“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
“There are a few things that need to be discussed. First things first, Lila, would you please explain why you keep running away from conversations with Emmet with them. You’ve done your best to avoid him for a few days, and I think that it needs to end. You’re going to hurt his feelings,” Jasper explained. Emmet turned to him, getting ready to explain that she really wasn’t going to hurt his feelings, when something in Jasper’s expression made him pause. Everything then clicked into place. Jasper was looking down onto a patch of floor in front of Lila. His hands were folded up on his lap, shaking slightly and his face held a wet smile on it. Emmet moved to take one of his hands, feeling like he was understanding something new about Jasper. Jasper just couldn’t sit still and leave things alone. He couldn’t let himself stay in one place and be happy. He needed to always be doing something new and something else to keep himself occupied. He neede
“So, what do you propose that we do?” Lila asked him, still curled up in a ball on her stool, looking downwards. Jasper then spoke for the first time since their conversation started,” We recover for now and get ourselves situated. Lila, Emmet, please try to work together.” “I’m not the problem here,” Lila bit out, looking upwards at the gap between Jasper and Emmet. “And I say that we both share some sort of responsibility in solving this,” Emmet answered back at her. “Both of you, stop,” Jasper called out, exasperated. Lila noted that he was beginning to act like a school teacher trying ineffectually to control a loud, messy classroom. “Emmet, Lila is still a child and is much younger than you and you started this first as well. Lila, you need to be able to open up to other people and allow yourself to get hurt sometimes; it’s how friendships work and you’ll get over those issues. I promise,” Jasper tried to explain to both sides.
They spent three Sundays in total making the lights. Kai pulled up several reference images up on Lila’s newly acquired smartphone. It had an internet connection and an amazingly usable workforce. It had no mechanical buttons on it, aside from the central, circular one at the bottom. There were two more buttons on either side of it, as well as a few down the sides. Kai borrowed it more often than not for school, using the camera to take pictures of homework questions and assignments from books and PowerPoints that he wouldn’t have any other way of accessing. She was saving up money for a laptop as well for ease of access when it came to websites for schoolwork. Between the two of them, buying one smartphone was enough of a investment, and it was enough to use P*******t for inspiration. They had spent hours trying over and over again to assemble the lights that they wanted to place in the café. The tiles had been newly placed, leaving the build
“Is there anything that you want to eat next week? I only go shopping once a week,” Lila called out as she walked up the stairs, not making that final step to the first floor, as she leaned into the upstairs kitchen. Both Jasper and Emmet were there, putting all of the week’s remaining fruit and milk into a blender before it all went off, deciding to make a meal out of it all. Emmet turned to Jasper, who then shook his head, and turned back to her answering,” No.” Lila narrowed her eyes,” He can answer for himself, you know.” Jasper tilted his head, sitting perched on one of the stools stolen from the downstairs kitchen and placed upstairs, and told her,” We don’t have anything that we want to eat next week. You’re doing a great job.” Lila felt her face heat up, quickly moving onto question about allergies and other specific dietary needs that the two had. Upon receiving the answer that there was nothing for her to worry about, she duc
“Wait, how does that work though?” Lila asked, turning to face the man in the corner. He wore a pitch black suit and black sunglasses, blending in the shadows well enough even without the invisibility device that had concealed him at the tea table. “Eyes work by detecting light of various wavelengths to detect colours. This device works by taking an image and providing an approximation of the background, using cameras on the inside to smooth out the image,” he explained, lifting up an umbrella looking device from behind one of the table legs that had concealed it. “And the outline of your umbrella?” Lila questioned him, deciding that poking and prodding at his device would be a good idea to help her relax with the distraction that he was providing her. “The edges are curved downwards and the frame is inside, poking outwards,” he clarified, his voice calm and toneless. It was then that he threw the umbrella upwards, the big, circular convex hem
“You know, you don’t have to do all this for me. I had to do a lot of things on my own and I can handle it,” Lila tried to plead to Tweedle Dee, clasping her hands together as she made the most pitiful puppy eyes as she could. “Explain what you actually mean?” ‘Tweedle Dee’ asked her back, his voice blunt and level, not even turning around from the office desk to face her. It had been two days since Lila had been first sleeping in the office behind the café, while the guy who actually ran the café, and who had also been training her, slept upstairs in the bedroom. There were plush sofas abound for Lila, creating a place of comfort and security, and as soon as she realised that there was a camera in the room, after taking a quick sweep of anything that might perv on her before she got dressed, she had noticed the little glint of light in the corner. It sat imbedded in the wall, above the right most filing cabinet, and if it hadn’t been for the specific
“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