the sun - charlie gillespie

twenty four

we all sat around the glass table, that had glasses, plates, utensils and food sat on top of it. the food looked amazing, dinah and kevin (mr oaks) had cooked a whole feast. there was the lasagne jeremy was talking about, the salad that sat in the middle of the table, some steamy crunchy on the outside yet soft on the inside baguettes. sitting next to it was long stands of spaghetti, along with a bowl of tomato pasta sauce. there were cups of wine, sparkling water and juice

the food was good, but the tension wasn't.

dinah and kevin looked a bit confused as to why we weren't all talking and munching our food away. everyone sat still, no one asked anyone to pass the salt, the bread, the juice.

it was fucking awkward.

"so, where did charlie run off to?" dinah asked, digging into her pasta. i didn't want to answer, just because i didn't need to, if they didn't like him they should be honest about it.

"he had some things to figure out." ella said, of course she'd answer. i looked up and she looked apologetic, i'm guessing the others spoke her out of her anger.

"but he just got here." dinah added and this time owen spoke.

"i know right, it was so sad that he had to leave so quickly." owens eyes darted all ella, she looked extremely guilty. i'm guessing owen was on charlie's side. owen grabbed the big spork and started to dish out his food. as soon as owen started to eat, jeremy spoke up.

"mia, could you pass me the lasagne." jeremy asked with his mouth practically watering and i passed it to him and he excitedly took it. carolynn laughed at him and aimed for the salad.

"we heard you kids arguing down the hall, was everything okay?" mr oaks.. i guess i can call him kevin now. kevin mentioned as he munched on the pasta. i didn't know when i should start eating, i was a bit self conscious when eating infront of people. notice how i never eat at school, i take food, just for it to be brought back home and eat in my room.

i've been needing to work on stuff like that, that reminded me, tomorrow i had a zoom call with my therapist, my dad had arranged them, even since you know. i didn't wanna pull out my phone to set the the reminder at the table, it would seem rude.

i just had to remember to note it down later. this was one of the reasons i didn't wanna accept, maybe if i keep talking,they wouldn't notice that i had trouble eating.

i really did miss charlie though, i just knew he'd be by my side to help me out.

"yeah, everything was fine." ella lied. i looked at jeremy who shook his head side to side while eating his lasagne. dinah took a sip of her wine. i just sat back and observed. i played with my food, not too much, i looked over to the side and saw a box of containers, i'm guessing she was planning to let us take the food home. i might take some for my family, if they plan to come home tonight.

"mia, how is your family? owen told me that they were on a camping trip." wow, seems like owen talks about me a lot.

i looked over at him, i wasn't mad. i found it cute that he would ramble on about me. after all he is a great listener.

"sorry." he mouthed while his mother continued to speak and i gave him a face that said 'it's fine'

"yeah, they're doing well, there's a snow storm in their part of canada but i've been calling and texting them every night, they're okay." i explained and ella wiped the side of her mouth, she looked sad.