Larse nods.

After saying their goodbye’s Crystal walks the man back to his car to make sure he didn’t get into any trouble, knowing how their place was quite notorious for it with people not from there.

“I hope you liked the food,” she says.

“Definitely, I haven’t had a good home cooked meal like that in a long time,” Larse chuckled, patting his somewhat bulging stomach.

“Next time you come here, I’ll prepare something more special for you,” she assures him as she was quite happy that the man had enjoyed her food.

Larse eyes seemed to have brightened even more upon hearing that. “Really!”

“Of course!” she assures him.

“I’ll look forward to it then,” Larse says in a very cheerful tone.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she says as they were already in front of the man’s car.

Larse was somewhat quite for a while, looking back and forth. As if he had something in his mind, eventually he just shrugs his shoulder before looking back at her.

“Okay, tomorrow!” he says scratching his head before getting in his car.

There was a sudden awkwardness in the air as the man seemed to have forgotten to tell her something. He seemed somewhat drained of life while riding his car.

Crystal waited until the Larse had managed to get inside the vehicle.

“You drive safely now!” she waves at him as he was starting to drive off.

That somewhat made Larse color return as he looked back at her. His smile was back to that cheerful as Crystal saw him off.

She let out a deep sigh while she held her chest, as she looked at the car drive off from there. She couldn’t deny the sudden fluttering that she was feeling now, that somewhat made her worry as it seems her young bodies hormones and emotions are starting to take over.