Chapter 20
The table was set by the time Elijah came in from the kitchen. Four plates, four glasses, a pot of stew in the center with a ladle resting against the side. The table wasn't small, but it wasn't big either—just enough space for four people to sit without their elbows touching.
Stella was already seated, her hands wrapped around a glass of water. Amy had claimed the chair against the wall, her phone face-down beside her plate.
Elijah sat across from his sister, leaving the chair between them empty.
"Who's the fourth plate for?" Amy asked.
"Kai," Elijah said.
Stella nodded. "He's coming?"
"He should be here any minute."
Amy reached for the ladle. "Good. He owes me a story. He promised to tell me about the time he convinced the principal he was a transfer student from a Tier 2 city."
Stella swatted her hand away. "Wait for everyone."
"I'm starving."
"You're always starving." Stella leaned back in her chair. "Kai told you that story?"
"Years ago. He never finished it. Said he'd tell me the rest when I was older." Amy crossed her arms. "I'm older now."
"Eighteen is not older."
"It's older than fifteen."
"It's still young enough to be annoying."
Amy opened her mouth to argue, but a knock cut her off. Stella stood up and moved toward the front door.
Kai was on the doorstep, a bottle of something dark in one hand, his jacket zipped against the evening chill.
"Right on time," Stella said, stepping aside. "We were about to start without you."
"You'd never start without me." Kai walked in, kicked the door shut behind him, and set the bottle on the counter. He looked at the table, at the empty chair beside Elijah, and grinned. "Still saving me the good spot."
"You always sit there," Elijah said.
"Because it's the good spot."
Amy was already at the table, tapping her fingers on the wood. "Sit down. I want my story."
Kai slid into his chair, reaching for the ladle before anyone else could. "What story?"
"The principal. The Tier 2 city. You promised me the rest."
Kai served himself a bowl of stew, taking his time, letting Amy wait. Stella shook her head and passed him the bread. Kai broke off a piece, dipped it in the stew, and took a bite before he spoke.
"Right. The principal." He chewed, swallowed. "So I walk into his office, first day of school, and I tell him my name is Vance. Kai Vance. My parents are diplomats from a Tier 2 city. They've sent me here to understand how regular people live."
Amy leaned forward. "He believed you?"
"He asked for my parents' contact information. I gave him the number for a pizza place across the street and told him they were very busy and preferred to communicate by letter."
Stella laughed. "A pizza place?"
"I figured if he called, someone would answer. They'd say there was no one there by that name, and I'd tell him the line must be bad because of the distance." Kai shrugged. "He never called."
Amy was grinning. "So you were Kai Vance for how long?"
"Three weeks. I had a whole backstory. My parents were negotiating trade routes. My uncle was securing diplomatic relations. I was learning humility." Kai pointed his spoon at her. "Then the real Kai's aunt came to pick me up one day and called me by my real name in front of the principal's secretary."
Amy burst out laughing. "What happened?"
"Nothing. The principal pretended it never happened. I think he was embarrassed he fell for it." Kai went back to his stew. "But the kid who was stealing my lunch stopped after that. Heard I was from a Tier 2 city and decided I wasn't worth the trouble."
"You pretended to be a diplomat's son because someone took your sandwich," Amy said.
"It wasn't about the sandwich."
"That's exactly what someone who made it about the sandwich would say."
Stella reached for the bread, tearing off a piece for herself. "He was always like that. Even when you two were small. Always had a plan."
Amy turned to her mother. "Tell us something. Something from when you were young."
Stella waved her hand. "There's nothing to tell."
"There's always something." Amy rested her chin on her hands. "You worked at that hotel, right? Something must have happened there."
Stella thought for a moment. "There was a man who stayed there once. He was from a Tier 1 city. I could tell by his shoes."
"Shoes?" Kai asked.
"People from Tier 1 cities wear shoes that don't make noise. Like they're floating instead of walking." Stella smiled. "He was polite. Always said thank you. One day he asked me why I worked at a hotel when I was smart enough to do anything else."
Amy leaned forward. "What did you say?"
