by Cat Mann
Chapter 6
The L Word
I woke with a pounding headache as the flat-lining monitors common in my dreams turned into very loud honking.
The noise was coming from outside the house. I had fallen asleep, on top of Ari, on the couch. I nudged him, poking him a few times in the ribs before he woke.
“Morning,” he said sleepily as he blinked his tired eyes up at me. He re-adjusted his head on the pillow and closed his eyes to go back to sleep.
“Someone is honking a car horn. Will you please make that noise stop?” I groaned, growing more and more annoyed at the honnnnk, honnnnk that wouldn’t stop.
Ari moaned and slid out from underneath me. His hair stuck out everywhere from his head in springy tuffs. For a grown man, Ari is adorable when he first wakes up, which is probably why nothing gets accomplished at our house in the morning. He walked through the living room and down the hall towards the seldom-used front door.
“You had better get up,” his voice echoed from the entryway. “The honking isn’t going to stop until you come out and see Lauren’s car.”
“Ugh.” Pulling myself up from the couch, I dragged my feet across the floor to the front door. Lauren was waving and honking from her new, little, red Volkswagen hardtop convertible. We went outside in our bare feet to check it out and shut her up. The car was cute and shiny. Lauren had already stuck a clingy decal of the Greek flag to the back window – and I guessed Andy had a hand in that gift.
Ari curled his fingers around mine and as he did, his watch nudged the scar on the inside of my arm. I held his wrist up to check the time. Seven in the morning – the early morning sun was beating down and my headache was not relenting. I turned, holding on to Ari’s hand and walked back towards the house, pulling him with me. Lauren parked and trailed in behind us. I made my way to the coffee pot and Lauren slipped her hands around me in a hug.
“Thank you so much for all my gifts, Ava. I love you.”
“You don’t love me, Lauren,” I grumbled. “You just love the fact that I have a better fashion sense than your mother and your wardrobe has dramatically improved since I came into your life.”
“Well, maybe a little bit, but I still just mostly love you,” she said, letting me go.
“I love you, too.”
I poured some coffee and set a mug down in front of Ari, then sat down to look at the paper.
“So did you guys hear that Damien Kakos died last night?” Lauren asked unable to hide the curiosity and excitement in her voice. My annoyance with Ari’s sister was growing with every passing moment.
Ari coughed on his coffee and shot me a suspicious, angry look. I quickly looked away, my eyes dropping down to my dark black coffee and the stain that ringed the inner surface of my favorite mug.
“Mmm, I think I knew that,” I answered, looking up quickly for Ari’s reaction. He rolled his eyes at me and then looked back down at the morning paper, although his eyes weren’t bouncing line from line as they usually did when he reads. I knew he was listening, waiting for me to explain more even though he knew I wouldn't utter a single word about my encounter with No. 6 on his death bed.
“Ava,” Lauren said sheepishly, “are you alright? What happened last night with the lighter?”
“Lauren!” Ari yelled disapprovingly at his little sister.
“What? I want to know, too,” she said to him, assuming that I had told him all about my flashback.
“Lauren, I’m fine, really. The lighter just brought back some pretty gory memories; you have nothing to worry about.”
“Fine, no one ever tells me anything,” she pouted with her arms crossing over her chest, her foot stomping once on the floor. Ari shot her a warning look so she decided to change the subject.
“So when are you guys going to have kids?” she chirped.
“Never,” I replied at the same time Ari said, “Someday.”
We both shot each other shocked looks.
“Lauren,” Ari stood up, “go bother Rory, it’s too early for this shit.”
“Fine but I am having a party tonight on the beach with my friends, so please tell mom not to do anything embarrassing.”
“Oh, holy hell. I'm so glad we live here instead of there,” I muttered over my coffee.
“No kidding,” Ari chimed in as he walked Lauren to the door.
Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath. I tried to clear my thoughts, erase the images of No. 6’s fear-filled eyes as I cut his thread. Ari brought me quickly back to reality.
“I cannot believe you did that last night,” Ari leaned his hip against the counter top, his mug of coffee cupped in his hand.
I shrugged, “No. 6 had to die; no sense in prolonging the inevitable.”
He shook his head at me disapprovingly. “So…” his fingers strummed his mug a tad uncomfortably, “no kids?”
I bit at a fingernail, feeling uncomfortable, too.
“I guess I have always pictured myself with children until I found out who my dad was and who I was. I just don’t think I want to continue down that path. I don’t want someone else to have to bear my burden as a Fate.”
“Ava, the worst is over; you’ve taken away any burden that might have fallen on our children. Everything you’ve gone through has been for our future. You’ve done something that no one in your past has had the strength to do. The Kakos are gone now.”
I thought back to the night before, how No. 6 had company. Something in the back of my mind was trying to surface, something that told me my business with the Kakos was not yet over.
“I just don’t know if I want to take my chances.”
“I want kids,” Ari responded flatly.
Looking down at my coffee. I was unwilling to meet his eyes.
“I am only eighteen. I didn’t plan on getting married this young, let alone having children. Give me some time; let’s enjoy our marriage first and then we can maybe cross that bridge when we get to it... if we get to it.”