"Hi, who are you?" I asked. He doesn't seemed fazed by the fact that a random girl just asked him a blunt question. But I knew he'd seen me on the way over here and somehow he just looked familiar.
"Quil" He coughs, wiping his hands on his cutoffs. "Quil Ateara" He extends his hand towards mine and I take it. It's warm and calloused but it's comforting. I liked it.
"Claire" I shake his hand in mine. "Claire Young" I liked the feel of his hand in mine, It felt comforting. And when I looked up into his eye's, I gasped back at the beauty. His eye's were a hazel brown color, like the color of warm coco after a cold rainy day, something you would always love to come home to. The soft look he gives me also look's like they're guarding secrets.
He breaks my gaze and let's go of my hand and somehow I felt colder without his touch, somewhere inside, like his warmth had touched my heart.
"Quil?" A woman's voice rang, breaking us out of our intense eye contact.
I looked down to see a woman wearing the diner's apron. She looked like she was in her thirties, but that's not the reason I couldn't look away. The right side of her face was scarred from hairline to chin by three thick, red lines, vivid in color though they were long healed. One line pulled down the corner of her dark, almond-shaped right eye, another twisted the right side of her mouth into a permanent grimace. The other half was however, extremely beautiful. She also had glossy black hair, that was side parted and flowed right down to her back and she had satiny copper skin, like mine.
"Aunt Emily?" I gasped in recognition, remembering the photo's of her and Dad, that sat there in the basement.
"Claire?" She looked at me, her eye's wide at saucers. "Claire!" She screamed, the whole diner must think she's crazy.
"Yeah, It's me" I whispered smiling at her, she looked so much like dad.
"Oh honey" She pulled me into a tight bear hug, tighter than Jonathan's.
Just then Christian, Conner and the other's walked over to us.
Aunt Emily did the same with Christian and Conner and shook Jonathan's hand, Fat Gus had soy sauce all over his hand, and the other was holding a rib.
"Come sit down" Emily dragged me over to an empty booth, motioning Conner and Christian to follow. "Quil go get some food, we're putting out a big feast and call the others."
Quil nodded, glancing one last look at me, he walked over to the pay phone.
"So tell me guy's, tell me what happened?" She asked as we sat on the table. "How come you decided to visit now?"
"Well Conner heard of the Diner, so we came to check it out. News was spreading fast down at makah." I nodded at Conner with a grin.
"I'm sure it was" Aunt Emily laughed a hearty grin.
"Well you can stay as long as you like and the food is on the house." Aunt Emily smiled proudly at us, like we were her own children.
"Thank Aunt Em." Conner nodded. "Guess we should come here more often then."
"That would be great." Aunt Emily nodded at us.
"Well if mom isn't sober that is." I whispered to Christian, who chuckled in agreement.
"What was that dear?" Aunt Emily asked.
"Oh nothing..." I looked around the store, to see Jonathan nodding at me so I called him over. "Hey Johnny! C'mon join us."
"This is Jonathan, he's from the pueblo tribe." I smiled as I pulled him down into the booth.
"Jonathan? I think I remember you from my brother's wedding, you were the one that lost the rings." Aunt Emily laughed. "It took forever, trying to find those rings but they were in your pocket all along."
Jonathan shrugged sheepishly as he looked down at the ground.
"Not to worry, you must have been two." Her eye's then slipped to mine. "So how's your mother?"
"She's fine." I croaked out. I didn't want to tell her about the fact that my mom is drunk of her ass at the moment. "She'd kill us if she found out, we came over here."
"I'm sure she would." Aunt Emily nodded sadly as she looked over to the chocolate brown wolf mural on the wall. Her eye's then flickered over to one of the biggest wolves that stood out, the black one. She smiled as she gazed at it.
"Did you paint all these wolves?" I asked curiously, my eye's landing on the chocolate brown wolf that seemed to stand out the most.
"No, my friend Kim did...you'll meet her soon." She smiled, her eye's still locked on the black wolf.
"Well they're beautiful." I added and Conner said something in agreement.
"Bears would have been much cooler." Jonathan whispered in my eye's. I had to roll my eye's at his statement, he was so obnoxious.
"Ah," Aunt Emily squealed as her eye's snapped over to the doors, behind my head. "Here they are!"
"Who?" Christian asked, taking a sip of his drink.
"Our Family"