Whatever Remains - T. Richardosn (best ebook reader .TXT) 📗

no business being there. He went back to the dance steps now. He slid my foot upwards now in the rhythm of the tango and then gave me a short kiss on the lips.
“Hello fairy,” he said. “Taking care of those wings?” he uncovered his mask quickly just to show me who he was and it was Glytherin’s brother. I gasped. He turned me around and across the dance floor. The tango was a bit more upbeat now. I was caught by another guy who was shamefully looking away and taking me by the hand and steadily walking across the floor. He kissed my hand now and looked up at me with a large smile until his eyes rested directly in mine. His eyes had questions all inside of them.
“Orphelia?” he said while dancing. This voice was obviously Glytherin’s. He swung me in a spiral and let go but steadied me when the music stopped playing. He bowed so I did too. He parted me from the rest of the crowd. “What are you doing here?” he asked. He looked at my dress. “You’re a chef here?” I felt kind of embarrassed that my dress resembled the chefs.
“No,” I answered. “Shane chose this for me. He said I’d look pretty in it. We were just going out to dinner and I accidentally knocked over a waiter's food, and like you, he’s mistaken me for a chef.” I smiled weakly as he laughed.
“Great,” he said. We walked through the restaurant now.
“You know what this guy told me?” I said. Glytherin shook his head. “He said, ‘Woman! Go back to the kitchen where you belong!’ So sexist isn’t it?”
Glytherin stared carefully. “He really said that?” he asked. I nodded.
You don’t usually hear men make remarks like that once you’re out of tenth grade, then their all about making you do these sexist things. I couldn’t nearly believe what had happened.
“Does your whole family work here?” I said after a pause. Glytherin shook his head.
“After ballet, I began working here with my brother only. I’m not that good at this though.”
I shook my head. “I beg to disagre.” I said.
He nodded. “Thanks.” He looked down shyly at his feet.
“Are you leaving now?” he asked. “It’s getting late.”
I began to take the mask off of me as it brushed my hair back. I shook my head. “I haven’t even eaten dinner yet, I guess I’ll just go back up-”
“No!” he said suddely. “Stay here, or can you?” I looked on the upper floor of the seafood restaurant and spotted Shane and my step-mother sitting there. They were laughing as a strange man approached them and sat in my seat. He began eating my plate of food with his hands twisted onto my fork. Had she forgotten about me? I wasn’t even gone that long.
“Sure I can,” I said answering Glytherin.
We sat near the glass bar where other people sat in isolated chairs and some lonely ones looked off into the distance. Glytherin was working behind it. Was he old enough to work behind a bar? “You want a drink?” he asked.
I looked at him worryingly. Did he drink? Because I would have to surely assure him that we couldn’t be friends anymore. So I asked, “Do you

drink?” Glytherin’s eyes widened.
“Are you still living in this fantasy?” What was he talking about?
“Come on,” I said. “Just answer the question.” He tilted his head slightly. He held a wine glass in his hand filled with a cocktail. He took a sip of it. “I don’t know, you tell me.” Obviously, that was a yes.
“Why?” I asked. I didn’t want to stop being friends with him.
“Because,” he said over extending the word. “I’m allowed to, all I had to do was get a fake ID and say I was twenty-one or older.” He began to whisper. “If I’m allowed to drink in the other dimension, I was thinking I could do the same too. I don’t even like wines or beers or any of that stuff, most of whatever I have is filled with lemonade or some kind of juice.” He handed the drink to me. “Want some?” he quickly opened a drawer and dropped a twisty straw inside of it.
I shook my head. “No thanks.”
“Just a sip.”
“Uh-uh, no, thank you.”
“I’m not doing any big time drinking like my friends.”
“I’ll pass.”
He raised the straw to my lips and I actually forced myself to drink some. I quickly swallowed. Glytherin smiled.
“You’re a liar,” I said. This drink was filled with fruits. It didn’t have an alcoholic beverage in it at all.
“I don’t drink,” he said taking another sip from the straw. He looked above him and took off the mask. I nodded. He came from the counter gesturing another man to take his place. It was the man who told me to get on the dance floor and then pushed me. I hated that man, but how else would I have known Glytherin and his brother worked there?
Glytherin sat next to me. Just as he opened his mouth to say words, the lights turned off. I looked around for a moment as Glytherin sighed in disappointment. “Here we go,” he murmured. A spotlight was turned onto the front of the restaurant where a man locked the doors and held a microphone and guitar in his hands.
“Hola!” he yelled in a Mexican accent. “Ohpa!” he yelled now. The lights didn’t turn on and I saw nothing but the man and the faint backs of people along the lights.
“Let us embarrass people tonight!” he said. He sounded and reminded me of George Lopez.
Glytherin sighed. “What happened?” I asked him at last. He shook his head as the bar light began illuminating his face. “My friend up there, Charles," he explained, "he thinks starting this new thing will attract customers, it makes me feel like running away truthfully. I told him not to do it.”
“As I promised,” the man said. “I’m going to embarrass, Glytherin first! He told me this wouldn’t work out, but he is so

