Confounded: Part II - 6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6 --==Kit’s POV==--

Spending the day with Dad, and seeing him at work; I figured I’d be dead tired because he’s known to be a workaholic, but nothing could’ve been further from the truth. I guess he’s given me the bug by way of genes because being there, right in the thick of it, got me more and more enthusiastic as the day progressed. There was so much to learn, so much to keep track of that it kept me busy all day. So I was surprised when he stuck his head around the door and asked if I was ready to go home.

“Huh? Already? But it’s not even…” I glanced at my watch, and saw that it was already after 6pm. So that’s why everything had gone quiet; everybody had already gone home! “Oh.”

Dad grinned, and came to look over my shoulder at what I’d been reading. They’d given me three different contracts to study, to see how they’d been set up. There was a lot of legal language in there, which was slowing down my progress; I was in the middle of the second contract.

He squeezed my shoulder, and told me to shut down the computer.

“Just another minute,” I said. “I’m right in the middle of…”

“No. Your mom is gonna have my head if we’re not home before seven.”

I grinned at the mom reference to Tay, and did as he told me.

“I wish I could bring it home. Now I don’t know when I’ll be back,” I complained, as we walked out to the car.

“Oh, that’s not a bad idea. Tell you what; I have them on my laptop. When we’re home, copy them onto yours and you can read them whenever you want.”

Worked for me!

We talked about what I’d been doing, other than studying the contracts, as we drove home, where we arrived half an hour later. Then, just before getting out, dad laid a hand on my arm, stopping me from doing so.

“Now remember; Tom will be here, by now. And I know you’ve been having trouble with him but cut him some slack, okay? It’s not easy to be sent somewhere else, like this, at the last minute. He didn't know he was coming here until Taylan arrived there. He might give the impression that he doesn’t care but believe me - I’m sure that he does.”

“How about I give him as much slack as he gives me?” I asked, sarcastically. I just knew he wouldn’t even give an inch of it.

“Kit…” Dad said, warningly.

“I’ll try,” I promised.

“In the end, that’s all I can ask,” dad replied, sourly, “make it work.”

I nodded. As said; I’d try.

**********

I found him in the garden, next to the pool, reading. I walked over to him, with my hands shoved deep into my pockets.

“Tom,” I greeted him.

He looked up from his book, and acknowledged me with a slight lift of his chin; then his eyes traveled all the way down to my shoes and then slowly back up to my face. When he was done, there was this glimmer of amusement in them.

“Stretch,” he greeted me back. “…well don’t you look the part, these days.”

He said it as a statement. And the way he had just given me that once-over, made me feel…insulted. Yep, still a ass.

“Some of us actually do something usef…” I began.

“Yeah, bored now,” he interrupted and returned his attention to his book.

Jerk!

Turning on my heels, I stalked back into the house. When I came into the kitchen, Taylan looked up, raising an eyebrow when I slammed my fist on the counter.

“Your nephew?” I said, pointing outside. “Jerk. Total jerk.”

“Wow, that must be a new record. You’ve seen him for what; ten seconds?”

He laughed; then his features sobered when I returned a not-so-amused glare.

“Oh God; what did he do now?”

“He insulted me.”

Tay sighed.

“What did he say?”

“He…”

Yeah, he…what? He hadn’t said anything that would seem, to Taylan, or anyone else for that matter, as insulting.

“Never mind.”

“Kit… Please try, okay?”

Like hell I would!

“For me?”

Sighing, I counted to ten and then swallowed some of my pride. Fine. I’d try, for him.

“Yeah,” I answered, looking outside where Tom was still reading. “Sure.”

**********

Once back in my room, I fumed a little while longer, pacing back and forth, coming up with all sorts of brilliant replies that I could have said, instead of just standing there and let him get the better of me.

He’d always had the ability to get under my skin from day one, sometimes with just a look or a smirk. And when he opened that thin-lipped, fork-tongued…poison hole of his, there was no telling what would come flying out, except that’d be rude and insulting.

And he was smart. Very smart. I once heard that he had an IQ that went right off the scale. He just refused to use it, laying about instead and sniping at everyone, treating them as if they were beneath him. He was arrogant. I know I can be too, at times, but he could put me in the shade, hands down.

Sighing I raked a hand through my hair and caught my image in the large mirror hanging on the inside of the bedroom door. And tried to see what was wrong with the way I’d dressed.

I’d picked a light-blue dress shirt and a dark-blue tie, the jacket and pants also dark-blue. Black shoes. I’d combed my hair because dad insisted that morning that the spiked look was a bit too much. On the whole, I looked pretty good, if you asked me; nothing wrong with it.

“Idiot,” I mumbled.

Then I began to undress, carefully placing my clothes back on their appropriate hangers, and went into the bathroom to take a long, hot shower.