French Rose

Chapter 23

Christina King

Another dose of daily embarrassment but this time, i'm proud to say it wasn't my fault.

You might say there's nothing to feel ashamed about since I fell on my butt in front of my dad and a man in oversized clothes and honestly, that's exactly what I thought before I looked up and saw seven other people. Not to mention, three of them were trying to squeeze in their laugh and were failing at it.

This is the moment where you do something extremely stupid and act like it never happened.

I bounced back on my feet and smiled awkwardly at all seven of them. I don't know why exactly I did that since it just made me feel even worse but I did. I looked back at dad and Mr Susan and they were feet away from me, still chatting. None offered to help me back up or a utter a simple 'sorry'.

There you have it guys, gentlemen.

"Hi"

It was a high pitched voice, like that of a six year old, and it came from behind me. I turned around and saw one of the seven that stared at me and yes, she laughed. She was small, nothing more than seven or eight, with beautiful ginger red hair and brown eyes. I noticed she wasn't in a pink dress and tiara like what anyone would expect from most girls her age, but in an oversized t-shirt that probably belonged to someone around my age.

I'm beginning to think this runs in the family.

"Hello, what's your name?"

"Harley Sullivan"

I see.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Harley"

I know, I'm not the best at talking to kids but if you look at the bright side, I wasn't the best at anything either.

"Come, I'll introduce you" She held my hand in her small ones and pulled me over to the other six, which wasn't really what I wanted to do but it didn't look like I had a choice. The memories were still fresh in my head and things were about to get very awkward.

When we got there, I stood a few feet away from them with a smile on my face. I made sure I didn't make eye contact with any of them, just had my gaze on everything else but them. I noticed there were just four standing and the other two were sitting on the couch and paying absolutely no attention to me.

Two were teenagers, three were within the ages 3-9 and the last two were around my age. The teenagers were twins, two girls, Harley also had a twin and the last child was a toddler and he just stood there staring at me with the brightest smile on his face.

Very cute.

The other three, I couldn't really describe cause it'd be weird to turn around and stare at them but I knew there was a girl and a boy that looked around the same age. It had to be that they were twins and if my assumptions were correct, it would mean the Susan's had three pair of twins and a toddler.

"This is Tommy" She pointed at the toddler who just happened to enjoy smiling. My favourite in the family so far. "These is Maddy" She pointed at her very identical twin. I couldn't tell the difference between these two, I wonder how the family does.

"Penelope and Sandra"

"Hi, it's nice to finally meet you Christina, we've heard a lot about you"

The spoke the same words at the same time with the exact same voice.

Okay.

I didn't know if it was very obvious in my facial expression but Harley noticed and said "Don't worry, they're only like that when they get too happy"

I didn't want the girls to feel bad after being the happiest to meet me so just to make them happy, I have each of them a hug and before you mention it, no, hugs aren't my thing and no, I wouldn't do it if it were you.

"Nice to meet you too"

Before they got a chance to reply, Harley pulled me away from them to the last two. Their attention was no longer on the device in front of them but on me and it was then I noticed that the two looked familiar. I couldn't put a finger on where exactly I saw them but I knew I'd seen both faces before.

"Jennifer and Kyle"

"Christina, been a long time since high school."

That's it, we went to high school together. Kyle and I never spoke before this. Although, he was a very popular kid, there wasn't a time we spoke to each other. I knew he existed, he knew I existed and it never exceeded that. Jennifer, on the other hand, tried to be my friend and honestly, it wasn't that she had a bad personality or something but keeping friends wasn't my thing. She would sit with me at lunch, wait at my locker and you know, stuff best friends do but I wasn't a fan of it so slowly, I moved away bit by bit and I think she got the message. During the time, I felt she wasn't hurt by what I did but standing here in her house, I had second thoughts. I may have hurt her feelings without even knowing it.

This I where guilt sets in.

"Jennifer" I didn't know what to say to her after that. She was staring at me with an awkward smile and I wished I could find the words but my mind was blank.

"Kids, it's time to eat!"

Mr Susan may have made me fall but I had to give it to him, perfect timing sir.

I trailed behind them to wherever it is we were going to eat, making sure there were five in front of me and the other two at my back. I felt bad Jennifer didn't reply but also good cause I may not be ready for what she had to say and things could've gotten even more awkward.

We got to a dining room and it looked like everyone already knew where they were meant to be. Dad had taken his seat next to Mr Susan and the other kids sprinted to their positions and I, not wanting things to look weird by just standing there, sat on the first seat that came to my mind. I found myself next to Kyle and opposite Jenifer.

We all held hands and prayed, something that reminded me of home.

"Christina" Mr Susan started and I already knew from there that I would have to do a lot of talking. Even at home, I usually wasn't interested in the conversations at the table and would sometimes zone out but here, I had no choice "What brought you to France?"

"I really didn't plan this, my parents forced me i_"

"She needs some exposure" Dad cut me off, knowing what I was going to say "You know teenagers and always staying indoors. Her mother and I wanted her to get outside, meet people and get familiar with them"

"Ah, that's a good idea. I wish I could do the same to the twins. They've been indoors since graduation, I can't get them to go anywhere besides restaurants"

"I'll be back home before tomorrow so how about they go over to Christina's every once in a while"

I guess mom was right when she said staying here for a while would help me socialize. Although, I wasn't expecting that, I was okay with the twins coming to visit some times. Maybe it would help mend things between  Jenifer and I. Beisdes, how bad could it get? It's not like they'd be with me every single day.

"How about they stay with her every single day?"

"Even better, they'd get to know each other more"

I zoned out after that. It wasn't what I wanted but on the other hand, I wasn't new to the circumstances not favouring me so I guess I'd just had to deal with it.

The dish in front of me was a mouth watering piece of steak, the perfect medium rare and just staring at it made my stomach grumble. I held the utensils in my fingers ready to dig in when I felt Kyle step on me. I thought it was a mistake before he did it again.

"Don't touch the food" He whispered.

"What?"

"Don't touch the food, it'll explode"