Ah yes. The Thanksgiving chapter. Some of my older readers may recognize that I am reusing some of my chapter ideas from my cancelled sequel, but know that events are being changed for this rewrite.
Thank you guys so much for all the feedback thus far!
Chapter 6: Thanksgiving Dinner
"Are you sure you wouldn't like a ride, though?" Rayonna said pleasantly. She had just started up her car, her windows rolled down to where she could look at us, waiting only a second after the question left her mouth for a response.
"Our limo is coming for us, but thank you for the offer," I said quickly, faking another smile. I was so tired of keeping up with these business pleasantries, but training myself in the 'act' was at least coming a bit easier to me, my sheer force of will managing to outmatch my emotions.
"Well, goodbye for now then! You two have a lovely Thanksgiving!" Rayonna said. "I'll let you know when the story is up! In the meantime you guys feel free to fill me in on any details that need to be in the know." She seemed to focus on me then. "That wedding is something I have to know about when you get to planning for it!"
The shiny car's windows rolled up, for a moment again the dark windows reflecting a distorted image of myself, tired and holding onto my to-go mocha, stretching my face and the building behind me to make me look taller than I really was. It wasn't really until she drove away that I exhaled, finally then, and only then, allowing myself to let my guard down and release the muscles in my arms and legs from its perpetual tightness through the interview. I had to take extra care to realize that I had been clenching my teeth the entire time too, and took a moment to let that go as well, realizing afterwards that the act of simply sitting and listening the entire time had exhausted me beyond belief.
I took another guzzle of my to-go mocha. Lord knows I was going to need it!
"ONWARD TO HOUSTON!" Dave yelled. He was still yelling even in casual conversation. I had no idea how normal it was for an octopus to drink coffee, but I took note at that moment to prevent it from ever happening again. Who knows how long this was going to continue.
I squinted, said, "Dave, please, keep your voice down."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, DEAREST?" he replied.
A few pedestrians across the street had looked our way, although I'm pretty sure it was because of the yelling and not so much as who was doing the yelling.
"I mean you need to calm down. Have an inside voice," I tried to say calmly.
"BUT WE'RE OUTSIDE!" Dave exhaled. He lifted one of his arms in the air, the other clutching his papers, and made a twirl as one of his heels clung to the concrete. "OH JOYOUS DAY! EVERYTHING HAS BEEN WORKING OUT SO WONDERFULLY!" He took a deep breath of air, as if smelling the toxic gas fumed New York air was something to behold, and then lowered his arm, placing his hand to his ear to trigger his headset to hail our driver. "COME AND GET US!" he yelled into the mic. Standing next to him, I could hear static coming from the small headpiece, and a sudden, quick gobble of surprise. I'm sure our driver wasn't too happy about that.
"Okay, Dave, let's focus…" I said. "One: get back to Octo Corp, grab a jet, and two: get to Houston to have Thankgiving dinner with my parents." Speaking my plans into existence helped me to cope with what I was going to have to do, and basically just helped me get my shit in order in general.
At that moment I saw our driver rolling up, the limo taking the spot where Rayonna's car had been parked before minutes earlier. I quickly had stepped forward, let myself into the limo as Dave followed after. He placed his papers in first, and then came in afterwards, one leg stretching in awkwardly at first as he hunkered into the limo to get himself seated.
I found my eyes glancing beyond him, as if looking to see if anyone passing by had seen his weird stretch thing, but when nobody seemed to bat an eye, I lowered my gaze again and took another shot of my coffee. "Hurry and shut the door," I said without thinking. My foot started tapping the floor uncontrollably.
After that, yet another limo drive came and went like normal, although this time I felt like time was passing me by quickly now. The passing cars of the crowded New York streets or the tall buildings didn't even make an impression on me as much as my perpetual brooding. My thoughts jumped from Rayonna, my hair being flat and me looking like shit (aka what I got out of Rayonna roasting me), and to that stupid ass article about Dave being a freaking octopus, back and forth, over and over again like a skipping record.
I had managed to keep my wits about me for weeks now, but good God, I guess I had finally lost it. On top of it, there was still work to do. This time it just so happened to be work in regards to keeping Dave looking like a normal, law-abiding person in front of my parents.
