Homecoming. Like normal students. I hadn’t thought about it, but now that Mr. Blackbourne had said something, I was thinking what it would be like. We’d still need to be on alert, but for a moment, I imagined what it might be like to blend in with everyone else. Music, dancing. He’d said they’d all attend. Did he include himself?
Maybe it wasn’t as big a deal as I was thinking it was, but in the moment, I let myself become excited.
I floated out of the bathroom.
Korba Family Dynamics
I left my soggy clothes hanging off of the tub, and collected my book bag, stepping out into the hallway. The apartment was quiet. I tiptoed to Silas’s door, dropping my bag inside, and shuffled off back toward the living room.
I found Silas on the couch, back in jeans and wearing the Red Sox T-shirt. He had his bare feet up on the coffee table as he flipped through stations. There was a lamp glowing on the side table next to him in the otherwise dark room. With his strong jaw, his hair a little mussed, and his deep eyes, he looked so handsome that my heart started thundering.
He looked up as I came closer, and held out an arm, beckoning. I slipped into the spot next to him. I curled up my legs, drawing them to my chest as I rested my head against his shoulder and stared ahead. I wanted to look at him more. There were lengths of time where I wasn’t around him much and I yearned to study his face and look into his eyes like he did to me. I wanted to know things I didn’t dare ask.
His arm wrapped around my body, drawing me close, his fingers brushing my side. I was comfortable, but his fingers tracing the side of my stomach had my core trembling again.
He held the remote in his other hand. “What do you want to watch?”
“I don’t know.”
“Pick something.”
I had no idea what to say. I couldn’t remember the last time I watched television. “There isn’t a game on?” Sports were safe. He liked that.
“What do you really want to watch?”
I lifted my head from his shoulder so I could look at him. Was he serious? Like I could pay attention to anything with being in this new place and him so close anyway.
I was about to answer when the sound of the front door being unlocked echoed through the apartment. I stiffened next to him, tucking more into myself and wishing I had picked a spot on the other side of Silas so I could hide behind him.
Silas, however, didn’t budge. He mumbled something I didn’t understand, maybe in Greek, and turned back to the television, continuing to surf channels.
A stout man appeared from the hallway, his dark hair cut short and his nose big. He wore a dirty light blue worker shirt that did just enough to hide a protruding front belly. He chewed on a cigar as he dropped something heavy on the kitchen counter, then flicked a light, shedding a fluorescent glare toward us.
“Hey-ey-ey,” the man laughed in our direction. “There’s the girl.”
Silas grumbled and sunk deeper into the couch.
My mouth fell open and I stared, scratching lightly at my arm out of nervousness. The girl? I thought I should stand and maybe greet him, but Silas’s fingers gripped my side tighter and I wasn’t sure I wanted to pull away from him.
“Hello,” I said softly in an effort to be polite.
“Hello to you,” the man said, his heavy Greek accent making it difficult for me to understand. “Silas talked about a girl, but I wasn’t sure he didn’t mean the blond kid.”
Did he mean Luke? “No, I’m...um...I guess...”
“Dad,” Silas said, sitting up on the couch and releasing his hold on me, dropping his feet off of the table. “This is Sang Sorenson. Sang, this is my father, Charalampos Korba.”
His father grinned and crossed the room to stand over me, holding out a hand. “Call me Charlie.”
I dropped my hand in his. His was big, like Silas’s, but he was shorter than his son. It was hard to imagine the tall and powerful Silas and him being related. I fought for the proper words to say. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” There. That was what I was supposed to say, wasn’t it?
“Oh,” Charlie said, an eyebrow going up as he shook my hand. He made a face at Silas and grinned at him. “Listen to that. She’s a very proper girl.”
“Don’t start,” Silas said, giving him a glare.
“What are you talking about? I haven’t said anything.” Charlie backed away, falling butt first into the well-worn leather armchair. He heaved a sigh, readjusting himself as he settled in. “Oh god, you don’t want to know the things I saw today, Si. I swear, no one in this town knows how to unclog a toilet. They always manage to make it worse.”
“If they did know how to do it right, they wouldn’t need to call you,” Silas said.
