2: Outing

Leilyn honestly didn’t imagine developing a relationship with anyone in town – seeing as the ones she had the displeasure of meeting were uptight, religious assholes with huge polls stuck up their asses –, much less kids.

Almost everyone in the town (Leilyn has a heavy suspicion that the church is the fountainhead of said belief) has practically branded her as a ‘witch’, all because she’s still alive (que an exasperated eye roll here). She – being the paranoid woman that she is and was trained to be – who distrusts everyone who isn’t her mother or brother or Clan, also contributed to her reluctance of trying to socialize with anyone.

But here she is, having fun with the three teens who trespassed into her sanctuary.

The next day, after the trespassing fiasco, the boys came back, sheepishly bearing a vanilla-blueberry pie as a peace offering and they apologized profusely to her. She just gives them a soft smile and takes the package, watching them leave once again on their Hoverboards behind her gate.

The trio keep coming back after that. At first, Leilyn was skeptical about their visits, but as weeks went by, she eventually warmed up to them, albeit hesitantly.

The rich caramel skin woman later learnt that their names are Zack Smith, Richard Powers and Jason Saturday. They are fun loving psychopaths and total dorks. Leilyn can’t help but admit that they, apart from her family and Clan, have accomplished the act of making her laugh so joyously.

As time went on, she began to see them as little siblings. Or destruction children on sugar high.

Leilyn might not be interested in adopting anytime soon, but she loves kids. Well, she loves them when they’re not wailing, tantrum throwing messes. She tends to envision herself chucking them out of a window in a basketball fashion when she sees an irritating brat.

Between the three of them, she feels more protective of Zack. Zack was a pure ray of sunshine. Every time they come running to her house after school or when they skipped classes, Zack’s the first person she will see, waving enthusiastically at her, always exuberant. And sometimes, she feels a kinship with him. She just couldn’t put her finger on it as to why.

It wasn’t long before she grew overprotective of him and in time, she got overprotective of Rick and Jason. The kids brought out her innate maternal instincts.

It didn’t take long for Leilyn to grant them entry into her home. For the first few weeks of their friendship, they all lounged on the porch, which was furnished to the nines.

There was something about them that puts her – who’s normally apathetic, cold and suspicious as hell with strangers that will even make Batman proud – at ease, and eventually making her warm up to them. They have the same energy as her brother, and she misses that. She misses his loud, brash presence.

The moment the boys stepped into Leilyn’s house, they were blown speechless – figuratively, not literally. She’s not that coldblooded – at the interior. Her home was so elegant and historical looking that Zack had to walk out and Jason to check his phone to see if they by any chance got teleported back to the 21th century. Leilyn almost cracked a rib as she laughed at the reason for their weird reactions. It was the third time that the trio saw her laugh so freely and they had smug grins all day for accomplishing that.

Leilyn immediately took them to the game room and the teens wondered out loud if they had died and gone to heaven. Leilyn still snickers in fond amusement when she remembers their expressions and comments. She taught them how to operate the various games in the room.

If she remembers correctly, Jason actually got down and hugged one of the consoles. Heck, the boy shed a few tears of joy. Rick thanked all the deities that existed for blessing them with her arrival while Zack just hugged her tightly.

Due to their love of all things animation and games, Leilyn gifted them with three brand new, state of the art Normaric Enterprises’ Holo-Watches few days later; out of the five that she had stashed in her closet. Having an overprotective mother and brother that knew how clumsy she is when it comes to handling things has its peeks.

Anyways, it became a routine for the boys to pay Leilyn a visit almost twice or trice in a week. She honestly didn’t know how to feel about that at first. In the end, she just shrugged it off and decided to be indifferent about it.

Time passed and soon, it’s Easter day. On the third week of April to be precise. The kids managed to escape to Leilyn’s, away from the madness of their family on the so called ‘holy day’.

By the Cosmos, hearing the story of how a man was resurrected after getting his ass killed in the most hilarious of ways over and over again in a sermon is bound to drive anyone nuts.

They arrive there in the afternoon and literally conquered Leilyn’s game room as theirs’. She just snorts in amusement at their behavior before going over to kitchen to prepare snacks for them. She then makes a show of beating them in their own game when they challenged her, a smug smirk on her black colored lips throughout the whole thing.

Around three in the afternoon, Zack and his friends decide to take Leilyn out for the rest of the day - to her blatant refusal and disgruntlement. She heaves out a long suffering groan as she’s dragged upstairs by Zack, who proceeds in rampaging through her walk in closet for a suitable outfit in the sea of red and black.