Before I knew it the limo doors locks clicked, catching my attention. Our driver had opened them us. Dave grabbed hold of his papers, immediately stepped out to hand them back down to Mariah, the henchman who had brought them out initially. I remained in the vehicle for a moment longer to see as he turned back around to wait for me, although this kindly gesture lasting literally less than a second before he started tripping out, hollering, "MMMm! AHHHH!" in the air, but in a way that was again a weird pleasantry reaction to enjoying the outside or whatever.
In comparison to his absolute hyper persona and quick exit of the limo, I crawled out slowly, being extra careful to not spill my leftover mocha. Once my feet hit the ground you could say it might as well have been the literal equivalent to hitting the ground running, because the next thing I knew Dave had sprinted off into the building, hollering, "YAY!" as I tried running after, although my run was more like a lax trot as I attempted to continuously keep my mocha from spilling.
I felt like a vein could pop out of my head I was getting so irritated. I wasn't mad at Dave so much as I was hideously growing frustrated with how fast he was heading into this weekend, both literally and metaphorically.
"Dave! Hold up!" I yelled, although I'm sure by the time I managed to fuss at him he was already halfway through the building and heading toward the back garages.
Giving up that instant I began sauntering after him instead of trying to run, taking sips of my coffee as I made my way through the building. A few henchmen were giving me nods and salutes as I passed, I acknowledging them with the same gestures for a time.
Once I made it to the large garage area, I was met instantly with a crowding of the henchman, Penny's team, consisting of Kenny, RJ, Jacob, and a few newly assigned individuals surrounding Dave, who was standing in front of one of his purple personal jets that had been prepared for us. The garage itself, however, might as well be referred to as a giant empty facility. Without Tetradnaught in it, and Dave's other contraptions and machines, it felt barren, only a few other jets and helicopters taking space. It was a wonder at one point that this place had been filled up with so much shit, but since North Wind couldn't get hold of Dave at the time, they did a pretty good job of confiscating all the other stuff.
"Ahhhh! THANK you so MUCH!" Dave had said. His voice was starting to calm down a bit now; maybe his system got rid of the caffeine faster than a regular persons, I don't know. Maybe the run was necessary for him to get over himself. "We're going to HEAD OFF NOW, gentleman—and lady." He nodded toward little Penny. "I will leave you, TEAM, with some of my last orders before I depart for the weekend. Tell Elizabeth: banks are prepared for our deposit soon, so make sure those accounting papers are ready by the end of the weekend to submit. Tell Gemma: ward off any other North Wind attempts. If that owl is still spying on us then I want to know when and where, too. As a matter-of-fact, inform the entire building to keep a hard eye on North Wind activity while I'm gone. If there's any trouble you call me."
Garbles responded to him, all at once, but after a few seconds everyone managed to get their questions in order, Penny being the first one to ask after a moment of collaboration.
"Oh, Penny, how kind of you to offer!" Dave said.
"What did she say?" I asked out of habit. I was tired, yes, but I still wanted to know what was going on.
"She's offering her and Kenny as escorts," Dave said. "They are in charge of building my machines anyway, particularly Penny here as you know, so she's as skilled and safe as can be as a pilot."
I thought for a moment about the offer. There was a brief moment that I worried about taking the henchmen with us to Houston, but I started to justify it soon after. Having them around would be safer for both us and as general lookout. Not to mention the last time we had flown off somewhere we had gotten stranded, and I was absolutely not putting myself in that situation again. Also Penny flying made me feel safer anyway, since you know, I was also in a plane crash before.
Ugh. How am I alive?
"If they come they can't come in my parents' house," I stated aloud. "No offense, guys, but I'm still like… one-hundred percent sure my parents—and the rest of my family for that matter—will flip out if they saw a bunch of octopuses running around. Not to mention Kenny here chloroformed my cousin. I'd like to keep that as a bad dream on her part and not give her any idea that was an actual thing that happened."
The team chuckled in response to my comment, although Kenny remained stoic and serious as usual.
"That settles it then!" Dave said. "Penny, Kenny—get to starting the jet! We'll take off in a jiffy. The rest of you, stay on your arms! We'll be back Sunday before sunset."
