17 Chapter 17 - Saw It All (2/2)

There was no answer. After a moment of debate, he finally opened the door and found it empty. c.r.a.p. His eyes wandered over to the empty chest. He saw…Stop it!

Shaking his head, he set the food down and sighed. This was going to get weird now. Grabbing his plate, he sat at his desk and began to study the rune. He was determined to be ready for the party. That wasn't a conversation he wanted to have with his dad. Both of them would have died from embarra.s.sment.

Five minutes later, he still hadn't managed to get started. She returned, keeping her eyes down. She was still beet red.

Ah, shavist! Were her eyes puffy? That meant she had been crying, right? He didn't have a clue what to say. Maybe it would be best to just ignore it.

”Um, there's your breakfast,” he said, looking up to see her already holding it. Well, c.r.a.p. Glad to see he could make this even more awkward.

”Thank you,” she replied, sitting down to eat.

He went back to looking at the rune. Five minutes later he was no closer than when he started. She was sitting there, not moving. Her food was untouched.

c.r.a.p, even the silence was awkward. This was like sitting next to a bomb about to go off at any minute.

”Um, you've been doing really well in etiquette cla.s.ses. The teacher even told father about how well your progress was.”

”Thank you for noti…cing…” her words faltered at the end, and Joseph felt like face palming. Somehow the standard polite thank you from the etiquette cla.s.s meant so much more today. The conversation stalled again.

Sighing, he turned to her. Her eyes were trying to stare a hole in the floor.

”We are having a big supper tonight; would you like to help with the food? I'm sure the cooks in the kitchen would greatly appreciate the help.”

”Thank you.” She was out the door, before the words had finished pa.s.sing her lips. It was almost as if the carriage was on fire.

”See you later,” he said, turning back to his rune, then froze. She had frozen as well, on the step just outside the door.

Shavist!! See you later??? What was he thinking??

She darted off like a terrified rabbit; he banged his head down on his desk. Why couldn't he have said something like, 'go and come back safely', or 'until dinner', but 'see you later'?!

It was another thirty minutes before he was able to calm down and focus again. His mind finally on the rune, he didn't stop until he was done. There was only ten minutes before she came back to inform him that it was time for supper.

Neither of them could make eye contact. He really hoped this ended soon. Fortunately, the excitement about casting his first spell gave him something else to focus on. Making sure he had the paper with FOOD inscribed on it from Stu. It would be better if the modified TEST FOOD was inscribed, but the plain FOOD would work. He knew the difference, so, it would work, even if it was a little poor on efficiency.

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