“Zack.” Leilyn calls out in a deadpan voice and the teen replies with a hum. “You do know that no one in town actually trusts my presence right?”

“Then they can choke on my dick.”

Leilyn lets out a strangled noise of surprise immediately those words passes through his lips. She couldn’t help but stare incredulously at him in shock, eyes and mouth wide open and a hand on her chest.

Zack’s the hoodie wearing cinnamon roll of the group, and for him to cuss so nonchalantly, Leilyn wonders if the world is coming to an end. She peeps out the window in the closet to see if fire and brimstones are raining down on the earth.

“Okay, I think this will do.”

Leilyn cocks a perfectly plucked brow, impressed at the outfit he picks out for her. Damn, he sure has taste.

“I’ll leave you to change and get ready. Don’t forget to look extra pretty.” He says with a wink, making Leilyn scoff in amusement. She and the boys joke about her disdain for make up, so for Zack to suggest her to apply make-up is amusing.

Leilyn moans in defeated silence as the door closes behind Zack. She undresses, dumps her clothes on the bed before walking into the en-suite bathroom for a quick shower. It takes her twenty minutes to get ready and the boys couldn’t be more thankful.

“Wow…” Zack breaths out in awe and Richard and Jason couldn’t agree more.

Leilyn is a sight to behold in all her rich caramel glory. Not only is her clothing fitting and fabulous, her face – which she rubbed a little bit of white powder on – glows with the sun’s radiance. Her eye lids are painted dark green, bringing out her eyes. The ray of sunlight that manages to come in through the glass windows makes her skin appear smooth and lovely, also making her vivid agate eyes to sparkle. Her dark-red-copper hair is still in its elegant, French braided form and it’s thrown over her shoulder, her usual fringes fanning her face.

“So, how do I look?” Leilyn asks as she gestured herself.

“Beautiful.”

“Out worldly.”

“Simply fabulous.”

“Okay. You three, stop. Teasing me is not going to get you more likes from me.” Leilyn huffs out with an exasperated eye roll as she sauntered down the stairs.

“It’s not teasing if it’s the truth.” Jason counters with an amused smirk.

“Don’t forget that you’re beautiful and down to earth. I honestly don’t understand why you’re still single.” Rick adds with a grin.

“Okay, that’s quite enough you two. If you keep going, Mrs. Xander’s dry look will become even drier – if that’s even possible.” Zack snorts at the expression on Leilyn’s face.

The foursome walk out of the house, Leilyn still begin teased with exaggerated praises. Leilyn activates the lock down procedure on the house - which locks all the doors and windows - before she gets into the hover car. The automatic gate slides opens up and they drive out, stopping for a few seconds as Leilyn ensures that the gate closes – not that she doubts her companion’s efficiency.

It takes twenty minutes to get to the populated part of town, and unless one decides to drive like a psychopath and violate the traffic rules, you can get there in ten.

The windows of the car are down, allowing the cool April air in, and also allowing their voices to be heard.

Rick, Jason and Leilyn are singing along to the radio and boy are their voices horrible. Zack has a constipated look on his face as he glares witheringly at them. Leilyn, seeing this, decides to troll him.

With a shit eating grin, she increases the volume of her voice and Rick and Jason, not wanting to be outdone by her, follow her lead. If they are to drive pass someone, the person will wonder if they have gone batshit mental.

“Oh my God!”

Zack, wanting to save his sanity and eardrums, hurriedly switches off the radio, blessing the trio with a quelling glare. Said trio just grin cheekily at him, making his glare to become hotter. If looks could kill, they would have been dead by now.

“So… what do you guys wanna eat when we get back?”

Leilyn suddenly asks, making the trio blink owlishly for a moment before answering with various shouts of

“Spicy curry!”

“Mac and Cheese!” and

“Beef stew!” from each teen. Due to their difference in reply, the boys begin to glare at one another. Leilyn hurriedly intercepts before they could start another bantering fest.

“Why don’t I cook all three? If there’s any leftovers, I’ll just refrigerate it and you guys can dig into it later on.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“That will do.”

“Okay.”

The boys mumble out various replies of agreement and she breathes out a silent sigh of relief.

“And because of that,” Leilyn starts, looking at them through the view mirror. “We’re going to the mall get some stuffs after you three have finished dragging me throughout the town.” She ends with an exasperated sigh. Once again, they reply positively, making her grin happily.