Charlie laughed, pulling the unlit cigar from his lips and shoving it into the front pocket of his work shirt. “You’re right about that. Keeps me busy.”
A knock echoed through the room.
“There’s dinner,” Silas said, standing up. He dropped a hand on top of my head, patting me as he brushed by, walking around his father to answer the front door.
And my heart dropped in my chest. How dare he abandon me! I was tempted to jump up to go with him, but I couldn’t get myself to move. I clutched my arms around myself, over my legs. It might be improper to have my feet on the couch and I should lower them but I was too terrified to move at all.
“Toss me that remote, love,” Charlie said, snapping and pointing to the remote Silas had left on the coffee table.
The term he used for me caused me to blush, but the command was enough to get me to unfold. I grabbed the remote and stood up to cross to where I could place it in Charlie’s hand.
He beamed up at me. “You are cute. How’d you meet my son?”
I hesitated to figure out what to say, half hoping Silas would be back quickly to answer for me. “Um...well I met Kota and Victor and they introduced us.” Mostly true.
“Oh,” he said, his voice dropping slightly, leaning over and his eyebrow shot up. “Are you...you know...from that fancy Academy? What’s it called? Greyson Academy?”
It was called something? I didn’t know it had a name. I shook my head quickly. “No, I go to the public school.”
His lips pursed and he nodded, sitting back. “Good. That’s where you should go. I tell my son that, but he got that scholarship and he says it’s a good opportunity. I said he should go get his wallops in at a public school. It’s good enough.”
I had nothing to say to this, but I found it strange. Erica seemed to understand more about the Academy, even if she wasn’t told much. So not even their parents knew the inner workings. They just saw it as a private school. “It sounds like a nice place,” I said quietly.
Charlie huffed, and waved his hand in the air. “All he does is school work. Never has time to help out his old man anymore. I tell him that he could make a good living if he just learned a useful skill, like plumbing. It’s all you need to do and you won’t waste your time or money on some degree. Look at all those kids out there now with large school debt and no job. That’s not a life. A trade is where the money is.”
Silas returned, carrying a couple of bags into the kitchen. He placed them on the counter and started opening them, sorting out the containers.
At hearing this, Charlie’s lips pursed again. His eyes fell on me, curious and amused. “So you are his girlfriend, right?” he asked in a louder tone. He was clearly trying to make sure Silas heard.
My eyes went wide and I sought out Silas in the kitchen. He turned around toward the wall as if looking for something. I knew he’d heard his father. He was avoiding the question.
“Yes,” I said, wanting to make Silas as uncomfortable as I was. If he was going to abandon me, I would try to embarrass him. He probably expected me to rattle off that we were just friends. Well, joke’s on you, buddy.
Part of me secretly entertained the idea of claiming him. The other boys often sprung things on me, like not telling me until the last minute wit
h Uncle that I was with Luke. I enjoyed the turn around.
Silas spun around in the kitchen, his dark eyes finding mine, his mouth open. Shock? Disbelief? I wasn’t sure which. Fair’s fair, though. Besides, he told that neighbor of his we were a couple.
“Have you ever had a Greek boyfriend before?” Charlie asked.
I knew this answer. “No, sir. He’s my first.” In more ways than one.
“You’ll see,” Charlie said, beaming. “You go Greek, you won’t go back to any of those lazy American boyfriends.”
I clamped my lips shut. I wasn’t sure how much Silas had told him about me but I didn’t really want to delve into details about how completely inexperienced I was.
Silas cleared his throat, walking into the room with a collection of Styrofoam packages, plastic forks and a roll of paper towels under his arm. He deposited everything onto the coffee table, picking one of the containers back up and handing it over to his father. There were wafts of different spices, all mixing together.
“Beer?” Charlie asked Silas as he opened the top.
“We have Coke or water.”
“I told you to get some,” Charlie said. “I work hard all day. I should be able to come home and have a cold beer.”
Was Silas expected to get beer? He couldn’t buy it legally.
Silas ignored this and turned to me, eyebrows going up. “Coke?”
I shook my head. “Water, please.”