In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,54
any interest in Stevie.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she hopes you don’t so that she’ll be able to tempt you with her raw and unappetizing sexuality.”
Oriana glared at her brother. “I loathe you.”
“Because of my brutal honesty or because you have no friends and are forced to hang out with us?”
Shen snorted. “Throwing stones from that glass house, aren’t ya, kid?”
Insulted, Kyle looked around his sister. “What does that mean?”
“You don’t have any friends either.”
“I do too.” He pointed at the pitch. “Her. Stevie. She likes me.”
“I think she feels sorry for you. But what I mean is, you don’t have any friends your own age.”
“People my own age are beneath me. They consider stupid things fun. They don’t understand life and art and true beauty.”
“Plus, they keep hitting him,” Oriana tossed in. “That’s why my sister hired you.”
“Maybe if you stopped saying they were beneath you,” he pointed out to Kyle, “they wouldn’t beat the crap out of you.”
“I don’t say it to them. I merely point out how inadequate—”
“Nope,” Shen cut in. “Just nope.”
“You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”
“Are you going to say that the school system lets down this nation’s children?”
“No.”
“Then stop talking.”
“Don’t blame him,” Oriana said, looking at her own phone, and quickly typing a response to someone. “When Kyle was ten, he went through a very strange Ayn Rand period. It was not pretty. My father has been trying to pull him back from the edge ever since.”
“Oh, please,” Kyle huffed. “That phase only lasted six months. And at least I didn’t go through that weird Russian literature phase like you. She wore black for a year and kept saying everyone’s entire name when she talked to them or about them.”
“You weren’t even born yet,” Oriana shot back.
“Mom told me all about it.”
Shen knew that Kyle and Oriana were only four years apart...
“You went through a Russian literature phase when you were four?”
The siblings gazed at him.
“What age were you when you started reading Russian literature?” Oriana asked.
“That would be the age of never. I have never read Russian. . . anything. And, before you pity me, I am totally okay with that. Not having read Russian anything.”
“So you’re more into great Chinese literature?”
Shen shrugged. “I like Run Run Shaw movies.”
“Run Run Shaw?”
“The Shaw Brothers. They made my favorite martial arts movies. From the seventies.” The siblings stared at him but didn’t say anything, so Shen added, “And I read the Tao of Pooh.”
“When you were four?” Kyle asked.
“No, last year.”
Oriana’s head dipped low and she muttered, “Oh, wow.”
Fed up, Shen informed the pair, “You do understand that most children don’t read ancient philosophies when they’re four. In fact . . . most adults don’t read ancient philosophies. That’s just your family. You are, to be quite blunt, a bunch of freaks. Good freaks,” he added. “Talented freaks. But freaks nonetheless.”
Oriana placed her hand on Shen’s forearm and he had no idea why.
“I’m just concerned,” she slowly explained to him, “that you won’t be interesting enough for Stevie.”
“Why would I need to be?”
“Because you’re dating her.”
Shen closed his eyes. “What is happening?”
“That’s what Max told me last night.”
“Your first mistake is you’re talking to Max.”
“Don’t you want to date Stevie? Is it her lack of muscle tone?”
“Look, Stevie is really sweet, but she’s . . . young.”
“Oh, my God,” Oriana whispered. “Are you really old? Like . . . are you ninety?”
Shen growled a little and looked off.
“I’m just kidding.” Oriana pushed her shoulder against Shen’s arm. “I know you’re way younger than that. Like forty, right?”
“I am not—” Shen stopped when he realized he was yelling.
“What you need to understand about us—prodigies, I mean; at least the women—is that guys our age do not usually work out for us. They’re usually stupid, grabby, and you have to forcefully tell them what no means. To the point where some permanent damage might be caused and their mother calls you a vile bitch beast. So, if you’re a few years older than her, it’s not a big deal. In fact, you could wisely use these early days when you’re rolling around in the sheets to read a book . . . or two.”
“I read books. I read!”
Oriana raised an eyebrow. “What are you reading right now? ”
Shen cleared his throat. “A book about the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
Her raised eyebrow turned down with the other one into a dramatic frown. “Is that about the steel industry in Pittsburgh?”
Kyle burst out laughing and Shen twisted his mouth