The boys start up a conversation and Leilyn just added inputs here and there. The atmosphere in the car is so lively and bright that Leilyn fears that she’d end up blind before the trip is over.

“Mrs. Xander?”

Zack’s voice drags her out from her thoughts and she blinks owlishly for a second before regarding him from corner of her eye, making sure to keep the other on the road.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, hun. Just got lost in my thoughts.” She gives him a soft smile. “Is something the matter?”

“Well…” Rick begins, rubbing his neck. “Please don’t be offended about what we are about to ask. I know that it’s personal, but, ahm… Zack, Jason and I were wondering why you’re single.”

“You’re an awesome woman, a wonderful cook, and a whole list of other great things packed together into one.” Jason adds.

“So it’s just so surprising that no one has claimed you as theirs.” Zack ends.

“Okay, first of all, I won’t, and will never, be claimed by anyone.” Leilyn starts, voice stern and brows furrowed in a scowl. “Secondly, not everyone wants to be in a relationship with a woman of my caliber. Not to brag but have you seen my achievements? Not many people have accomplished what I have, at a young age to boot. Most people who date accomplished people like me, women especially, become insecure of their own worth, and then, they begin to wonder why someone of such height would stoop so low so as to date them. Insecurity turns into distrust, distrust turns into paranoia, and the next thing you know, they develop Othello syndrome.”

“Othello syndrome?” The teens query together, utterly perplexed.

“Othello syndrome, also known as morbid jealousy, delusional jealousy and pathological jealousy, is a psychological disorder in which a person is preoccupied with the thought of their spouse or sexual partner being unfaithful and makes repeated accusations of their unfaithfulness without any real proof or citing their normal everyday events to back up their claims.” Leilyn explains.

“Are there known symptoms of this disorder?” Rick asks. Like Leilyn, he was a science enthusiast and unlike his friends, he’s paying keen attention to Leilyn’s explanation.

“Yes, they are.” Leilyn replies. “Basic symptoms includes accusing the partner of holding an affair when they withdraw or when sexual activity stops; interrogation of phone calls; stalking them on social media or not allowing them to use it; going through their belongings; always asking where they are and who they are with; isolating them from their family and friends; not letting them have personal interests or hobbies outside the house; controlling their social circle; becoming verbal or physically violent towards them , the individual who you consider to be the rival or both; blaming their partner as the reason for their jealous behavior; denying that they have a jealous behavior unless cornered; and last but not the least, threatening to harm themselves or others.”

“Wow…” Zack offers weakly.

“Yep.” Leilyn pops the ‘P’ loudly. “People don’t know that they have this syndrome and the society kinda sees it as a normal thing. They just say that they are insecure and are afraid to lose their partners.”

“Then people must be crazy to see all these symptoms as normal.” Jason says with a note of distaste. “Come on! Who isolates their partners or restricts them because of petty jealousy? That’s just pathetic.” The others nod at his statement.

Leilyn feels a smile tug at her lips and she allows it to spread. These boys… whosoever they will date in the future will be very lucky. She just wishes that their innocent and kind heart wouldn’t be stomped by assholes. She will utterly destroy those who hurt them, physically or mentally.

“Mrs. Leilyn?” Rick’s voice jolts her out of her murderous thoughts and back to the moment.

“Yes, Rick?”

“Is there a solution to it? The Othello syndrome that is.”

“Well, medication and therapy are the best solutions. As for me, I think their partners leaving and moving far the hell away from them and their madness is the best.”

“I second that.” Zack agrees. “The lord knows I can’t deal with that shit.”

“Third.”

“Fourth.”

Jason and Rick input respectively.

“And what if they decide to make it their mission to stalk you to the ends of the earth?” Leilyn queries, a perfectly plucked eyebrow arched.

“If they wanted to die, they should have said so before we started dating. I would have granted their wish in a heartbeat.” Zack answers with a deadpanned expression, voice flat and placid.

Leilyn makes a small, indistinguishable noise in the back of her throat, once again taken by surprise with his reply.

“And being the awesome friends we are, we will help you dispose of the trash.”

“Some acids might help with the disposal.”

Leilyn’s mouth drops open a little bit and she glances at the teens behind her through the view mirror in shock.

“Wow… I never knew you kids could be so evil minded.”

Jason grins inanely at her and she couldn’t help but sweat drop at the feral look in his eyes.

