[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 187 & 188. (Patreon)

Chapter 187: Intermission - Phone interrogation.

Oliver would just NOT give her the answers she wanted, no matter how much she tried interrogating him.

When Isabelle first went into his room, she caught him quickly closing a window in his computer, which was amusingly suspicious.

“Knock before you enter,” he grumbled.

“What were you watching?” Isabelle teased.

“Porn,” he answered.

“Ha Ha,” Isabelle laughed humorlessly. So he wasn’t watching porn, but also something he didn’t want to show her. Suspicioooous!

“So? How did it go?” Isabelle asked him.

“It was fun.”

“What did you guys do?”

“We watched the tournament. Pretty exciting stuff.”

“Did you guys… talk?”

“Hm? Of course.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Stuff. I tried sushi, by the way. I liked it, but I think mom would hate it, so don’t expect us to be having it for dinner in this house.”

“Dammit!”

Of course, Isabelle’s reasoning was flawed from the start. To get the answers she wanted, she had to go to a different source. And so, she left Cake in her brother’s room, grabbed her phone and went outside, to the backyard.

It was nearly 10:00 pm. It was dark and really cold, enough that she could see her breath in front of her. Generally speaking, Isabelle preferred the cold over heat, but liked her summer outfits more.

She gave the other party a call, and she answered fairly quickly.

“Isabelle? What is it?” Noelle asked innocently.

“Hey. How are you?”

“A little tired, but well.” Noelle giggled. “I walked a lot today.”

“So I heard. It’s why I’m calling, really. Oliver won’t say much, so I got a little worried that it might have been awkward for you two.”

“Oh, far from it!” Noelle laughed. She really had a cute laugh. “We had a great time. I got him to try sushi and he said he liked it.”

Huh. Well, good to know both stories seem to align.

“Are you sure he wasn’t a bother? I’m the one who suggested you go together, so I feel responsible…”

“No, not in the slightest,” Noelle insisted. “In fact… we talked a lot, far more than I thought we would. It’s so weird, you know? I’ve known him for at least a couple of years through you, yet only now am I REALLY getting to know him.”

Ooooh, that sounded interesting.

“So… you guys hit it off?”

“N-Not like that, okay?” Noelle began to sound flustered. Poor girl couldn't even hide her feelings through the phone. “It’s just… I always had this image of him as someone overly serious and hard to approach, but that was completely wrong. No, wait. Not… COMPLETELY wrong.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“...I got hit on like four times today, you see,” Noelle started.

“Ugh.” Isabelle couldn’t help the groan that escaped her.

Out of Alice, Noelle and her, Noelle was the one who got hit on the most. It was easy to know why. Alice kind of gave off an aura that she had no time for relationships, and she told as much to people who asked, and Isabelle easily told off guys she wasn’t interested in. Noelle, however, on top of being cute as a button and having a very alluring figure, was… an easy target, as much as Isabelle hated referring to her friend like that.

She wasn’t an easy target in that she would go out with anyone who asked, but in that she was too kind and gentle to tell idiots to fuck off. Most guys were smart and decent enough to understand that when Noelle said she was busy, she meant she wasn’t interested. Those weren’t a problem. But then there are the few, not-very-decent idiots who keep pushing just because they think that if they keep asking they’ll eventually get a yes. Worst are the creeps who have no idea how to approach a girl, stand too close, smile too widely and for too long and stare too intently. Since Noelle is so short, guys probably see her as less intimidating to approach, and thus more of them tried.

“The first didn’t bother me, but the ones after him were…”

“Don’t hold it back, girl. You don’t need to be nice to everyone.”

“They were creepy.” Noelle said it like she regretted calling them that. “They smelled bad, too, and kept insisting even after I told them I was with a friend.”

“Seriously, some people!”

“I ended up looking to Oliver for help.”

“Oh? And did he help?”

“It was SO strange. The moment he walked up to them, it was like they were afraid of him and left immediately.”

“Hah?” People afraid of Oliver? Of her brother Oliver? The guy who wouldn’t harm a fly and 100% looked the part?

“It was like… He just glared and they all backed off. Well, one tried to start something, but a guard came up and threw him out.”

“I can’t picture Oliver picking a fight with anyone…”

“Neither can I. After it, Oliver always acted like it was no big deal. It was like…”

“Like…?”

“No, no. Forget that.”

“Come on, tell me!” Isabelle laughed. “It’s my brother, Noelle.”

“It’s… Ugh, it was like he didn’t want to let it bother me.”

Isabelle could clearly imagine her friend blushing on the other side of the phone.

“That’s likely,” Isabelle confirmed. “He’s like that. He hates seeing people uncomfortable. So this didn’t escalate into anything, right?”

“Of course not!”

“I meant with the creeps, Noelle,” Isabelle clarified with a smirk.

“O-Oh. W-Well, that too! Rather, that’s what I meant! Ugh.”

“God, you’re the cutest!” Isabelle laughed. “Okay, I’m done teasing you. Let’s talk more tomorrow.”

“Sure…”

“Good night, Noelle.”

“Good night.”

