Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Chapter 3: The Dinner

Clunk clunk, went the doorknocker as Kris, Jay, and their mother stood outside, which was quickly opened by a tall woman with brown hair.
“Ah, you must be Kris,” she said looking down at him as she let them in, “and you must be his mother,” she said, taking the cake from her, but I don’t think I’ve heard of you before,” she said looking down at Jay.
“I’m Jay,” he said in his sweetest fake voice he could make.
“Wow, nice house,” said Kris.
And indeed it was. With walls covered in photos, furniture that looked like it came right out of the magazines, and even better was the smell that was coming from the kitchen.
“It better,” she said sarcastically, “it took us two weeks to paint the place.” She said as she set the cake on the table.
“What’s that great smell,” Kris asked as the smell got stronger in scent as they moved to the dining room.
“That’s the spaghetti,” she said, walking into the kitchen. “Jessica told me that you liked to cook, is that true,” she asked, stirring the sauce all the while.
“Yes,” he said politely, “it helps me with some stress, and the scents of what I cook help me concentrate on other things and help calm me when I’m in a bad mood.”
“Makes sense,” she said, “when did you start cooking?”
“Well, I’ve always wanted to cook,” he said truthfully, “but I never got the chance till I was about ten. Before that, I was always told to get out of the kitchen when someone was cooking,” he said, remembering all those Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter feasts that he wanted to help with, but never got the chance to.
“Well that’s life,” she said, looking consoling to him. “I mean, how would you like if Jay wanted to help you?”
“I would tell him that he could help by getting out of the way,” he said, laughing.
“Mom, have you seen my, oh,” said Jessica, who had just walked into the kitchen in a green bath towel, soaking wet “you’re here already,” she said, turning scarlet once again.
“Er, yeah,” said Kris, quickly looking away. “Why don’t I just go into the living room so I could get out of the way.”
“NO!” said her mother in a quick voice, grabbing Kris by the arm. “I mean,” she said, quickly letting go, “could you watch the food while I go help Jessica find something?”
“Um, sure,” he had said stepping towards the stove.
“Thanks,” she said, taking her daughter out of the kitchen.
“Why didn’t you tell me they were here?!” he over heard one of them say. “I don’t know, I forgot you weren’t finished yet,” said the other, making Kris unwillingly smile.
“You better not burn the food,” said a snappish voice behind him. When Kris turned around he saw Jennifer standing there once more.
“Don’t worry Jennifer,” he said as he turned back around to turn the burner off, “I won’t—“
“Who said we were on a first name basis?” she asked snappishly.
“Well,” he said, with an air of common sense, “I would call you by your last name, but,” he said turning back around to face her, “I don’t know it yet.”
At this, Jennifer realized he was right and retreated back into the living room, muttering something that sounded a lot like “Smartass”.
A few minutes later, her mother came back into the kitchen with a smile that looked as if it were forced upon her. “Sorry about that,” she said, “Oh, did you add something to this?” she asked smelling the sauce.
“Yeah, I added a little seasoning to it,” he said, “it gives it a little stronger aroma and a little more of a kick.in the ta…oh no, I did it again!” he said furiously, hitting himself softly on the forehead.
“Did what again?” said the mother, looking at him both confused and amused at what he was doing.
“I did something without permission again,” he said in a sorrowful voice. “I’m really sorry, I should have asked first,” He said in a sorry voice, “it was just an instinct of mine to cook something that I usually do in the kitchen. I’ll be back,” he said, walking out of the kitchen and towards the living room, rummaging his pockets all the while.
Once he reached the living room, he pulled out a dollar and gave it to his mother, who was in a deep conversation about clothes to (according to her style) Sarah. “What did you do this time,” she asked, taking the dollar.
“I put seasoning in the sauce without permission.” He said with an apologetic and frustrated look on his face.
“What was the dollar for?” asked Sarah, looking both confused and amused at what was happening.
“You see,” said his mother, pocketing the dollar and turning to her, “when he does something like get in trouble at school, or something without permission, he has to give me a dollar. It was a lot more effective before he got a job though.”
