I'm Trapped as a Cat?

I was so embarassed by the unfortunate encounter I had with Maverick that I avoided him for the rest of the party. I blended in to the crowd, and ate some 7 layer nacho dip, you know, the barbecue thing. As I came around the corner coming out of the kitchen I ran into somebody, hard. So hard in fact that I was put off balance and stumbled backwards, about to fall. Just before I fell backwards the stranger caught me by the hand and pulled me upright, non too gently.

"You alright? Good."

I looked up into my saviors eyes and was frightened by what I saw. He had steely gray eyes, not at all like Mavericks dreamy ones. These eyes were cold, and felt colder when they were on you. He had dark black hair that cascaded down his head in gentle waves, but he had them pulled back neatly at the nape of his neck. He was quite a bit taller than me, and I'm not exactly small either. He must have been close to 6'5". Something in the way he looked unsettled me. More like a feeling in my stomach than anything else. He just seemed so cold, in every possible way. His very being had an air of cruelty, and I did not like it. I found myself uttering a quick word of thanks before dissappearing into the crowd.

I could feel his eyes on me for a while longer after I had left him.

The rest of the barbecue was a snoozefest until it got dark. Fireworks time! It was easier to avoid Maverick in the dark, and I enjoyed myself throughly blowing soda cans up with firecrackers and shooting off huge rockets and mortar shells. By the time the party was over though I was so sleepy that I could think of nothing else. I didn't even notice that someone was walking mom home behind me...

~next morning~

I woke up when I felt like it. That's the beauty of summer vacation, you can wake up whenever you want! I rolled over to read the numbers on my alarm clock. 10:47am. Not bad. I yawned, stretched, and headed to the bathroom for a pick me up shower. 15 minutes later I emerged clean and fresh, ready to face the world. Sort of. As I was getting ready in my bedroom, I heard what sounded like voices coming from downstairs. It sounded like two people talking over a late breakfast. A female and MALE voice. A hauntingly familiar male voice. Please God no.

I cautiously descended the stairs after quickly throwing on the outfit I had chosen for the day. As the voices grew louder I became more and more convinced that it was him. As I entered the kitchen I could see my suspicions were correct.

It was the same man from the barbecue yesterday. The same steely gray eyes stared at me through a curtain of messy bed head, making me nauseous with the thought that he must have spent the night with MY MOM. But this time his eyes held a glint of triumph. Mom seemed not to notice. She had been jabbering on meaninglessly until she saw me finally.

"Oh hello Faylinn! This is Arthur Wiles, a man I met at the barbecue yesterday. We really hit it off so I took him home with me. I do hope we weren't TOO loud..."

"MOM!" I interjected with exasperation.

"So, your name is Faylinn. That means Graceful Woman. You sure don't live up to it." I recalled my ungraceful slip from yesterday and wondered why this jerk would ever stop me from falling. Mom seemed unfazed by this direct insult to her daughter, but instead continued to mindlessly carry on a conversation that only she was paying attention to. It was unnatural.

"So, your name is Arthur then?" I asked coldly, choosing not to respond to his insulting comment.

"Yes." He replied, just as coldly.

I sat down at the table, pretending to be polite for mom's sake. I grabbed a biscut from one of the plates and began to butter it. His eyes never left me, and it reminded me of a predator stalking its prey. Unnerving.

"So, what do you do for a living, Arthur?" I tried to keep the edge out of my voice but failed miserably.

"Oh, a little of this, a little of that. I'm a businessman of sorts. I deal mainly with the Occult."

"What, so New Age incense and yoga mats? Gimme a break."

"That's cool I guess..." I trailed off. I had nothing more to say to him in front of mom.

The rest of breakfast was uneventful, and I tried to get Arthur alone to tell him to back off, but mom and him were stuck together like glue. Again it was quite unnatural. This guy was beginning to creep me out just a bit.

"How can she be so enamored with him that she takes him home on the first night? She's NEVER done that before! Somethings weird about this guy."

I pondered about this. He did say that he dealt with the Occult, maybe he's some voodoo man and has bewitched my mother into loving him so her can steal all her possessions and consume her soul. I laughed out loud at the absurdity of such a situation. Of course he wasn't, that was impossible.

There was only one person I could trust enough to share my thoughts with.

Marie.

Marie is my best friend. She and I go to the same school, take the same classes, and pretty much do everything together. Sheis my heart, aside from Maverick of course.

*briiing briiiing*

"Talk to me babe!" answered Marie.

"Hey Marie, what's up?"

"Not a lot you know, the usual."

"So you don't have plans?"

"Nope. Why, you wanna hang out or something? What's wrong Faylinn, you sound depressed. Did you blow your big chance with Maverick?"

"Urgh I don't even want to talk about that! But there is something else. Can you meet me at the park in like 20 minutes?"

"You know it, see ya!"

"Bye."

I stampeded down the stairs shouting farewells to mom over my shoulder when I stopped short. There was Arthur and my mom, wrapped in a passionate embrace right over the threshold to the outside. YUCKY.

I turned on my heel and made for the back door, not noticing Arthurs eyes on me.

I met up with Marie at the park a couple of blocks from my house. It's the midpoint between our houses so naturally it was a frequent meeting spot. But I should back up a bit and describe Marie. She had naturally wavy brown hair like me, but where mine was frizzy and unruly, hers was shiny and volumous. She was curvy in build, and lots of the guys at school wanted to date her because they said she had "ghetto booty", whatever that means. She had golden hazel eyes that always seemed bubbling over with happiness. But the real way you could tell us apart was in height. While I stood at a fair 5' 7", Marie was a midget, at least thats what I called her, standing at 5'0".

I led Marie over to our favorite set of swings and unfolded all of yesterdays and this mornings events. The akward conversation with Maverick, the run in with Arthur at the party and the weird feeling I got from him, and his reappearance this morning and my mom's unusual demeanor. I left no fact unsaid, excluding his response to my career question, Marie had an overactive imagination and I didn't want her to go overboard.

"Dude. So your mom is in love with a total jackass. That stinks."

"I know, and I promised that I wouldn't meddle, remember?"

"That double stinks. But I wouldn't worry about it too much. You know how fast your mom goes through boyfriends. He won't last a month."

Boy was she wrong.