[ FINISHED - unedited ]
❝How do I... How do I stop them?"
"You want to stop them?" Rachel raised an eyebrow.
"Yes," I nodded.
She immediately broke out into a high-pitched laugh. "Oh Laura, you can't.❞
Every prestigious high school has this. A group...
We sat down at the dining table, decorated with white and gold. I looked out of place. Mother made sure to sit me next to the boy, but I really didn't have a chance. We were eating at the smaller dining rooms in the house with a 6 seater table. I'd have to sit next to him one way or another. I made sure to position myself in a way that almost turned me away from him.
The food was brought out by one of the cooks, and it looked amazing. Pasta, warm slices of bread, salads, lobster, crab cakes, caviar, it was like a small feast. Wanting to gorge on all of it, I went with the crab cakes, caviar, salad, and two slices of bread. I could devour the rest when the guests had gone home.
I didn't quite pick up the conversation going on, but it sounded more...real than the past ones. Idling picking at my food, taking a bite every 2 minutes, I waited for dessert to be brought out so I could excuse myself and go wait in the piano room until they left. At least that was my plan until Father reached a hand under the table from where he sat at the head. Squeezing my thigh, I turned my head to him.
He leaned forward, quietly whispering to me with a strained smile. "Stop acting like a hermit."
Then he leaned back in her chair, slowly sipped his red wine, and returned to the conversation. I wanted to quite possibly rip that disgusting gold chain right from his neck, and nothing made me madder in that quick second than that one sentence from him. But I couldn't do anything, and if I did, it would only hurt myself. So I picked up my head, sat up straight, and tried to focus on what they were talking about. But I couldn't.
The crab tasted moldy, the caviar tasted dry, the salad tasted bitter, and the bread tasted stale. And I felt like shit.
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Once the dessert came out, pudding, truffle, Turkish delight, and macaroons, I pushed back my chair. But Mother knew, and she saw, we'd all gotten quite use to my disappearance at dinner once the dessert came out. Clearing her through quickly, she smiled at all of them. "Laura, have you met James?"
I glanced up at Mother, whose eyes were narrowed at me, flicking a finger down, I scooted back in my chair. "No, I have not," Turning to who I assumed was James due to the fact he also glanced up at the sound of his name, I tried to smile. I'm sure I looked unamused from the kick under the table. "Nice to meet you."
"Pleasure to meet you, Laura," He replied, glancing across the table at his parents before back at me.
"Why don't we begin on this dessert, shall we?" Father asked though it wasn't a question. "I'm sure Laura and James can talk in the meanwhile.
"Actually, I need to use the bathroom," He piped up before I could use the same excuse.
"Well then, Laura could you be a dear and show him where it is? Wouldn't want him getting lost," His mother asked me.