"I said I needed money. He said money was the smallest reason to do anything." Stella shrugged. "Then he left. Never saw him again."
"That's it?" Amy asked. "That's the whole story?"
"That's the whole story. Not everyone who passes through your life stays in it."
Kai reached across the table and stole a piece of bread from Amy's plate. "My turn. Amy, tell us about the boy who followed you to the train station."
Amy's face went red. "Who told you about that?"
"Elijah mentioned it."
"Elijah talks too much." Amy grabbed her bread back from Kai. "It was nothing. Some guy from school. He walked with me to the station, talking about his father's business, how much money they make, how he's going to take over one day."
Stella raised an eyebrow. "What did you say?"
"I told him my brother was a gang leader from one of the top tier gangs."
Kai choked on his bread. Stella laughed at her daughter.
Amy was grinning now. "He walked faster after that."
"You're going to get yourself in trouble," Stella said, but she was laughing.
"It's not trouble if it works."
Kai shook his head, still coughing. "Your daughter is terrifying."
"She gets it from me," Stella said.
"You were never this bad."
"You don't know what I was like before you were born."
Amy's eyes lit up. "Now we have to hear that."
Stella pointed at her. "No. You already got your story."
"I got half a story. A man with nice shoes said something nice and left. That's not a story."
"It's the story I'm giving you."
Kai leaned back in his chair, his bowl empty, his hands behind his head. "I've got one. Amy, remember when you tried to cook for your mother's birthday and set the kitchen on fire?"
Amy's face went red again. "That was not a fire. That was smoke."
"There were flames."
"There were small flames. Contained flames."
Stella was laughing now, her hand over her mouth. "You told me the pan was defective."
"The pan was defective. The fire was unrelated."
Kai turned to Stella. "She put a pot of oil on the stove and went to her room to watch a video. When she came back, the whole kitchen was filled with smoke. She threw water on it."
"Never throw water on a grease fire," Stella said.
"I know that now." Amy buried her face in her hands. "Why are we talking about this?"
"Because it's funny," Kai said.
"It's not funny. It was traumatic."
"You burned your eyebrows off. You looked like a cartoon character for a month."
Amy threw her napkin at Kai. He caught it and threw it back.
Stella stood up, gathering the empty bowls. "Alright, alright. Enough torturing your sister."
"She started it with the train station story," Kai said.
"You started it by asking for stories."
Kai stood too, taking the bowls from Stella. "I'll help with the dishes."
Amy grabbed a towel. "I'm drying."
"You hate drying."
"I hate you more."
Stella moved to the sink, turning on the water. Kai stood beside her, wiping plates. Amy leaned against the counter, holding her towel like a weapon.
Kai passed her a plate. "Dry faster."
"You wipe slower."
"I wipe at a normal speed. You're just impatient."
"I'm efficient."
"You're chaotic."
Stella handed Kai another plate. "You two have been like this since you were children."
"We were perfect children," Amy said.
"You were a nightmare," Stella said. "Both of you."
Kai grinned. "But a charming nightmare."
"Less charming. More nightmare."
Amy finished drying a plate and reached for another. "Kai, tell the one about the library."
"The library where I got banned?"
"You got banned from a library?" Stella asked.
"I was temporarily asked to find other reading accommodations."
Amy snorted. "He broke into the restricted section three nights in a row."
Kai shrugged. "I wanted to read the old books. The ones the city didn't want people reading. I asked. They said no. So I found a window."
Stella shook her head. "You were something else."
"I was curious." He passed Amy another plate. "The librarian caught me the third night. She said if I came back, she'd call the police. But she also gave me a list of books she thought I'd like."
"That's not getting banned," Amy said. "That's getting a recommendation."
"I was still banned. Just banned with reading material."
Elijah sat at the table, listening. His mother at the sink, Kai beside her, Amy complaining about the water temperature. The kitchen was warm, the windows fogged with steam, the smell of stew still hanging in the air.
Kai glanced over his shoulder. "You're quiet tonight."
Elijah shrugged. "You're loud enough for everyone."
Amy laughed. "He's not wrong."
