Eventually, he pulled the black SUV up to the front of her house and the driver first tried rousing her awake by clearing his throat. When that didn’t work, he opened his door which turned the light on overhead and stepped out to open hers.
That worked.
Sonia mumbled an apology.
Confusion twisted her sleepy expression. Where’s my bag? She’d had it when she left work… looked on the seat, the floor then realized that it had been left in the back seat of her car. What a fool she must have looked, stepping out of the car looking half hungover despite not having had any alcohol to drink.
She yawned, combed fingers through her hair then scratched the back of her head while walking up the length of the driveway. Paused a moment to kick the random rocks on the walkway back into the pile next to the grass, then used her keys to open the door.
Lights were all off, as they should be since it was well after midnight. But there was something she needed from the kitchen, a glass of water and a small snack so she could take one of the muscle relaxers she had recently refilled. Even with her eyes closed, Sonia intimately knew the layout of the house, every squeaky floorboard, every screeching hinge, hazard areas where there might be something random left on the floor.
This was her home and she had learned so much about its structure from having to sneak around, hiding this second life from her family. For a time her mother had thought that she was involved in something shady or illegal and she had to reassure her that everything was fine. Kind of hard to do when walking home with a black eye or split lip.
While she had tried to play off the incident with Castor and the Dark Kingdom invasion as nothing more than some random vehicle accident; her mother, a woman who prided herself in having a keen eye, looked at her and made her promise that whatever she’d been involved in, that this was it. Probably thought it was something gang-related and that this was punishment for leaving.
Not exactly a wrong assumption.
The Negaverse was a military group, most armed with weapons, the rest with magic. Many lived by the motto of kill or be killed which meant that several had blood on their ledger.
Not Hatsya. Not yet anyway. Twice now she’d come close though. Eventually, under the right circumstances, she might actually succeed. The gravity of that thought never weight much since in the last moments she always hesitated and eventually gave up. An expert with fencing, but once put into an actual fight, she was nothing but a coward.
Sonia pulled a glass out of the upper cabinet and filled it from the water spout attached to the fridge.
There were parts of Reed that reminded her of Benitoite but other facets were completely different. It worried her. One day and he had pushed so many buttons that he achieved within her a level of anger that took months, if not more than a year, for the General to obtain.
“There’s no way this is going to work…” mumbled under her breath then turned and damn near dropped the glass on the ground.
Behind her was Anton, her younger brother. No shirt on just pants and looking like a walking zombie. Dark circles under his eyes. Up late no doubt but she had no idea why.
“What’s not going to work?” He asked. Not bothering to cover his yawn, Anton brushed past her and opened the fridge door. The light was blinding as all hell like some holy figure appeared before them. He grabbed the carton of orange juice, twisted off the cap, and took two large swallows before putting it back.
s**t… “It’s nothing,” she brushed off the comment as if it was some random thought that should be ignored.
Anton, however, was not stupid. He took a seat on the barstool beside her, elbows propped on the high countertop. “Want to tell me who was outside earlier?”
Sonia’s face paled, “You saw him?” deflected the question back at him while trying to scramble for an answer.
“Yeah. Rang the doorbell. Was about to go downstairs but I saw you pull up and figured they were here for you or that you’d handle it.” He shrugged, figuring it was no big deal.
Oh, so he left me to deal with someone late at night instead of at least coming downstairs in case things went south… which was exactly what happened. So far south in fact she’d slammed her tailbone on rock ******** bottom. “How chivalrous,” she commented sourly and took a seat beside him. “No, it was just someone I was going to meet after work but things ran long so he met me here.”
“Late night date.” Considered her words and nodded approvingly.
Sonia scoffed, nearly choked on her water at the audacity of the statement. “Again… no.” Leveled an annoyed expression at him, “I’ve been considering moving out. My medical bills are paid off and I have sufficient funds in savings. Just thinking it’s time to live on my own again; maybe not alone but with a roommate.” The lie came so easy it made her stomach twist in regret. “Someone I found online and he showed me his place.”
“That’s not weird at all.” Anton raised an eyebrow at her. Somehow at some point in his life, he had adopted their mothers ‘i know you’re lying but not going to ask’ expression.
She waved her hand dismissively. “It’s the end of summer and we both have full-time day jobs. It’s kind of difficult to coordinate when I work every other Saturday.” Plus it was nearing the end of summer and that meant that it was gradually getting darker earlier in the evening. Soon enough it would be 6 o’clock and nighttime already.
“Ok,” he held both hands up in defeat. “When are you going to tell mom?”
“I-”
“Tell me what.” This time both of them jumped nearly a foot out of their seats.
“Dios mio! Why are you both up right now?” Exhausted and feeling like she was about to be interrogated, Sonia jumped ahead of the curve and got up to leave.
“Sonia de la Cruz,” her mother's 'sit your a** down now’ tone was loud enough to likely wake her father. “Do not disrespect me by walking away. I asked a question and I expect an answer.”
Here she was, a young woman in her mid-twenties about to get her a** chewed out. Fan ******** tastic. Before she could respond, Anton, like a little-s**t younger brother, took the opportunity and threw her under the bus. Not like she wasn’t sore already- let's just hit her a few times more.
“She met up with some dude a few hours ago. Thinking about moving out and going to see his place.” The a*****e had the audacity to smirk at her, still watching Sonia with those eyes that were trying to see past the lies into the real reason this came up.
“Yes, ok. If you don’t believe me then here-” From her back pocket she produced the receipt from the cafe they’d visited. Two drinks, one that was close enough to her usual that they’d both recognize it, the other well… not something she’d normally pick. “We went for coffee since it had been a long day for us both, he showed me his place.” Then she set her phone on the table, a long crack across the screen so they could see what had happened. “Dropped my phone by mistake and had to get an Uber home.” That’s it, nothing more nothing less because too much information would bite her in the damn a**.
“I’d like to just talk about it tomorrow if it’s all the same. It was a rough day at the studio, I’m hurting right now and need to just lay down.” Sonia let the gravity of her current state of being just set in. “Please.” She added.
Both her brother and mother looked at each other, some non-verbal conversation passing between them before her mother finally relented, “Ok, we’ll talk in the morning.” A nod, small permission to finally leave the table, and Sonia grabbed it before she could change her mind.
Dodged that bullet Neo in the Matrix. But come tomorrow she’d be standing in the line of fire with not one but both parents interrogations to deal with.
Felt like everything was falling apart at the seams. Supposed to have been a smooth transition but now she wasn’t so sure how to broach the topic. Could pretend to not feel well to bide herself a couple more hours. But that’d only push back the inevitable.
Sonia groaned, walked up to her room and shut the door behind her. I can’t deal with this right now… Sat on the edge of the bed, only managing to kick both shoes off before climbing in under the covers. No change of clothes or comfortable pajamas to lay in. No quick shower to get the yard debris or gross crap from her hair. Morning breath would suck but she’d deal with it then.
Her mind, her body, they both demanded sleep and she wouldn't wait any longer to claim it.
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