THE GRANDPARENTS

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The chef scooped up a freshly grilled shrimp with his spatula and flipped it towards Micky, who caught it in her mouth. She put her hands up in the air as she shouted with her mouth still full of food, "Ah! Touch down!" I smiled and clapped at her small victory. Micky picked up her chopsticks and pointed them at Sabrina. "Her turn! hit her with a shrimp!"

"No. No thanks," Sabrina said with an eye roll. The chef picked up another piece though and tossed it in Sabrina's direction, but she shifted over slightly to dodge it. "I'm not trying to get hepatitis."

"I want hepatitis!" Ben gasped. His toothless smile grew on his face as he threw his hands up in the air.

"Coming your way, buddy!" Micky exclaimed.

Ben opened his mouth as the shrimp flew through the air. The seafood hit the side of his forehead and made a squishy noise, which made me cringe slightly.

"Alice, you want a go?" Micky asked me in excitement.

I shrugged. "Sure, but I'm deathly allergic to seafood."

Sabrina perked up at that as she turned to look at me with a smug smirk. "Good to know," she commented with a quirked brow.

I rolled my eyes while Micky just ignored Sabrina and pointed her chopsticks to me. "Chip's lady friend would like a broccoli thrown at her."

The chef nodded curtly and picked up a piece of broccoli. He tossed the vegetable into the air towards me, which I was able to catch in my mouth with ease. Micky laughed and clapped as the two of us pointed towards the other proudly. I think I liked Chip's aunt more than him and his siblings.

"Wow, you're good with your mouth," Chip spoke up. His eyes met mine and immediately widened once he realized what he had said. "Oh, I didn't mean it- That's not what- I was just trying to say-"

I placed my hand on his shoulder and shook my head with a tight lipped smile. "You're just making it worse."

His dark eyes glanced between my hand on his shoulder and then my eyes. His face turned bright, making me blush as well. I dropped my hand and looked away as I tried to ignore the weird feeling I was getting.

"This is awesome!" Micky exclaimed. She turned to look at the four of us. "Right, guys?"

I nodded in excitement. "I'm having a great time," I replied. "This place reminds me of this other restaurant my parents used to take me to in Bridgeport."

Chip looked around the hibachi restaurant before turning back to Micky with a stoic face. "Why are we in a poor person's restaurant?" He asked bluntly.

Micky eyes went wide as she looked around the restaurant to make sure no one heard Chip. She looked very offended as she leaned in slightly to whisper, "What is the matter with you?" She exclaimed. "It's not a poor person's restaurant! Don't be an ass."

"Did you not just hear Alice?" Chip asked. "They have these restaurants in Bridgeport."

I nodded along as I spoke with a terrified shudder, "They mostly cooked rats though, so this is definitely an upgrade." Chip and Micky stared at me with disgusted faces. I put my hands up quickly. "I didn't eat the rats.. Some people did though." Chip shook his head and looked back towards Micky. I probably should've clarified that beforehand.

"This guy's not even Japanese," Chip pointed out. He almost seemed offended that our chef wasn't Asian. He looked Japanese to me though.

"Oh, sure he is. Watch this," I told Chip. I turned back to our chef and pointed towards my shirt, which had some Asian language written on it. "What's this say?" The man took one look at my shirt and then shrugged as he continued to cook with an angry expression plastered on his face.

"Told you," Chip said with a smirk. "His name's Pedro."

I rolled my eyes as I glared at the chef. "Fake Asian," I muttered.

"I could sue you for identify theft," Chip said, adding fuel to the fire that was my dislike of our non-Asian chef.

"It's not a joke, Pedro," I remarked. The chef ignored Chip and I's patronizing as he turned his back towards us to serve the other people at our table.

"Alright, well, Hamilton wasn't Puerto Rican, but people seemed to be enjoying that just fine," Micky cut in. She sighed suddenly and her face turned serious. I got the feeling that I wasn't exactly supposed to be listening to this next part of the conversation, so I turned back to my food and tried my best to mind my own business. "Listen," Micky began. "I brought you guys here because I gotta tell you some pretty big news."

Sabrina waved her hand in air uncaringly. "Pass."

Micky's blonde brows furrowed. "What? You can't just pass." Sabrina pulled out a pair of earbuds from her purse and slid them into her ears to tune Micky out. "Are you seriously gonna pop those in right now?" When Sabrina began to scroll through her social media on her phone, Micky rolled her eyes in annoyance and continued with what she was saying before, "Fine forget you. Ben, Chip, Alice, listen."

I glanced over and furrowed my eyebrows. "Wait, why me?" I asked Micky.

"You're filling in for Sabrina right now," Micky replied.

"Oh," I said. I wasn't really sure why or how that made sense, but I listened to Micky anyway.

"This is gonna be hard to hear," Micky spoke up again.

Chip turned away from his aunt and towards the other end of the table. "Hey Ben," he called out to the younger boy. "I dare you to lick the grill."

"Shut up," Micky remarked. "Just listen to me."

Ben perked up in his chair. "What's it taste like?" He asked Chip in growing excitement. I could tell that this dinner was already beginning to spiral out of control.

"Oh, it's delicious!" Chip replied in false enthusiasm. "C'mon, I'll give you a thousand bucks!"

"No, don't!" Micky exclaimed. She was starting to become frustrated by the Pemberton kids, specifically their inability to listen. "He doesn't have a thousand dollars."

Chip smirked as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. "Boom," he said as he nodded his head slowly.

"Who the hell carries a thousand dollars in their pocket?" I exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Rich guys, that's who," Chip boasted.

I made a face. "You are just begging to get jumped."

