Jellyfish

3. A Little Disaster

Miles was a very talkative man, I learned. He had such a charming smile that made it hard to turn away, but I was getting tired of being pestered with questions.

"You're not from here are you?" He was relentless, pausing only to defend his drink from Frankie, who was periodically trying to take it.

I couldn't bring myself to do much besides shake my head in reply. Despite it being relatively early in the night, I found myself drained and eager to leave. Oliver's colleagues weren't a particularly wild bunch, they had not done much aside from light drinking and loud conversation, but it was somehow just as tiring as a full night at the club. I wasn't exactly an extrovert in any sense only finding energy in particular company. For that reason alone, I was tired and it seemed Miles was finally taking notice of my drooping eye lids as he smiled softly at me, not saying anything else and diverting his attention to the adorable boy on his other side. Grateful for the break, I assessed the table to see if I was the only one feeling so fatigued tonight.

It was obvious that Miles didn't. He continued forcing his conversation on a new victim, one not so unwilling. The way Miles smiled at Frankie was different from the other grins I'd seen tonight, and I was already forming suspicions in my mind. The two were friendly people, that was easy to see in the hour interrogation I had endured and Frankie's seemingly ever-present smile, but there was something between them that not just I saw. Cain, the man who was clearly not happy to see us, could also see it as he smiled fondly over the pair. He too was wide awake, though something told me he was also ready for this night to end. Cain had not spoken to a single one of us tonight, I'd noticed. He seemed averse to our very presence although I could see why. We were strangers, and not just strangers in the sense that we were new people. To him, we were people of another world entirely.

Living the way we did wasn't easy and it wasn't something everyone could understand. These people came from another world themselves, one pampered and sometimes grievously misinformed. That said, I could only imagine he saw us as something akin to criminals. Had Blair not swaddled an entire bottle of red wine in his coat to take home, perhaps I would be offended by that assessment, but I was self-aware enough to forgive Cain's thinly veiled glances of mistrust. The only time he seemed happy was when Isaac, alive and loud as ever, tossed an arm around him or pulled him into a nonsensical conversation. He'd tried such with every person around the table since his fourth glass of wine which I found incredibly strange from someone we didn't really know. Actually, they all seemed to be very contact hungry people.

Miles and Frankie had maintained some form of contact throughout the entire dinner, Cain and Isaac were only separated in short bursts, and Luis was something else entirely. Luis was the type of person who would stroll into the club restaurant at seven, be black out drunk by 8, and leave with someone he didn't know in the slightest. He was very much awake, and very much drunk off just a glass or two of wine. Had he not been with friends, ones that let him cling to them, Luis would probably have already found some stranger to wrap himself around. I'd gathered that it was quite normal behavior from the way none of them batted an eye. Even Oliver, Luis's choice caretaker for the night, hardly reacted to him. It wasn't like I was judging him for it though, Blair could be just the same when he wanted to.

It wasn't until my eyes traveled to Winter beside me that I realized I wasn't alone in my drowsy endeavor. He was already looking at me, I realized, after we made eye contact and he offered me a soft smile. Something told me he would rather be anywhere but here at the moment and I couldn't help but agree. My brother and I were not a very social set of people. We had not been comfortable in settings like this for years and though it seemed exciting earlier on, now the novelty had worn off. I was prepared to go the second Oliver showed a hint of wear although that didn't seem to be in our imminent future. In fact, Oliver looked like he'd never been more awake in his life. Him and Diego both had carried on animated conversations throughout the night and did not look to be tiring of the act. Neither was particularly drunk, but either could've passed as such this evening.