"Ophelia, this is Liz and Andy Hemmings with their son Luke! They just moved in next door!" Mom cheered. I felt my knees weaken and my hands began to shake really hard.
"Hello, darling," Our parents had chattered their way into the dining room where Mrs Hemmings insisted on helping my mom finish dinner, leaving Luke and I in the sitting room. Alone. "You look ravishing," he whispered into my ear, his breath ticklingy skin.
I froze. For once in my life I was speechless. I'd never been so petrified before in my life. "What's wrong, babe? Cat got your tongue?" He chuckled, twirling a lock of my hair in his fingers. I felt tears well up in my eyes again and glued my eyes to the floor. It was easier when I didn't have to look at him.
Which I figured he noticed. "Look at me," he muttered.
I kept my eyes glued to the floor and blinked the tears out of my eyes. "I said, look at me." In gasped when he grabbed my chin, his touch like an electric shock, and finally gave in, staring start into the eyes that had turned sky blue.
"Ophelia, Luke, dinner's ready, come sit down!" He had opened his mouth to speak but closed it, pursing his lips into a tight line.
"After you," He put an innocent smile on his face and gestured for me to lead the way.
I felt my jaw clench as as Luke pulled out my chair for me before premeditatedly taking the seat across from me, that devilish smile plastered across his face. I kept my head down, my eyes glued to my plate, just tossing my string beans around with my fork, the endless chatter between my mom and his "parents" fading and I zoned out.
"Pretend I don't entice you." He murmured so low I could barely hear him. I froze and put down my fork, swallowing hard. He won't dare do anything with my mom right here, I tried to assure myself. Even he isn't that cocky.
I was wrong.
"Why are you so... Shut down? You act as if you didn't know this was coming?" He rested his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his fist, running his free hand through his hair. I shyly glanced around to see if my mother was watching or listening, horrifically surprised. Again. "Yes, darling, they can't hear you. Just you and me."
"God, what did you do to them? Mom! Mom?" I cried helplessly, before turning sharply to Luke. "What the fuck did you do to them?" I screamed at him, standing up and slamming my hands down on the table.
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down, they're fine! They're just... Hmm... Let's just say they're in their own little world." He shrugged.
"Get the hell out of my house!" I screamed at him, pointing towards the door.
"Ophelia!" My mother suddenly screamed at me. I felt my face flush a deep red and turned to see all eyes on me, a look of mock hurt on Luke's face, a hand playfully over his heart. "That is not how we talk to our guests, young lady. You know what, I think you owe an apology to Luke."
"Yes, Ophelia, apologize to me." Luke grinned. I cringed because he made that sound oddly sexual, like we were in some kinky horror film.
"I have an idea!" Mrs Hemmings clapped her hands excitedly. "Why don't you two go outside to play?"
She cannot be serious. How old do we fucking look? 12?
"That would be swell, mother! Come on Ophelia, let's go outside and play." He stood up and bounced over to me, and I grimaced when he grabbed my hand, dragging me away from the dining table and into the backyard.
"I'm quite thrilled to be away from them now, don't you think? I hate Elizabeth and Andrew. Too fucking clingy. It's not like their my real parents anyway." He sat pretzel folded on the ground. I watched as the grass around him went from forest green to a sickly yellow, as if he was oozing some sort of chemical that killed it on the spot.
I took a deep breath and sat down next to him. "L-Luke..." I stuttered.
He gave me a cheeky smirk. "Ophelia?"
"So Liz and Andy aren't your real parents?" I asked gingerly. He raised and eyebrow and bit his lip.
"You don't need the answer to something you already know."
"Then why did you bring them here?"
"Why would you be so curious about that? That really doesn't concern you." He pursed his lips in a fine line and the sky began to rumble, going from sky blue to angry gray and the once fluffy and white clouds turned sour.
"I have a right to know if you're going to be bringing strange people into my house, along with yourself. You all shouldn't be here."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, go terrorize someone else."
"Shut up!" I shuddered at his change in demeanor and cringed as the sky rumbled again, getting darker and darker outside. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"I-I don't?" I tried to put on a brave face. "Look at you. You think you're so high and mighty as you sit there, making the fucking sky rumble to scare me. It's not gonna warm, big guy."
"Wait." He began slowly. "The sky... You say it's rumbling...?" I shrugged.
"You can't play dumb with me, I know what you're doing."
"Oh God. Oh no." He stood up, not even bothering to shake some of the grass off his jeans. "Get in the house, lock the doors. Now." He commanded, his hand on my arm.
I was confused. He's trying to trick me again. "No."
"Ophelia, please, just do it, we don't have that much time left." Suddenly his voice was fading and I saw that the panic on his face wasn't fake. I felt that oh so familiar rock find it's place back to the pit of my stomach.
"But-but why should I trust you?" I stuttered. As if on que, the leaves in the trees started swaying abnormally hard, the wind so strong I would have blown over if Luke hadn't had his hand on my arm. Rain began to splash down on us, big warm drops, getting hotter, hotter.
"That's right." A new unfamiliar voice spoke. I looked around until I spotted another tall figure leaning against a tree in my backyard. "You shouldn't."
