Welcome to my world

'Did she tell you what type of food she likes?' Aunt Janice asked Sineas as they helped each other set the table. She had not yet changed out of her running tracksuit.

'No,' he answered her. The time was now 6:45 P.M. His heart was beating frantically. He could feel himself sweating. He had never invited anyone over to his house. A few hours ago, when he did, he thought the moment would never come, but each tick of the clock brought him even closer to his greatest anticipation yet, or was it his greatest doom? He would find out in less than fifteen minutes.

'Come on, Sineas,' said Aunt Janice, 'you must have seen what she eats for lunch?'

'I'm quite sure apples and bananas aren't the ideal meal for supper, Aunt Janice,' he answered while placing the forks on the table. There were no fancy utensils or china to wow anyone with so the Murphys made do with the stainless steel and chipped glass plates.

Aunt Janice put on her mittens and pulled out the chicken from the oven. She placed it heavily on the green table cloth. It steamed temptingly as soon as the tray touched the table.

She took off the mittens and wiped her forehead with them. She sighed in exhaustion. She looked at Sineas remorsefully. 'Do you think she likes chicken?' she asked him in-between breaths. 'I mean, what if she's vegetarian or one of those all-life-is-sacred people…like monks?'

'I'm also certain she's not a monk, Aunt Janice.'

Several minutes later they stepped back a few feet to admire their work. Sineas had his arms folded, his face carrying a thoughtful expression. The one that points out that something is probably missing. Aunt Janice on the other hand stood with her arms akimbo. She actually seemed impressed. She grinned, her eyes moving on the table.

'You think she'll like it?' he asked her. He sounded nervous.

'She'll love it! Look at it! I spent the whole afternoon working on this meal. I had to ask someone to cover my shift. Two hours on the potato salad, an afternoon on the chicken and six dollars worth of Coca-Cola. If she doesn't like it then I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, son but…' she shook her head regretfully, 'she's not the one for you.'

He placed one hand over his eyes. 'Aunt Janice, I thought we talked about this. She's not my girlf…'

There was a knock on the door.

Sineas stared at his aunt in horror.

She nodded at him as she waved towards the door.

Walking towards the door, he ran his hands through his afro, put saliva on his fingers and ran them across his eyebrows. He brushed his bare arms. He finally stood before the door. He sighed then reached for the handle.

Sure enough, it was Clarissa. Because of the cold wind outside, she wore a heavy, black cotton jersey and black tracksuit trousers. Her teeth glowed and beamed at Sineas from within the darkness. She had a few books pressed against her chest. 'Hey, you,' she said. There was a great enthusiasm in her voice.

'Hi,' he said placing one of his hands in his pockets. 'Come in, you're right on time.'

She slowly walked past him, her eyes wandering when she did.

He squinted. 'And the books?' he pointed at her chest using his free hand.

'Oh, I just thought we could go ahead and do the Math assignment Mr. Regwizini gave us while I'm here. It's due on Monday, remember?' she bit her lip.

'Yeah, sure…of course,' he grinned nervously.

'Heeey, Clarissa!' Aunt Janice waved at her from beside the kitchen table. 'Come on in, supper's ready,' she said, all her fingers pointed dramatically towards the table like it was a magic show.

Sineas was not sure if he had ever felt this awkward before. Besides the fact that he had forgotten to pull open the chair for her, like all the gentlemen in the movies did, the meal was painfully quiet. Only a few basic questions and answers were tossed here and there but they never got very far. They just stayed as questions. He was beginning to think that inviting Clarissa over was probably the worst thing he had ever done. Oh, why did I let Aunt Janice talk me into it?! he thought.

'So, Clarissa,' Aunt Janice broke the five minutes of silence, 'How did you and Sineas meet?' she asked her.

She anxiously threw a quick glance at Sineas before turning it to Aunt Janice. 'Well, it's really hard to say. "Meet" is one way of putting it, but I guess it was in Physics class on Tuesday. We were paired up to do a class exercise together.'

'Did you enjoy it? The "pairing up" I mean,' she asked again. She had a rather odd looking smile on her face as she nibbled on a wing.

Clarissa said, 'Um...yeah. I actually thought we could work on our Math assignment tonight, though.'

'Good, good,' Aunt Janice nodded excitedly before she placed her tumbler of cola on the table. A dead silence of ten seconds followed whilst the three quietly ate their supper. Aunt Janice finally said, 'I have got to say, Clarissa, how overjoyed I am that you decided to become friends with Sin here. To be honest with you, you're actually the first and only friend he has ever had, I swear.'

Sineas cleared his throat. Loudly.

The two looked at him.

He pointed to his throat. 'Chicken bone.'

Twenty seconds of silence followed while they ate.

As before, Aunt Janice decided to break it. 'You have to forgive Sineas sometimes, if he ever starts to act…weird. Since he has never had any friends, social interaction just…'

'Aunt Janice,' Sineas spoke. He had stopped eating but he was staring angrily into his plate.

Aunt Janice took one look at him, grinned awkwardly then continued to eat. 'How's the chicken?' she asked Clarissa.

'Do you want to work on our project now?' Sineas asked Clarissa. He was poking his fork into his half full plate.

She looked apologetically at Aunt Janice. 'Well…'

Aunt Janice laughed softly. 'It's okay, dear. You two go have fun now.' She lay back in her chair, sipping the coke from her tumbler. It was hanging loosely by her fingertips.

They both stood up and Sineas led her to the stairs.