Micky nodded. "You are a nightmare," she stated with pursed lips. She met Ben's eyes from the other end of the table. "Ben, don't do it, okay?" Then, Micky turned back to Chip and Sabrina, who was still in her own world on her phone. "Will you just please listen? Sabrina, this is serious." She yanked her earbuds out of Sabrina's ears.

The brunette made an angry face and slowly turned to Micky. "Don't touch my stuff, psycho," she yelled at her aunt.

Micky snapped suddenly, "I just thought you might like to know that your parents are gone and they're not coming back!" She took a drink from her beer bottle before her eyes widened in realization. She probably just realized that she shouldn't have screamed something as serious as that in some random hibachi restaurant.

The three Pemberton siblings were dead silent now. Even Micky was quiet but she was still drinking her beer. I suddenly felt super out of place. Although I had been spending most of my days with Chip at his house or in school, I still felt like I shouldn't have been apart of this conversation.

"They're dead?" Ben's voice wavered as he spoke up in a sad and confused tone. 

"No!" Micky replied quickly. "No, not dead. They're definitely not dead.. but they did flee the country."

Now I really felt out of place.

"That doesn't make any sense," Chip spoke up. "They didn't do anything wrong."

Micky and I both made the same unsure face, but she was the one to comment on it, "Ooahh, I don't know.. I'm not gonna touch that one."

Sabrina pursed her lips as she folded her hands together, giving Micky an angry glare. "No," she declared. "I don't believe you. You're lying."

Micky's brows pulled downwards. "Why would I lie about that?" She asked in surprise.

"Um, I don't know," Sabrina remarked sarcastically. "Maybe, because you're a lying bitch."

My eyes went wide and suddenly I felt secondhand embarrassment from the other people sitting at our table, being forced to listen and sit through this painful conversation.

"Okay, look," Micky sighed. She took a deep breath to calm herself down before exploding. Sabrina really knew how to work her nerves. The two of them would be unstoppable, if only they got along. "I understand that this is really hard stuff to hear-"

Sabrina interrupted Micky, "It's not hard to hear. It's actually really easy." The brunette's voice raised in volume after each word. "I literally don't care at all."

Micky nodded slowly. Her blue eyes were wide as she tried to calm and silence Sabrina, who was a ticking time bomb at this point. "Okay, well, the pitch of your voice is making it seem like you care a lot," she pointed out.

"I don't care!" Sabrina snapped suddenly. Her outburst made the men at the end of the table jump and glance over. I folded my arms across my chest as I slid down into my seat, trying to avoid all of the attention that the Pemberton's were attracting. "It's embarrassing!" Sabrina exclaimed.

Micky held her hand up in an attempt to calm Sabrina down as she glanced around the restaurant to ward off nervous stares. "Yes," she agreed. Her voice was lower now. "Yeah, it is. It's very embarrassing so let's just keep our voices down. These gentleman are trying to enjoy their dinner." Micky gestured to the two men who had flinched before.

Chip sent the two kind looking men a nasty face. "You think I care about these idiots?" He exclaimed.

Micky gasped while I placed my hand over my mouth to conceal my laughter. "What is wrong with you?" Micky whisper-shouted. She shot the two men down the table an apologetic smile.
"You're making a scene!"

Chip's face dropped before he painted on another his angry expression. "Oh!" He exclaimed, turning towards the men. "I'm so sorry. Let me make it right." I watched as the blonde stood up suddenly and picked up one of their plates before smashing it on the ground. The glass shattered into pieces and the food sprawled out on the floor. Micky gasped while I watched with a wide smile. I felt guilty for finding it humorous. "How's that for a scene?" Chip shouted. My jaw nearly dropped to the floor as I watched him walk over to the table next to ours and pick up someone else's plate. Chip threw this one across the restaurant like a frisbee. It spun in the air, flinging food across the room, before breaking into numerous pieces like the last. "Dinner and a show!" Chip shouted throughout the restaurant. He began flipping trays of sushi off random witnesses' tables. He was like a tornado that was destroying everything in its path. "Laugh it up you dogs!"

I shook my head as I allowed myself to chuckle softly, "What a waste of good food."

"Hey!" Micky yelled to Chip, who was still tossing food and glass around like it was nothing. "Get back over here!"

"You don't tell us what to do!" Sabrina spat at her aunt. "You're not our mom!"

"I never said-"

"You could never be Pamela!" Sabrina cut Micky off.

"Believe me," Micky interrupted. "I don't want to be anything like Poodle!"

"You're just looking for a handjob!" Sabrina claimed. She was basically screaming throughout the restaurant like before. I wasn't sure whether to watch Chip tear through the restaurant or listen to Sabrina's sudden outburst.

"Sabrina-!" Micky tried to cut her niece off, but she continued to scream offensive things.

"You and your bad hair and your dumpster clothes!" Sabrina exclaimed. She was audibly running out of breath with the speed she was shouting at. "I know what you're up to and you're not gonna get away with it!" Her dark eyes glistened with madness.

As I turned around to look at the damage Chip had done to the hibachi restaurant, I felt my heart stop beating when my eyes stared at the giant rat that was picking at the food on the floor. I pulled my legs off the ground and got up onto my seat suddenly as I pointed towards the rat and screamed, "Somebody kill it!"

Everyone in the restaurant suddenly sprang up from their seats and began screaming as they ran towards the nearest exit and away from the rat.

Our chef, Pedro, yanked his apron off and tossed it on the floor with an eye-roll as he followed everyone out of the restaurant, leaving Chip still trashing the room, Sabrina yelling at Micky, me terrified of the rat, and Ben, who took this as his opportunity to stick his tongue out and lick the grill like his brother had dared him to before all of the chaos.