Dinner that night was interesting inside the Track's multiple bedroom town home slash apartment, to say the least. Pie was had as well as tea, and coffee to anyone who wanted it; served on thick palm sized plates with blue polka dots and matching mugs, of course. The pie was blueberry and delicious.
"No, no! Remember that one time Liam locked himself out of the car but left the keys in the ignition with the car running! What a genius!"
"Oh, and then when he fell out of his tree house because he wanted to rollerblade in it but instead he went right through the window!"
"My favorite has to be when he brought his first girlfriend home, Nancy or something-"
"Michelle."
"Yes, yes, Michelle! And he wanted to be all smoochy on the sofa with her! And so we put on some ridiculous song and blasted it through the entire house and then Rolfe got all excited and jumped on her and slobbered all over her hair and she started to cry and...well, now that I think of it it really wasn't very funny. Poor girl ran out of the house crying with her hair full of goo. Hmm." June looked contemplative now and it made Ben laugh which then made June laugh too.
Samantha was finding the Track's childhood memories was making her feel very...pathetic. She didn't have anything like that in her past. Her house was always full of silence, and her mother's tears, and dust. She sipped on her tea to hide the fact that she wasn't smiling. Liam wasn't smiling either, but for different reasons.
"My my aren't you two a barrel of fun." Ben let out dryly as he took another bite of his third piece of pie. Samantha and Liam looked up then, one feeling guilty the other tired.
"Well, I don't have any stories like that to share. I'm sorry." Sam let out lamely.
"And I've heard these stories a million times as well as lived through them. So forgive me if I'm not squealing with joy over them." Ben rolled his eyes at his brother but decided to divert his attention to the little dark haired girl with the watery eyes.
"Where are you originally from Samantha?" Ben asked politely.
"Here."
"You alone?"
"Oh no, I have Levii." Liam had to stop himself from scoffing.
"Who is Levii."
"Her awful little cat." Liam let slip; he hadn't meant to actually say it out loud. He didn't dare look at Samantha, knowing she'd probably have that look on her face as if he'd told her Santa Claus didn't exist.
"Yes. He's my cat." Sam said softly.
"Oh." The atmosphere quite died after that and nobody said anything else until Samantha excused herself.
"What is the matter with you Liam? You know how much she loves that cat." June scolded him as soon as Sam was out of the room.
"I forgot okay? I don't see why she's so touchy about the entire thing anyways."
"You can be such an insensitive prick sometimes you know that brother?" June was furious. She felt very motherly towards Gray and hated when Liam made his snide stupid little comments, as if nothing she cared about was important just because it wasn't what he thought was important.
"I was feeling a little cold draft from your general direction Liam. Why do you not like the girl?" Ben added indifferently.
"It's not that I don't like her, I just...she...makes me feel weird and I don't like it. She's so...emotional."
"And you're a wall! At least she has feelings! I can't talk to you anymore tonight. I'm sorry Ben, I have to go to bed now, goodnight." Ben allowed himself to be hugged and kissed on the cheek by June and then waited until she was out of the room to speak.
"What was that all about?"
"I honestly don't know. She's been acting like that ever since the girl moved in."
"And let me get this straight, you don't like this girl because she...is emotional? Dear brother, I hate to tell you, but all women are emotional."
"Not Percy." "Yes
well, she's an alien then."
Saturday morning brought a warm sunny day, which was weird for the city. Everyone wandered around seemingly not knowing what to do when they weren't holding umbrellas and rushing down the streets. Inside Samantha's warm cozy little room Levii lay lazily on a pile of clothes as Sam stroked his back with one hand and flipped the pages of her book with the other. She lay on her belly in blue cotton shorts and a white bra, her bare feet flopping up and down behind her and her hair tied up in a frisky ponytail. A knock came to her door and not thinking of her attire she beckoned the person to enter.
"Oh, um, should I, uh...do you want to...?" Sam looked up to see Liam there looking rather embarrassed, his eyes looking up at the ceiling.
"What is it?" She asked innocently as she sat up and pulled Levii onto her lap. Liam, already feeling awkward because of the reason he was there, decided to just pretend she wasn't laying on the ground with her soft flesh exposed. He tried to keep his eyes on hers once he was looking at her again.
"Listen, just wanted to apologize for my comment about Levii last night. It was rude. I was very tired and grumpy and didn't mean it at all." He might have looked at more than just her eyes but he was a man after all and her shoulders were the roundest he'd ever seen, and her neck, where hair from her ponytail trickled down, was so long and slim, and her waist was really very narrow and she had a beauty mark just above her belly button...
"Oh that's alright. I know you don't like Levii but I don't think he likes you very much either. I'm sorry I wasn't a lot of fun last night. I was pretty grumpy too." She said all this while stroking Levii and switching her glance from Liam to Levii and then back.
"Oh, no, that is, you were just right." She had to smile at the "just right" part for some reason; she was like the middle bear in the Goldilocks story.
Liam smiled back slightly, finding her charming little smile a little too hard to resist.
"Liam what are you doing up here? Are you harassing Gray again?" June was suddenly in the room pushing Liam back at the chest, though he didn't move him much. She glanced over at Sam to make sure she wasn't crying and instead found herself surprised.
"Gray...where's your top?" Samantha was still smiling even while she looked down at her torso. Of course, once she saw she was topless she bolted up and under her bed covers with a yelp. A lot of mumbling came from the bed, neither of the Tracks could quite make it out, something about being embarrassed and multiple apologies.