“Anyways,” Leilyn drawls, breaking the boys from their murderous plots. “The third and last reason for me being single is, well…” She pauses for a moment before finally heaving a resigned sigh and continuing. “Well, I never really had time for a relationship. I’m not sure that I’ll ever have one, even if a gun is pointed at my head.”

“What? Why?” Zack inquires with a frown.

“Well…” She trails off, pausing for a second to figure out what to say, eyebrows scrunched together and lips pursed in a thin line. She huffs out a tired sigh.

“I have always been busy, even as a teen. I had my studies, ambitions and missions to focus on; so dating wasn’t really on my mind. Well, I did date a woman and a guy on two separate occasion, but those relationships didn’t end so well.” She shrugs. “And before I knew it, I’ve lost all interest in dating and, automatically, everything associated with relationships. Heck, my sexual drive is now zero to none. I don’t feel anything; I can no longer experience or feel either romantic or sexual attraction to anyone. I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t met someone who wants to be with me not for my money or achievements, but for who I am or because sex and romance is meaningless in this life.”

Leilyn shrugs again.

“Being the heiress of a multi-trillion company, it’s honestly hard to find true love. I have given up on that a long time ago. When it comes to humans, love is just a word used in deceiving the foolish and making a complete joke out of them. I’ve come to the conclusion that romantic love is just a temporary or long term chemical reaction, caused by our hormones in order to give us a reason to do stupid shits, or just to make us completely blind to the glaring truth around and in front us. There is no such thing as romantic love; only the desperate urge of equally desperate humans to breed and satisfy the insatiable yarning of the flesh, and to sooth the bone crushing weight of depression and loneliness experienced by 75% of the human population; along with the constant changing reality of life.”

A heavy silence descends on them. The teens stared at her, stunned by her words. Then came the sadness. What made such a vibrant and caring woman to come to such a conclusion? It was honestly sad.

“Don’t worry Mrs. Lyn. Just give me five years and you will have yourself a fine husband.”

Jason’s cheerful comment has her cackling inwardly.

This boy…

“You’re not going to give up are you?” She asks, still snickering inwardly.

“Nope.” He grins impishly at her.

“Jay, by then I will be old and way more depressing than usual. I might not even be to your taste then.”

“Love has no boundaries.” He winks saucily at her.

“Dude… the hell?” Rick looks at him with a creeped out expression.

“You need help bro.” Zack adds with a miffed expression, and that opens the flood gates.

Leilyn breaks down laughing so hard to the point that she has to stop the car in order to catch her breath. It takes a minute for her to collect herself.

“By the Cosmos.” Leilyn manages to croak out, wiping a lone tear. “You boys are something else.”

They grin wolfishly at her and accept the compliment with pride.

Leilyn gets them back on the road and in no time, they reach the populated part of town. She parks her car in mall’s parking lot, seeing as they will still be coming back.

The teens officially show her every inch of that area of the town, leaving no small detail behind; even the ones she wish they kept to themselves and not utter a word about it to her. Like seriously, which sensible people would celebrate the people who started the third World War and won by default? The town has a whole park dedicated to the monster who started the suffering of millions and Leilyn vows to never step foot on there again. Heck, she wishes that she could burn it all down with the red, hot flames of Hell.

Those poor souls. Innocents killed because of a power struggle between dumb old men, who should have been six feet under a long time ago. And these idiots praise them just because they used religion as a cover up.

The grand stupidity of religious fanatics.

Honestly, she’s beginning to see why Alex called them the ‘Sky Daddy Cult’. The name fits them to a T.

Before Leilyn could make do on her promise and set the park on fire – she already has a lighter out and an evil aura was whiffing off of her. She has a demonic look in her eyes as she lit it and is about to throw it on one of the park benches – the boys hurriedly whisks her away, laughing nervously as they do so.

They continue the tour. The boys each bought a single rose hair pin for her – which she drops in her pocket – and she thanks them with a peck on the cheek for each.

Jason enters La La land immediately, a hand on his cheek. Richard and Zack just roll their eyes in exasperated fondness at his reaction.

The boy has it HARD for Leilyn. Too bad – for Jason that is – she’s not into Ephebophilia.

After successfully breaking Jason from his love trance, the foursome continue their journey.

“I hate to admit it, but this town is nice.” Leilyn says, the boys and her on their way to the mall. They are finally done with the tour and Leilyn, to her surprise, actually like the town. Well, the beauty of it in terms of nature.

“Told you so.” Zack gives her a sassy smirk.

