For The Empire - Sempre

Chapter 38

The kids start filing into the dining room together and sit down around the table. JP walks in putting his phone away, and sits at the head of the table. He asks Lola to say grace, and she says a short and simple prayer, and we begin eating.

The kids begin telling JP about their time at the Aquarium, and then Marco brings up the baseball camp. I notice Lola starts scooping some of her food on a second plate and watch as she talks to herself or maybe an imaginary friend. Carmen sees it as well and questions Lola on what she's doing.

"I'm talking to mamma; she needs to eat too, you know?" Lola responds.

All the other conversations stop abruptly. I glance at JP, and he's watching Lola carefully. "What do you mean, Lolabug?"

She looks over at him and shrugs, "I'm sharing my food with mamma; she's hungry."

"Stop it, Lola; mamma's not here." Carmen looks angry now.

"Yeah, she is; she's sitting right here," Lola points to the space beside her.

"Stop it! Mom's dead, she's not here, she's not coming back!" Carmen screams at her.

"Carmen, stop yelling at her. She knows mom isn't coming back; she's just dealing with it her own way," Marco tries to intervene.

"Shut up, Marco, you won't even talk about mamma, but you're okay with Lola pretending she's here?" Carmen fires back.

They begin arguing back and forth, and then we all jump when JP slams his hand on the table, causing the plates and silverware to rattle. "Enough!" He bellows.

"No, Carmen doesn't get to decide how we feel! Just because she feels guilty about ignoring mom," Marco retorts. "Well, guess what, Carmen? I did it too, but you don't see me taking it out on all of you like you are."

Carmen picks up her glass of water and throws the water on Marco. He jumps back, startled, not expecting her to do that.

"Carmen!" I call her out. "That's not how you solve your problems--"

I'm hit with a splash of cold water myself. The kids gasp in surprise, and I look down at my soaked clothes and then back up at JP, who's laughing. "I told you I'd get you back."

"Wow, real mature JP! Good example, for the kids, by the way, " I glare at him, but he only keeps laughing.

I look down at my plate, pick up a handful of mashed potatoes, and throw them at JP. He stops laughing immediately. The potatoes cover half of his face and fall to his suit.

He moves his head up slowly to look back at me, and I cover my mouth to keep from bursting out in laughter.

"Food fight!" Miles yells, and everyone starts throwing things at each other, including Toby, who thinks it's the funniest thing in the world to throw his food at everyone.

Unfortunately, my mom, who's the closest one to his reach, is his primary target. But she doesn't mind and laughs along with him. Carmen is even laughing and squealing as she gets hit with flying food.

The staff that waits along the wall have hurried off to the kitchen to avoid getting hit with any airborne food, flying freely in the room.

I vaguely hear someone clearing their throat, but we keep going until we hear a loud knocking, and we all stop and see Adonis with Cristian standing in the doorway.

"Capo, you have guests here to see you..." Adonis says as he takes in JP's food splattered suit. "Perhaps I'll say you are...indisposed."

"He's not referring to me, by the way," Cristian states as he walks in further to the room, " I came to join you for dinner, but it seems I've missed out already."