Best Friends Forever?

Chapter 6 - Fight Night:

[Be sure to check out Chapter 5 - Journey from Hell]

Chapter 6 - Fight night: 

That night having arrived at the sea view house where we would be staying with the Fletchers and waited for mom to unpack her mass of unnecessary clothes, we all sat down around the large square table in the middle of the elegant kitchen. To my displeasure, I got stuck sitting opposite to the one guy who I had hoped I would never have to bump into again before this rotten trip; I mean, even if he was good to look at I still didn’t want to have to stare at his emotionless glare for the next hour or so.

 “Who wants some Chinese takeaway?” Mrs Fletcher asked, looking towards my parents as if asking for their permission rather than actually asking me. Somehow her perfect blonde bob had remained intact throughout the long car journey, I was amazed by this woman’s talent. By contrast, my auburn locks had been in a tight bun upon leaving but when we arrived, of course it was a mess of tangled hair and no doubt split ends, typical.

 “Sure thing Chloe!” My mother chirped back at her, “So long as you let us get it, it can be our little treat and a way of saying thank you for letting us stay here this weekend”. I guess I was right, this house did belong to Ben and his family, figures really seen as his dad had been a property developer, but I better not bring up that topic again after the resounding flat line response it had received last time. Maybe that is why Ben hates me, I never say the right thing.

 “Nonsense” Came Chloe’s reply, as she attempted to argue with the woman with a will of steel that was my mother. Never in all my years of existence have I ever seen that woman lose an argument; not that time I begged her to get a puppy, or when I wanted to go to the park without finishing my vegetables, or well ever really.

 “Nadine is right, it is the least we can do for you after all the trouble you have gone to for us.” My dad told her, his voice deep and unexpected, he never joined in an argument he couldn’t win; which usually made for a good show when he and mom would butt heads.

 The disagreement went on for way too long, and by the time that Chloe finally submitted to the inevitable, I was way too hungry to even care who was getting dinner so long as I actually got it before I wasted away.

 As we waited on the Chinese to arrive, my parents had another one of their fabulous ideas, almost as good as that time they made me go away for a weekend with my ex-best friend; they decided that we were all going to play a board game. As if being stuck in the same house as the guy and sitting opposite him at a table wasn’t bad enough.

 To be fair, I think I enjoyed snakes and ladders a little too much… What can I say? I get more than a little competitive in competition, even if it was over a kids game. Having triumphed in the first game, I felt like I had just won the Super Bowl and made sure that I let everyone know about it, as we all laughed and joked over the game until our food arrived.

 When I say ‘we all laughed and joked’, everyone that is except for Ben. Rather than join in with any of our fun and games, he would sit there with his head buried in his phone and occasionally look up with his smug smirk stretched across his all too perfect face. I know what his problem is, he thinks he is too good to interact with me. Well that’s fine, it’s not like it bothers me… Okay, it does bother me.

 It’s not even so much the fact that he refuses to talk to me that was bothering me now, it was the fact that his mom had clearly put so much work into this weekend as a way of allowing us all to bond again and he was flat out refuses to take part. Hell, even I was taking part and enjoying it, and that was certainly the last thing I expected when I was told I would have to spend the weekend here.