Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy Read Free Page A

combed back tightly, he instantly reminded Leyla of a turtle. He cleared his throat looking uneasy. "I'm not here because of your mother. I actually would like to talk to you." Oh no, not that! Leyla thought and tried to suppress the impulse to roll her eyes. Her smile was tense when she asked him in. She shuffled into the kitchen. "Do you want some coffee?" Quincy nodded following her. He was in a state of shock.
    Something was wrong with that girl. He knew Leyla since her early childhood, and she had always been a sweet, friendly girl with good manners. During the few weeks in which he hadn't seen her, she had completely changed. Puberty was apparently a terrible time to go through. He watched her as she struggled ill-tempered with the coffee machine. Leyla took a cup out of the cabinet with an unsteady movement. Good god, she looked terrible. She was far too skinny, her face was very pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes. Apparently, she no longer took particular care in her appearance. She wore a shabby looking T-shirt and some sweat pants, which had seen better days and were a couple of sizes too big. There was a huge hole in her stockings, and she seemed totally absentminded. If Quincy had not intervened, the coffee would have overflown. God, now he could understand Kyra, and if he had been Leyla's father, he sure would worry as well.
    He had to prevent Cyndra from seeing Leyla like this. Otherwise, he would be confronted to hear about her fears and concerns for days, about whether she would be capable of being a good mother. From the way it looked Kyra was Cyndra's role model in all aspects of life. Apparently she had not managed to bring her only daughter unscathed through puberty. If Cyndra ever found out, he was well into some significant discussions, which he’d rather avoid. Because after all, who knew what would happen. Life was a mystery and to be honest, he didn’t even know what would happen the next five minutes, let alone how his life would be in ten years. But, Cyndra didn’t care, she sometimes was from another universe, fluttering around him like a hummingbird, making him nervous. He truly wanted to avoid that to happen. He loved Cyndra, but sometimes she was a bit capricious and exhausting, an unfortunate peculiarity enhanced during her pregnancy. Last night, when she had felt a sudden inner urge for a Ben & Jerry Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream, he hadn’t been able to talk her out of it, even though their freezer was full of various ice creams. She insisted that it had to be that particular Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream and man, she could get outraged lately. So, finally, they had been cruising around the darks streets until they finally found the damn ice cream at a gas station.
    He’d gotten so lost in thoughts, that he didn’t notice that Leyla was standing in front of him, staring sullenly at him. Startled he heard her annoyed voice close to his left ear, "So shoot, what did you want to discuss with me?" He looked at her pale, tired-looking face and said without really wanting to, "Are you on drugs?" Indeed, an ill-considered question, he could have kicked himself. If she were doing drugs, she would hardly tell him and let him in on it. She frowned shaking her head in disbelief. "What makes you think something stupid like that?" She was looking at him, shaking her head. Since when did Quincy care that much about what she was doing? He had certainly enough on his plate keeping his rather Bitchy girlfriend happy.
    Leyla liked Quincy with his childlike mind. He had always been kind to her in the past when she was a child hanging around the gym being bored. Back then he played hide and seek with her for hours. A smile crept across her face, as she remembered. It had been kind of weird as she always hid in the same spot behind a curtain and all Quincy had to do, was look from time to time behind that curtain saying, "Got you!" After that, he could continue to do his job without being