Riley and Maureen followed Baby and Mama into the large dining room and examined it thoroughly. Maureen was scared; Riley was excited and interested. The dining room was a large, dark brown, wooden room with various shelves and paintings hanging on the dark, musty walls. The table was a dark brown with a green tint and had about fifty lit candles placed in the center. The table was seated for eight people; three chairs on each side and one at each end. Maureen and Riley sat across from each other, Riley against the wall and Maureen near the doorway and Baby sat next to Riley. The old man sat at the end, near the kitchen, and Mama sat on his right, next to Baby.
"So," Mama began as she sat down. "What're you girls doin' in these here parts?"
"Well," Riley said, taking a sip of the drink that was placed in front of her, even though she didn't know what it was. "my dad, Maureen's step-dad, got sick a few years back and his dying wish is that Maureen and I would get along, and his idea of us getting along is three fucking weeks traveling to California from New York in a tiny ass car." She took another sip. "And we're driving through Texas because this-" She refereed to Maureen, who was, obviously, uncomfortable and upset. "-whore decided that she'd never seen this state... well, that and she believes that everything's bigger in Texas, even though I don't."
At that note, Riley and Maureen heard loud thumping noises as a seven foot tall, masked man loomed over them from the doorway to the living room. In addition to him being seven feet tall, he had an odd figure that look somewhat hunched and his mask looked like it was made from a dark leather. He was wearing a knitted, red shirt with a skull and crossbones on it and he was wearing pants that fit him perfectly. "I stand corrected." Riley whispered, taking another sip of her drink, which appeared to be some weak alcohol.
The giant boomed over to the end of the table, on Riley's left, but only stood. "Tiny, you can sit down, honey." Mama said. "Don't be shy."
Tiny looked at Riley and then at Maureen. He then sat down, but did nothing else. "You'll have to forgive Tiny." Mama said, smiling. "He gets shy around new people."
"Oh, no. It's completely fine." Riley replied, smiling back. "He seems very sweet." She then smiled and Tiny, who looked down and made, what looked like, a smile.
"You got Tiny to blush." Baby said in a childish, mocking voice. She then laughed her childish laugh. "Riley and Tiny sittin' in a tree." She laughed again as a figure appeared
A tall, burly man with long, greasy black hair walked into the room and sat down next to Maureen. Maureen's eyes grew wide and she smiled at this burly man that just sat down. Riley recognized this smile; it was the same smile Maureen used on Riley's first boyfriend... it always works. Riley rolled her eyes, then saw the man didn't even notice Maureen's smiling face. Riley just laughed as Maureen noticed the man ignoring her. This made Riley very happy.
"God Dammit." The old man burst. "Can we fucking eat?"
"Hugo, we're gonna wait to see if Otis is gonna come down." Mama replied. "Otis! Otis!" She shouted. "Git yer' ass down here! We got guests!." She put an odd emphasis on 'guests'.
Within a few moments, it seemed that Mama had given up the hope that Otis would be coming down, so she gave up and nearly started talking, when a thin man walked into the room. He was tall, pale, and he had thin platinum hair falling over his lanky shoulders. His face was dirty, which matched the white wife beater he had on, which was worn underneath an unbuttoned flannel shirt. He, slowly, walked into the dining room and examined Maureen and Riley. He smiled a crooked smile, revealing an off-white, almost yellow, set of teeth, then he sat down on the older man's right.
Maureen looked at Riley with wide eyes and mouthed, "Holy shit."
Riley smiled and mouthed back, "I know." Beneath her frightened expression, Riley was intrigued. She had always had an odd taste in men, but this was strange, even for her.
Maureen made a gagging motion and than sat up like she didn't do anything. She was obviously uncomfortable. Riley flipped her off as Mama pined in. "Oh, I'm sorry girls, I completely forgot to introduce everybody to ya's. This here's Baby, but you already knew that. This one here's Grampa Hugo." She referred to the old man, who was eating the meat that Mama had placed on his plate. "Don't mind him if he don't talk, or if he does, don't mind if he swears left an' right. He's just a bitter old man." Mama, then, pointed to the black haired man next to Maureen. "This is Rufus Jr. But you girls can call him RJ."
Maureen nodded and started playing with her hair, completely uninterested in what Mama was saying. Riley, on the other hand, was interested and wanted to know everything about everyone. "That one there-" She pointed to Tiny. "-is Tiny. He's a little shy, but he'll warm up to you two, he's a real lady killer." She put emphasis on killer. Her voice got slow and more affectionate, yet slightly creepy." And this-" She referred to Otis. "-is Otis."
"Hi, Otis." Riley said. Otis stared her down, examining every detail of her body. "I-I'm Riley Shunard and t-this is my, um, step sister, Maureen Marezz." Riley said everything with an embarrassed smile upon her pale face. The words slipped out like word vomit. She instantly regretted saying anything; she looked like a fool.
Maureen didn't even look at him. She glanced up at Riley, who saw a hint of fear in Maureen's eyes.
"Well, let's not just sit here yappin'." Mama said. "Dig in."
This, of course, was unnecessary, because everyone at the table except for Riley, Maureen, and Mama, had already started eating. Maureen looked down at her food in disgust. She pushed her plate away and sat, waiting for everyone else to finish.
"What the matter dear?" Mama asked.
Maureen shook her head. "Nothing, I'm just not hungry."
"Don't take it personally." Riley told Mama. "Maureen's a bitch. She doesn't eat anything made by other people. And if she does she just pukes it up."
"Shut the fuck up." Maureen yelled. "And you won't eat it either." She smirked evilly, probably hoping that Mama would get angry.
Riley looked at her food and noticed what Maureen was talking about; it was meat, and Riley, being a vegetarian since she was eleven, couldn't bring herself to eat it, no matter how much she liked this family.
"I'm sorry, I can't eat this." Riley said in embarrassment.
"Why not hun?" Mama asked.
"Well, I-I'm a vegetarian. I- I've been one for ten years." There was passage of odd laughs from everyone around the table. RJ, Hugo, and even Otis made odd, snort-type laughs. Otis gave her an odd look with an odd, crooked smile. Riley's face grew hot as she looked at her plate, trying to act normal. She didn't want to bring it up, every time she would mention it to someone new, they were label her even more of a freak than they already saw. And, to make it worse, there was nothing else to eat but this meat sitting upon her plate.
She sat up straight and picked up her fork. "It doesn't matter. It's no big deal." Just then, Tiny tapped her gently on the shoulder. She looked at him, and saw he was attempting to hand her his plate, which was covered is potatoes instead of meat.
"Oh, ain't that jus' so gosh darn cute." Mama smiled.
"I think Tiny's takin' a likin' to ya'." Baby squealed, nudging Riley a little. "Tiny and Riley!"
"I can't take that. That's alright hun." Riley told Tiny. He lowered his head as if out of embarrassment. "Oh, well, alright." He lifted his head and eagerly handed her his plate.
Riley ate all of the potatoes Tiny had given her and Tiny ate the meat, though it had taken him a while. Otis barley touched any of his food and Maureen touched nothing, but everyone else ate everything.
After dinner, Mama stood up and took everyone's plates. Baby joined her in taking them to the kitchen. RJ stood up and left the kitchen without a word, he was, then, followed by Otis, who, before leaving, stared Riley down. Maureen noticed the stare and glanced at Riley. Riley blushed a little and shrugged questionably. Maureen was about to speak, but was interrupted by Hugo.
"Alright fuckers!" He stood up and shouted. "It's... SHOWTIME!"