Everything I Didn't Say

e i g h t e e n

EIGHTEEN

"HOW MANY IS your table for?" the waiter asked politely. He was very classically handsome, with wind-swept Mr Darcy hair and quite frankly put: a butt-chin. But it was a nice butt-chin so it was all good.

"Oh, it's for five" Mom chirped, brightly. "The other two will be arriving soon."

"Okay, well I'm afraid you might have to wait a couple of minutes for our next available table. Christmas Eve, it's a busy day, you know? You can wait in our special area" the waiter explained, nodding over the way to a couple of sleek red benches with comfy cushions.

"That's fine, thank you" Mom said, smiling politely.

Mom, Xavier and I positioned ourselves on the benches and I felt the velvet of the cushions with my fingers. Wow, I bet these didn't come cheap.

Mom was fidgeting about, checking her hair in her compact mirror. "Maybe I should have phoned up and made a reservation. What if they don't give us a table because we're too late?" she was murmuring to herself and anxiously started gnawing on her nails.

"Stop it" Xavier scolded, pulling her hand away from her teeth.

"I can't help it!" Mom threw her hands up in exasperation and secretly observed two gossiping women coming in and asking for a table they'd already reserved. "Oh ... this place is posh isn't it? Perhaps a little too fancy. We don't exactly fit in, do we?"

"Mom, we're fancy enough for this resteraunt" Xavier responded. "Like, seriously, chill bro" Xavier shrugged nonchalantly and pulled out his phone.

Mom stared at him in shock before turning to me. "Did he really just call me 'bro'?"

Before I could reply, a voice called "Isla?"

I inclined my head towards the voice and found a familiar tatty-haired boy with a nose ring. "Oh hey, Matt!" I waved energetically at him to come over.

He did so with a sense of relief, followed by two people. One was an older man who I knew to be his father (I'd seen him on his microwave adverts on TV) and the second was a woman who didn't look much older than Matt, with blonde curls, scarlet lips and a curvy body: the mistress, I was guessing. No wonder Matt's father decided to finally get married, settle down and have twins with this woman.

"Please help me Isla" Matt clasped my hands in both of his and dropped his voice to a whisper. "This is going to be torture."

"Where are the twins?"

"Hallie's sister's babysitting them - praise Jesus" Matt pretended to pray, making me laugh. "Are you here for that meal you were telling me about - with that guy? Where is he?

"He's not here yet."

Matt raised his eyebrows teasingly. "You looking forward to it?"

"Not like you think I am" I said coolly.

"Matthew, come on! Our table is waiting" his father said, tapping his fingers on his folded arms impatiently.

"Just a minute, for God's sake can't you wait two seconds? I'm talking to a friend" Matt snapped back.

"Oh, you're hanging about with high-schoolers now? How brilliant" his father commented sarcastically.

"You know what? You can shove this meal up your ass Dad-"

"Matthew! Get over here right now!"

Matt blew out harshly through gritted teeth and rolled his eyes at me. He patted me on the head. "I'll see you later Isla" he said before storming off back to his father and Hallie. His father grabbed him by the shoulder and practically dragged him away, talking in his ear the whole time.