Italian Angel

𝐴 𝑇𝑜𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒

I S A B E L L A

Our family sat at a large wooden table decorated with flowers, just like every other, in total there were two other tables, where the guests sat at and laughed. We all ate in a large white tent between trees and the lake.

Jennifer looked like she had a good time and Nathaniel snickered a little at a comment she had just made. My brothers were joking around with each other and the Davis boys. Alexandra and I understood us okay and we exchanged at least some words before turning our attention to our brothers. We listened and stayed silent as there was nothing to talk to each other about.

"So, Alexandra, what kind of music do you listen to?" I tried to brake the silence between us while all the other people talked and happily got to know each other. I played with the edge of the napkin, twirled it around between my fingers, but didn't let my eyes off the girl I as talking to.

"Oh, Ariana Grande. I was on some of her concerts." She answered, not even turning her head my way. There wasn't any sign of interest in this conversation so I left to this question.

Ariana wasn't that bad, I liked her voice, but I would've thought that such a girl like Alexandra would have her own mind and not from the barbies at my school. Not to be rude or anything, but every popular girl liked Ariana. It was understandable, but some songs, were just not it.

I looked in front of me and left the napkin alone.

A small bowl was placed on top of a plate that was as big as the palm of my hand and a few other plates, all of different sizes were stacked beneath them. They had little golden twirls at the sides. Three forks were at one side of the plates, their edges also decorated with golden twirls, such as the knifes on the other side. A tall wine glass was opposite of me, next to a more plump glass.

I took a sip of water to cool down my nerves and fell back into my seat, the glass still in my hand. The napkin was hanging loosely from my lap and I pulled it back up, so it wouldn't fall.

It was very loud in here, all different kinds of voices gathered together, to celebrate Jennifer and Nathaniel Romano. She had accepted his last name, without any middle name, without hesitating.

Waiters started to enter the tent, carrying little plates of food around and placing them in front of each guest only to hear gasps or sounds of disgust.

A waiter placed the plate in front of me as I shoved away the other plates. I smiled awkwardly at him, but also thanked him silently for the food. I was certainly more nervous when the waiter looked at me in a judging way. I let my head sink back to the smell that came from the small food and ignored his stare.

I took the smallest fork and picked a little at the fish. At least it smelled and looked like fish. They were small cubes, build together to a half circle. Salmon tartar, that was it. I never had tried anything like this, except sushi, and didn't particularly like the taste of raw fish without any rice or soy sauce.

"Uh, do they have wasabi here?" I leaned forward towards Alexandra who gave me a weirded out stare. "Excuse me?", she asked.

"Wasabi. It's a green paste that makes your tongue burn like crazy if you-"

"I know what it is. No need to talk about your diarrhea." She interrupted me and held her hand up to stop me from more details. I felt uncomfortable as she continued, "You don't eat wasabi to a salmon tartar, maybe to a tuna one, but not to salmon." She rolled her eyes at me and I looked back down to the fish that jiggled like jelly when I touched it with my fork.

I looked at Liam who was eating it all in two bites, he seemed to like it. Yet, there was no need to eat like a pig. James ate it, but didn't look as happy as Liam so he pushed his plate over to his twin, for him to eat, who happily followed his silent order. William and Owen seemed to enjoy it, such as Elijah. Isaac and Grayson played around with their food for a while until Joshua gave them a glare to eat it, while he already had. Aiden's plate was already empty when I looked at him, so it was likely that he liked it too.