Sunday. Four days from now.
Things fled into motion upon Dave's orders. The rest of the team scattered into different areas of the garage, one of the henchmen initiating the garage doors to open. I felt a sense of anticipation run through me, much like when I took off with Tetradnaught to fight North Wind months ago, the last time these same doors opened. This wasn't exactly a life or death situation that I was about to head into, but I suppose because I had already hyped myself up for this, along with my day recently ending up like a turd into the toilet with the whole Rayonna thing, I simply wasn't vibing with it.
Regardless of my feelings, I took another guzzle of my mocha, emptying the to-go mug, and then crushed it in my palm. Sitting up properly came naturally after that as I shifted myself back into the swing of things, tossed the crushed mug to the side (to which a henchman caught it as he passed by) and began striding up to the jet with Dave.
I could hear Mario's voice echo in my mind: Here we goooo!
It was time to bury my discomfort and go along with things like normal. My feelings would fade eventually anyway.
Maybe.
. . . . . . .
Mouth agape and eyes wide, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The little house my parents' used to live in didn't quite compare to the absolute breathtaking beauty of a home I was coming home to now. It wasn't a mansion by any means, but it was grander than anything I could have imagined for my mom and dad to own.
The comfortable home was built on a large acreage of land, the house itself built as an intertwining of both modern and rustic design. They said they were waiting to find the right house, but now that I saw it for myself the place justified the many months of their searching.
At both sides of the door were two large pumpkins, and the fall wreath I had made with my mom many years ago, old, but still beautiful, hanging on the white door. We barely had a moment to look at it though before the front door opened, my mother standing there as she opened her arms wide, a smile to match on her face once she saw me. Her presence immediately filled me with a sense of calm, despite how the entire flight here had been a test on my sanity.
"Kailey, you're home!" she cheered. "Darren! Oh, look, she's here!"
I could hear a cluster of voices beyond them and the clink of forks and plates. A good handful of cars were parked outside where we were standing, so I knew going in was going to be interesting at this point. But keeping up with my prior efforts, I attempted to go in bravely to meet with them.
I heard someone in the back of the house yell in a heavy southern accent, "Darren, your wife said Kailey's here!"
It was my grandma. Shit.
"What?" I heard my dad yell.
"Go answer the door, Dad!" That time it was my brother. I was internally praying at that point, God, please let this weekend go well.
"Can't you see I'm busy?!" my dad huffed irritably. More clanks, then the sound of footsteps echoed from the hallway, soon my dad peering from the door next to my mother.
By this time Dave and I had walked up to the porch, instantly my mom meeting me with a hug. I watched out of the corners of my eyes as Dave shook my dad's hand. I winced upon seeing this, agony briefly stripping me of my moment before my mom pulled me instantly out of it with her oncoming words.
"I've missed you so much!" Mom cooed, hugging me more tightly for a moment before she let me go to take a look at me. "I'm so glad you and Octavius could make it. Your dad had told me that you were busy so I wasn't entirely sure if you would even come…"
"We're always busy," I said, "so it's nice to get a break."
I wasn't lying, really. While the fact was that this Thanksgiving weekend was going to be a chore, on the other hand, I absolutely missed my mom. My eyes stung briefly from held back tears for a moment as I contemplated how long it had been since I'd seen her. So much had happened since that night. "I can't believe you managed to find a place like this," I added.
"Oh, believe me it took forever to find the right one!" Mom replied. "You won't believe how many homes we toured. With the money Octavius gave us we could have picked any ol' fancy house we wanted, but none of them felt like the one, you know?"
"Yeah," I acknowledged, understanding her justifications quite easily. We had been stuck in this kind of situation before when I was still in college, looking for houses, but one thing led to another, and it never really happened due to money and jobs… it was always something that held us back.
"Come in and see the family," I heard my dad say then. "Dinner is almost ready, so make yourselves comfortable."
"Dad made the turkey again, but don't let him tell you he made everything else," Mom said, rolling her eyes. "He always likes to take the credit for work we both put into."
