Suddenly, the door slammed open.
“Here’s breakfast! Lunch is in the fridge! I’m late! OK bye!”
Lila quickly shouted off a group of phrases in quick succession, before abruptly slamming the door shut again.
Both Jasper and Emmet stared at where she had been, only seeing a tray carefully balancing and clinging to the surface of the sofa, one side tilting significantly more than the other.
On it were two steaming hot bowls, with spoons laid out next to them, as well as a little, folded sheet of paper with the image of a tea set drawn on top of it.
Emmet moved first towards the teetering tray, lifting it up before it could fall off and create a mess that he knew that he would be cleaning up, and brought it to where Jasper could peer inside of the bowls.
It looked to be a soup of hot milk with tiny strands of almost clear noodles, accompanied by various other fragments of crushed nuts, all of them differing in size and types, ranging from f
Lila knew that listening in to such a private conversation was wrong, but she couldn’t help but lean in a little closer when she heard her name. She heard the two men in her office, the two men in the photograph, discuss what she had done in the future, and their reasonings. It felt like she was back on the school playground and overhearing people talk about her like she didn’t exist, like there was some other kind of idea of her that took her place whenever she was stood in front of them. It was quicker and easier to lie and pretend that she was late for work, when she was actually a good five minutes early. She didn’t stick around to hear the end of the conversation that was happening in her office, opting to begin the days baking and then lock herself inside of the shop where she wouldn’t have to make meaningful conversations with anyone. Rolling up her sleeves and dusting the surface of her worktop with flour, Lila pulled out all the label
Her hand had stayed red the rest of the morning, the skin feeling slightly tender whenever she had to pick something up, no matter what the temperature of the object was. She couldn’t bring herself to regret what she had done, considering that she had done this so many times already, but she did feel annoyed at the inconvenience and the pain afterwards. Her lunch consisted of a singular dark chocolate chip cookie from the basket that hadn’t sold too well in the morning, her appetite not allowing her much more. She resigned herself to sipping water also, her stomach feeling as if it wasn’t going to be able to handle much more than the one biscuit. Her legs were feeling unusually more achy than usual, her hair more itchy on the back of her neck, and the acne spots at her temples more painful and irritating. Nothing felt right with her body, and the constant, thrumming pain of her right arm wasn’t making anything better either. Between customers, Lila le
“Hey kid, you alright?” Lila asked softly when the injured boy on her sofa began to wake up. He blinked at her for a few moments, his eyes hazy and unfocussed, before he abruptly sprang up and then crumped back into a ball in pain. Lila wordlessly handed him an ibuprofen and a glass of water, letting him take the medicine at his own pace. “Are you the lady who threw those white smoke things at those guys?” he asked her, his voice raspy and croaky as if out of use. “Yes, I am. Why were they attacking you?” Lila enquired, a plan forming in her head already. “I stole something from one of those guys and they caught me,” the kid explained without giving much detail away. Lila hummed, realising that the explanation was so vague that it could really mean anything if applied to the proper contexts. She elected to ignore the realisation in favour of the scheme that she had concocted. “Neat. Wanna job?” she replied, making her voice as
“Do I have to wear this fancy thing?” Kai complained, smoothing out his shirt sleeves again for at least the seventh time in the past five minutes. “Yes,” Lila hissed, as she continued to pin said shirt properly to Kai’s waist and shoulders, marking out a more accurate fit for his body. She had bought a bigger shirt for him to wear for his shift and was getting ready to modify it with a few extra seams that she would be able to rip out when Kai grew taller. It was easier and more convenient for her to do it this way, saving her from buying another shirt for him later down the line, but she was beginning to regret after he was starting to squirm. She had tried to make sure that she had warned him whenever she was going to move around and do something, but after he began mock complaining, she had stopped bothering to do so. “I’ve got to make this line clear, and as soon as I’ve done that, you’re free to start struggling on your maths work. I’ve got cake
“Final exams are done. So, you said that you’re getting me a present, or did you lie?” Kai called out, stretching his arms and looking up at the ceiling as he walked into the café. “Yes, I did get you a present,” Lila answered, tossing him a plastic wrapped rectangular shape, without turning around to face the door,” You get to make whatever changes you like to café, and I won’t say anything about it.” “Wow… I thought that you had actually bought me something neat, you know, like another novelty rubber, or another Fate DVD boxset, or maybe… one of those cool bike helmets that I pointed out to you in that magazine in the newspaper last week… you know, as a suggestion,” Kai meandered, slowly making his way towards the counter, not quite looking at Lila who was occupied with the coffee machine behind her. “Don’t you want to unwrap the plastic first,” Lila asked him, finally turning around, his entire body moving all at once. “No. Did you buy that fucking
