[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 655 & 656.

Chapter 655: First, a home visit.

The day we’d be going to the park, I was waiting in the living room with Cake on my lap while Isabelle played fetch with the dogs in front of us. I kept glancing from my phone to the window and back at my phone.

“Relax, brother. They’re kids. They don’t bite,” Isabelle told me.

“You bit a classmate once when we were six,” I told her.

“WHY do you remember that!?”

“It was funny.”

“Fuck you, now the shame of that memory is gonna keep me awake for who knows how long…”

“Point is, kids bite but that’s not what I’m worried about.”

“Obviously. It was a manner of speaking.” Isabelle sighed. “You don’t need their approval to move in with Sarah.”

“No, but it’s important to her. And to me. I want her family to like me.”

Isabelle frowned and scoffed as she tossed two balls for Mint and Chip to chase. “My boyfriends never cared.”

“And how did that end up?”

“That’s what I’m saying!”

“Her parents have always been good to me, too, so I have to do everything I can.” I sighed. “I think I know what I want to say to them, but…”

“But?”

“But they’re kids. I don’t know if anything I say will get through to them.”

“You’re not giving kids enough credit.”

“It’s not that I think they’re stupid, okay? It’s that I wonder how much they understand about relationships at that age.”

“How much did YOU know about relationships at that age?”

“I didn’t know shit until a year ago,” I told her.

“See? Just say what you have to say, try to have a good time with them, and if it doesn’t work out, they’ll understand eventually.”

“I suppose…”

Just a bit later, my phone buzzed and I got a text from Sarah, first saying she was close to my house, but also asking if it would be okay if her siblings met Cake, Mint and Chip.

“Um… Do you mind?” I asked Isabelle.

“No, I say let them.”

“Thanks.”

I texted back, telling her to bring them, and a few minutes later, Sarah’s SUV was parked outside the house.

I went to get the door with a lump in my throat, but remembering I was opening the door not just for the kids, but for Sarah as well calmed me down.

“Oliver!” Little Robert, the youngest of the four siblings at seven years old, greeted me cheerfully with hands high in the air.

“Robert!” I kneeled to this height and raised my hand as well, greeting him with a two-handed high five. Robert giggled and carefully stepped into the house.

“E-Excuse me…” he said.

“Don’t worry, come on in,” I told him, giving him a soft pat on the shoulder.

Next was Violet, the second youngest at nine years old. She was just a bit taller than Robert, but I still didn’t need to stand up.

“Violet! Oh, neat bow!” I told her, looking at the blue bow that held her chestnut-colored hair in a ponytail. I also raised my hands for her and she met the two-handed high five with a giggle and a little jump.

“Th-Thank you. Mom picked it for me,” Violet said. “She said loose hair would get in the way on the rides.”

“See, your mom is smarter than me. I wouldn’t have thought of that. Come on in, the dogs are in the living room.”

Violet went into the house excitedly, looking around and quickly finding the living room, rushing in when she saw the pets.

I turned to the third sibling, Cole, and I stood up to greet him as he was a fair bit taller than the other two. Cole was 11 years old and was, as Sarah had told me, going through something of a rebellious phase. He didn’t look too happy to be there. Hands in his pockets, furrowed brow, generally annoyed.

“Hey, Cole. What’ve you been up to?” I asked him, smiling and offering him my fist.

He grumbled under his breath, but still fist-bumped me. “Nothing much…”

“Really? Nothing during summer vacation?”

“...I’ve been taking guitar lessons,” he said, looking down.

“No shot! Seriously? Come on in, tell me more.”

Cole came in, if reluctantly. Behind him, Sarah was eyeing him with arms crossed and a faint grimace. Our eyes met and she smiled apologetically at me. When Cole went into the living room, where we heard Isabelle already having lively chatter with Robert and Violet, we said hi with a very innocent and quick kiss on the cheek.

“Sorry. I told them you have a cat and two dogs, and since we can’t have pets, they really wanted to see them.”

“That’s fine. You didn’t tell me Cole was learning guitar.”

“He asked me to keep it a secret, from you specifically…”

“Ouch.”

“Please don’t take it personally.”

“I won’t, but ouch.”

Sarah chuckled.

We went to the living room and my sister, being the social butterfly that she is, was already all buddy buddy with Robert and Violet, letting them play fetch with the dogs.

“Eeeew, it’s covered in drool!” Violet said, giggling as she picked up the ball.

“Don’t worry! You can wash your hands later with soap. Just toss the ball and they’ll chase it. Oh, but don’t wipe our hands on that cool shirt of yours!”

Violet giggled. “I won’t!”

“So, Cole, how are those guitar lessons going?” I asked him, standing next to him.

He shifted uncomfortably. “They’re fine.”

“What guitar are you playing?”

“Um… I don’t know. It’s made of wood and hollow inside,” he said, voice soft.

“Oh, acoustic? Those are cool. I’ve been wanting to get an acoustic guitar. Are you liking it?”

He shifted again, making an uncomfortable face. “I don’t know. It’s hard.”

“What are you having trouble with?”

“...My fingers don’t reach some strings.”

“Oh, yeah, that happens. Actually, can you come with me for a moment? I’ll show you something.”

