ALL NOVEL Chapter 224: Spit It Out
I tried to meet up with my siblings. If nothing else I thought bragging about my fight and teasing Lu would help me relax. In the end, though they both went to bed early… I could still feel my face burning… And after the last time… I wasn’t going to dare go near Finlo or Zu… If anything they would only make it worse. In fact… When I ran into them, I used my agility and reflexes to quickly hide and sneak away…
Finlo noticed me I think… But he didn’t say anything. By the time I made it to the guest room I was staying in, I was too embarrassed to leave, and only afterward came to the realization that I never washed my clothes. Suddenly it didn’t seem like such a big deal anymore.
The room had its own bathroom, so I just used the sink to wash off what little I got on me and try to clean the blood off my pants before it stained. I had taken a bath right before the fight, so my skin still felt clean. The clothes were custom-made for me, so by request the shirt was big and baggy, enough so that it was almost a dress in itself, making it not such a big deal to forgo pants altogether. I did feel like a bit of a hypocrite for doing that, considering how uncomfortable I was in my formal dress… But sleepwear was completely different. Besides, it wasn’t like I was going to strut around town. I was going to sleep… And I definitely wasn’t just saying it was different to avoid having to leave my room and grab my trunk of clothes… Which I left near the entrance…
For the various compounding reasons listed, as well as the gore I witnessed, I hardly slept at all, marking yet another night of poor and scattered sleep. There wasn’t a single thing that I could focus my mind on that put me at ease. Thinking about my grandparents led me down a rabbit hole that ended with what I imagined they were doing that very moment… Thinking about Zu led to embarrassment, and it was the same for Finlo. Thinking about my brother led me to think about Zu, and thinking about Lu led me to think about my grandma.
My chest felt hot… But it wasn’t half as intense as before, leading me to think it was a normal reaction… Which of course only made it worse. My thoughts just ran in circles… Almost like… I wanted to think about those things… I slowly rubbed my hands down my face. ‘Maybe I’m the one that needs a cold shower…’ With a deep sigh and a moment of hesitation, I used ice magic to cool off, nearly freezing myself to the bone because I used it expecting it to melt… And it didn’t right away, only confirming that at the very least I wasn’t being affected by the dragon.
Eventually, the time passed…
When I woke up I felt like a complete mess. My hair was everywhere, my eyes were heavy, and I almost didn’t even care about anything anymore. I was too tired to be embarrassed… Or to even think straight, or even move in a straight line… Still… Thanks to Mara my body wouldn’t let me sleep past sunrise and oh… Believe me, I tried…
After I dragged myself out of bed I walked down the hall to the main family's dining room meeting everyone else for breakfast. ‘I’m the last one here… I guess that’s not surprising…’ My eyes slowly scanned my siblings, feeling unreasonably betrayed by both of them as my gaze settled on my grandparents. Unlike me… Grama was practically glowing, despite how much alcohol she drank the night before…
‘Wait, is that it… Am I hung over? There's no way right?’ I took a deep breath and let out a small groan as I pushed my hair back out of my eyes. ‘Don’t you have to get drunk to be hung over? No wait… Doesn’t it have more to do with hydration or something? I drank plenty of water.’
My grandfather cleared his throat. Carefully contemplating something as he stared at me in silence.
‘I’m starting to understand how my mom feels when we talk…’ “Spit it out already…” I groaned. Annoyed, blaming him in part for my lack of sleep. Although thinking about it, it was hardly his fault as much as his wife's… But I was still annoyed.
He took a drink of water “You should be more careful about what you wear outside of your room.”
I looked down, only then remembering I wasn’t wearing pants, and just let out a sigh as my hair fell back into my face. Once again… I was honestly too tired to care. ‘It’s not like you can see my underwear… This is fine… Besides, only family is here, and… Wait a minute…’ “Tell that to your wife…” I grumbled as I sat down in between my siblings. ‘Concerned about my modesty when she changes Topps in the courtyard and fights naked… Don’t even get me started about the way she talks…’
“Dressing like that really doesn’t bother you?” Lu asked. From her face, I could tell she didn’t mean anything by it, other than she was just a bit surprised.
I didn’t even bother responding, just letting out another groan. ‘Not as much as everyone is talking about it…’ I took a large helping of food and poured a glass of milk, but the creamy scent of the milk smelled just like the alcohol and made me almost vomit as if my body was reacting to it like poison before I even drank it. ‘What the heck…’
“Your grandmother is… An exception. She’s a grown woman, and married, so she can be more careless because I’ll protect her and take care of her when she gets drunk.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you took real good care of her.” I quickly shut my mouth. And laid my head face down on the table. ‘Did I really just say that? I think there's something wrong with me…’
After a moment I slowly raised my back towards them to see my grama’s cheeks turn red, although her mannerisms didn’t change much. He couldn’t look me in the eye anymore though. “There’s nothing wrong with what I’m wearing…” I grumbled. “I’m not some… Some-” I couldn’t even get the words out of my mouth, pausing for a moment. ‘oh… I get it now… That’s why it bothers me so much… I guess if that’s how I look then that’s how I look though… At least to them… Or at least in this culture maybe?’ I sighed. “I’ll go get changed after breakfast…”
After a long silence, I looked back at them. I would have thought they would be happy I caved, but instead, he looked like he just lost an argument, and my grandma still clearly hadn’t gotten over her embarrassment from the things that happened while she was drunk. It seemed a little odd, but… Then again I didn’t actually know everything that she did… “You should work on your arguments though… you're saying she can run around naked because you can protect her. I mean, ok… But I have Airsidh here.
My brother snorted almost choking, but waiting to interject till he absolutely had to.
‘Well, whatever… That’s probably enough on that topic…’ “Where was this sense of modesty when you went out into the woods and trained my sister…” ‘Why am I still talking…’
“Hey, leave me out of this! That’s completely different.” Lu interjected.
I sighed again. ‘Now I’m just making everyone mad… I should just shut up.’ “Sorry, I guess I wasn’t there…”
With a long groan and a roll of her eyes, my grama stood up. “Oh come on, if it’s that important then she can just borrow my pants.”
Her husband grabbed her hand as she moved it towards her waistband, not even bothering to look. “Please don’t…”
“What’s wrong, I thought you were here to protect me.” She teased with a grin suddenly making everyone go quiet.
‘Well, at least she’s having fun…’ I turned to my brother, deciding to force him into the conversation. Figuring his level head might finally end it. “This is fine isn’t it?” I muttered lifting my arms to look at the oversized sleeves, flip-flopping between extremely annoyed and unreasonably sad about how I was coming across.
He sighed, staring at me intently for a moment, only making me more nervous and giving me chills.
‘What's he going to say…’