“Emmet told me that he was in love with me,” Jasper stated to Lila, perched on one of the stools in her downstairs kitchen. She had walked into the back fully expecting it to be empty and made sure not to react to the intrusion of the other into what was supposed to be a locked room. Trying to remember back to the morning, she was wondering now whether she had actually locked it or not. “Yeah, and,” Lila replied, moving over another stool to sit in front of Jasper’s own whilst also pulling out her lunch from the fridge. The bowl of plain rice with sunflower oil and salted peanuts was cold enough to hurt her teeth, but she found herself unwilling to warm it up in the microwave, the conversation making her nervous and feeling that it would be inappropriate to let the microwave beep loudly and hum even louder. “I… why?” Jasper asked her, folding up his hands underneath his chin and looking down towards the floor. “Because he’s in love wit
Emmet led there on the sofa, lying there with his eyes closed as the open window let in the slight, summer breeze. He felt warm and content staying there until supper finally came. Jasper had accepted his confession. Jasper had accepted his confession! Emmet restrained himself from curling up into a little ball and blushing, rolling around from one side of the sofa to the other like a delighted cat. He just couldn’t help it as a great big beaming smile broke out over his face and he clutched his shirt with both of his hands. He just couldn’t help it. Jasper had accepted his confession. It hadn’t mattered that he didn’t say, “I love you too,” back to him. It hadn’t mattered that Jasper didn’t return all of his feelings. Jasper had accepted them for what they were, unapologetic and unwavering in the smile that he had given Emmet. “I know,” was what he had said. “I know and I’ll stay with you. I need to recover and
Lila grabbed Emmet by the shirt and dragged him over to a room that he had never been in before. All the countertops looked to be made of a polished, shiny metal with several cupboards attached to the walls above the counters. There was a stove with four stovetops and two large ovens stacked on top of each other, reaching a combined height of only a ruler’s length from the ceiling. There were a several stools scattered round the room with two of them sitting facing each other near one of the counters, one of them next to a bowl of partially eaten rice and Jasper sitting on the other, facing the door, a microwave sitting behind him and mounted on the wall. Emmet let Lila manoeuvre his body around to sit on another stool that she kicked over to be next Jasper, dumping his body down on it, knocking him against the other man and slightly bumping him towards the cabinets underneath the counters. Jasper bounced back off of it into Emmet again, looking over and smil
“Why’re you sleeping on the floor like that? Come on, get up. You’ll hurt your back doing that,” Doctor Marigold chided, dragging all her bits of heavy machinery around the office space to prepare for her demonstration.Behind her, Lila remained still.“I know that you’re not dead. Come, get up already,” she called out, stepping over a few sheets of paper that she had laid out to grab Lila by the shoulder and heave her up into sitting.The stubborn girl just flopped down again, not opening her eyes.“If you get the fuck up, we can move the flight a week forward so you can stop worrying about it,” Lucy Marigold shouted across the room.Like a rubber band, Lila snapped back up and finally opened her eyes.It had been harder to see the bags below them when they had been closed and Doctor Marigold wondered if she should buy the girl some sleep tablets.“I’m awake,” Li
Yolanda seemed to understand that she needed to back off and stop teasing Gretel, when the other woman's eyes suddenly misted over, and it was if she was no longer a part of this world.She kept the bubbling annoyance within her away from her face, putting on instead a mask of concern as she reached out and poked Gretel's arms, trying to maybe prod her out of her stupor and bring her back from the recesses of her mind.Yolanda had never actually seen somebody collapse inwards to a catatonic state over her own actions.It was interesting to see it all happen and fold out in front of her.She poked Gretel again, touching her in the face lightly to see if that would possibly work to pull the other woman out of her mind and back into the world where she was needed proper.It wouldn't reflect well on her if Gretel didn't wake up within the hour.It didn't feel as
When she awoke, she was sat ready to eat and was dressed just like her mother, in a pastel blouse and a lungi down to the floor.Lila looked down at herself and jumped when she heard rattling, noticing the ten, or so, bangles on each arm and the lines of mehndi that ran down all the way to the hems of her sleeves, resting halfway between her shoulders and elbows. A pin held her blouse shut at the top and a quick once over of her hair, with one of her hands, revealed that it had been styled in a simple bun and adorned with flowers.“This is weirdly romantic,” Lila commented, staring at the lit candles nestled in the variously sized candelabrums set around the circular room.There was no door, but a giant window which led to a balcony outside. There was no ceiling but the walls reaching upwards, all the way up, until they formed a dome in the same shade of dull brown that coated the floor and the giant, round table in the centre.The only dishes