Well, that was an interesting conversation. Her brother intimidating other guys? It was no secret some people saw him as hard to approach, but intimidating? Though he had bulked up a bit… But he was so short for a guy… But he seemed to be having a growth-sprout…

Ugh. She HAD to stop thinking about Oliver so much. He didn’t need her worrying about him, and he probably didn’t want her to, anyway.

Regardless, if things went well for her in the next week, she wouldn’t have time to worry about him.

************

Chapter 188: An unforeseen issue leads to another secret.

It was that time of the month when we, as family, would have a little trip to the supermarket to buy most of the groceries and take the chance to make it a bit of an event. That usually meant we’d stop to eat somewhere together. This time, however, my dear sister wasn’t with us as she had been charged with a very important task, one I was unable to fulfill. What is that, you may ask? Well, it’s simple: socializing Cake.

You see, I take the responsibility of having a cat very seriously. I feed it, brush it, try to train it, all of that. One thing I realized fairly late, however, is that cats also have a very obvious need to socialize with other cats as kittens, lest they end up becoming aggressive when they see others as adults.

Let me give you a list of people I know and I’m comfortable talking to: Mila, Grace, Sarah, Thomas, Noelle, Alice, Kevin, Ben, and Lena. Maybe Amanda, but she flirts too much for comfort, though at this point I thought she just did it because I was getting better at brushing her advances aside. Anyway, do you know what all these people have in common? Exactly. None of them have cats.

The solution? Isabelle and I asked Thomas if he knew anyone who had cats, and he said a classmate of his did. Isabelle talked to her at school, told her our issue and now she’s at her new friend’s house with Cake.

People fear what they don’t understand, and social butterflies scare the shit out of me.

Anyway, that meant it was just mom and I shopping this time. The supermarket was uneventful and boring. You ever go to a huge supermarket where lots of people shop but they only have one or two registers open? Yeah, we had to wait for like 20 minutes.

Dinner was nice. We ate at a Chinese restaurant, where I decided to keep practicing the use of chopsticks.

“You’ve never cared for chopsticks and always used a fork,” Mom said. “Why start now?”

“...I ate sushi the other day and they only had chopsticks. I couldn’t pick the rolls up, so I had to use my hands. It was… kind of embarrassing.”

Mom laughed. “I see. Well, let me show you how it’s done.”

After eating with mom and having a nice, calm chat, we were ready to go pick up Isabelle and go home. However, our car had other plans.

As we were on the road, I heard mom go “Oh no…”

“What is it?” I asked.

“The engine is overheating,” she said and pointed to a red light on the dashboard. She grimaced. “I thought there was something odd about the car the other day, but it seems I postponed it for too long.”

“Is it serious?”

“It can be.” Mom slowed down, pulled to the side of the road and started typing something on her phone. After she connected the map on it to the car’s screen, I saw what she’d been looking for: a repair shop.

“Send a message to your sister, please. Tell her we’ll be late so she should take a cab home.”

Isabelle had Cake in her kennel, so taking a cab shouldn’t be an issue. I typed as we waited for the engine to cool down for a bit. After it did, we headed for the nearest repair shop, just five minutes away from our current location.

The place was practically a huge warehouse, maybe two if the one beside it also belonged to them. Nothing fancy other than ads for oil, car parts, services and the big sign at the top of the main gate that I only noticed because I liked the name. It read “Knights of the Wheel.”

We parked outside and went in. The floor was slick and gray and blue metal pillars supported the high ceiling. Walls were filled with tools, three other cars were being worked on already by mechanics, but a fourth one caught my eye.

It was just sitting there with its hood up, but… it looked really cool. I know a bit more about cars now than I did back then, but I had played a few racing games with licensed car manufacturers and models, so I recognized this car. A hot yellow sporty body shining with a perfect polish, a matching spoiler on the back, two doors, and even the old-school pop-up headlights… I don’t normally get excited by cars, but seeing a real life RX-7 made me a little giddy. It definitely stood out.

“Nice car, huh?” Knowing instinctively I was the one being addressed, I tensed up and looked away from the car and towards the person talking to me.

A man who looked to be around his 30s, give or take a couple years. Sharp features, a bit of a stubble, curly blonde hair in a mess. He was dressed in a blue coverall, stained black with oil and dirt. He was wiping his hands with a piece of cloth.

“S-Sorry for staring,” I suddenly said.

“Don’t apologize!” The man laughed. “Cars like those are meant to be stared at. I bet my lil’ sis would be flattered.”

I blinked. “That car belongs to your sister?”

“Yeah, it’s her baby. She works on it at least one day a week, if not more.” The man had to forcefully get rid of his goofy smile and replace it with a more professional one. He turned to my mom. “Sorry about that. The name’s Alex Knight. Welcome to my shop. What can we do for you, ma’am?”

“My engine seems to be having problems. It was overheating just ten minutes ago, so I decided to bring it in as soon as possible.”

I had to do a double take. Thankfully Mr. Alex was busy talking to mom, so he didn’t notice me staring. His eyes, his eyebrows, and maybe even his mouth a bit… Not to mention that last name.

I looked back at the RX-7 in disbelief. I had to be wrong. There was no way. It had to be a coincidence, or another sister… but no, because as soon as my eyes went back to the car, I saw Alice Knight, dressed in a stained, blue coverall, staring back at me with her jaw hanging in shock.