Weak and feeble

Chapter 9

YRENE'S POV

The feeling started from my chest, traveling down to my stomach, and eventually to my legs, making me weak in the knees.

A strange wobble that I was used to feeling began to work its way into my bones and it didn't help that people had started staring either.

Ethan was handsome, the triplets were—there was no doubt about that, and me in contrast to them was a fat bloke who evoked laughter without even doing a thing. There were bound to be stares.

He walked with a hand in his pocket, his eyes lingering on me and it felt like I began to burn. If Ethan looked at me for hours, I was sure all the fat on me would burn. His gaze was truly burning.

He approached us and the smell of his cologne filled the air around me and it got into my nose even though my breathing had seized a while ago. I couldn't even look up at him, instead I looked at Kaden and Reece who had silly, expectant grins on their faces.

"You're here already? Took you long enough." Kaden said, sipping from his glass of orange juice. Ethan looked around, scanning the restaurant and his gaze came to rest on me once more.

"Leave." He simply said, and those words echoed over and over in my ears. Was he trying to give me a death sentence? Wait, what was his trick? Was he waiting to trip me so I'd fall over? Or was he going to pour some drink down my back? Or worse, food? Or did he intend to see who I'd obey between he, Reece and Kaden.

If things continued the way they were going, I was bound to defy one of them. Worse, two.

"Your feet turn to lead?" He asked, with a coldness in his voice that seemed to send spellings of doom all over my head.

I moistened my dry lips and looked at Reece and Kaden.

"You're going to leave?" Kaden asked, feigning shock. I looked up at Ethan, with a pleading look in my eye. There was so much Kaden and Reece would do if I defied them, but then again, his would be worse if I defied him, so I took a step.

"Stop right there." Reece said, hitting a fist on the table.

"Let her go." Ethan told him coolly and Kaden threw a piece of meat at me. It got stuck in my hair for a second before dropping down my face, smearing my eyelid with oil before it fell. I watched Kaden get up and felt his strong fingers wind down my arm.

"Just give a reason. Any reason, Ethan. This could be much fun that you think. Or you think it's embarrassing?" Kaden asked, putting a hand on Ethan's arm.

"I just think it's enough. There will be plenty of time to play with her, but for today, let's leave it." He told Kaden, before picking up a raisin stuck in a slice of bread, and throwing it into his mouth.

Then he shrugged Kaden's arm off his and left with his hands back in his pockets.

"Lovely Ethan has spoken. There will be indeed enough time to deal with Fatrene here, so how about we just leave? Besides, I lost my appetite the moment I smelled her sweat." Reece remarked and pushed away the plate of steak cooked to perfection, looking tender and delicious in my sight. As he left, Kaden looked at me, then wiped a ball of sweat off the side of my face affectionately, only to wipe it off on my sleeve agressively with a look of pure disgust on my face.

I tell you, only when he left did I let out my breath. I looked at all the people who didn't mind staring at me and boiled in shame before rushing after the triplets. I didn't want to give them even the littlest reason to punish me further, and all my thanks for that day was to Ethan who had been miraculously sent by an angel to rescue me, however his reasons.

~

Immediately we got home, I disappeared into the kitchen as an excuse to avoid them searching for me and trying to find stuff for me to do.

The dishes weren't much so I started by spooning off the leftovers on the them while trying to forget the incident that had happened earlier.

Shortly, when my hands were slobbery with soap, Ethan came in and I almost made the grave mistake of letting the dish in my hands slip. It took me practicing embarrassing martial arts with my hands to finally balance the plate back in the sink and I smiled nervously, knowing that I looked nothing but annoying. He dropped his plate next to me and leaned against the wall, staring at me.

My mind immediately became a jumble of thoughts and I couldn't even pick a single one of them. So many times, I was tempted to look at him but was scared to meet his piercing stare.

"Give me a reason why you left earlier." He finally said and I turned to him, holding a little dish in my hands, eager to explain since he had asked. If only the other two had asked.

"My friend is a bit of a jokester. She… she called and gave me the impression that she was in danger. I… I got really scared and had to find out what happened. I really didn't want to leave, I… I only wanted to… to make sure she was okay." I explained hastily, caressing the dish with my slippery, and nervous fingers.

"And it was a prank?" He asked, closing an open cabinet door slowly.

"Yes." I replied, and while watching his neck which suddenly seemed so smooth against the rough leather of his jacket, what ought to have happened from the onset happened.

It was then I knew I had been doomed from the start.

Someone, somewhere had cursed me to cause trouble that very day, and Ethan slowly stopped to look at what had happened. I knew that in seconds, my heart would burst in flames.

Why? Why? It was all because the nasty dish fell.