She didn’t knowwhy she hesitated, but suddenly finding herself surrounded by allthree of them in the dimly lit kitchen, unnerved her.
“Seems we have a bit of a rodent infestation on our hands,”Crispin said, flicking the half eaten portion of toast on thetable.
“Oh, sorry that would be me,” she said, bravely steppingforward.
Crispin barelycontained his grin at the contriteness in her posture. As much ashe would rather be rid of her, he couldn’t deny that sheentertained him greatly. “Silly little twit,” he admonished.“Food’s expensive, you know. You shouldn’t waste it.”
Averting hereyes from everyone, Becky nodded and reached for the toast andbrought to her mouth. Not that she wanted to eat the stale,tasteless piece of bread, but she would do it to please them.
“Knock it off, Crisp,” Kell scoffed, snatching the toast fromher hand before she could take a bite.
“You’re such a fucking bully, Crispin.” Dorian chuckledguiltily. “Picking on little girls… You should be ashamed ofyourself.”
“I guess we forgot about dinner,” Kell said with a sigh,chucking the dry piece of toast into the trash bin. A sudden pangof guilt struck him at the thought of her rummaging through thenearly empty cupboards. Groceries were hisresponsibility.
When it wasonly he and the guys, it hadn’t worried him too much if they wereoccasionally out of this or that. Having Becky here changed that.His slacking was suddenly no longer acceptable to him. First thingtomorrow, he’d go out and grab some supplies.
“Right, pizza?” Dorian suggested.
“Sounds good to me,” Kell said, glancing apologetically atBecky. “That okay with you, love?”
“Yeah…” she said with a polite nod. Pizza sounded wonderful,actually. So wonderful in fact, that her belly agreed, growlingrather loudly, causing the male members of the room to burst outlaughing.
Dorian reachedfor his cell phone and punched in the number.
“Get extra cheese, for our ravenous little dormouse, here,”Crispin snickered, not resisting a ruffle of her unruly hair beforesauntering out of the room.
Chapter 6
In the daysthat followed, life around the House of Goths became pleasantlycomfortable for Becky. While for the most part, the guys came andwent without bothering to say hello or goodbye, at least, atbreakfast, and dinner time, they would gather around long enough totouch base.
Certain ruleswere established too. For example, strict bathroom etiquette wasput into place first. Simple really, when the door was open, it wasavailable. When it was shut, one would have to knock first beforeentering. Becky was ever grateful for that rule in particular.
Secondly, nobelow the waist nudity was allowed for all parties involved. Boxerswere permitted but briefs were not. Crispin had suggested that tobe fair, Hello Kitty pyjamas, should be included in the what not towear list.
His ridiculousrequest was quickly stricken down by Becky’s protests. Confused atthe silly suggestion, and further perplexed by the fits of laughterfrom all three guys, Becky could only frown. She would neverunderstand their adverse repulsion at such a benign creature.
Thirdly,everyone was responsible for looking after their own messes such asdishes, laundry, and general all around cleanliness.
Fourthly,groceries and household supplies were to be put on a list locatedon the refrigerator door for Kell to purchase with the moneycollected from rent. Everything else of a more personal nature wasto be purchased by the individual.
Lastly, aspecial rule was put in place, specifically for Becky which bothshocked and angered her. After much protest on her part it wasunanimously agreed upon by all three male members of the jury,including a very reluctant Crispin, that she was not permittedoutside after dark without the accompaniment of, at least, one ofher housemates!
Given that iswas October and already dark by 5 PM, Becky didn’t know how thatcould possibly work. Be that as it may, she was vehemently informedby a very serious Kelley that it was the one rule that would makeor break her deal to reside at the House of Goths!
That was all,really, as far as rules went. Becky was once again grateful forthat. She didn’t want to be looked upon as a party pooper. Afterall, this was the House of Goths, first and foremost. She was justhappy to be allowed to stay.
Thankfully,Becky was allocated a small corner of the turreted art studio forher to use. Kelley was good enough to bring up a spare easel fromthe basement for her.
“Thank you, that’ll be just perfect,” she said, excitedlyhovering around him as he set it up next to his easel by thewindow.
“You sure?” he asked sarcastically.
“Yes, just perfect!” She enthusiastically patted him on theshoulder. “Thank you, Kelley.”
He stiffenedslightly at the sound of his name on her voice. He really wishedshe would stop calling him that. It never ceased to cause him todie a little inside. At the same time, he reluctantly realized thathe would miss it if she did. “Right, you’re welcome then.” Hesmirked, playfully chucking her under the chin with his finger.
She foundherself spending most of her free time in that room, painting anddrawing away. Sometimes, Kell and the others would join her, doingtheir thing. Mostly they worked quietly. Other times, music blaredloudly, usually when Crispin decided to join them.
She learnedquickly not to react to Crispin’s outbursts of frustration athimself, which happened quite often. He would be working away onsome painting and all of a sudden, lose it, throwing his brush athis canvas in a huff, and stalking away.
“Such a drama queen,” Dorian would say, while workingdiligently on his graphic comic book illustrations.
Becky wasimpressed with all of their individual skills, if not a tadconfused by some of the subject matter.
While hersubjects consisted mostly of imaginary fantasy landscapes, Kelley’sveered towards the dark side, mostly macabre scenes like those ofEdward Munch. Crispin’s paintings ranged from expressionistic tothe abstract.
“We should have an open house! A gallery showing, right here ofall of work,” Becky declared, after completing a particularlysuccessful work of art. A painting, depicting a fairy surrounded bythree very handsome woodland elves.
“What the fuck is that?” Crispin scoffed, coming around hereasel, pointing at the painting.
“What do you mean?” she asked, confused.
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