Perfect

6. Dobson Family

C h a p t e r S i x

T H E car stopped in front of a tall black gate which automatically opened. Before them appeared a huge lawn, huge house and a huge garage with four cars. Taylor's not fond of cars but he could tell that those cars including the one Xander's driving were costly.

Xander's undeniably rich, Taylor thought.

"This is your house, dad?" Chester said leaning on the dashboard of the passenger seat. Taylor was alone at the backseat but he could feel that someone was staring at him during the ride. He kept on seeing Xander glancing in the rear mirror.

"Yeah." Xander said.

"Wow! You're super rich!" Chester said amazed.

Xander chuckled. "No, not me. It's my parents."

Taylor secretly snorted at the backseat. Liar, he thought.

He didn't know why but Taylor felt nervous thinking he was about to meet Xander's parents. He could picture out the strict mother and the poker faced father just like in TV dramas.

Xander drove to the lawn and stopped in front of the front doors. A girl maybe thirteen or fourteen years old in a yellow dress opened the door. Maybe Xander's sister.

"O, my God, mom!" She exclaimed when they went outside the car then looked at Chester. "You gotta see this weird phenomenon!"

Taylor saw Xander rolling his eyes before shutting close the driver's door.

"Shut it, Sandra." Xander said.

"And, oh!" Sandra gasped dramatically when her eyes fell to Taylor. She walked gracefully to his direction and skirted in front of him. "And who are you mister?" Sandra said using a hard accent.

Taylor forced a laugh and he just saw Xander pushed Sandra's forehead with his finger that made her back off of him.

"You talk like mom." Xander said.

"Hey!" She slapped Xander's arm and smiled shyly at Taylor. "He's always been this rude." Xander narrowed his eyes to Sandra. Taylor just smiled at her.

"Alex!" They all turned their heads to a middle aged woman, which he guessed was Xander's mother, who gasped in surprised when her eyes landed to Chester covering her her mouth with her hands.

Then a boy maybe eighteen year old popped and he had the most unique expression when he saw Chester, who grabbed my hand. He had that emotionless eyes, no comment or reaction at all. And then lastly, a man, Xander's dad, who was ready to go to work in his three-piece suit.

"Mom, dad, Sandra—" Xander made a face to her, "—Bernard, meet Chester, my son and Taylor, Cheska's brother." Xander said and placed his one hand on Chester's shoulder. "Meet Jane and Alexis, my parents, Bernard and Cassandra, my siblings." Taylor and Xander's eyes met. Taylor nodded and Xander gave him a small smile.

° ° °

Taylor felt like he leaped through time and place when he entered Xander's house. The interior design inside the house and the furniture belonged to the early nineteen hundreds maybe around the Victorian era. Their house was big and he wondered if they could still see each other there. Jane, Xander's mother, wouldn't go away from Chester and Sandra kept on waving her hand every time their eyes met.

They didn't have a doubt about Chester being Xander's son. And he also learned that they call Xander, Alex. Jane and Sandra toured Chester around the mansion while Xander and Taylor stayed in the living room.

"Sorry about Cassandra." Xander said. Taylor shook his head. "Do you want drinks?" He walked to the kitchen and Taylor tailed him.

They had a long white marble dinning table. Xander opened the left door of the french door refrigerator. Xander grabbed a glass of pitcher full of water and placed it on the table.

"What do you like to drink?"

"Just water." Taylor while scanning the whole kitchen. It was complete with electrical appliances that involves cooking. Xander grabbed two glasses and placed it on the table.

Taylor pulled the heavy and long backrest cushioned chairs and sat. Xander poured the glasses with cold water.

"What do you want to eat this lunch? I'm cooking." Xander said dragging one glass to Taylor's side.

"You can cook?" Taylor said and grabbed the glass.

Xander chuckled. "Of course. I've been living alone in my unit and no one's there to cook for me."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot." Taylor said. Why does he have to leave when he have a house this big? He thought.

Taylor watched Xander cooked fried rice and shrimp creole. He was fast with his hands and he diced those tomatoes like a chef in one of those cooking TV shows. Taylor never thought that Xander could cook.

Xander beckoned him to taste the creole and gave him a spoon of orange colored sauce. Taylor guided his mouth to the spoon which Xander was holding. Surprisingly, it was tasty. He thumbs up smiling at Xander.

Taylor suddenly felt embarrassed. Xander's cooking skills were better than his and to think that Xander had to eat his cooking. "My food must be horrible and you have to eat it every time you went to the unit."

Xander smiled. "I prefer your cooking."

