Chapter 8

By the time William came back with dinner, Mara had showered, dried her hair, changed into something she would have worn if she had actually been to the cinema, and watched three times the trailer of a movie that played today. She was covered, no matter what. The only sign of her extra-curricular activities was the love bite on her collarbone, but she fixed this problem with a turtle neck.

William looked like he was seriously questioning if Mara was worth the whole trip down town just to buy sushi, but then she smiled and brought the plates and the drinks to the living room, while he slouched down on the couch, seemingly exhausted.

"Next time you go buy 'em," he grumbled before gulping down the whole glass of water and pouring himself another one.

"We'll see about that," she laughed, taking her menu out of the plastic bag.

Once a week – or more – Mara and William ate dinner together, though most of the time they hung out with different people or William was with a girl, or they skipped dinner because they had a lot of work or fell asleep. They settled in front of the TV, which was turned on but being thoroughly ignored, the voice of the anchor man was drowned out by their own conversation. They were laughing about something Elias did to get a girl's attention, when Mara thought it was the moment to her the question that bugged her.

"Hey," she started, immediately earning Will's undivided attention. "I've been meaning to ask you something."

"What is it?" He asked, struggling to grab a sushi with his chopsticks.

He really sucked at eating with those, but he refused to use a fork because Mara aced at using chopsticks and he always said he would one day be better than her. But it was drifting from the subject.

"Why do you not allow any of your friends to date me?" She eventually asked, distractedly playing with her chopsticks.

It itched her to reach forward and help William hold his properly. But he stopped eating and stared at her. She had never asked this question before, she had never questioned this interdiction because she never thought Chris was interested in her until a few months ago. It would have been a legitimate question, though, and the most surprising part was that it took her so long to ask it. William was so adamant on keeping her away from the other Penetrators that she had to wonder why.

"Are they this terrible?" She asked when the silence became increasingly long.

"They are," William immediately replied, giving her a pointed look. "You should know, you've met all of them. Not one is good enough for you."

"You're not my chaperone, Will," Mara reminded him graciously.

He never was an overbearing brother, but sometimes he still felt like he should shield her from whatever threat he sensed. In all the years they spent living alone together, Mara never felt the need to remind William not to act like he was her father instead of her big brother of only one year.

"And you don't even care about the others, it's just the Penetrators," she pointed out.

"If a guy I don't know breaks your heart then he's an asshole and I'll break his face, but if one of my friends breaks your heart, it'll be my responsibility, I'll feel guilty for not opposing to it."

"What?!" Mara chocked out, half laughing half offended. Her plate of California rolls almost slipped off her lap. "You selfish bastard! You're only doing this to spare your feelings?!"

They were both laughing wholeheartedly though Mara was genuinely shocked and would get back at Will later for that. What an ass. They resumed dining, still paying little to no attention at all to the NRK news. After a few minutes during which Mara recovered from this revelation, they continued chatting about anything and everything, but at some point, Mara's face turned stern again, and William knew that the earlier subject was not over.

"Not one of them?" She said, her voice unsure. Her brows knitted together in what William could only call contrariety, but in such a graceful manner that she appeared more scared than mad.

"Mh?" Will hummed in confusion.

"You don't think any of your friends is good enough for me? Not even one?" She clarified her question, but William was still in the dark as to what he was supposed to answer to that.

No one was good enough for his little sister. But that was not what she wanted to hear. Here, that was a good question: what did Mara want to hear? Why so many questions tonight?

"None," he eventually said. It was a short but final.

The tone of his voice suggested that he no longer wanted to hear about this, so Mara took the hint and went back to eating in silence. To her surprise, William added something else before imitating her and finishing his plate.

"But it's not like you're interested in any of them, right?"

Mara shook her head, because somehow, it was too difficult for her to deny it out loud. Chris wasn't here, but she felt like it would be unfair if she declared not to like anyone when she was head over heels for Chris. Not that she has ever told him that. Mara just wasn't good at saying certain things out loud.

"Good," William sighed in relief. "You'd be wasting your time, trust me. For a wile I thought you were into Chris."

The air was knocked out of her lungs. It was fortunate that she didn't have any food in her mouth because Mara would have choked on it or swallowed it whole. William wasn't looking at her when her pupil widened.

"What? Why?" She questioned dumbly. She sounded guiltier than she would have liked.

"Remember that party we hosted last year?" Will asked.

At the words 'last year', Mara breathed again. He wasn't suspecting anything.

"Yeah?"

"You drank too much and fell asleep halfway through," William reminded her. Not her best performance. "And when everyone left and I was putting away the empty bottles, I heard you say Chris' name in your sleep. And you had been weirdly clingy with him a little before that. Anyway, I thought you were pining after him."

"I wasn't being clingy," Mara gasped in offence. "And so what if I hung out with him a little more than usual? Did you automatically deduce I liked him?"

"Why else would be dreaming about him?" William asked, his brows shooting so far up they disappeared under his fringe.

"I don't know, there are plenty of reasons! You guest star some of dreams too, I dream about people I know, it's not like I have a saying about it."

"That's weird!"

"No, it's not!"

"Well then why do I never dream about you?" He asked, as if he was making a point.

"Because you're too busy having wet dreams about Noora, what do I know?" Mara shrugged, and Will's jaw hit the floor.

"Take it back!"

"Never!"

"No wonder I never dream about you, you can be such an annoying munchkin!"

"You're hurting all three of my feelings, brother," Mara said, not bothered in the slightest about being called short.

There comes a time in life when a girl has to accept that the final growing spur will not come and make her a model. But just push a little more on William's buttons, she leaned forward and reached over his plate, and in a swift, skilful move, Mara stole William's last salmon sashimi as payback for 'hurting her three feelings'.

"Hey!" He exclaimed in indignation. "You fucking sushi thief! Give it back!"

He jumped from his place but it was too late, Mara put it in her mouth and began chewing and even licked her chopsticks, going as far as to make an obscene grunt of satisfaction.

"I was keeping the best for last!" William complained.

"Well if it's any comfort, you were right, it was delicious."