Project Popularity

Chapter Fourteen

This chapter has not been edited. Please excuse the mistakes:D And it's dedicated to @Madcass for the gorgeous cover on the side:) 

Chapter Fourteen

Luke Archer

Dinner with my parents had always been intense, to the very least. I don’t recall ever having a perfectly civil meal with my parents. Ever since I was little, they had sadistically taken joy out of abasing their own children and draining every single ounce of self-esteem out of Sienna and me at the dinner table. I remember wishing that my sister and I were adopted when I was younger, wishing that one day our birth parents would come collect us.

I had no idea why my mother invited Jamie to stay for dinner. It wasn’t out of the goodness of her heart, that was for sure. Poor girl; she had no idea what she was in for. And what was it that Jamie said a while ago? That my parents “seemed nice?” Obviously, she didn’t know Clarisse Preston and Nathaniel Archer at all, for they were anything but nice. Dad, perhaps, wasn’t that bad in front of guests but Mom? She didn’t have a friendly bone in her body. In fact, the only people she expressed amiability to were the ones richer than us, more powerful than us, or the ones she needed favors from. They rest she just tolerated.

“It’s not too late to bolt,” I murmured to Jamie when my parents started grilling Sienna about her wedding which wasn’t for at least another two months. With the wedding approaching, Sienna had been getting calls from my mother daily and it had been driving her insane. From my room, I would hear her screaming into the pillow every time they got off the phone and I knew better than to talk to her afterwards unless her room was on fire or the house was crumbling or something.“I’ll help you fake a sickness.”

Jamie looked amused by my discomfort. “Luke, I’m fine. Quit worrying.”

Your funeral, I thought. I just hoped that my parents would stay on Sienna’s case all night so they wouldn’t have time to move on to me or worse, to Jamie. 

Mom grunted something about Sienna's choice of bridesmaids and I could tell it was pissing the hell out of my sister. I didn't understand why they had to talk about it now when there were people like me who couldn't care less about the wedding present. Dad didn't seem all that interested either since he kept chucking down the food on his plate and checking his phone.

“Mom,” Sienna spoke though clenched her teeth. “I’ve told you my bridesmaids are fine. Leave them alone.”

“I’m just saying I saw Regina Walsh at a gallery opening last week. She looked,” My mother twirled her index finger as she struggled for the right word to say. “Plump.”

Sienna dropped her salad fork on her plate and Jamie choked on the water she was drinking with her eyes widened.

“What do you want me to do, huh? Call her and say, ‘Hey, Regina! You’re banned from my wedding because you freaking gained a couple of pounds?’”

Sienna looked as if she were about to explode when my mom said, “She can still attend the wedding as a guest. Now, as for who can fill in for her, I have just the most wonderful idea. Do you remember Annabelle Marshalls, daughter of Sebastian Marshalls, the CEO of Kings Technology? She’s a lovely girl!”