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She went to the door, paused with her hand on the knob, and then glanced at me over her shoulder. “And Slater?”
“Yes?”
“Thanks again.”
She swept out of the room faster than a breeze cutting through a cave. The moment passed, and then the weird feeling returned, reminding me that I wasn’t necessarily part of this world. I was one or two steps outside of the path she walked. I was just a physical reminder of where she’d come from—and where I’d come from too. We were just ghosts passing each other.
We were just ghosts who couldn’t stop haunting each other.
The sound of feet thumping back to the living room planted me firmly into my current situation. Adhara held up a war game with elaborate artwork on the cover while Anthony started up the PlayStation 4. Within a few minutes, I was settled on the couch with the twins on either side of me, totally engrossed in the strategy of their fantasy game.
Adhara elbowed me without taking her eyes off the screen. “You’re nice to Mama, Mr. Slater. Probably the only nice person we’ve met other than Mr. Elias.”
“Well, that can’t be true,” I commented. “What about your schoolteacher?”
Anthony sighed heavily. “She’s nice, but it’s not nice being in that room. Archie is the only one who stands up for us.”
“Are the kids mean to you?”
Both twins replied, “Yeah.”
My blood boiled in my veins. How could anybody let their kids bully the likes of these two gaming kiddos? They weren’t bad kids, they didn’t cause a fuss other than the usual child stuff, and they seemed to be truly devoted to their mother. While I knew there were always two sides to a story, I just couldn’t see why the other side in this case would be so mean.
The controller cracked under my grip. One of the buttons fell off. Adhara paused the game while Anthony stared at the crushed handle.
“Wow,” they both said in awe.
I chuckled nervously while standing up quickly. “Wow, I, uh—sorry, kids. I didn’t mean to, uh—you got an extra one?”
Anthony frowned. “No, that was the only other one we had.”
I smiled apologetically. “Well, I’ll go get you a new one since this is my fault.”
“Do you want to use mine?” Anthony offered. “I can watch.”
“No, you two keep on playing,” I urged while unplugging the controller I had just smashed. “I’m going to see if I can salvage this thing.”
“Can you just sit with us then?” Adhara asked.
I looked between the two of them, their expressions matching in every way. A sorrowful energy had taken residence in the living room, and I wasn’t sure when or how that had happened. But what I could tell was that they really didn’t want me to leave the room. And I didn’t want to leave the room either.
After a second of reflection, I nodded. “Right. I can handle this later. It’s not that important.”
“Can you help me with my character’s level up?” Adhara requested as she resumed the game. “I’m just trying to get her to match Anthony’s levels.”
When I returned to my seat, I smiled. “Of course. Let’s see what you got.”
***
After dinner, the kids went back to the couch to snuggle up for a movie. They insisted I should sit between them, and then they insisted that I listen to them break down each character, pointing out the plots in the story and what they would have done to make it better.
These kids were too smart for their own good. And not in a bad way. It just made it feel like I wasn’t babysitting at all, like I was actually spending time with family instead. Maybe that was why the word Virginia had used earlier rubbed me so wrong. Because this hardly felt like a guest situation, especially when the twins ended up falling asleep right on me.
I must have dozed for a few minutes, maybe an hour. The lock clicked in the door and then the door jammed from the bolt. I eased out from under the twins and sleepily padded over to the door when I slid the bolt out of place. When I opened the door, Virginia looked dead tired. Her mascara was caked in the creases of her eyes and her face drooped.
Like I had assumed earlier, she was wearing a tiny tank top that enhanced her tits so much I could have dived into her cleavage and gotten lost. Hunger consumed me. But even in my sleepy state, I was able to reason with myself.
However much I beat myself for logic winning, I knew better. I stepped aside and let Virginia into the foyer where she stepped softly on bare feet while holding her stilettos by their straps. She stared at the living room—and I didn’t blame her because it looked like a college dorm had exploded in here.