wrong!” Glytherin’s eyes widened. I laughed noisily as the spot light rested on him. Glytherin’s eyes turned a light brown when it went on him. “This is Glytherin, my co-worker…. Who is on a date in the middle of the job? This guy needs to be fired!”
Glytherin shook his head. “No I don’t Charles! I’m resting and talking to a person! Give me a break.” He put his hands on his head. The spot light rested on me now. I frowned and smiled at the same time.
“Yes?” I asked. Charles stared at me. “Who the hell are you chica?” he said. Was he allowed to curse in a public restaurant? I waved at him. I felt pain rush to my cheeks. I don’t know this guy and obviously he didn’t know me. The spotlight stayed on me for a moment as everyone looked.
“What do you work as?” he asked. I shrugged. “Do you have hobbies?” he asked. I shook my head even though I had a tons load of hobbies. “Chica do you do anything with your life? Where are you from, what are you a descent of?” I took a while to answer and then I shrugged. He looked at me boringly.
“Move the light!” Glytherin yelled to him and Charles moved it. The tenseness of my body finally moved away. “I don’t think I’ll be coming here again.” I said uncomfortably straightening out my dress. Glytherin smiled and nodded. All of a sudden, I wasn’t really hungry any more.
After a couple of moments, people begged the guy to stop and threatened if they had to come to this restaurant again and go through this, they wouldn’t be coming back any time soon. I heard my name being called in the distance now. It wasn’t from anyone in the crowd, and it wasn’t Charles either. Glytherin pulled me now, up and over the bar with my feet spilling over a drink. Here we were behind the bar face to face.
I leapt in amazement that I could even do that. “What happened?” I asked.
“I’ve got to go.”
He had a look of realization on his face. Glytherin shook his head. “You can’t,” he said. “You’re a freaking fairy for God’s sake, Orphelia, you can’t do this anymore!” I looked at him and he wore exhausted eyes but not even a bag under them, just extremely fair skin.
“What do you mean?” I asked him.
He nodded. “You have to live in the other dimension. You’re gonna get hurt out there.” I shook my head.
“How could I?” I asked. “I don’t care about my step-mother my step-brother, you could say I have practically nothing to live for,” I saw hurt in his eyes and I ignored it, “but I do have my father, how do you think he’ll feel when he’s found I ran away?”
Glytherin closed his eyes like he was trying to fill up on a moments rest and then he opened them.
“He’s not your father,” he said. “He doesn’t care about you either. You’re mother told you lies so you could live a normal life. You have to understand, you hardly know this man. When your father died when you were four, your mother told you he was going on a business trip and all you did was live one quarter of your life with another guy you called your father. That guy is cheating on your step-mother anyway; I thought someone ought to know.”
I gasped at this. How did he know this? I don’t remember my father ever dying, but then again, Glytherin said that my mother had told me he’d been going on business trips. And that was very true. He was gone so long that I hadn’t remembered what his face looked like, and when he did, I just believed that the face I saw was actually his. I breathed deeply. “That was a lot to pour on me Glytherin.”
Glytherin nodded. “I know,” he admitted. “But I have to take you with me now; I had to find a quick way to convince you that you aren’t missing out on much.” It began getting clammy