| Fan Fiction |
by DTLCT
Charmaine smiles. “How quick of you to help Kevin cover up.”
“I wish I haven't,” Mandy said, getting in a slightly sitting position. “Now he thinks I like him. Even worse, we may have to play along a little more in front of his aunt.”
Charmaine comes over to sit next to Mandy. “Well, do you?” She drops the two grocery bags on the floor.
“Do I what?” Mandy asked lazily, her eyes closed with her right hand covering her head.
Charmaine smiles. “Do you like Kevin?”
Mandy opens her eyes, sitting straight up with the support of her elbows. “We just know him today.”
Charmaine smiles wider, her eyes full of mischief. “So? You can still like him.”
“No way! He reminds me of my little god-brother too much. You can have him if you want.”
Charmaine grabs the two bags again, getting up. “No thanks. He already has his eyes for you.”
Mandy kicks her shoes off and lays lazily on the couch since Charmaine already got up, leaving more space for her. “Whatever.” She closes her eyes again, covering it with her right arm.
“You want to take a shower first or me?”
“You can go first. I'll rest a bit more.”
Charmaine leaves the room, leaving Mandy lying there. She goes to the kitchen and puts the grocery in the fridge and drawers. Then she goes into her room to get clothes and towels, heading to the bathroom next door.
After half an hour, Charmaine comes back in her blue pajamas outfit and a yellow towel in her right hand, still drying her hair. She discovers that Mandy had fallen asleep, her hands dropping to her sides.
“I'll wake her up early tomorrow for a quick shower,” Charmaine mumbled to herself.
With that said, she goes into Mandy's room, finding a small blanket to cover Mandy up. When she's done with that, she leaves to go brush her teeth and head for her room.
*****
After they said goodnight to the others, they go inside. Ray's trying to close and lock the door with his right hand while supporting Kevin with his left. He had tossed the grocery bag aside near the door when Alice handed him the bag earlier. Kevin brushes Ray's hand off and walks towards the kitchen. Ray stops in the middle of bolting the locks to look at Kevin, surprised. He turns around to finish locking the door again after seeing that Kevin's okay on his own. He picks up the grocery bag and walks to the kitchen to join Kevin when he's done. He puts the grocery away while still observing Kevin with suspicious eyes.
Ray sits on the opposite side of the kitchen table from Kevin when he’s done with the task. “That…” He stops for emphasis and points his right index finger at Kevin. “…was cunning, man.”
Kevin grins. “It was nothing.” He opens one of the two soda cans he took from the fridge before saying, “But seeing her face so annoyed was priceless.” He takes a sip out of his can after that.
Ray holds his soda can in hand and waves it at Kevin. “You're going to pay for that later, my friend.”
Kevin shrugs. He gets up and walks to the fridge, rummaging around for something to eat.
Ray takes another sip out of his soda can. “So...what really happened? How come you got back so late?”
Kevin sets out some stuff he found in the fridge on the table. He begins to make a sandwich and tells Ray the story from the point after they got into the elevator.
“Whoa!” Ray exclaimed after Kevin’s finished. “A secret compartment, huh? Who would put it there?”
Kevin shrugs, chewing at the same time.
Ray pokes his spoon into the ice-cream that he had been eating. “Does it lead to anywhere?”
“How should I know? I was trying to get out of their before I suffocate. Besides, it was too dark to see anything in that place.”
“Mandy was the only one to know you're missing? Impressive.” He nods his head and waves his hand.
Kevin swallows his last bite before answering. “Yup. She's so observant. Even in the dark.”
Ray leans towards Kevin and points his spoon in Kevin's face. “Or…” He draws out his voice for emphasis, “…she's into you.” He then adds some mystery into his voice as he says, “You'll just wait and see.”
Kevin gets up and begins to clean the mess in front of him. “You sound like some horror movie narrator.”
Ray doesn't say anything but just smiles. He goes back to finishing his ice-cream as Kevin's putting the bread bag and mayonnaise bottle back into the fridge.
“You wash the dishes while I go brush my teeth,” Ray said, getting up and putting both his bowl and Kevin's plate into the sink.
Kevin closes the fridge and turns to look at Ray. “Hey! You gotta be kidding. I just got injured. I need to go rest.”
Ray takes a quick glance at Kevin. “You look fine to me.” Ray begins to walk towards the bathroom, leaving Kevin standing there, staring at him. He turns around halfway through. “And I'm doing this one for Mandy.” He turns towards his destination and continues on his way again.
Kevin smiles after that and goes over to the sink to wash the dishes.
Ray comes back in 10 minutes when Kevin's done washing dishes. “We'll finish Ms. Wu's project tomorrow and start on Mr. Cho's. I already drew out another draft of the design for it while you were gone. I'll show you tomorrow. You can add on to it and then we can show it to Mr. Cho.”
