Chapter 88：The bet

Dylan sat on the couch, arms crossed and knees shaking. There was a dirty cup on the table alongside a plate that only had a single chip on it and a couple of crumbs. At the doorway, a random shoe was knocked off the shoe rack and its pair was nowhere to be found. Dylan closed his eyes in an attempt to ignore this vile mess. The shaking of his knees got stronger and the twitching of his eye faster. In his mind, every flaw of this seemingly clean house flashed and made its presence known.

"What's wrong, Dylan?" Janine's smug voice echoed. "You look like you want to do some cleaning."

"What, no, what makes you think that?" Dylan huffed and denied.

"Uh, your entire existence." Janine laughed.

Dylan opted to ignore the spectating woman and redirected his eyes back to the TV. Unfortunately for him, the TV was displaying a special show called 'The Greatest Slobs' and showcased the house of hoarders and whatnot and it was basically his nightmare. Seeing the mess and destruction on the TV made him all the more impatient about everything that was going on in the apartment. To make matters worse, Janine placed yet under half filled cup on the already packed table.

"Janine, you already have a cup there, why don't you just use the same one?" Dylan asked through gritted teeth.

Janine just shrugged and replied with a nonchalant smile. "I don't know who it belongs to."

"Why does it matter? You two share food all the time."

"This and that is different. I don't want that water. Besides, its already been there for a long time."

"Urgh, then why don't you just put it anyway." Dylan sighed, feeling his patience being chipped away.

"Ehh, cbs [VERY IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER (not really): written CBS, read as ceebs]" Janine lazily reached for her cup but seeing that there was two of the same on the table, she was unsure as to which was the one she just placed down. Unwilling to drink hour old water by accident, Janine just opted to not use any of the cups and laid lazily on the couch.

Dylan secretly clicked his tongue at her refusal. His shaking turned into rapid foot tapping and even his fingers were dancing around on his arms. In order to calm himself down, Dylan tried to sing the song he was most familiar with but instead of having a pleasant and uplifting melody, the song ended up being angry and rough.

"Ah, this is so frustrating!" Dylan exclaimed. His country's most famous song and non-official anthem was degraded into some kind of trash because of this stupid bet.

"If you're that frustrated, why don't you just clean up." Charlotte's annoyed voice sounded. She was sitting beside him on the couch, silently enduring all the shaking and fidgeting, but hearing the poor excuse of a song and his grumbles, she exploded with anger.

"You know I can't." Dylan whined.

"It's just a stupid bet, nothing serious. At most, Janine will make you pose for her a couple of times or something."

"Urgh." Dylan was well aware that nothing serious will come out of him losing, but his stupid pride wouldn't let him lose. He was determined to be the victor of this bet.

"Lyn~, I found something in Janine's room." Fir came flying in and chirped. Dylan was too busying ignoring the mess in the house and didn't notice Fir talking to him. Fir repeated again but Dylan never paid attention. With no other choice, the bird went crying to Janine.

"Janine, Lyn is ignoring me!" The bird brain complained to Janine in English.

"WOW!" Charlotte exclaimed. "Fir can talk! He can talk!"

"Aish! You idiot!" Janine scolded. She directed it towards Fir for being careless but Charlotte didn't realise and thought that Janine was yelling at her.

"Who are you calling an idiot?! I've never heard him speak before so I got excited, is all." She pouted. "You're an idiot, your whole family are idiots!"

"I wasn't talking to you, Lotte. Soz." Janine apologised insincerely. "I was talking to this bird brain here, he wasn't supposed to reveal that he could talk!"

"What, why?" Charlotte questioned.

"Uh, because…" Janine panicked and tried to think of an excuse.

"We were planning on surprising you but Fir ruined the surprise." Dylan swooped in and saved the day.

"What was the surprise for?" Charlotte continued to question, much to Dylan's dismay.

"…Your birthday, of course!" Janine spat out. "It's your birthday next week, but you know Dylan, he's as poor as a bum, doesn't have a cent to his name. He could only come up with this to surprise you."

"Wow, thanks Dylan! You taught Fir how to speak just for me?" Charlotte exclaimed.

"Uh, yeah. He could already understand people so it didn't take much effort."

