“I’m sorry, Wyn, but it is pretty predictable.”
Wyn huffed, folded her arms and faced the television just as the vampire took the human girl in his arms and proclaimed his love for her. Wyn just pouted and huffed again.
“This should be romantic, but you guys totally ruined it for me.”
Ilyan and I laughed together, drowning out the vampire’s declaration of love. Wyn huffed more and rewound it so we had to sit through the whole ending over again.
“I’m going to go order some Chinese food,” Ilyan grumbled as he headed for the kitchen. Part of me was jealous he had an excuse to get away from the mush I had to endure.
Wyn had her hands clasped together as she leaned forward, her face glossed over. I sighed as the credits finally began to roll again, and Wyn leaned back with a tear-streaked face.
Oh, bother.
“Wasn’t that so beautiful?”
“Not really.”
She looked at me like I had skinned her cat.
“But, I don’t get into this stuff, Wyn,” I amended to make her feel a bit better.
“But it was funny, and scary and gory, and romantic. It had something for everyone!”
I chose not to reply to her; the whole movie was just silly.
“What kind of movies do you like then?” she asked in slight frustration.
“Sci-fi, super-hero, action and spy movies,” I rattled off, knowing full well I had just listed all of Ryland’s favorites. If she had asked me what my favorite video game was however, I could have spouted off half-a-dozen racing games that I knew I enjoyed on my own. Ryland didn’t like to lose.
“Super-heroes?” she said.
“Yes! They are brave and fight bad guys, and tend to look very nice,” I said, fighting the blush that was rising to my cheeks.
“A woman after my own heart,” Ilyan said as he fell back into his chair. “Which one is your favorite? I’m a Superman fan, personally.”
“Iron Man.”
“Really? I wouldn’t have pegged you for a Robert Downey, Junior fan, or is it the comic books you prefer.”
“Ugh. You don’t read comic books, do you?” Wyn grumbled, sounding disgusted, but a smile still managed to creep onto her face.
“No,” I said. Although Ryland had quite a collection, I had never touched them. “And, I don’t think it’s a Robert Downey, Junior thing. I think it’s just the fact that he takes something difficult and something that could destroy him, and makes it into something amazing.”
Ilyan looked at me with something akin to reverence, while Wyn stared me down with a knowing glance.
“It doesn’t have to define you, you know.”
I flushed at Wyn’s comment, looking from brother to sister in panic. She had promised she wouldn’t talk about the mark again. Luckily, Ilyan looked confused and had no idea what Wyn was referring to.
“Wyn,” I begged, my heart thudding, “please don’t.”
Wyn huffed and sat back on the couch.
“Do I even want to ask?” Ilyan said.
“No.” I buried my head in the sleeves of Ryland’s sweater. Thankfully, the doorbell rang and Ilyan left to get the Chinese food.
“Wyn,” I rounded on her the second Ilyan’s footsteps left the room, “please don’t bring this up. You promised.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said stubbornly, spinning her plastic bracelets.
“Kung pow beef, anyone?” Ilyan said, handing out white containers.
I opened my box of Mongolian Beef and dug in; it smelled and tasted so good.
Wyn kept switching from staring at me to eating her food. Ilyan looked between us before flipping on another movie. I laughed out loud when he turned on Iron Man 2. Ilyan winked at me before turning back to his food.
“Ugh, really, Ilyan? You’re going to make me sit through this?” Wyn whined.
“Well, we could talk, but you seemed quite content to be angry and stare off into space.”
Wyn glared at him and went back to her food.
“I apologize for my sister,” Ilyan began with an oddly regal air. “She can be quite stubborn at times.”
Wyn sighed deeper at him. I laughed at her; she seemed irritated by him, and that alone was quite entertaining.
“So, Ilyan. Where do you get your accent from?”
He raised an eyebrow at me in obvious confusion.
“Seeing as Wyn doesn’t have one... It’s just odd. That’s all.”
“Oh!” Ilyan chimed, realization dawning on his face. “I lived in Prague for quite a few years before our father died. I left so I could help raise my sister.” While he didn’t sound sad because of the situation, there was something else in his voice that made the entire thing sound practiced.
“Wow. Prague. That must have been amazing.”
Ilyan opened his mouth to respond, but Wyn’s sharp tongue cut him off. “Don’t let him fool you. It was all party-party, very little work.”