Dad seemed to ignore her, or maybe just didn't hear her, I don't know (never found out if he was going deaf or that's just were I got my ADHD from), but we naturally followed after him inside the house. Walking down the hall, the wood that made a majority of the structure of the walls and floors seemed bright despite its rustic brown color. Windows were placed around in ways that allowed the evening sun in just right to make the passing living room and hallway glow.
I smelt my parents' Thanksgiving dinner, the typical array of dressing, green beans, mac and cheese, and Dad's unique turkey placing me in a mental time rift of the sorts. All previous Thanksgivings seemed to meld together from my old house to create the sensation and reality I was walking into then and there. It was all so familiar, but all so new at the same time, and not just because I was in a new house, but because I was walking in with Dave—err, in this case Octavius; the famous geneticist.
The instant we turned the corner into the dining room everyone turned their heads. I felt my face flush hot with a wave of heat when I realized exactly how many people had come to this new and improved family Thanksgiving dinner.
"It's Kailey!" my grandma cheered happily.
Yes, my grandma, my grandpa, my aunt from my Dad's side, one cousin and her husband and baby, my great aunt and her husband from my Mom's side, my cousin Leah, my brother who I hadn't seen in who knows how long, and his girlfriend, and… Steven was here!?
"Kailey, OH MY GOD!" Steven said, jumping up from his seat next to my brother from the far end of the table and rushed over my direction. My grandma was starting to stand up too at that time, but far more slowly.
"Steven? What are you doing here?" I said, cringing mildly. I was anticipating him to fangirl again, yes, but I also was uncomfortably aware that he was probably about to do the same fangirling as before but in front of everybody.
"Your brother and mom invited me," Steven replied. "Besides, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see my friend again, not to mention have Thanksgiving dinner with none other than the Octavius Brine!"
"Your brother finally was able to get away from his work in Michigan," Mom commented. "It was a chore getting him to come down here, but once he agreed he was excited. He wanted to invite Steven here, so I just said the more the merrier. We can hold a lot more guest now!"
"You didn't invite Uncle Pat?" I asked sarcastically.
"Oh hell no," my mom replied, although caught herself and rephrased the response. "I mean, no. He's not invited here anymore."
Grandma had finally walked up to us at that point, said, "Aren't you going to give your grandma a hug?"
"You didn't have to get up," I said awkwardly, giving into her request and gave her a hug. After we embraced that was when the focus fell on Dave. Well, that was putting it mildly. The focus of the entire family was then on Dave—completely and wholly. God have mercy on me, please.
"So tell me, how is the wedding plans?" my grandma asked. Seriously is that the only question on people's minds?!
"Yes, tell us the good stuff!" Steven said happily. "Ahhh, I'm so excited my friend is going to be married to you, Dr. Brine!"
"Call me Octavius, everyone," Dave said, smiling proudly. "I've told Kailey's parents' and Leah here before, but we're all going to be family. No need for professionalism here. As for our wedding, we still do not have any plans, but hopefully once we get going with our income we'll have the time to get started."
Steven was starting to melt at that moment, his eyes filling with tears. Seriously though, why was he the one crying? Based on the last time he had seen me with Dave, I guess I should have seen this behavior coming, but I tended to forget that even people I knew fell for and got hyped up about Octavius Brine.
Steven said, "I'm so choked up right now… I don't have any words." He paused for a moment as he took off his glasses and wiped his eye with his sleeve. "Sorry, I just am so… hyped that you guys are a thing. I bet you are excited about planning the wedding though, right, Kailey? With all the press, and the prodigious background of your soon-to-be husband?"
"Ecstatic," I said flatly.
"Show us the ring," Grandma said next. "I haven't seen it yet!"
"Yeah! Show us, Kailey! I want to see again!" Leah echoed from the table.
I just wanted to sit down. My ass was practically begging to be seated, not to mention all this attention from my family about getting married was throwing me off. But, I had planned for this to happen. Of course it was going to happen. Dave had dragged me into the pinnacle of success and renown with him, simply by association, and it wasn't about to be different even in the face of my own family. Maybe part of it was their projected happiness for me, but in the end it was also about who was my fiancé.
Lifting my hand, I complied by showing my grandmother and Steven the ring on my finger. They both gasped in unison.
"It's beautiful, Kailey," my grandma complemented.
"Bloody hell would you look at that rock," Steven commented next.
