“Pardon? What was that, little mouse?” he asked in a rathermenacing manner.
To her horror,her stomach decided to speak for her with a most unfortunate butundeniable loud grumble. Then if that wasn’t bad enough, Crispinburst into laughter! So much so, he had to bend over to catch hisbreath.
Mortified,Becky ran past him and dove back into bed, pulling the quilt overher eyes. The heck with him! He could laugh all he wanted.Jackass!
Sadly, though,she was actually quite hungry but way too humiliated to do anythingabout it.
A little lessthan a half hour later, Becky was paid a surprise visit from noneother than her self-appointed nemesis. Without knocking, Crispinentered her room with who could have imagined it, a steaming bowlof soup on a tray.
“What have you got there?” Becky asked, sitting up in bed.Whatever it was, it smelled wonderful and her belly roared to lifeonce again.
Crispin stoodat the side of her bed and rolled his eyes at her. She had that alltoo familiar frown on her face. Could she not show him the leastbit of gratitude? He’d gone over and above the call of dutyhere.
“Chicken soup, just what the doctor ordered,” he said, sittingdown on the edge of the mattress and placing the tray on herlap.
Becky lookedskeptically from him to the bowl of soup. She hesitantly picked upthe spoon and spun it around slowly in the yummy smellingsubstance. What was he up to? This wasn’t like him at all.
“Well, go on,” he said with a furrowed brow. “I didn’t lace itwith rat poison or anything.”
The thought didcross her mind, but she was so hungry that she would risk it. Shegingerly scooped up a spoonful and brought it to her mouth.
“Careful…” He winced, watching her. “It might be toohot.”
It was hot, waytoo hot. So much so that she flinched when the liquid touched herlips, causing her to dribble some down her chin.
“Oh, now see what you’ve done,” he said with an exasperatedsigh.
“Sorry…” she said defeatedly. She was a mess. She couldn’t evenmanage to feed herself.
“Never mind,” he said in an unexpected gentler tone, taking thespoon from her. “Here, let’s just take care of this first.” Usingthe tea towel he’d brought upstairs, he wiped her chin and thenproceeded to tuck it into her shirt collar, creating a bib ofsorts. “There, now let’s just give this a proper stir.”
Becky didn’tknow what to think anymore. Who was this suddenly compassionateGoth, and what had he done with Crispin? She watched as heproceeded to blow into the bowl in an effort to cool itscontents.
“It should be just fine now,” he said, handing her thespoon.
“Thanks…” she said, taking it from him. Since he didn’t seeminterested in leaving anytime soon, Becky helped herself. Afterthree hardy spoonfuls of the heavenly stuff, she had to stop andcatch her breath. “So good…” she said, sitting back.
“I’ll be sure to let Campbell’s know how much you like it,” hesaid with a hint of that old familiar mischief in his voice. “Havesome more.” The girl was obviously still stuffed up. Whatever ailedher still lingered. She wasn’t quite right yet, but at least, she’dgotten her appetite back. For a moment, he watched her breathe inand out through her mouth.
One day soon,she would be well enough to leave the House of Goths. For Crispin,that day couldn’t come soon enough. As it was, his housemates weregetting way too attached to the little imp, and that just wouldn’tdo. Better to rip the bandage off quickly, isn’t that what theysay? Perhaps after a few more spoonfuls of soup, he would show herthe list of prospective lodgings that he’d procured for her.
“Okay,” she said as much to herself as to him. Putting in areal effort, she managed to get through, at least, half of the soupbefore giving up.
“It’s all right. You don’t want to overdo it,” he said,carefully taking the tray and placing it down on the floor. “Howare you feeling, sweetheart?” he asked with a sugar-lacedvoice.
“Better, but not one hundred percent,” she said with ashrug.
“Right, well, how about I leave this here with you? You mightwant to give it another go in a bit.”
“That would be great. Thanks, Crispin. That was very kind ofyou,” she said with a wary smile.
Crispinhesitated but then simply gave her a polite nod. “Becky, I havesomething you might like to look over.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll go get it. It’s in my room,” he said, giving her thigh agentle tap as he got up and left.
Confused butgrateful, Becky sat quietly awaiting his return. In the meantime,her mind started to race. She had missed so many classes. She wouldnever be able to catch up on her assignments. How could she havegotten sick? She was never sick, not like this. Just the thought ofhow pathetically helpless she’d been made her wince. How couldthings have gotten so… embarrassing?
Enthused andquite pleased with himself, Crispin took his list and returned toBecky’s room. With so many options, she would soon be all betterand out of their hair, once and for all.
He sat backdown on the edge of her bed and proudly presented her with thelist. She glanced absently at the sheet of paper on her lap, an oddlook on her face.
“What’s this?” she asked quietly.
“That is a list of available rentals near the university,” hestated with a determined nod. “If and when you’re feeling better,you may pick one. Please feel free to move on. Until then, you canhave a glance at it and think about which ones you’d like topursue.”
“Oh…” she said with an unexpected sob. No wonder he was beingso nice. He just wanted her better so that he could be rid of her.“Thanks…”
What? What wasthat? He frowned at the unmistakable sound. And that… that quiveron her bottom lip? Oh no no no. This could not be happening.Crispin recoiled at the sight of her misery. “Now see here! Cryingwill not work on me, young miss. You put that bottom lip back inits place, right this instant! Besides, we’ve already discussed thematter. Everyone agrees that you cannot stay here.”
“It’s not that…” she said, wiping away a stray tear.
“Well, what is it
