Past Midnight

Dinner

"No! you're not going to another party. He says." I mimicked my father, poking the center of a few brownies. "You're going to stay home and bake dessert for us." I snort. "He doesn't even have the audacity to invite his own daughter to eat dinner with them." I mumble, setting the rack of tinned brownies on the counter. I make them in the oven as I would cupcakes so you get around the same size and shape of the others.

After removing the paper from the brownies and assorting them on a tray, I lift up the metal in one hand and the platter containing the tea kettle, multiple tall, long cups, a bowl of cubed sugar, a bowl of ice, and slices of lemons in a separate bowl of ice. Pushing the swing door open with my butt, I hear the other swing door leading to the living room swing shut.

"There you go, Daddy. Brownies and tea. Anything else?" I ask, sending a quick glare at my father as I lean over a guys shoulder to set down the two platters.

"How about my daughter sitting down and enjoying dinner with us?" I glance at the father clock. 8:03. "Oh come on dear, you haven't eaten anything since lunch. Sit down and enjoy dinner with our guests!" I pace to the closet in the dining room and pull out my hiking boots. I trade my converse for them and stand.

"I'll buy something on my way." I answer now going to the rack. I grab my keys, stuffing them in my jean shorts pocket, place my black fedora on my head, and pull on my light jacket. "Unless you don't want me to do that either." I turn around. He sighs and shakes his head.

"Of course not." He leans to the side, pulling out his wallet. I walk past, taking the twenty dollars on my way upstairs. I pull off my black top, slide into a green tank top, and pull on my jacket again.

"Sweetheart, come meet the guests at least." Dad calls as I pass the dining room. It's got a window sort, a bar, that has these white sliding door things. They are open. I lean on the bar, looking at my father.

"They're staying for three months, aren't they? I'm bound to meet them at some point and I'm already twenty minutes wasted." With that, I leave the house, hop in my truck, and I leave the house.

Paul.

"I'm confused," I say. "You would leave the room and then come back in right after through another door, wearing something else." I add, pointing to Addie. "What?"

"Sisters." Jacob tells me. "Addie here likes to leave as Mid comes into a room. It freaks out every guest we've ever had." I furrow my eyebrows.

"But you looked exactly the same?"

"No, my eyes are gray and her's are brown. My hair is dark brown, straight, and has blonde highlights, hers is light and either wavy or straight. I'm a lot taller than her. There's plenty of physical differences between us." She answers. "And personality wise."

"Addie is shy, involved in nothing more than one thing at a time, and speaks to few people as to where Mid talks to everyone, she's outgoing, captain of two sports teams, section leader in her section in band, co-captain in swimming, and is the best runner in track." Nate tells me. "She wakes up at four every morning, eats, jogs, exercises, then eats breakfast with us."

"Don't make her seem like a saint, Nate." Jacob laughs. "Saturdays, Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. She goes to school, comes home and eat if she doesn't have anything after school, then goes up to her room, and does nothing but Netflix and eat loads of Pizza. In two days she consumes probably seven whole pizzas, by herself. And a 52 ounce of Dr. Pepper."

"Sir," I look at Harriet. "Can I marry your daughter?" He laughs and shakes his head.

"No offense to your daughter, but if she eats so much pizza, how is she not fat?" Danny asks.

"Before she jogs or eats in the morning, she does half an hour of yoga." Nate tells him. "Never interrupt her yoga session. She's really strong for being so small." He rubs his arm. I grin.

"Where did she go to? If you don't mind my asking." Danny asks. Harriet sighs, shaking his head.

"I don't know. She and her mother used to disappear every Friday night and not return til really late. She hasn't quit leaving on Fridays. I'm worried she goes to parties and gets drunk."

"Dad, she's too much of an outcast to go to parties." Addie laughs.

"She went to the party I threw last year. She was literally the life of the party." Jacob shrugs. "And that was college students. College parties are more intense than high school parties."

"She's never been to a party with the people in her school, yet with college students?" Addie asks him. He nods. I look at the tray filled with Brownies she brought out here.

"Go ahead and eat one if you'd like." Harriet says. I glance over to him, seeing him looking at me. I pick one up and inspect the brownie. "Mid baked them from scratch." I bite into the warm brownie and felt heaven explode on my tongue.

"Is it good?" Danny asks, picking one up.

"Almost better than pizza." I moan. Nate, Jacob, Harriet, and Addie all laugh. "What?" I swallow the brownie and wipe my face, frowning.

"Mid rates everything with pizza. It's her obsession." Harriet tells me.

"Pizza is not an obsession," I frown. "Some people just enjoy the taste more than others and so they decide to live off it."

"She doesn't live off pizza. Pizza, wings, ranch, and salads. Four main dinners she eats, if ever anything else it's ribs or spaghetti."I finish my brownie and pick up a glass of tea a guy in a suit had poured for me. I lift it to my face and whine from the lemon hitting me.

"But she would never do that. In fact, she'd have -" Nature stops talking and just chuckles as I eat the lemon. "Squeeze the juice into hr tea and then eat the lemon."

"It's seems to me that this 'Mid' that we speak of is the female version of Paul. Only athletic. And short. And eats healthy foods." Danny grins. I gasp.

"I eat healthy! I just ate a lemon!"