I felt my dad peeking over my shoulder at that moment, a huff coming from his nose as he looked down at my ring, said, "It looks different than the one he proposed to you with at the dinner this last summer."
Shit, he was right. I felt myself stunned yet again as I struggled to come up with a lie on the spot this time. What was I supposed to tell him? The first ring was a shit-flying tracking device?
Looking up desperately at Dave, all it took was eye contact for him to step in, his continuous casual yet calming smile dissipating the question my dad had put between the lot of us. "I got her a new and better one, that's what," he said. "The first one was beautiful, sure, but it wasn't the one. You see, I'm so busy, and I had wanted to give my lovely bride-to-be a ring, so the one you saw me give her at the dinner this last summer was one I had found before I stumbled across this second one. When I saw this one I immediately thought of your daughter… bold, polished, alluring…"
Once he started listing off adjectives to describe me in relation to the ring I felt heat return to my face, my lips moving into a crooked expression of both contemplation and current realization of what he thought of me, mixed with a dash of all this coming out in front of my family. More awwws came from the table, Steven even squeeing in front of me as he watched and listened to Dave talk.
As he talked, however, I managed to stab through my embarrassment and just listen for myself what he was saying, ignoring all the coos and comments around me momentarily.
"Dedicated, sharp, eye-catching, fiery…"
Was I everything he said I was? I thought. Not really going to sugar coat it, but when we first met we weren't exactly best friends, let alone in love with each other. He had lied to me, used me as live bait for North Wind, put me in dangerous situations, but I also had punched him in the face, kicked him in between the tentacles, screamed and yelled—not really something to describe as polished by any means. To say that our relationship had started out with chaos felt odd in comparison to his description of how he felt of me.
"You know how it is… it takes time to find the one." Dave's words at the end mimicked the conversation I had just had with my mom. "The love of my life and the ring, that is."
"She's the love of his life," Steven gasped airily, his mouth slightly remaining opened afterward.
"How romantic," Grandma said. "See Kailey, I knew you would find a husband. After all that talk about never wanting to get married and all that! Yet here you are, with a man that really truly loves you."
A man. Ha! Yes, Grandma, a human man. A ginger, nerd ass, human man doctor. How in the ever living shits was this even a thing that was real?
Thank God, because at that moment the sound of the oven timer beeping took over the conversation. I felt my dad shift in his stance behind me, his focus tearing away from me and Dave and to his turkey. "Here it comes, everyone! I'll be out in a second with the carved turkey, and then we can eat," he said.
"About time if you ask me," Grandpa in the back commented, sounding grumpy at first but you could tell upon further inspection that was just his way of joking around. "Darren's cooking is the best."
"Yeah, Darren's cooking," my mom replied aloud sarcastically, her eyes slanting into a glare at my dad as he walked away. "Taking all the credit again, aren't we?" she muttered afterwards.
"Come sit down, Kailey, there's plenty of room here for you two," my grandma invited then. Thankfulness finally manifested itself upon me for Thanksgiving as I realized I was about to sit down. I ended up sitting towards the front end of the table, closest to my parents', with Dave sitting next to me, and lo and behold, Steven next to him.
Steven took out his phone then, and started texting really fast.
"Dude, what are you doing?" I heard my brother say from the other side of Steven.
"I'm tweeting this," Steven replied.
"Oh, tweeting?" Dave suddenly stepped into the conversation, shifting himself in his seat and towards Steven. "The bird website?"
"The bird—umm, yeah, I guess so," Steven replied, perking up from looking at his phone and to Dave, who was not only sitting next to him, but attempting to make conversation. "You use Twitter?" Steven's big blue eyes grew wider at this sudden experience, a sort of anticipation waiting then for Dave to respond.
"I ummm… have an associate that runs a Twitter account with my research institute's namesake, The Brine Institute. I'm thinking of converging it with Octo Corp. But—that's not why I commented. Would you want a selfie to go along with that tweet?"
Steven's mouth opened again, an airy sound escaping the back of his throat in a weird semi-gasp response. This went on for a painfully long time, although I'm sure in the end it was probably only like six seconds long.
I put my hands on my head, leaning against the table as I sighed. Here it comes, I thought.