"You're smart aren't you, Fir?" Charlotte giggled and pat Fir on head head.

Fir let out a whistle in response. "Anything for you, my lady."

"I'm flattered." Charlotte responded, pretending to be some rich lady from the 18 hundreds. She even went as far to extended her hand for the bird to kiss, to which Fir responded by rubbing his head on.

Charlotte let out a soft laugh. "Well, that's fine too."

"Thanks for this wonderful gift, Dylan. I have to remember to pay you back. When's your birthday?"

"It's in the middle of winter." Dylan answered.

His mother would use to tell him about the amount of snow that fell on the day he was born. The spirits flew around and giggled as they played in the winter wonderland. Some even came to see the newborn baby, which was him. Dylan's mother used to giggle and say "They thought you were cute and made a wreath of flowers just for you in the dead of winter. In order to repay them, I made an apple pie and they gobbled it all up. And every year, on your birthday, they came back with more flowers and I'll make even more pies."

And ever after her death, even when he didn't have any more apple pies to give them, the spirits came and gave him a wreath of flowers for his birthday every year. If Dylan had to name one regret, it would be that he was unable to give the spirits an apple pie the last time they came to visit.

"The middle of winter? July?" Charlotte asked, her voice bringing Dylan back to reality.

"Huh…yeah." Dylan responded after a beat.

"Is the mess bothering you that much? Seriously man, you can just ignore it you know?"

"Lotte, what a cruel and inconsiderate thing to say to a man with OCD. Even if he walks away, he wouldn't be able to forget the 'atrocious mess' that lay in this apartment." Janine said in an exaggerated manner.

"Haha, you're so mean." Charlotte chuckled.

"Argh, you've reminded me of the mess!" Dylan yelled. It wasn't easy for him to get so distracted that he forgot about the 'disgusting' living conditions he was forced to live under.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's the thing on your desk, Janine?" Fir's voice interrupted the explosive laughter that echoed in the room.

"What thing?"

"The colourful bottles."

"Oh that? That's paint. You wanna paint something?"

"Yeah!"

In just a little while, from within Janine's room, laughter erupted.

"You can't paint at all!" Janine laughed.

"That's so mean! I'm just a bird~~~~!" Fir pouted.

He flew out of the room, paper in beak and went crying to Dylan. "Lyn~, Janine is bullying me!" He dobbed with telepathy.

"What's wrong? What she do?"

Fir dropped the painting on Dylan's lap and landed on the coffee table.

"She said my painting was horrible!"

Dylan observed the painting. There were lines of all sorts of colours all over the place and claw prints and just looked like chicken scratch to Dylan.

"Is, is this…a flower garden?" Dylan guessed from the shapes and colours.

"No! It's me and my friend Ceru playing at home!"

"I don't see it." Dylan tried to squint but still couldn't see anything that remotely resembled a bird or a humanoid spirit that was Ceru. He was actually a high snow spirit that was famous for being extremely beautiful and had a melodious voice. Nowhere in this 'painting' could Dylan find this beautiful spirit.

"It's right there!" Fir flew up and pointed with his wings. It was then that Dylan noticed…A huge patch of red and purple on Fir's shiny wings! On closer inspection, even his claws were dirty, which meant…the table was stained by Fir!

"Fir, you made the table dirty!" Dylan cried in desperation.

"That's not important! Look at the painting!"

Dylan didn't listen and grabbed a tissue to wipe away the dirty stain of paint on the table. Just in time, both Charlotte and Janine walked into the living room.

"Ahah! Caught you red handed." Janine smirked.

"You've just lost the bet, Dylan." Charlotte informed.

"...I forgot!" Orz, Dylan couldn't believe that he just lost in such a foolish manner.

"You owe me a wish." Janine reminded and left with a cackle.

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Author: You know, the readers of this story like face slapping too much. Seriously.

Dylan: And what's wrong with that?

Author: They want my face to be slapped! This beautiful face!

Dylan: I would want to slap that face too.

Author: I, I didn't know you were into bdsm.

Dylan: I'm not, you idiot! How'd you come to that conclusion?

Author: Anyways, reader, you read too many CNs, I ain't gonna slap my own face! Just be patient and the 'friendzone' issue will solve itself…eventually.