"How are you?" asked Dom as he smiled, he hadn't seen his mom in a while. It was only now that he had seen her had he only realized that he missed her. Was it childish for him to say that he missed his mother? Well if you thought about it like that it was, but right now he just missed his mother. He wished that he could be a little boy again and hug her and whine about all his problems to her and she would listen.
"I am fine Dominic, how are you?" asked Margaret as she smiled and she tapped Dom on his right cheek, she would be lying if she said that she could not see how tired his eyes looked and how sad as well. But she also knew that now was not the time or place to talk about this.
"Good." he could only reply with one word, even though he didn't really feel good.
"I'm glad to hear that, I will call you later, excuse me I will be right back." said Margaret as she smiled and quickly hurried inside.
Dom felt the hot heavy glare of someone staring at him, he turned his head to the right only to be met with the far from pleased face of his little sister.
"Hi Lulu." he said as she glared at him more intensely.
"More like hi yourself!" she replied belligerently.
"Oh you are in so much trouble Dominic, I am so disappointed in you." said Lulu as she shook her head and Natasha said nothing but watched the little interaction between brother and sister. She did not show any certain emotion on her face, but she was laughing internally, Lulu looked like she would seriously hurt Dom if she could.
"I know Lulu, I know." he replied, what else could he say?
"Is that all you can say? You are so immature, I really thought you were better than this." said Lulu with a scoff and Dom sighed, knowing Lulu whether he got on his knees, apologized and begged Natasha for forgiveness right now and here, she would still have something to say.
"Aunt Lulu did my daddy do something to make you upset with him?" asked Joy with clueless confusion written all over her face.
Her little voice suddenly reminded Lulu of her presence and Lulu grimaced internally, she had forgotten that her innocent little niece was here.
"Yes sweetie, he did, he did something very bad." said Lulu.
"Really?" asked Joy as Lulu nodded.
"Then please forgive him Aunt Lulu, my daddy didn't mean it, he wouldn't make you upset on purpose, so please forgive him." said Joy as she pleaded with her Aunt on her father's behalf.
Natasha chuckled and Lulu frowned, not because she was angry, but because Joy just looked and sounded so cute pleading on the behalf of her idiot brother. If not for the fact that she had seen Joy run to meet Dom when he arrived she would have been certain that he told her to say what she said.
"It's not my forgiveness he needs, it's someone else's and I'm not angry at him... anymore." said Lulu as she glanced at Natasha.
"I will see you later." said Lulu as she glared at him and Dom said nothing at all.
"Anyway my darling, you don't have to worry, I'm not really upset with him, I have to go now and take care of some things, I'll see you at home later okay?" asked Lulu as she smiled.
"Okay, bye Aunt Lulu." said Joy as she smiled and Lulu hurried into the house as in the same moment Margaret came out of the house carrying a clear plastic container.
"I know that I always do this and bring you guys food before you leave, but I just don't want you to leave without me giving you anything." said Margaret.
"It's fine Aunt, thank you." said Natasha as she happily received the leftover brownies.
"My dear I am going to miss you, make sure to come back and visit us soon." said Margaret as she smiled and looked at Joy who nodded ecstatically.
"Yes grandma, I will come back very soon." said Joy as Margaret gave her a quick hug and she gave Natasha a hug.
"Thank you for everything Aunt." said Natasha as she smiled.
"You don't have to thank me my dear, take care, and if you need anything please never hesitate to call me."
"I won't'." replied Natasha with a smile and with that Dom buckled Joy into her car seat as he bid his mother goodbye as he and Natasha entered the car, he turned the ignition and they drove away.
Margaret sighed, she really hoped that things would be okay between Natasha and Dom now that things had been cleared up. But that still could not stop her from having an uneasy feelings that things would grow worse between them.
She could only hope and pray that didn't happen, at the end of the day, all she wanted was for Dom and Natasha to be happy, whether separately or together, she did not mind, so as long as they were happy.
Margaret turned back and was about to walk into the house when she remembered that it would be a good idea to check on Ernest first, so she turned around and walked to his house.
Meanwhile Lulu was whistling a happy tune when she walked into the living room where Benjamin had been softly coerced into playing cards with Charlie since he said he was bored.
"Haha, I win again!!" said Charlie as he stood up excitedly on what was his fifth win by now, to which Benjamin just huffed an exasperated sigh.
"I told you I'm not good at this game, you've won five times already, can I go now?" asked Benjamin in an almost sounding pleading tone.
"No, no, one more game then you can leave." said Charlie as he gathered all the cards and reshuffled them.
"Why so happy Miss whistle?" asked Charlie as he looked at Lulu who was all smiles.
"Well Natasha just left with Joy and I loved seeing the sad look on Dom's face, he deserves that and more for what he did!" said Lulu with a frown.
"Wait Natasha just left?" asked Benjamin as Lulu nodded.
"So that means we can go home right?" asked Benjamin as Lulu nodded again and without wasting any time at all, he got up, said what sounded like an hallelujah under his breath and proceeded to the leave the room.
"Where are you going?" asked Charlie and Lulu at the same time.
"Home of course, I've spent too much time here already as it is." said Benjamin as the look of relief on his face could not be missed at all, he looked very happy to leave.
"You can't just leave just like that." said Lulu as she frowned.
"Oh yes I can." he replied immediately. He could deal with a lot of things, but the less then twenty fours hours he had spent over here with Lulu and especially Charlie, he was physically and emotionally exhausted and he kept on asking himself how he ended up stuck here with Lulu.
"How are you going to get home?" asked Lulu.
"I'm taking your car, if you're not ready to leave yet you can just return with Michael, or Charlie, as for me, I am gone." said Benjamin as he remembered to grab her car keys from the table.
After all he had drove her here, he at least deserved to drive himself back, he just wanted to go home and rest.
"Ben don't leave." pleased Lulu with a sad pout on her face, but Benjamin couldn't care less. He had never known the importance of personal space until this time he spent over here with Lulu and her family. Her parents were fine, her mother was nice and her father didn't seem like the kind of man that talked too much, but Lulu and Charlie were another story entirely, it was as if they vowed to make his life annoyingly unbearable while he was here.
"I'm already gone, don't you dare try calling me a hundred times, I will answer you when I'm ready." said Benjamin before leaving the room as he heard what sounded like Charlie calling him a coward before he shut the front door behind him.
Lulu frowned, she still wanted to spend some time at home, and she wanted her friend to be over here with her, but he just dumped her and left the first chance he got.
"He's so annoying." said Lulu with a pout.
"Tell me about it, instead of admitting defeat he's running away like a coward." said Charlie as he shook his head.
"Hey, don't be sad just because of that downer Benji, he's almost as bad as Nine." said Charlie.
"Do you want to play a quick game of cards with me?" asked Charlie as Lulu sadly nodded.
"Okay." she said.
"Great, now, so I can cheer you up, let's make this worthwhile, let's make a bet, if I win, I get to drive your car for a week." said Charlie as Lulu frowned.
"Why so specific? Why do you want my car don't you have your own?" asked Lulu.
"Well mine is pretty old, and yours is new and comfortable, and you also have those little cute air freshener shape things in your car." said Charlie in a sing song voice as Lulu laughed, not believing Charlie right now.
"Okay, okay, well if you get my car, I want something that's worth the same as that." said Lulu.
"Alright, what is it?" asked Charlie cluelessly, innocently as Lulu smiled mischievously. Poor Charlie was unaware of the fact that he was about to lose terribly and be forced to fulfil the worst bet of his life.