"I would absolutely love a selfie with you, Dr. Brine!" Steven confirmed in another gasp. "I mean—Octavius! AHHHH!"
"Kids these days and their phones," my grandpa grumbled again from across the table.
I rolled my eyes, not helping myself as I corrected, "We're adults, Grandpa." But after my response came out I unfortunately looked over at Dave and Steven, Steven's arms extended outward as he and Dave smiled for the shot. A flash went off his phone, triggering yet another thought: that was another imagine of Brine being shared into the world that would probably get thousands of likes. Oh boy, was Steven ready for internet popularity?
"Okay everyone!" Dad's voice boomed from the kitchen. Returning back from the open archway, Dad was balancing a huge serving plate of turkey, managing to place it in the middle of the table. Coming after him was my mother, who had gone into the kitchen to retrieve the side dishes, her hands holding the decent sized serving of green beans.
I instantly sat up, offered, "Mom, you want my help?"
"Oh, that would be nice," Mom replied.
It seemed like me offering help caused Dave to jump on the bandwagon, saying, "I'll help as well!"
"Oh, no, I couldn't possibly ask that of you," Mom said. "Kailey, Darren, and I got it."
"Nonsense!" Dave said. "Remember, I'm not your guest—I'm family now!"
I hadn't even realized my thumb and index finger was rubbing my eyes at that point. "Just follow me, Dave," I said to answer for my mom. I wasn't about to listen to any justifications on her part or whatever.
Dave sat up from his seat, and made his way up next to me. After that, I ventured into the kitchen with him. The rest of the serving dishes were set out for us to take into the dining room, and my eyes caught a glimpse of the desserts for later next to the windows.
"Ugh, he put shrimp in the dressing again," I stated aloud, observing my dad's added ingredients to what was supposed to be a simple dish. However, this seemed to catch Dave's attention.
"Shrimp?" he wondered, fluttering his 'fingers' together. "I didn't know humans put shrimp in their bread shards."
"Bread shards?" I asked, raising a brow. "It's—never mind, Dave. Jeez, it's called 'dressing'."
His eyes skimmed over to the other side dish. The mac and cheese.
"How did your mom know!?" he gasped.
"Know what?"
"Know how much I love cheese! She made my favorite! All that's missing is the clams! But with that shrimp dressing, as you say it, I suppose it doesn't matter."
"Nobody knew you were obsessed with mac and cheese, Dave. We always make this for Thanksgiving. Now which one are you going to take to the dining room?"
"Oh, I simply can't choose!" Dave shifted his head between the two, getting a little ahead of himself I guess, before I grabbed hold of the mac and cheese from under him, and started walking to the kitchen to get things moving along. I guess that was enough to pull him back to reality, because he took hold of the dressing and followed after me. Once we arrived back into the dining room my parents helped get hold of the side dishes we brought in, and sat them on the table.
"All right, you guys, are we ready to eat?" my dad asked.
"Yes, fill up my plate!" Grandpa immediately responded.
"Let's say grace first, Darren." My mom nudged Dad, taking his hand, to which my dad would reach for Grandpa's hand, and then his to Grandmas, etc. until the circular hand embrace ended with Steven extending his hand out to Dave's.
Steven was smiling at Dave, giddy like a little kid or something. Good thing though, because Dave seemed to catch on with what we were doing, and took Steven's hand, then turned to me, extending his 'hand' to mine.
Once the dinner circle was complete, I watched Mom nudge Dad again, then and only then the family bowing our heads to say grace. Once we gave dinner our blessing, Grandpa called out, "Let's eat!" and we all took our seats, commencing Thanksgiving dinner officially.
Dishes and silverware clinked around me as everyone began coordinating the table to get what they wanted on their plates. Steam was rising up out of the food, and the act of serving spoons scooping up goops, and people grabbing hold of the turkey, caused more so to puff up above the table. It was here that I realized for a few moments I could revel in the fact that everybody was focusing on building their dinner rather than worrying about Dave and I. I allowed my eyes to drift off because of this, my awareness soaking in the house. Soon after, I stared out the big windows behind everybody and beyond the table, seeing a gentle rushing of still green trees outside. Texas didn't seem to take the hint that it was autumn, and continued to be persistent that it was supposed to be in the 70's.
