"Dad?" Keefe pushed the front door open. As soon as he stepped inside, his glance caught the clock on the far wall. It read 8:48 pm.
Keefe slung his bag higher on his shoulder and grabbed a glass from the cabinet, filling it high with water before climbing up the stairs to the second floor.
He flung his bag onto his bed and opened the sliding door, stepping out onto the balcony that hung over the patio on the ground.
"Keefe?" Came a voice from below.
Keefe looked down over the railing. "Hey. I'm home."
Cassius raised an eyebrow from where he sat in one of the patio chairs. "I see that. Everything alright at Foxfire?"
"Yeah, everything's fine... just a little incident in P.E. But we're all good now."
"Oh, I forgot that was starting up again," Cassius said. "I would ask you how it went, but..."
"No, it was good! We had a Splotching Match, but the rules were a little different."
Cassius searched Keefe's eyes for a moment, as if he was looking for something. But it wasn't his old, creepy stare, like he was trying to unfold your deepest secrets. He just looked...
Well, Keefe couldn't actually tell. The Empath-trying-
to-read-another-Empath-who's-also-trying-to-read-that-
Empath thing didn't always work out so great.
"What are you doing out here?" Keefe finally asked.
"I was sitting."
"Right. Well, I have to go study."
"Did you have dinner?" Cassius asked, which Keefe knew by now was his father's only way of asking if Keefe needed dinner.
"Yeah, I picked something up earlier and brought it back to the Healing Center."
"Cassius raised an eyebrow. "The Healing Center?"
Woops, Keefe said in his head. It's not that it was some big secret, but he really didn't want to get into a whole big long conversation with his dad right now, and he figured Fitz probably didn't want everyone talking about him.
Keefe sighed. "It's not a big deal, I promise. Everyone's good."
Keefe almost said nothing happened to me, but then he imagined Cassius saying in return, I wasn't worried about you.
As if his father would actually be concerned with his welfare.
He did seem concerned, in a general sense. But it could be about anything.
"Well, night," Keefe said. "I'll probably be up for a little while."
"Goodnight," Cassius stared at Keefe for a few seconds before looking back to the ocean. "There are some leftovers wrapped up on the counter if you get hungry."
YOU ARE READING
Shut Up and Talk to Me! A KOTLC FanFic
FanfictionAfter break is over, Fitz Vacker is starting Level Seven, in the Gold Tower. As he settles in to the new environment, he enjoys it, but it's different then he imagined. It's quieter and simpler and so much more... NOT thrilling. He thought it'd be n...