Kevin nods. “All right then.”
They go to their own room. Kevin takes his white towel from the closet and heads for the bathroom, taking a quick shower before going to bed.
*****
Alice speaks up after Wallace closed and locked the door.
“Ge, do you want to eat anything?” Alice asked. “I'm tired.”
“I'll cook when I get out from a shower,” Wallace said. “You can go study.” He walks by her to go to his room, ruffling her hair with his right hand in the process.
Alice settles on the sofa, stretching a bit before opening one of the books on the coffee table. She feels relief that she already study half of the morning so she won't have to study much now.
Wallace gets out of the shower half an hour later and starts to make dinner – or more like a late night meal.
In about an hour, Wallace sets the table and puts the food on it.
“Alice!” Wallace called out, wiping his hand on a kitchen towel at the same time. “Time to eat.”
Alice doesn't respond. Wallace walks over to her side and realizes that she had dozed off. He shakes her lightly.
“What?” Alice asked groggily.
“Food's ready,” Wallace answered. “You have to eat a bit before you go to sleep.”
Alice's still drowsy but still gets up slowly, stretching. “Ge! It smells soooo good.” She snaps wide awake and runs to the dining table next to the kitchen, her energy miraculously recovered.
Wallace smiles at his sister's sudden alertness and joins her at the table. They eat in silence for a few minutes.
“Ge, where did you learn to cook so good?” Alice asked.
“When you and Mom left for the U.S., I had to do things myself,” Wallace said. “So I learned a lot of new things, cooking for once.”
Alice smiles. “I'm so lucky that I come back in time to enjoy all your dishes.”
Wallace stands up to get a thermos of lemonade he made earlier from the fridge. He pours it into two glasses and hands Alice one.
“What did you do all these years after Mom and I left?” Alice continued with her questions.
“Finished school and worked for Ying Ying's Investment until now.”
“No girlfriend?”
Wallace shakes his head.
“Awww...When am I going to see you married? I want a sister-in-law!”
“Whatever happens will happen.”
“Ge, you can't sit around and wait for fate. You have to find that someone yourself.”
Wallace continues to eat in silence, thinking about something.
“Ge, did I say something wrong?” Alice asked, her voice low and serious.
Wallace looks up at her. “No. I was just thinking about something from work.”
Alice knows that Wallace doesn't want to tell her yet, so she doesn't want to pursue further. She lets out a sigh of relief, pretending that she's okay now since it's not her fault. She smiles across the table at him to which he returns it with a smile of his own.
They continue the rest of the meal without talking. Alice helps Wallace clears the table after that. He washes the dishes while she dries them and puts them back on the rack.
“Ge, I really like our new neighbors,” Alice said as she’s drying a plate. “I mean my new neighbors since you'd been living here five years already. You should know them longer.”
Wallace hands her another plate. “Actually, it's my first time talking to them. I mean Kevin and Ray. I think Charmaine and Mandy helped made that happen. Since they were the ones going around, greeting the neighbors this afternoon.”
“What? You're serious that you haven't talk to those two although you live near them for five years now? I would go crazy if I didn't talk to my neighbors for that long. Thanks to Charmaine and Mandy then. They're nice. And friendly too.”
“I think they broke the building’s routine already. Wonder what will happen next.”
“What do you mean? What routine?”
Wallace hands Alice a pan. “The building's routine is ‘To each his own.’ It's their motto too. It's like saying, ‘Leave me alone and I'll leave you alone.’ Or ‘Don't bother me! I don't want to socialize with you.’”
Alice giggles. “That's so funny. Ge, you haven't change much.”
“Go ask the neighbors and you'll be surprised.”
Alice smiles. “I'll do just that tomorrow after exams.”
Wallace turns the water off and uses a rag nearby to clean the water marks around the sink area. Alice puts the pan on the big rack to the right of the dishes rack and then hangs the towel she'd been using on the sides for it to dry.
Wallace walks over to the dining table, grabs the lemonade thermos, and puts it back into the fridge.
“Ge, I'm really beat now,” Alice told her brother. “I'm going to get ready for bed.”
“All right.”
Alice heads towards the bathroom to brush her teeth.
Wallace walks over to the living and organizes Alice's books. He uses a piece of magazine as a marker for one of her opened books. After he's done piling the books to one side, he snaps off the lights in front and goes to his room.
Alice appears at his door a minute later. “Goodnight, ge.”
“Goodnight, sis.”
He walks to the bathroom to brush his teeth and goes to bed too.
© Saturday, April 7th, 2007
Re-posted: Friday, October 9th, 2009