Stella turned off the water and dried her hands. "Alright. Dishes are done. Kai, you don't have to stay if you have things to do."
Kai shook his head. "I have time. What else you got? Amy, any new disasters?"
Amy thought for a moment. "There was a fire drill yesterday. Someone pulled the alarm during third period."
"That's not a disaster."
"It wasn't a drill. Someone pulled it for fun. We stood outside for an hour in the cold while the teachers tried to figure out who did it."
Stella leaned against the counter. "Did they find out?"
"No. But everyone thinks it was Mark from second floor. He's always doing stuff like that."
Kai crossed his arms. "What kind of stuff?"
Amy shrugged. "He put a frog in the teacher's desk last week. And he set off stink bombs in the gym."
"Frog in the desk," Kai repeated. "That's not a criminal mastermind. That's a bored teenager."
"Still annoying."
Stella moved back to the table, sitting across from Elijah. "Anything interesting at work? You haven't said much."
Elijah shook his head. "Same as always."
Amy dropped her towel on the counter and flopped back into her chair. "Tell us something funny. Something that isn't about me."
Kai sat down too, stretching his legs under the table. "I saw a man yesterday trying to carry three boxes of fruit down the street. He dropped one. Chased it. Dropped another. By the time he picked up the second, the first had rolled into the gutter."
"That's sad," Amy said.
"It was sad. But also funny. He was yelling at the oranges like they'd betrayed him."
Stella laughed. "I would have paid to see that."
"It was on 5th Street. He might still be there."
The conversation drifted after that. Amy told them about a teacher who fell asleep in class and woke up speaking a different language. Kai asked questions that made it funnier. Stella talked about a customer at her work who tried to return a shirt he'd clearly worn for a week and argued about the store policy for twenty minutes before giving up.
Amy's phone buzzed. She glanced at it, then set it back down.
"Boy?" Stella asked.
"A friend."
"Boy friend or boyfriend?"
"Amy groaned. "Mom."
"I'm asking."
"You're being nosy."
"I'm being interested. There's a difference."
Kai leaned forward. "It's definitely a boy."
Amy threw her hands up. "It's a group chat. About a project. For school."
"School project at this hour?" Stella raised an eyebrow.
"It's due tomorrow."
"You waited until the night before to start a project?"
"I work better under pressure."
"You work better when I'm not asking questions."
Stella held up her hands. "Fine. No more questions."
Amy stared at her for a moment, suspicious. Then she picked up her phone and typed something quickly.
Kai checked his watch. "It's getting late."
Stella nodded. "You don't have to rush off."
"I know. But I have things to do tomorrow." He stood up, pushing his chair in. "Same time tomorrow?"
"There's leftovers," Stella said.
"I'll bring bread."
"You always bring bread."
Kai grinned. "I know." He grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair and moved toward the door. "Amy, no setting fires while I'm gone."
"I set one fire. One."
"It was enough."
Amy threw her napkin at him again. He caught it and tossed it back.
Stella walked him to the door, leaning against the frame as he stepped out. "Drive safe."
"I walked."
"Walk safe."
Kai laughed and headed down the path. Stella watched him go for a moment, then closed the door.
Amy was already on her feet, her phone in her hand. "I'm going to bed."
"It's early," Stella said.
"I have a project."
"You have a project at this hour?"
Amy grinned. "I work better under pressure." She disappeared down the hall before Stella could respond.
Stella turned back to the table. Elijah was still sitting there, the empty chairs around him, the faint smell of stew and bread in the air.
"You should get some sleep," Stella said.
"So should you."
She smiled, small and tired. "I will. After I clean up."
"I can help."
"I know. But I want to do it." She touched his shoulder as she passed. "It was good tonight. Having everyone here."
Elijah nodded. "It was."
Stella disappeared into the kitchen, and the house settled into its night rhythm. The creak of the floorboards. The soft sound of Amy's music from behind her door. The clink of plates being put away.
Elijah sat at the table for a long time, not thinking about anything in particular. Just sitting. Just listening. Just being in the quiet of a house that was full.