Loose Ends

0.50

Dinner parties are a frivolous occasion, Caius thinks.

With the extravagant dresses and the freshly pressed tuxes, wine glasses overflowing with champagne, the sharp sound of laughter falling from lips stained with red.

Caius himself nodding politely and sipping from his own glass of water, only throwing back the occasional flute of champagne when one of his estranged uncles hands it to him with a wink. He's never managed to get used to the itchy fabric of the suits his parents have been forcing him into from the age he could walk. He's constantly pulling at his collar, loosening his tie, shifting uncomfortably in his shoes -- which his parents insist on replacing before he can ever work them in.

Absolutely bloody pointless.

And yet, here he is. His hair has too much gel in it, there's still a faint imprint of pink lipstick from one of his slightly intoxicated aunts, and he's praying to some higher power for the ground to open up and swallow him whole. He'd rather be curled up reading poetry in the library, maybe sitting around in the kitchen and annoying his favourite cook Lisa. But instead he's here, once again.

The Bennett dinner parties have become somewhat notorious over the years. After the slight mishap the family suffered when Caius was eleven, the number of people begging for an invite increased exponentially. Everyone wanted to see how the Bennett family was doing after the man of the house nearly gambled away every single cent they'd ever owned, how the house was holding up after Lillian Bennett couldn't afford to keep the maids around, how darling little Caius Bennett was doing after his daddy nearly threw his future out the window along with his childhood.

Even at the young age of eleven, Caius couldn't understand what the hell was wrong with his parents, why they were letting these people into their home when it was clear -- even to him, that they wanted nothing more than to confirm their worst suspicions. They didn't want to see that Richard Bennett had gotten his act together faster than anyone ever could have guessed; they didn't want to know that Lillian took on every lost job onto her own shoulders, that Caius was top of his class.

They wanted them to have failed. They were fighting at the chance to see the Bennett family crash and burn firsthand, a sadistic desire that kept Caius up at night to this day.

Over the years it became tradition for New York's finest to come out to the Bennett family home for a party a few times a year -- sometimes even to their house in the Hamptons in the summer. His parents had something to prove, but Caius did not. Of course, he couldn't go against his parent's wishes. So he played the part, fit the role of 'slightly mischievous albeit incredibly charming dutiful son', and nobody was ever the wiser. Nobody suspected a god damn thing -- and for a while there was nothing to be figured out. For a while Caius was that boy. He played harmless pranks on his cousins, told cheeky jokes to his parent's friends, told his extended family all about what they were studying in school.

But, in everyone's life there is a defining moment. A moment that completely knocks them off their feet, flips their lives upside down, changes the course of their future.

For Caius, that moment happened in this very backyard.

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This was super short, but it sort of sets up the story. Please, please let me know what you think! I already have a few parts written and this is a story that I hold very near and dear to my heart, so if you have any comments or questions please feel free to let me know.