"Alex," Taylor jumped when someone talked from his back. "I smelt something good." It was Jane.

"Where's Chester?" Xander asked turning off the stove.

"With Sandra." Jane said. "Can I talk to the both of you?"

° ° °

After lunch, Taylor stayed in the veranda. He felt like it was the first time breathing fresh air, the air there was fresh and cold since trees were surrounding the area. He leaned his arms on the baluster then he heard shuffling footsteps. He turned to see Bernard who stood beside him and also leaned his arms on the baluster and then his forehead. He was still expressionless.

"Taylor right?" Bernard suddenly asked which surprised him.

"Yes, and you're Bernard, no?"

Bernard turned his head to Taylor's direction and smiled. "Yeah."

Taylor was surprised. Bernard wasn't as stiff as what he assumed him to be.

"You're eighteen, I guess?" Taylor said starting a conversation.

"Yeah." Bernard said. Taylor nodded and praised himself inside his mind for guessing right. "You?"

"Twenty-five." He said honestly.

Bernard narrowed his eyes to Taylor toe to head as if suspecting him. "You look younger."

Taylor laughed. "Really?"

Bernard nodded. "Even younger than Alex, you look twenty or twenty-one." Bernard said pinching his chin with his thumb and forefinger scanning him from head to toe again.

"You know, I'm starting to like you." Taylor chuckled and pointed him. "No one ever mistaken my age that younger than you do!"

Bernard smiled. "And your eyes are small like my classmate's but his' was smaller like a. . . line." He measured Taylor's eyes with his index and thumb in the air closing his right eye to focus. "Like that eyes when you laugh and I've been meaning to ask him if how can he see the world."

"It's still the same, I think. I don't know how the normal eye size views the world." Taylor said.

Bernard chuckled. "Are you half Asian something?"

Here's that question again, Taylor thought.

"No, my mom's grandma has the only Asian blood in the family and that made my mom one-fourth of that blood. So I am more like—" Taylor said calculating using his fingers, "—one-eight of that blood and seven-eight of the rest, sort of."

"Wow! So that one-eight portion in your blood was the dominant one. That's amazing!" Bernard said in awed.

Taylor nodded. "Genes."

"Yeah. How about your sister?"

"She looked. . . fine." Taylor said unsure of what word he was going to use.

Bernard wrinkled his forehead. "By fine, do you mean—"

"Yeah." He interrupted Bernard. "She doesn't look like me, more like my dad."

Bernard laughed. "Does that mean that you're not fine?" Taylor nodded. "You look good."

"I agree."

They both turned their heads and saw Xander. That made Taylor's heart skipped a beat then he froze after he realized.

Did my heart just skipped a beat?

° ° °

"You're getting along with Bernard." Xander said.

They were in the lawn sitting on a woven chair. Xander's mom baked cookies and one of his cousin, Claire who married to a lawyer, Trav, had a seven year old son named Joshua. Chester and Joshua became friends the moment their eyes met. The both of them were already unseparated, sitting so close while dunking their cookies in their milk before they munched it. Sandra was chatting with Claire while his mom was with Trav.

"Sort of. I thought, at first glance, Bernard was stiff or the anti-sociable type of guy. . . but I was wrong." Taylor said.

It was the first time Xander saw Bernard smiled for years. He didn't know when did Bernard became so emotionless, cold, and so. . . stiff? But he was cool with Taylor.

"Hmm? Did he approached you or was it the other way around??" Xander said looking at Taylor.

Taylor nodded. "He did and I was surprised."

"Me too, when I saw you talking. He never approached me. He was always silent."

"Maybe you should spend time with him and get to know him better." Taylor picked a cookie and bit it. Xander's eyes never left the cookie until Taylor bit it and he found himself staring at Taylor's lips. Chewing.

Taylor cleared his throat and Xander looked away pinching the bridge of his nose. Xander just knew that he always pinched his nose when he felt embarrassed, nervous and stressed.

"Um, crumbs." Xander said.

"Hmm?"

"Beside your mouth." Xander bit his lower lip.

"Oh!" Taylor wiped with the back of his hand the wrong side of his mouth.

This is so cliche, Xander thought.

"Let me." He brushed the crumbs and sugars near his mouth and exhaled trying to stifled that weird feeling he was feeling that time. He could feel Taylor froze on his seat. Xander was about to touch Taylor's cheeks when he heard someone cleared his throat. Xander sat up straight, he saw Chester and Joshua who was staring at them from their seats and grinning.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and thought what was he about to do to Taylor.

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