Alan invited us over for Thanksgiving with their family.
It was hosted at the community building, a large, two-storied tan structure, with columns both on the outside and inside.
The building was beautiful and extravagant, with marble floors and fireplaces in almost every room and high vaulted ceilings with dark oak beams.
The foyer was a small room, a pair of dark oak doors on either side of us. And then the main room, which was the entire first floor, except for the bathrooms and kitchen that sat on different ends of the building.
Columns sat in the center of the space in an oval shape, with couches and chairs in the center and a fireplace, just behind that the stairs.
To the right side of the room was long tables full of food and to the left round tables for seating.
I followed behind Clara, who carried a tray of dark chocolate lavender brownies, a recipe she had found online.
"Clara. Violet," Mini greeted us, and Katie came bounding over from a group of girls.
She invited me over, Clara nodded, so I went while she stayed and talked with Mini.
She introduced me to her cousins, five in total, who were all younger than her, but tall, everyone in that room was all so very tall.
I had looked around, subconsciously looking for Dominic among them, but never found him.
We had eaten about ten minutes later, and then the rest of the evening was spent talking. Katie and I, along with her cousins, had gone outside.
It was already cold, and the wind made it even worse.
But to my complete and utter surprise, Dominic was out there along with two other boys.
I felt small compared to everyone else. They towered over me, making me stick out like a sore thumb. I hated it.
I had looked at them. One of the boys had said something to Dominic, to which he had looked back at him, his jaw tightened, and he took on a menacing look.
I hadn't known why we had gone outside at all, but they just talked, messing around, and I felt... like I shouldn't have been there, like I didn't belong.
I cowered, cold and shivering, wanting to turn in on myself and disappear. Wanting to go back inside and be with Clara. Maybe she felt like I did? Maybe she felt inferior. Maybe she felt like she didn't belong. Maybe we could leave.
But I didn't move, and I didn't say a word.
At some point among their chatter, Dominic had left his little group to stand by me.
"So... How's it going?" He asked, looking straight ahead as a few of the girls started walking down the hill.
"Okay."
"Just okay?" The boys followed after the girls, so it was only Dominic and I left at the top of the hill. "Hm. I think I'm getting too old for all this. They still act like they're seventeen," he nodded towards the two boys.
"One of them made a comment earlier about you, that was," he thought a moment, "Well, I'll say very immature." He sighed, "seriously, sometimes I think they could use a good pounding."
"Oh."
He finally looked at me then, "are you okay? You look cold," he walked around me, standing at my side, blocking the wind.
Instantly, it felt at least 10 degrees warmer.
"Thank you," I said.
"Mhm. So Violet, tell me something about yourself."
It felt weird hearing my name come from his mouth, and I felt this sort of feeling in my chest, briefly, like a ton of nerves shot off.
"... I like flowers, plants," I said.
"Yeah? That's why you're working at that flower shop," he said, matter of factly. "Is that what you want to do overall?"
I nodded, "I've always wanted to be a florist and own my own place."
"Hmm," he nodded. "Let's go back in, you're shivering." He put a hand on my back, and I flinched. He noticed, staring at me.
"Violet... are you okay?"