Into the Flames Excerpt 4: The Dinner

 I had almost forgotten that Onyx and I were supposed to fight and we were halfway through dinner. This was going to be amusing, because I was the only one that knew the fight was a set up.

I decided I would get up to get more tea when it was time, so I picked up the glass and finished it off. I looked up to watch Onyx and find something to fight with him about. I noticed his elbows were on the table. That was about the only thing I could see that wouldn’t be completely out there.

“Do your elbows really need to be on the table?” I said to Onyx with a glare.

He looked momentarily shocked, then he looked down.

“I didn’t realize they were on the table.”

I lowered my voice to almost a whisper since he was right next to me, but I made sure it was still loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I bring you over here so you can get to know my parents and then you disrespect them in their house.”

“Harley, dear, it's ok. It looks like it was just an accident,” my mother said looking confused.

“No,” I said, “It’s not. I thought he had better manners than that.” I stood up abruptly and grabbed my glass. “I think I need more tea.”

Everyone else was too busy looking anywhere, but at Onyx and I, they didn’t see me wink at him. A glimmer of question flipped across his eyes, but he didn’t say anything.

All excerpts are taken from a lightly edited first draft. The contents here may or may not make in to the final product as written here.