So What Now? | TSLOCG

family dinner

"Did you get invited to the Kappa brunch the other day?" Whitney asked me the next morning as I dumped cereal from a box into a bowl.

"Yeah," I replied as I poured in the milk on top. "I'm not really into that... scene, though. What about you?"

Whitney nodded, scribbling something down onto what looked like her soccer playbook. "I went with Leighton. I think I met, like, at least one hundred Ashleys," She laughed.

"Oh, I bet. I'm sure it was like walking into a house full of Leighton Murray's," I joked, knowing one clear difference between her and the other blondes in Kappa.

"It totally was," Whitney chuckled, closing her playbook and opening up her laptop. "Are your parents coming up for parents weekend?"

"My dad is," I answered, eating a spoonful of cereal. "My mom's tied up with work, or something. What about you?"

"Oh," Whitney nodded in understanding, typing out something. "Yeah, my parents are coming. Did you see the place Leighton picked for dinner?"

I nodded, still a bit surprised by the fact that she'd invited me. "Looks as over the top as everything else she chooses."

"One hundred percent," She agreed, as the door swung open and Leighton walked in.

"Speak of the devil," I mumbled, taking another bite of my cereal.

"That better not be my oat milk," Leighton shot me a side eye as she placed her purse down on the couch.

"Do you really think I'd dare touch your sacred oat milk?" I asked, taking another bite.

She hesitated for a moment before nodding. "I absolutely do."

I rolled my eyes. I was fairly certain it was, in fact, her oat milk. "Where were you at so early in the morning?"

"The stupid fucking woman's center," She huffed a sigh, flopping down next to Whitney on the couch.

"It can't be that bad," I said through a mouthful of cereal.

"Yeah. Tt's not like you're picking up trash off the roadside, or something," Whitney added.

"It's so much worse than that!" The blonde exclaimed, shoving her head into a pillow.

Whitney and I shot each other a look and burst out into laughter. Leighton rolled her eyes and stormed off into our room.

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I'd spent a while debating my outfit for dinner. I had the room to myself since Leighton was out with her family, and my father was running late, per usual.

I was standing over my options, having narrowed it down to three dresses that were lying on my bed.

"Wear the navy one," Spoke Leighton's voice, scaring me so bad I jumped. I was going to yell at her for sneaking up on me, but before I could, I noticed her ridiculous Essex sweater, and burst out laughing.

"Oh my God, Leighton!" I exclaimed, pulling my phone out to snap a picture of it. It was a hideous sweater, and on top of that she had several leaves stuck in her hair. She looked perfect nonetheless, but I chose to keep that part to myself.

Her face grew flushed as she spotted my camera. "Would you knock it off?" She scoffed, covering her sweater with a blanket. "My stupid fucking Dad made me wear it."

"You look like a walking Essex ad," I teased, turning back to face my own outfit dilema.

"Yeah, well," She stammered for a moment before giving up and laughing. "It certainly does wash me out."

I rolled my eyes sarcastically, picking up the navy dress she'd pointed out earlier. "This one?" I asked, holding it up over my t-shirt and turning to show her.

She nodded, a smile spreading across her face. "You wore it at graduation. Everyone else wore white."

I felt my face growing flushed, so I quickly spun back around to change into the dress. I was flattered that she'd noticed; she hadn't said one word to me that month.

"Enough about you, though," She added, clearly changing the conversation. "My dumb fucking brother is insisting on coming to dinner tonight."

"Well, isn't he a student here?"

"Yeah, but like, he still doesn't need to come," She huffed a sigh, changing out of her sweater and into her dinner outfit. "Bela is completely in love with him. And so is my mother. He's just going to embarrass me."

I stifled a laugh. If only she knew I was the one who'd hooked up with him. "I'm sure it'll be fine. If it gets too bad I'll pretend to have a medical emergency, or something."

✩✩✩✩✩

The dinner was as awkward as Leighton had anticipated. Bela's parents found out she'd been faking her major, Whitney spent the whole night waiting on her no-show dad, and Nico kept trying to not so subtly flirt with me.

Once it had finally come to an end, everyone went off their separate ways. Bela and Whitney had walked off to talk with their parents, and Leighton's parents had gone off with Nico.

That left just me and Leighton. However, the second dinner ended, Leighton had booked it back towards the dorms. I'd been walking rather briskly to try and catch up with her, as I didn't want either of us getting kidnapped, given the late hour and complete darkness. Just as I was about to catch up to her, I realized she was crying.

"Shit," I mumbled, trying to back off so I wouldn't disrupt her. I stepped off to the side so she could get further ahead of me, but as I did my phone fell out of my pocket with a thud.

Leighton spun around, fumbling to turn on her phone's flashlight to make up for the poor lightning in this area of the campus. I stood frozen as a deer in headlights.

"Jesus Christ, Maddy!" The blonde exclaimed, wiping at her eyes. "Stalker much?"

"Fuck, sorry," I mumbled, picking my probably cracked phone up from the cobble stone walkway. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"Yeah, well, you did," She huffed, turning back around. I stood waiting for her to leave so I could continue on behind her, but she turned her head back to shoot me a look. "Are you coming, or what?"

I hurried up to where she was impatiently waiting, and she began walking alongside me.

We walked in silence, asides from Leighton's sniffling and the blaring music from a nearby frat party, until I spoke. "Did I, like, miss something?"

"What?" She replied, shooting me a confused look.

"I just mean, don't get me wrong, that dinner was painful, but I didn't quite think it was tear up worthy," I shrugged, staring over at a couple making out a bench a few feet away.

"You're an asshole," Leighton mumbled, with a sniffle.

"I didn't mean it like that!" I exclaimed, trying to defend myself. "I just didn't know if, like, something else happened. God, sue me for trying to make sure you were okay."

She rolled her eyes, adjusting her purse on her shoulder. "I just hate my family. That's all."

I nodded understandingly, and we walked in a familiar silence for a while longer. This time it was Leighton who broke it.

"Wanna get drunk?"

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