One Choice

Chapter 10- Messing With the Wrong Girl:

Chapter 10- Messing With the Wrong Girl

          Sometime during my choking, my dad came into the room and greeted Michelle and her husband. As he sat down I managed to see him eyeing Alex-probably from that fight we had earlier. I mentally rolled my eyes at that and calmed down-after almost dying. I took another sip of water to sooth my burning throat.

         “Are you sure you’re okay? I don’t want you to die,” Alex said with a smirk. I glared at him and started filling my plate.

         “I’m fine, just a little cough. Trust me, I wouldn’t want to ruin your dinner,” I said sarcastically.

         “Good because I’m hungry,” he said and dug in. I scooped a mouthful of mashed potatoes onto my fork and paused when I felt a set of eyes on me. I looked up and realized I had two sets. Both from two people I wasn’t ready to see. Jake was still rocking the glare, but it wasn’t at me. It was at Alex, who was too busy stuffing his mouth with steak to pay any attention. Katie still looked a little nervous. When she caught my eye, she bit her lower lip and her eyes flew down to her plate. Well this was awkward.

         The adults managed to start up a conversation about something I didn’t know. I took a bite of my food and looked at my dad. He was still stressed from earlier. He looked tired. There were slight bags under his eyes and none of his smiles quite reached his eyes. I could tell he was happy with his friends being here, but it just wasn’t’ enough to make the bags go away. He seemed to be in deep thought over something before he looked up at Mr. Spencer. They locked eyes and I saw Mr. Spencer nod ever-so-slightly. He looked grim. As if something bad was happening and he’d just confirmed it to my dad who looked worried. I noticed Alex go a little rigid once again and he slowed down eating to look up at the two men. And so did Jake. The girls were too busy conversing to notice anything strange going on Even Katie had gotten into the conversation with them.

         I looked at my dad again and his eyes snapped to mine, panic setting in them. They shot back to Mr. Spencer and they seemed to be having a conversation of their own in their minds. I looked to Jake to see him just staring at me with a blank face. I tried to ask him what was going on with my eyes. He just rolled his eyes and shook his head, going back to eating as if nothing happened. Fine then. I decided to not look up the rest of the time. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone whatsoever anymore.

         But apparently that wasn’t what Michelle wanted.

         “So Cassie, how was the party?” she asked. My head snapped up at the unexpected question. She knew about it?

         “Uh, it was fine…I guess.”

         “Did you meet anyone new?”

         “Um…no…well yeah. I met a couple of Katie’s friends but we didn’t really talk much.”

         “So what all did you guys do?”

         Well my gosh, could she ask any more questions? I mean seriously. I like her and all, but this wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have with these people around that witness what happened at that party.

         “We played and awesome game of ultimate cantaloupe. And Cassie was a beast,” Alex said coming to my rescue. Thank goodness for him!

 My eyes flickered over to Katie to see hers darken. Uh oh. This cannot be good. The nervous look on her face was gone and she looked to be…jealous? One thing was for sure, that nervous look came onto my face as I could tell this dinner was about to go downhill. Fast.