Summer ties

Seventeen

I carry the stack of plates to the dining and set them on every place that was set before Camilla walks in with the goulash.

Maria sits down before i hear small footsteps and some giggling sounds. Ingrid. I haven't seen her since I've been here.

When Sal left me, Camilla and i begun making dinner as we talked. She told me some funny stories about herself when she was my age and some funny stories about each of her kids too. The ones that interested me the most were Sal's stories.

I do not know why I'm so interested in his life when he basically brushes me off and embarrasses me every time or plays mean pranks on me like at the dock last night.

The thought of the dock also makes me smile. It was the first time i was ever close to Sal properly in every sense of the word. We were just two normal teens talking at a party without the jibes insinuating that I'm a whore. And then he hugged me. He smells even better when he's pressed up against me.

Maria only came to the kitchen later to get an apple but Camilla wouldn't let her leave again so she was stuck in the kitchen with us. She was typing away on her phone for most of the time but quite a number of times i caught her smiling at something funny said.

So i think its safe to say that she tries to put on this "i Dont care" facade. She reminds me of me in some sense.

I purse my lips sitting down after that thought.

Ingrid enters the room holding the hand of an older man. He is tall and has a buff and slightly rounded body with a slight pot belly. He's wearing dress pants and a creme shirt which has been tucked in and the sleeves have been rolled up to his elbows.

He is listening intently to Ingrid as she goes on and on and skips at some points out of excitement. He has black hair which is starting to give away at the top of his head promising a bald head in the near future.

His eyes are a lighter shade of brown and his features seem hardened with his forehead sporting crease lines, maybe from stress?

Ingrid is in the middle of explaining her day at the day care she goes to when she spots me, she gasps her face brightening up even further.

"Sia!" she calls out before skipping to me.

I have to get out of my seat to give her a hug.

"What are you doing here?" She asks me

"Your mum invited me for dinner,"

"So you'll stay for movie night too?"

"I-"

"Thank you mummy!" She squeals before giving Camilla's legs a hug. Ohkay, so apparently I'm sticking around for family movie night too.

When Ingrid returns to me and seats beside me she starts to tell me her stories, the man she came in with long forgotten. I try as best as i can to listen to her as i watch the man and Camilla talk at the corner of my eye.

Even though their voices are lowered to hushed whispers their conversation looks anything but gentle. The man's closed off and hardened stance proves that. I watch them interact for a while before the man blows out an exasperated breath and rubs his temples with his index and middle fingers before he spots me looking at them.

He clears his throat before taking a seat at the table and Camilla purses her lips before she follows suit. Ohkay?

Not trying to sound mean or anything but if that is Mr Rodriguez then i say that Sal's parents' marriage is very rocky. I've lived in a house with a rocky marriage long enough to know when i see one from miles away. They tried to make sure i didn't notice but I always did.