Oranges & Roses

Cock Fight

Unedited.

Chapter Forty-Three

After dinner, there was an assortment of things going on. The women cleaned up the dishes, the men played another game of poker, and the kids rearranged the unused chairs around the fire pit before testing out the play set. One of the guys put up the tables that weren't being used and it was rather amusing to watch them dodge the kids since the little buggers refused to stay out from underfoot. After a few too many reprimands and threats from the female population, a few of the men detached themselves from the poker game to keep the kids distracted a little while longer.

"Em. Can you take those smore provisions out to the guys? Maybe that will get their asses into gear."

"Oh sure, throw me to the wolves."

Lan set to scrubbing the pan instead of saying something back but there was an all too familiar smirk on her face. The process of cleaning up was almost done and the women who didn't have anything to do were sitting around the kitchen table drinking margaritas and talking. But once they noticed Lan was starting to banish people from the house, they decided to follow me out before Lan started yelling at them.

So while my arms were filled with bags of jumbo marshmallows and extra large gram cracker squares, their load comprised of extra glasses, their own already poured drinks, and the pitchers that held the brightly colored alcoholic drink they were planning on consuming. They waited until we were down the back steps before joking around, one of them calling out to the men to turn up the music on the radio because it obviously wasn't loud enough.

The women set up shop by the fire pit so they were close enough to their children that they would be able to see them but not necessarily be bothered by them. Private conversations ensued while I dropped the gram crackers and bags of marshmallows off with the guys who were watching the kids and when I got back to the women, a drink was set in front of me and more questions were asked. Some questions were silly like my preference for how the toilet paper came off the roll and which bird had the best looking legs. Others got a little more serious like what I was majoring in at college, where I got all of my tattoos, and where did I see myself in ten years. The first of those questions had already been asked and I couldn't help but think from time to time they were still testing me. Nothing big just rechecking the information I'd already given.

Thankfully nothing was said when I didn't take a drink of the margarita they'd put in front of me. Not that it mattered because the second Lan came outside, she swiped it from me.

"¿No sabe usted las señoras que ella no tiene la edad suficiente para beber?" Don't you ladies know that she is not old enough to drink?

They all looked at me with keen eyes, the one question they'd yet to ask me popped into their heads. I just shrugged, refusing to look away or be ashamed that I wasn't old enough to drink yet. For as long as I'd been in the Thorns, and even the year before that, I drank. At first it was to irritate my brother and get his attention but after I was in, it was to fit in and look like everyone else.

"¿Cuántos años tienes?" someone finally asked. How old are you?

"¿Qué edad debo mirar?" How old do I look?

"Un juego de beber!" Aunt Paulita exclaimed. "Si adivinas mal, usted toma un sorbo. Si adivinas derecha, todo el mundo tiene que terminar sus bebidas. ¿Sí?" A drinking game! If you guess wrong, you take a sip. If you guess right, everyone has to finish their drinks. Yes?

"O ella sólo podría decirnos." Or she could just tell. That came from Manuel's fiancée, Hope. Out of everyone she was the least enthusiastic about me and to tell the truth, I didn't much like her. Every chance she got, she would throw in a snarky comment. But that one earned her several glares and she wilted under them all. Normally it would be considered an innocent statement, something anyone could say but what did her in was the inclination in her voice. That will get you every time.