I knew I was being a bit pushy. Thing is, I can’t read the minds and emotions of kids like I can with other people. I can’t do it at all, actually. Might have to do with the nature of the magic and the fact that these are, well, kids. So I was really in the dark and was practically gambling here.

Here’s hoping I don’t make things worse.

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

Chapter 656: A couple of guitar tips.

Cole followed me to my bedroom. Sarah watched us go but gave us boys some space. The fact that she didn’t say anything implying she trusted me to get along with her brother.

I left the door open, of course, and when Cole went into my room, his eyes immediately landed on my two electric guitars standing side by side on their stands, then on the bass next to them.

He just stared at them, eyes wide, before asking me, “Why does this one have only four strings?”

“That’s a bass. It looks like a guitar, but it’s different. I’ve only been learning it for about six months.”

He nodded, and his eyes went back to the guitars.

“Which one do you like more?” I asked him.

“...The black one.”

“My man.” I nodded approvingly, and he seemed to smile a bit. 

I picked up the guitar, the Ep. Les Paul that the girls gave me for Christmas. It had become my main guitar already, and it sounded like a hundred angels rocking in perfect harmony. I admit, I hesitated. Letting a kid hold half my soul was terrifying, but…

“Wanna hold it?” I asked him.

Cole pursed his lips and nodded slowly. “Y-Yeah. Can I?”

“Sit down.”

He sat down on my desk chair and I gave him the guitar. “Careful. It’s heavier than an acoustic.”

Kid knew how to hold a guitar, at least. He set it on his lap and looked it up and down.

I plugged the guitar and turned on the amp at a low volume.“Go ahead, play something.”

“...” Cole waited a moment, thinking it through, then played a basic finger exercise meant to get someone used to moving their hands and fingers up and down the fret. 

As he played that, Cake walked into the room, tail high up, and jumped on the bed, eyes on Cole. The kid was too focused on his playing to notice. He struggled, was slow and a little clumsy, but so was everyone when they started. And yet…

“Hey, you’re getting it down. That’s good. I can see what you mean about your fingers, though. Mmm, here, look.”

I picked up the second guitar, the cheap one I bought when I was a kid, and sat across from Cole on my bed. “Raise the fretboard a bit, keep it more diagonal, then make sure your thumb is somewhere behind your middle finger, like this. You’re keeping it too high, that’s why you can’t reach some notes and you have to move your wrist more.”

Cole frowned as he tried to do what I told him, watching my own hand and trying to copy it. He got it, and he did reach all strings with no problem now, but he had switched his positioning, so now the same exercise as before felt different to him and he did it even slower.

He clicked his tongue.

“Hey, it happens. That grip on the fretboard will work better for you, but you have to practice. Eventually, you can do it faster and it’ll always be good as a warmup.” I played the same exercise as Cole, only smoother and faster, going up and down the fretboard and getting faster and faster. Cole’s eyes went wide. “Okay, sorry, that’s just showing off…” I said, chuckling. “But really, there’s no point to these exercises if you’re not having fun playing.  Have you learned any songs?”

“N-Not yet. I’m practicing, but my teacher says I should learn scales and chords first.”

I grimaced. “I get why he would, but… It’s always better to have a goal to work towards. Is there any song you want to learn?”

Cole nodded. “But it’s too hard for me.”

“Tell me the name of the song.”

He did and I searched for it on my phone. It was a popular pop song, recent. Not my style, but the guitar did sound good. Complex, too, but…

I distilled it to the very basics, stripping away most of the flair. It ended up sounding flatter, but still very recognizable as the song. “How about it? Think you could play that?”

Cole’s eyes went wide again, his jaw dropping. “Y-You learned it just hearing it once?”

“Not exactly,” I said, chuckling. “It’s an approximation, and just the simplest I could make it. When you play for long enough, you start to develop your ears and you can recognize what notes someone is playing, even if it’s a different instrument. It takes practice, and time, and it’s hard, but… It’s fun. So, do you think you could play this?”

“I mean…” Cole swallowed. “It’s easier than what I saw on the internet.”

A knock on the open door drew out attention. Sarah was standing there, leaning against the door frame. “Hey, guitarists. If we take any longer we’ll find a longer line at the park. Unless you don’t want to go. Robert, Violet and I can go on our own.”

“Um…!” Cole exclaimed, but he started looking from me to his sister, conflicted.

“We’re going, we’re going,” I told her. “Come on, Cole. We can practice whenever we want, after all, right?”

He pursed his lips and nodded with his head down. “Y-Yeah. Um… Thanks.”

“Careful with that guitar, Cole,” Sarah told him. “If you drop that, Oliver might actually murder you.”

“W-What?”

“Hey, shoo! Get out of here. Only musicians allowed here. Shoo!” I told Sarah, making shooing motions with my hand. She went back downstarts, laughing.

I didn’t call attention to it, but I did catch Cole smiling. He also did seem to hold the guitar with much more… fear of dropping it.

Robert and Violet didn’t want to say goodbye to the dogs, and Cake didn’t let them play with her, keeping her distance. However, she did let Cole pet her gently. I think that improved his mood. When a cat rejects others but kind of accepts you, you somehow feel special.

We left Isabelle with the pets and got in Sarah's car, ready to go to the theme park. That visit was a good icebreaker, and the atmosphere in the car was a lot more relaxed than I expected.

Thank God.