Never Summer Again

Chapter Three - The Return of The Mark

Score: About Damn Time - Lizzo

Lydia

Forty-five minutes later, Patrick texts me that he is home. We exchange "Good Nights" and "I love yous" and I feel a sudden wave of relief.

It is like I cannot really be myself anymore when Patrick is around. I feel like he is watching my every move, just waiting for me to screw up so that he can then show his disappointment and act like he is just trying to protect me, while I am being completely unreasonable and childish. I know he is wound up, with his university admission, exams, and rugby training, and that he is trying to be supportive and all, but he just doesn't seem to listen to me anymore.

Like, really listen.

Like, tonight, I just need to let my hair down a little. This doesn't mean I will go all crazy.
At least, not like before. I have learned my lesson and I am never going back there.

I think it is the pressure from his family. Those titles come with a certain level of stuck-up-ness, and they are expecting a great deal of him.

He has to be the best in everything. He is going to inherit his grandfather's earldom one day. His father is the only male heir to the title, and Patrick is his only son. He has to participate in all those royal ceremonies and stuff, and I don't know how he manages to attend all of the events his family is expected to be seen at, sometimes.

Besides, I have accompanied him a few times and I know how boring they can be.

He is going to be Lord Casterly one day, and his mum never fails to remind me that she just knows that I will be the future Lady Casterly and that I should start acting like it.

But I just can't imagine myself as a Countess, I guess.

Anyway...

As the night progresses, so does my drinking. Gloria and Liam want to play Drinking Tag.

Basically, a version of tag, where drunk people chase each other around.

However, as pretty much everyone's drunk already, they decide it is too much of an effort, and choose to play drinking poker instead.

I mean, by this point in the night, pretty much everything can be considered a drinking game.
Ever played Drinking Hide and Seek? Best fun ever. Drinking Backgammon? Great! Drinking Chess? C'mon, there are even ready-to-buy sets for that nowadays...

I don't engage in the game, but sit beside the players and watch as Mark wins hand after hand, the losing players taking shot after shot. All too soon, he is the only one who hasn't taken a single shot yet. He has won every single draw.

I cannot help but stare into his gold-brown eyes every time our gazes meet. There is something so...unusual about those eyes.

At around two in the morning, the party dies off.

"We are going to bed," Alex tells me, her arms draped around Nate's neck. She is drunk and droopy and mumbles something incoherent in my ear, as I hug her, wishing her a Good Night.

"Lyds, you can stay in the pink room," Gloria tells me. Every bedroom in the house has a colour theme to it. There is a green room, and a yellow room, and a blue room, and a pink room...

"OK, thanks, Glo." I yawn and stretch. I look around the garden, which is covered with rubbish and people, who have fallen asleep here and there. The night is getting chillier and I hope that all of them will be OK in the morning.

"Are you staying over?" Mark asks me, draping his arm around my shoulders and walking me into the house.

"Yeah. Patrick left and I will be staying in the pink room." I grin at him. "Are you staying?"