Leilyn just tosses him an amused look before ruffing his hair. Her action has him squawking in indignation, once again telling her that he’s not a child for her to be doing that. She just smirks at him, making him pout a little.

It starts to get crowded as they got close to the mall. Due to her choice of clothing, Leilyn has a lot of people staring at her in disbelief, incredulity, disgust, or lust.

The woman has on a beautiful and elegant black, leather, sleeveless turtle neck crop top. It’s has a zipper leading from under her bosoms up to her neck; although, the zipper is currently on her chest, exposing the upper side of her bountiful blessings. The cloth also exposes her entire back and it ends inches above her naval. The crop top shows off the scars on her body, and also the artistic tattoo on her back. To sweeten the deal, she paired it with a black, thigh length, low rise shorts with two designer buckles on both sides of her laps, which enhances her curvy figure.

To top her dressing up, Leilyn wore dark blue mesh stockings with black, ankle length, block heeled combat boots. On her left bicep is a gold band, designed with artistic patterns, and on her right wrists are two gold bangles, which dangle and also clank together in a soft way. Her lips are painted dark chocolate and when she smirked, it’s sinful.

Her choice of clothes brings out her glorious shape, which is honestly not a sight for sour eyes. All in all, Leilyn is blessed from head to toe, and her scars did nothing but amplify her looks.

Zack throws a worried glance at her, wondering if he had made a wrong choice in picking her outfit for her. He honestly thought it would look cool on her (and it did!), but she’s getting a lot of negative attention. His ears catches some of the whispers floating around, and boy does it infuriate him.

Jason and Richard reactions are worse than Zack’s. Jason is out right glaring daggers at everyone while Richard is staring coldly. Due to the three murderous expressions, people quickly shut up and gave way like the red sea.

Leilyn becomes perplexed by the behavior of the people around them and she looks around to investigate why. She lets out an exasperated sigh when she sees the reason why.

“You boys do know that you look like you are on your way to brutally dismember some unlucky bastard, right?”

“And that’s exactly what we’ll do.” Jason responds with a dark scowl on his face, glaring with narrowed eyes at anyone who dare to gaze at Leilyn with an unwelcomed look.

“I honestly shouldn’t have chosen this outfit.” Zack mutters darkly, staring distastefully at what Leilyn currently has on.

Leilyn lets out an amused scoff whilst giving each of them an exasperated look.

“You three shouldn’t worry your pretty heads. This is nothing. I’m used to it.” She says with a bemused smile.

“What?” Zack hisses out, suddenly stopping in front of Leilyn, making her stop in her tracks. Jason and Richard followed suit, looking at her in disbelief.

Leilyn gives them a sad smile. “This…” she gestures at the people who are staring at them. “…this is nothing new. I’ve been receiving stares that vary in degree all my life, most of them being that I unashamedly display my scars. My scars which clearly state that I’m a survivor. Most people find it intimidating of people who don’t hide that they are survivors, knowing that they will strengthen others who they are oppressing. Why do you think most abuse victims are trampled upon, even after their ordeal? They lived and they told their stories.”

“But Mrs. Xander…”

Leilyn just gently flicks Zack’s nose, a soft smile on her lips, but her eyes… they look dead.

“Don’t stress yourself over nothing. I can handle myself. This here is nothing. Like I said, I’m used to it.” And you’ll think people will get used to strange things in this century. But as expected, humans are difficult to accept change.

And with that said, she walks away, a tight smile on her lips, not giving a damn about the looks she’s getting. The boys give each other worried glances before jogging to meet up with her.

The foursome walked into the mall, and all, except for Leilyn, are unaware that they were being watched. Leilyn throws a side eye glance at the woman who is whispering strongly into her phone.

‘Hmm… I wonder if she’s a spy for them.’ Leilyn ponders with an amused tilt on her lips.

She pauses in her steps, making the boys to halt too. She reaches into her pocket and brings out her card before turning back and grinning happily at the three teens.

“Okay boys, we have arrived. You three can get whatever you like. Today, I’m gonna be your sugar mommy.”

Someone in the background does a spit take, another splutters whilst another chokes on thin air. The rest of the people who heard her are giving her and the boys strange looks.

The three teens each raise an amused eyebrow at her, making her mischievous grin to stretch. The four of them walk away chuckling or snickering at the facial expression of their eavesdroppers.

Honestly, the woman simply loves to fuck with the minds of people. She simply just doesn’t give a damn. And that is another reason why she’s so cool in the boys’ books.