MONSTER OF THE UNKNOWN

SURPRISE VISITS

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, an orange taxi drives up to the Badi residence and Laura steps out of the passenger seat. She has come here to try and smooth things over with Mathéo after last night's mishap. After the Latino's awkward make-out attempt with her, he pretty much just rushed out of the house and has been avoiding her calls all day, so she decided to meet him in person.

Locating the house wasn't that hard for Laura considering she's already been there twice before. The first time being when she came for the Badi extended family dinner almost a month ago, and the second was yesterday evening, when Nathaniel and her came to pick him up before heading to the ordeal of a gala.

Laura slowly approaches the front door and takes a few deep breaths to calm her nerves before ringing the bell. However, the person who comes to answer is not the one she's expecting. It's a tall white girl with seemingly perfect skin who looks about a year older than her. She has long straightened red hair and her beauty is so captivating you'd think it's her ability even though she's a normal. Laura instantly recognizes her from the first instance Mathéo invited her here. It's Lyam's girlfriend, Kate.

"Hey Laura," Kate accosts the brunette with a bright smile. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, thank you," Laura responds almost timidly. Kate and her didn't really talk during the dinner, so she isn't yet used to the red-head's brimming charisma. "Is Mathéo at home?"

"No unfortunately. He went out a few hours ago, but I don't know where." Kate opens the door even wider so Laura can enter before continuing, "come inside and sit down. I'll go ask Lyam if he knows where he went."

Laura concurs and goes into the living room to wait. From the look of things, Lyam and Kate are the only ones at home, so it seems to Laura that the two were on some sort of date before she arrived. A few minutes later, Lyam comes out of his bedroom shirtless and wearing only a pair of boxers-which gives the brunette a clearer idea of what exactly the couple was doing-and meets his boo.

"Hey babe. Who was at the door?" Mathéo's foster brother asks her ostensibly pissed off by the unwelcome interruption.

"It's Laura," Kate whispers to him in response. "She said she's looking for your brother. She's waiting in the living room."

Not bothering to change into something more decent, the blonde teen goes into the parlour to attend to his unexpected guest.

"I'm sorry for bothering you two bu-" Laura apologizes as she sees Lyam walk into the room, but he cuts her off before she finishes.

"What happened between you two?" There's a tint of annoyance and anger in his tone as he asks her the question.

"Did he tell you something happened?"

"No, but I know my brother better than anyone. He usually has this obnoxious smile whenever he hangs out with you, but since he got back last night, he's been acting like his old self."

"What does that mean?"

"It doesn't matter, but what does is that you two make up. He's already beefing with Aaron and Sara. If you join the list, all his problems would become mine too, and I can only dedicate so much of my personal time to him."

"That's why I came. He hasn't been picking up my calls and I don't know where he is."

"He went for his weekly appointment with his therapist. He usually stops at the Vinomania restaurant for a bite to eat whenever he finishes any of his meetings, so you can wait for him there. He'll be done in about an hour."

Laura thanks Lyam for his help and is about to head back out, but he stops her before she leaves to add something else.

"One last thing. Please don't tell Mathéo about what Kate and I were doing here. He's not exactly the best at keeping secrets from our parents and my dad would kill me if he heard about this."