A lone red leaf peered out from under the canvas of green, shuttered in the wind as a breeze plucked it from above, forcing it to fall down to the ground.
"So how goes the pledge drives? I saw that commercial that you put out, Octavius," Dad spoke up, forcing me to lose track of the red leaf as it fell into the grass, and my conscientiousness came presently back to the table.
"We just had one a few days ago at the Central Park Zoo," Dave responded. He had just put a big mound of mac and cheese next to an equally big mound of the shrimp dressing on his plate, his plate consisting of this and only this. "I added the commercial to the mix once I realized that it was going to be hard to attend pledge drives in person…. As you know, we lost a lot of our inventory after that terrorist attack."
"Yes, how awful," Mom said. She shot a look at me. "Kailey, I can't believe you went off and fought those evil people!"
Hmmm. Yes, evil people. People. Totally not an interspecies organization that was currently trying to arrest Dave, and do who the hell knows what to me.
"I did what I had to do," I said nonchalantly.
"Kailey!"
"What? I'm alive, aren't I?"
While I was very much over it, I hadn't realized that not only was my family put off with the entire incident with me piloting a giant freaking mech against these 'terrorists', but so was Dave.
Looking over, I saw it in his eyes. A slight scowl had overcome his lips, but he hid the anger so well.
"I still remember the day," Dave said. "I was so angry that they did that. Whoever they were, they only want to cause me and my company misery."
"Do you think they are the ones who had kidnapped the penguins?" my brother asked then. "Why else would these guys be attacking Octavius?"
"Yeah, it makes sense. Did you ever find out who they were? Any evidence at all?" my brother's girlfriend asked.
"No," Dave grumbled, although behind his tone I knew he was hiding a multitude of stories.
As I sat there, painfully aware of not only how he must've been feeling, but the anxious eyes of my entire family upon him, a pang seemed to strike my chest as a new awareness came to me.
My family didn't know anything.
It wasn't just the whole thing with Dave being an octopus. If it were just that I guess that would've been better. It was so much more. While this had been evident to me more so this last summer, these strange feelings of isolation returned to me. They could never know about what I went through. My mom, even—I couldn't even tell her all that had happened. I felt this like a weight on my shoulders; everything with fighting and staying safe from North Wind, all this lying about what we were doing with our money, the fact Dave was the one that had been kidnapping those stupid penguins. Holy shit, the whole blowing up part was just the top of the iceberg.
Ugh. Icebergs…. I wonder if North Wind abandoned that place or not.
"I hope those garbage criminals get what's coming to them," Dad said. "I don't even like the idea of them still being out there. What if they come back?"
"Kailey, you're safe… right?" mom asked then, pain and concern radiating off of her at this point.
As I looked into her eyes—her saddened, soft eyes—another pang in my chest hit me.
"We'll be fine… mom," I said. The lie came out of me reluctantly, but once it left I felt its passing seem to sting my lips. I clutched the end of my shirt from under the table, wrangling the fabric between my palm as my mind scurried around again. Another lie, I thought. But why is it so much harder now? Why does it have to be like this?
"Let's change the subject," Dad said then, his stern domineering taking over as he tried to regain control of the conversation. "That's a tough subject. We're here to be family, so let's talk about something else."
"Let's," grandpa echoed, grumbling as he chewed his food.
Somberness continued to manifest around the table, an easing quietness serving as a shift in our conversation like an inhale of air. My eyes had eventually settled on Dave, my silent stare reaching out in the only way I could at the time in order to check up on him, seeing he was trying to make the shift himself in these brief moments of silence.
"So, how do you like the dressing and mac, Octavius?" my mom asked then. "Do you like the shrimp? It was Darren's idea."
"I haven't tried it yet" Dave responded, picking up his fork. I watched as that bitterness about him dissipated after he returned his attention to the food. "I'll do so now, though!" he finally said.
I watched carefully as he tried to use the fork. Seeing Dave eat with a utensil could only go one of two ways: okay, or horribly wrong. Here at the family Thanksgiving dinner, the simple act of using a fork seemed to challenge his normality. I was prepared to give him a pinch if he decided to shovel the food in his mouth like he did with that freaking whole ass fish from way back.