“What about Jay,” she asked, curious about the new subject.
“Fifty cents,” she said.
“Dinner’s ready,” came the sound of the triplets’ mother.
As they approached the table, Kris spotted that there was no place for a father at the table. He guessed that the triplets’ mother was a single one, like his own mother, but did not mention it, figuring it rude.
When they sat down, he apologized once more to the mother for what happened in the kitchen. “Don’t be,” she answered back, still amused by the look of sorrow on his face for the little thing he did, “Actually, it tastes a lot better,” she admitted.
The rest of the people around the table shook their heads in agreement, even Jennifer, though it was hard to tell, for she kept looking down, hiding her face from view. “So,” said Jessica, breaking the silence, “why’d y’all move to New York?”
“Mom’s a courier, so we move from time to time,” Kris started out, “We just moved here cause the company she’s working for doesn’t have a branch out here, so she’s here to start one.”
“Yeah, but I promised the boys that this was the last time,” she said, looking at the boys through admiring eyes.
After a few minutes of clinking silverware and small conversations the triplets’ mother said, “Well, who’s ready for the dessert that Kris has prepared for us?”
“Oh,” said Kris suddenly, as they made their way to the living room to eat the cake, “there’s something you should know about the cake. You see, while I was baking it, somebody,” he said, looking over at Jay, who found a stain on his shirt somehow interesting and kept staring at it, “decided to plug in his radio and turn it on at max volume. In other words, part of the cake has collapsed on itself, but it should taste the same, just a little smaller and thicker.”
“It’s ok,” said Sarah.
“Yeah, we’re use to cakes like that,” Jessica said. “Besides,” she continued, passing the first slice around, “chocolate’s chocolate, right?”
“This ain’t so bad,” admitted Jennifer, taking a bite of her cake.
“Actually,” said the triplets mother, “this is better than mine,” she admitted.
“True,” said Jessica, who had a bit of frosting on her nose.
“Um, Jessica, you’ve got a bit of frosting on you,” he said, trying hard not to laugh with cake in his mouth.
“Where,” she asked, wiping her mouth with her napkin.
“No,” he said, swallowing the rest of the cake down and pointing at his nose, indicating where to wipe, but instead of wiping it off, she managed to smear across the bridge of her nose. “Here,” he said, taking his napkin and wiping her nose with it.
“Thanks,” she said, this time, instead of turning as red as her hair, she turned even brighter.
“No problem,” he said, smiling at the awkwardness of the situation.
“Well, we’d better get going,” said his mother, when the clock read ten o’clock. “We have to wake up early tomorrow so we can enroll you two into school for next week. Where’s the nearest high school from here?” she asked the triplets mother?
“Psst…Kris,” came Jessica’s voice, “I want to talk to you real quick,” she whispered, pointing to the stairs.
“Ok,” he said, sneaking out of the room so that no one would notice they weren’t there. “What’s up,” he asked, as they went up the stairs, stopping halfway up, and sat down on the stairs.
“It’s about Hannah,” she started, “it was really brave how you stood up for her like that, but,” she stopped, looking worried, “you don’t know what Carlos’s capable of,” she finished, “what if he did something really dangerous?”
“I’m glad that you’re worried about me and all, but I don’t care what happens to me, as long as the person I’m defending is ok,” he finished. “I mean, no girl should be treated like that, especially by a guy like that. I saw too much of that growing up, I don’t want to have to see it again, you know? Man, that was the cheesiest thing I’ve said all night, huh,” he said, smiling slightly.
“Heh, kinda,” she said, smiling weakly.
“Just, don’t worry about it, ok,” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder.
“I’ll try,” she said, before he heard the sounds of his mother calling for him. “Bye, I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?”
“This isn’t bye, it’s see ya later.” He said, helping her up, “ok, now that’s the cheesiest thing I’ve said all night,” he said, as they walked down the steps together.
“See ya later,” she said to him, as he and his family went down the steps and back up to their own apartment.
“Later,” he said back to her, as they walked inside and went to sleep for the first night in New York City.