BIG HINT

Seeing her step-mother hugging a tall, handsome, well-built dude raised Marie’s curiosity to another level. He did not seem very old. Instead, he was just about the right age according to his body, and that piqued her curiosity as to who this man could be. Never had she ever seen him around, but then she remembered that she was not at home most of the time, and she could never really guess what happened behind her back.

It was a given that his step-mom would be the happiest not to have Marie around because from her behavior it seemed like that almost every time. But something like what was happening in front of Marie’s eyes was difficult to accept, especially from someone who had always spoken ill about friendships between the opposite gender. Something which Delilah revolted was being followed by her, and hypocrisy was shining bright.

Marie stepped out of the eatery without worrying about being called at the counter once her order was done. Delilah was participating in the hug by placing just one hand around the man and on his back. Every inch of her palm was completely resting on his back. And just as soon as she saw Marie getting closer, she immediately backed off making it look as if she pushed the dude away. But it was very easy to understand that it was intentionally done.

“Mom, I have ordered waffles,” Marie said as she came closer to all of them, and she asked, “Why don’t we sit inside and enjoy it fresh?”

Obviously, she could not question her step-mother about the thing that she was up to at that moment even though Marie was dying out of curiosity to know the truth. But she still chose to act mature and not mention it directly. She just felt she got the upper hand after what she saw her step-mother do. If Delilah were to say nasty things about Marie after this, Marie would bite her back as she got a topic that could keep things a little normal between them at home.

It was all the more fun that it happened while Jean was with them. Now Marie could talk about the troubles with her best friend. The issues at home she had gone through before and even now all of it continues. Marie found it very uncomfortable to talk about her life to anyone. To begin with, she didn’t have any such friends who she could trust. Some of them who would talk to her would be for their own benefit, and if she mentioned anything about her life, all they would do was to make fun of her without understanding her problems.

Now that Marie was waiting for the three of them to start walking in order to get inside the waffle place, she looked at Rebecca to signal her for that. The minute she turned her head towards her step-sister, she became clueless. She could not understand why her step-sister was staring at Jean while Jean had her eyes on Delilah and that man who had come to meet her. On top of that, the thing that was more confusing was the fact that Rebecca was blushing.

Feeling a tinge of jealousy, Marie could not stop herself from raising her hand to Rebecca and clicking her middle finger with the thumb to produce some sound. She did it unknowingly because all she could think at that very second was to get Rebecca distracted and stop admiring Jean who was Marie’s friend. Actually, friends do not feel jealous. Rather, they want to see the other person happy with whatever best they can get.

“What are you doing?” Rebecca threw at Marie for having clicked her fingers right in front of her face two times. Marie was really chilled out for whatever reason and calmly posed a rhetorical question. She asked, “Shall we go inside?”

“I suppose,” Rebecca answered after looking at her mom and trying to be her partner in crime. Maybe she knew who that man was and the bond her mom shared with him. Also, it seemed as if Delilah wanted to keep standing on the footpath with that man and be given some time without having the girls around. That is why she was not responding to anything the dude had said earlier. Hence, it did not take longer for the three to walk inside.

While the girls were entering the shop, Marie took a long step to overtake Rebecca to come closer to Jean as she was leading them. It was becoming very obvious to Rebecca that something was going on between Marie and Jean, and their friendship was not something that they made it look like. There was an extra dose to it even though it was very subtle at the present.

Rebecca was quite of an experimenting kind, and she had even known about the things that had been going on around the world. That was because staying at home gave her the access to use a computer and to surf the internet whenever she wanted and for as long as she wanted. In fact, that is how she got the idea of using her teddy bear's nose to do some hanky-panky.

Now what was interesting to her was the fact that her sister liked another girl, supposedly. That was something which was never going to be acceptable to either her family or the society that they lived in, and that was not enough because adding the worst part to that was that their country criminalized the whole act.

Not only did they not accept different kinds of love, but they also punished the ones who displayed it. Hence, every citizen of that country lived in fear and adhered to the way of life that was accepted out there. Some of them were happy about it, and there were also some of them who were not elated by this rule of their nation. But none of them had any other choice, really.

After getting to somewhat understand her step-sister's behavior, Rebecca backed off a little bit so that Jean and Marie could get their time and Rebecca could have her doubts clarified. The reason that she wanted to do that was not noble. It was just because she wanted reasons to bring Marie down, and this could have been the top-notch one. Nothing good supersede it.

The girls got too busy with each other in the waffle parlor to even pay attention to their mother who was still standing with the man outside on the footpath. It was pretty obvious that at both places, inside the waffle shop and outside, some different dessert was being served. Looking at the way Delilah was laughing made it certain that the guy who she was with was close enough to her.

With Marie having thoughts of all kinds, she started to completely ignore her step-mother and got an idea to make full use of this situation to her own advantage. She started getting closer to Jean by pulling her chair next to hers. But she did that smoothly as she didn’t want to come under the spotlight where Rebecca would notice it.

When the staff at the counter called Marie's name as soon as her order was ready, Jean stood up along with her and together they walked till there to pick it up. Jean had something stuck in her mind and was lost. She did not realize that they had reached the counter and Marie had stopped. Jean took another step and banged her front on Marie's back.

Stars were shining in a dirty sky because at that very moment, Delilah walked inside the waffle parlor to find Jean and Marie in that position. They were not only standing in that position, but the way Marie was blushing because of it, and Jean was looking at Marie with not even an inch of space between them. Delilah couldn’t keep herself from shouting her step-daughter’s name. She yelled, “MARIE!”