EL P.O.V.
El entered the living room of the two story house and sighed heavily when her sister did not greet her at the door with her usual quick witted and dirty joke about the cat. She crossed the room and inserted a key into the lock on a heavy wooden door. "Have you two eaten." She asked Erza by way of greeting.
"Not since lunch. Dad lost Marrie again." The beautiful fourteen year old said as she flipped her long dark brown hair over her shoulder. From the outside such a statement would have been shocking but for these two it was almost like talking about the weather.
"Eh. What else is new?" El shrugged as she went to the fridge to check if there was anything at all for her to cook before she bathed her two year old brother and put him to bed. "Fuck." She sighed in frustration and slammed the fridge door closed.
"Wu fong tonight?" Erza asked with out skipping a beat. A loud knock on the door drew the attention of both girls. "Maybe its mr perfect."
"Only way Trent would be 'Mr. Perfect' is if he showed up here with $700 cash and a weeks worth of groceries." El laughed and went to get the door. Sure enough Trent, El's ex-boyfriend, was standing on the porch with a dozen red roses and a box of chocolates.
"El ple-"
"No." El said with no emotion what so ever and slammed the door in his face without so much as a backwards glance she pulled her phone from her purse and hit the number for Wu Fongs Chinese Cuisine. It was answered on the second ring with the familiar greeting. "Hey Mama Wu it's El." She said putting a little too much pep in her voice. "Can we get our usual? Delivery."
"Oh! Yes! El you sound not well. Not well at all. I be there in 15 minutes. You wait yes?" Mama wu was a 55 yearold Chinese imagrant from Beijining.
"Yes ma'am we'll wait. 15 minutes." El's smile fell as she hung up. Sometimes she wished Mama Wu did not know her so well. El had been friends with Mama Wu's son and daughter in high-school. Han had Joined the marines after high-school and had tuned it into his career. Lyn was working for the restaurant her mother had built when she first came to America, over 30 years prior. Lyn was the same age as El but Han was 2 years older.
El met Trent their junior year and the two started to date almost immediately. Having a little sister to raise insured that El avoided the typical poor decisions that girls her age made. Trent had been sweet but she refused to fall hard and fast for him. She was glad she had not gotten herself into the same pitfall her narsasitic mother had.
Trent had tried unsuccessfully to sleep with Lyn while still dating El. Lyn had tricked him into Han's bed at her 17th birthday party. When Lyn told El about his little misadventure in Han's room she had laughed. Trent on the other hand did not. When she questioned why he was skulking around the upstairs of Lyn's house he had dumped her on the spot.
It had been 3 years since high-school and he was trying to get back together. She had no idea how he had found her address. Maybe he was stocking her. she heard another knock on the door and checked her phone for the time. no way it was Mama wu. It had only been 5 minutes and Mama wu had said 15.
"She said she would bang you for 700 dollars and a weeks worth of groceries." She heard Erza state matter of factly. "But you can't stay the night. It would just be awkward to eat breakfast with you."
"El?" Trent said quizzical as he stepped into the living room. "Please tell you aren't doing that." He had a sad look on his face as he watched her intently.
"Jesus christ can't you tell when someone is joking." Erza laughed. "You know you're stupider than she said you were. Want to pet my pussy?" She held up the jet black Salem who hissed like a demon.
"Erza how many times do I have to tell you. No one wants to pet that demon cat." El rolled her eyes at her sister then the two of them burst into a loud round of laughter.
"It's okay, Trent. she is not looking to help you catch a case." El said. Trent looked terrified of saying anything. "She just has a twisted sense of humor." It went unsaid that it was her way of coping with what a shrink would call a living hell. Trent moved into the kitchen and put the roses in the empty vase on the table.
"OH NO!" Erza suddenly shrieked in horror making Trent leap back as if electrocuted. "El grandpa ran off again!" She ran to the vase and snatched it off the table looking around frantically. "Where could he have gone? I mean he's just a pile of ashes!" She sobbed, twisting her face into a grotesque dramatization of grief. Trent lost all color and began to inch towards the door as Nathaniel woke up and began to wail uncontrollably.
"I think it's best if you go Trent." El said quietly. He sprinted towards the door and was gone. "That might have been taking it a bit far, Erza." El chuckled when Erza emerged from the bathroom after changing Nathaniel.
"Eh." She shurged. Any one who set foot in their house had to follow Erza's rules or suffer the consequences of not doing so.
"Well the family that pranks together stays together." El said and giggled.