Chapter 16 It Is All Coming Crashing Down.

Susan tapped her finger on the table as she looked around the room trying to not make eye contact with steve.

A moment before Susan was laughing so much she started to tear up, her stomach started to hurt so much she had to grab her sides as she tried to calm down after Steve's little joke.

After two minutes of laughing when Susan felt her throat become sore, she grabbed the glass of water knocking it away from herself at first before she managed to clutch the glass quickly bringing it to her mouth.

'wow that caught me off guard, I never expected steve could be so funny.... but he got me good' Susan thought while quenching her thirst as her cheeks began to get hot as all the eyes were on her.

Steves's hair stood on end as the eyes in the room seemed to lock onto him, slumping into the seat he forced his head down to get away from the eyes that now he couldn't get away from.

Susan glanced at steve expecting a grand smile on his face as clearly his joke had worked as the eyes of everyone in the room was staring at them no question wanting to know what had been so funny that had caused her to laugh this hard.

slowly placing the cup down that was now empty as she reached out trying to not move her upper body as much as possible to avoid the pain in her stomach, she saw steve looking down avoiding eye contact which was strange.

"hey, steve are you ok?" Susan asked in a low tone barely above a whisper.

Steve just kept looking down trying to avoid the eyes that haunted him as he heard the chair squeak and the floor rocking back and forth he breathed in the big gulps of air burning their way down his throat, the air so hot it halted his breathing forcing him to expel the hot air each time his breath getting shorter.

Steve shot up knocking the chair back away from him as he kept his eyes trained on the ground pushing off with everything he had trying to escape the weight now crushing down on him, he walked away as fast as he could from the cafe, away from the woman he had trusted and away from his job.

Susan's eyebrows raised and her jaw slackened as she knocked her knee on the table leg as she tried to get up to follow the quickly disappearing steve as she reached the door she was stopped by a yell from the waiter " HEY you haven't paid" she hadn't eaten any food from the start. She had forgotten that she had ordered food even when steven said he did not want any and it was still sitting on the table waiting for her first bite but before the yell restrained her she could have sworn she hear steven mutter something under his breath along the lines of this is why I didn't wanna tell anyone.

Shocked she did not know at the time that the simple words she treated as a joke would cause such a reaction.

What were those words that had caused this, well they were?

"I have been wanting to tell you this for a while...

sally has been harassing me"

Now thinking back nothing had been funny about the words themselves but how until he said sally and harassing she had thought he was going to ask her out.

a loud thumping knock resounded in her office drowning out her thoughts, she did not know when or how she had got back to the office.

"come in" Susan bearly spoke when a head came around the door it was a short woman that she had worked with for about two years now she was a short woman that curved out in all the right places so much so Susan was jealous sporting the blackest hair you would ever see, looking more like an optical illusion than hair colour.

"hey sally what are you doing here"

"well I just came back for lunch and steve does not seem to be around I thought he went to lunch with you." sally said with her head still just around the corner of the door.

"no he went home..... feeling sick," said Susan as she could not help but feel guilty as steve must be shyer than she thinks and he must have been so embarrassed when I laughed that hard and long at his joke she thought this could be the only reason as what straight man would not want the attention of someone as hot as sally she snorted to her self feeling as she was being dumb and that he would naturally be back tomorrow with his classic smile on his face.

...

in Abdalla's house, Abdu had just stepped through the door, stumbling as pain radiated from his big toe and flailed his arms trying to catch anything he could.

slowly gaining his balance again he wondered why his anti-social old man would welcome such a young person into the house.

"Old man, what are you doing with such a young man here alone you know you haven't been allowed to do that since they took you away" yelled Abdu as he pointed and jumped as he moved closer to his father soon feeling a sharp jabbing pain in his side.

"How dare you say such a stupid joke, I will beat you until you stop spouting nonsense" yelled back the old man as he grabbed the walking stick he had hung on the back of the chair shoving it into the silly man's side.

Abdu laughed as he moved away from his old man making a mental note that he had to keep further back as that cane made his old man much more dangerous when he was angry.

walking towards the boy he put out his hand to the boy who was clearly trying not to laugh as he help his mouth and belly managing to keep it to a low giggle.

Abdu extended his hand "The old man has not been jailed for anything yet, but I still would not trust him"

"HEY what do think you are doing Abdu, how dare you not bow before Anansi I did not raise such a stupid and disrespectful son, get on your knees now or get the FUCK out of my house"

Abdu was taken aback as the last time his old man sore was when his mother died and that was only because her own brother did not show up to mourn.

Abdu dropped to his knees as fast as he could as even though he was distracted by his old man's choice of words he still managed to hear the name of a god he had recently bumped into ANANSI which made him realise how rude he had been.

prostrating himself " please forgive me for not recocnising you Anansi I cannot turn back time but please allow the digresion to pass"

Abdu waited for the young mans next word hoping it would be good news.

"please stand back up, you are far too old to be diving to the ground like that and please stop and get back to your feet"

orthough Abdu was confused as to why he was being let off the hook by the god that had almost attacked and killed him a few days ago, he knew the only reason he was alive was because Anansi allowed it if he had wanted him dead it would have been easy.

slowly the hair on his neck raised and sweat dripped onto the floor not getting up yet as he trembled and realised why his old man had been so mad he had seen first hand how powerful the young man was and it left him to week in the knees to get back up.