For Your Dining
Pleasure
Ch.9
"Y'know you don't have to come if you don't want to." Remy told Rena.
"Yeah, I know," Rena snapped back at Remy as they made their way to the restaurant. Lynelle was waiting for them there.
"There you guys are!" she said as they walked into the kitchen. She always looked at Remy when she talked, Rena noticed. "Come on, let's get going!" she said hooking her arm with Remy's. She grinned at Rena as she did so, taunting her. Rena didn't care, she felt far away and detached from them both, her mind was still at her childhood home.
--
"Here it is!" Lynelle said as she walked through the large opened door. Remy looked around in awe as Lynelle rambled off little random facts about wine and Rena trailed behind, not paying attention to either of them.
After giving the grand tour Lynelle left Rena and Remy alone sitting on a pile of burlap sacs while she went to go get wine for them to sample.
"Hey Rena?" Remy said.
"Hmm?" Rena replied not looking at Remy.
"Are you okay?"
Rena felt a pang in her heart. He really cared; she thought to herself smiling for the first time that day, "Yeah, I've just been… thinking a lot."
"About what?"
"Home." she said getting a far away look in her eyes.
"Home?" Remy asked.
Before Rena got the chance to answer him Lynelle came back with various kinds of wine held in small bottles. "Here," she said handing some over to Remy, "this is one of my favorites." Remy took the wine and took a small sip. He commented on its delightful tartness and smooth feel as he handed the rest over to Rena. Rena held the bottle with both hands as she looked down into it. she watched her reflection in the dark purplish liquid. Looking at herself she realized how much prettier Lynelle was than her. She glanced up at Lynelle with her nicely groomed fine fur and sparkling eyes not like Rena's unruly mess of fur and dull gray eyes. She put her lips to the bottle and chugged down the rest of the remaining wine.
"Rena! You're not supposed to chug it!" Remy gasped, appalled.
Rena didn't care. She liked the way the wine warmed her, "keep 'em coming." She said to Lynelle who happily obliged realizing that Rena was making a fool of herself. Remy was doing all he could to stop Rena but it was hopeless and in a matter of time, Rena was drunk.
"I can't believe both of you live with humans!" Rena's words were slurred and hard to understand.
"What's so wrong with humans?" Remy asked.
"Are you kidding me? Rat's and humans just shouldn't go together, it's not natural… it's like… unnatural."
"What makes you say that?"
"I've spent my whole life running from humans, they can't be trusted. But then, I guess… you guys have never lived as street rats so you don't know what it's like… I take it both of you also are part of a pack?"
"But Rena-"
"I'm not!" Lynelle said interrupting Remy, "I don't have a pack."
Remy looked at Lynelle, "really? You too? Why not?"
Lynelle shrugged, "I've never had a pack, I grew up in a pet store." She turned her attention to Rena, "so stop thinking you're so special, you're not the only one who grew up alone."
Rena laughed, "A PET STORE!! Are you serious?! You think you can relate to a street rat because you grew up in a Pet Store?! "
"I was just
saying that I never had a pack either." Lynelle snapped back.
Rena
rolled her eyes, "like you could possibly understand me just
because you grew up without a pack. I had a pack growing up." Rena
said taking another swig of wine.
"What happened?" Remy asked hoping that she'd talk to him now that she was drunk.
"What happened? I'll tell you what happ-" Rena suddenly swooned and passed out.