His arm wobbled for a moment, but after that, he managed to take his first bite of the shrimp dressing. I watched as whatever was left of his negativity vanished, being replaced by his obvious happiness with the weird choice in side dish. After that, he scooped up a forkful of the mac and cheese, doing the same thing as he tasted it. The realization of its flavor hit him like a kid eating candy.
"It's terrific!" Dave said. "You should really give me the recipe… I would really like my chef Kevin to serve this up sometime."
"See, he likes it," Dad commented, obviously having challenged Mom on the legitimacy of putting crustaceans into cornbread dressing. "But you have a chef, huh? Maybe next year we should have dinner at your place."
"Oh, that would be wonderful," Dave responded, my eyes growing wide when he said that.
I shook my head, mouthing, "No", but this caught more of my mom's attention than it did Dave's.
"What's wrong, Kailey? You don't want to make your poor parents Thanksgiving dinner next year?"
"Jeez, Mom, it's not that," I responded, my face flushing again. A flash of imaginary instances in my brain went off in my head of my family sitting with all the henchmen at the dining room table in our building in New York. Having Thanksgiving in a corporate building full of deadass actual octopuses wasn't something my family was ready for. Not to mention they'd see that Dave was actually able to talk to said octopuses, so that was another red flag that they didn't need to see. Shit, above all else that was something Leah absolutely could not see. I'm sure if she even so much as looked in the direction of an octopus walking on land she'd be instantly reminded of her 'dream' of being knocked unconscious by them.
I awkwardly looked over at Leah then, who was mid mouthful of green beans when she returned eye contact.
I quickly looked away, and picked up my fork, prepared to actually start eating now, but that wasn't meant for me, I suppose.
"Kailey, that reminds me," Leah finally spoke up, ironically.
I sighed, shuffling my food around in defeat. "What?"
"So I was going to wait until after dinner to tell you this, but I have a bunch of tickets to go to the Texas Renaissance Festival this weekend. I invited your your brother, his girlfriend, and Steven already, but it would be awesome if you and Octavius could come with us."
"Yes, please come!" Steven gasped, the table even shaking from his knee or something having hit the bottom somewhere.
"What's a Renaissance festival?" Dave asked.
"Ummm, you wouldn't be interested, Octavius." I was trying to deter what was happening. "It's just some historical thing."
"That sounds interesting; tell me what it's about," Dave persisted. I realized slowly that I was in a losing battle.
"There are all kinds of stuff to do: shopping, food, all that," Leah explained, "but, it's the theme that's really fun. It's Ren Fest, so everyone, even the staff dress and act like fantasy and renaissance characters."
"I'd love to go," Dave said. "When are we going?"
"I was going to suggest tomorrow morning, if that's good with you," Leah said.
"How delightful!" Dave was starting to reveal his crooked-toothed grin. "Sounds like a plan, then. I'll have to think of a costume, but I'm sure Kailey will have some ideas, since she does cosplay and all. Right, dearest?"
My teeth were grinding together, unbeknownst to everyone sitting around me, so from the outside I looked like I had a frog in my mouth or something. "Sure…" I finally hissed.
"I'll dress up this year too, so it'll be cool to see what we all come up with!" Leah chuckled. "I've been wanting to wear my new bodice for a while now. I also made a new flower crown, to match it. What do you think you'll wear, Kailey?"
"I don't think any of my costumes are here anymore, Leah." I was trying too hard to get out of the the situation I was in, at least as much as I could.
"I wouldn't throw out your stuff, Kailey!" Mom said then, her response piercing my ears. "We actually made a new room for you with all your things upstairs. After you moved out with Leah I went ahead and organized all your stuff here."
"That's great, Mom," I replied, again, from the outside seemingly happy, but on the inside I was hollering all kinds of profanities at myself.
Shit! It was one thing hanging out at home all weekend with Dave with my parents, but now I was going to have to escort him—an octopus—through a freaking renaissance fair? Was he even ready to see humanity at its stupidest? At its most insulting—all at once? Ren Fest was fun, but for an octopus it would be culture shock! How the hell was this weekend not going to kill me now?