Magical Girl (special preview)

Ander’s is quick to respond I find myself liking him. He picks me up and carries me. But he’s always so rough about it, especially when he sits me back down in the kitchen. He doesn’t hurt me, but it’s like I’m some sort of rag doll to him.

I remember it’s supposed to be my morning to cook breakfast. And pain, or not he’s not going to do anything if it’s not his given turn. I inspect his face before he hides it behind his newspaper and I brace my hand against my left thigh. I stand up slowly, the pain’s dull now and I am able to stand on my own.

“If you don’t hurry we’ll be late for work,” Anders growls from behind his paper. He then shakes it and the paper rustles, sounding more like nails on a chalkboard to me than anything.

I break the yolk of an egg at the sound of his voice. “I can’t move quick this morning. My hip is acting up again.” I try to keep some level of decorum. After all, he did help me out a bit that morning. But just a bit.

Anders’ head tilts and he sighs. “Then why didn’t you just order something from the deli? You knew you were going to cook this morning.”

I wanted to throw the egg at him but I bit my tongue. I went back to cooking and tried to ignore the sound of his breathing, the sound of his foot tapping, the way he said certain things aloud as he read.

I slammed his plate down on the table. “You better hurry up and eat or we’ll be late!” I snapped.

“Don’t snap at me.” He grunted, sounding very much like a bear. He looked at me with those eyes of his. Neither gray nor blue, but somewhere in between. I liked his eyes. I knew that I would never stop liking his eyes. But I knew that was what he wanted. This fake appearance of his was made to be that way.

I sat down and ate, chewing slowly while looking over the entertainment section of the newspaper he always laid out for me. I didn’t care much about it, but I liked to keep a tab on what was going on at the theatre I used to work at. I’m having a hard time focusing this morning though. The pain in my hip was making my mind drift away from the words on the page.