“So, is she finally asleep?” Emmet asked the boy stood behind the counter. He was exceedingly slim for someone surrounded by sugar all day and Emmet could make out the outlines of his spindly elbows through his shirt. His face held a no nonsense, blunt, and almost bored expression. “Yeah, she is. She’s been knocked out on the sofa since I sent her back there,” Kai answered the long haired man in front of him, his hair pulled back by a ribbon matching his eyes before being pulled over his shoulder once more. He looked vain. “Oh good. Don’t tell her that I was involved,” the man asked, putting both his palms up to face Kai. “I’m telling her that you’re a fucking weirdo for that,” was the scowled answer. “No. Seriously, don’t tell her. She doesn’t like me and I don’t like her. She’s known my partner for longer that I’ve known him. She doesn’t trust me with him. Why’re you making that face?” Emmet tried to justify himself before giving up
“Are you sure that you’re getting enough sleep?” Kai asked Lila, watching her sway on her feet and clutching the front counter.“Yes,” she gasped, dropping her head into her hands, elbows on the table.“Go and lie down on the sofa. Go to sleep for a bit. I’ll wake you up when I have to leave for college,” Kai instructed her, tapping her on the shoulders and shepherding her towards the office.“… fine,” she conceded, letting Kai move her along towards the back.“You know that this just proves my point,” Kai pointed out, pushing her through the boundary of the door and closing it behind her.“Fine,” she whispered back to him, talking into the silence of the office.She let herself fall over the sofa, draping her upper body over the arm rest and letting her head be cushioned by the pillows. Shuffling a bit over to put her body entirely on the sofa, Lila f
“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now again!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now keep on going!”Lila landed each punch, timing her breaths to the count as she moved her fists, dodging underneath the swing that came towards her head, before blocking the second hit that came to her and moving along with the force of the fist that hit her arm.The swinging punching bag forced distance between Lila and Tweedle Dum, and she stepped back to where she was stood before, within the path of the moving bad, to put more distance between him and her.“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!”Lila punched the bag once more, landing all of her hits.“Okay, time for a break,” Tweedle Dum announced, grabbing the punching bag and pulling it back to him as Lila moved away from the centre of the room, sitting down on one of the rickety plastic chairs at the side of the room.She took of
“Bitch! Why’d you run off and abandon me like that!?” Lila shouted from behind the counter when Kai finally walked back into the store.She was waving her hands about and wore an apron covered in flour as the single customer in the store, an old man precariously balancing on his cane, slept whilst leaning on the radiator.“I thought that you wanted some bonding time with your family so I left you to do that it private!” Kai answered her, tiptoeing past their unconscious patron, in a combination of whispering and shouting.“They’re hardly my family and you left us in the middle of a public café!” Lila cried, not modulating her voice at all.In the background, the old man began to snore.“But you still talk to them a lot like you do to me, so I let you, and besides, I got about fifty more pages of Good Omens done in Waterstones,” Kai appealed, finally at the counter and opening up the
Gretel and Silver had their fun as he continued to teach her how the interface worked and how he had managed to figure out that the system was an older model from the lack of integration between the screen and the touch pad, and explaining how easily it would potentially be to do so once the technology, as displayed in this device, had been demonstrated and established to work in a functional product."We were working on something like this as well, back in the workshops back home for the company that I was in the research and development department for. We were trying to get our motion sensors to be as small as possible for more commercial and personal use of technology that we could sell to the public and those who couldn't afford the contact computers.We had no idea on how their tech worked, because of trade and company secrets and all, but we managed to piece together a few things by looking at the patents and when we bought a few and m
“Alright, the shop’s free. Why are you actually here?” Lila questioned, crossing her arms and staring down at the tablecloth of Jasper and Emmet’s table.“I’ve got lesson now. I’ll be back in a few hours,” the teenage boy behind Lila announced, picking up a bag that had been hidden behind the counter the entire time and rushing outside.Lila continued to stand there, waiting for a reply.Jasper couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t meeting either his or Emmet’s eyes.“Are you planning to leave us?” he asked her back.Lila’s fingers dug into the creases of her shirt,” I’m going to be leaving for a trip soon, and I’ll be back as soon as I can. Kai’ll be running the shop and will be looking after things, broadly. He lives here now and I scheduled my leave for when his school term ends so he can take care of things.”“On thi