Don't Judge a Girl by Her Sarcasm

Chapter Three

I walked into the already full dining room and was instantly swept up by my mother, who wanted to show me off to her friends. Ten minutes of me being talked about like I wasn’t there later and I'm fed up. Instead of guessing that I ‘must have had an amazing time in America’ they should just ask me if I liked it or not. I mean I am standing RIGHT HERE!

I was about to make an excuse and escape when I heard a voice from behind me that saves me,

“Peyton Anne Lloyd, is that you?” I turn to see my best friend and Logan's daughter, Megan standing in a red, floor length dress that emphasises her beauty. She still has that bright sparkle in her brown eyes and her ever present cheery smile. I ran up to her and hugged her tight.

“I missed you so much!” I told her, stepping back.

“I know, I missed you too! Why didn’t you come home on your last few holidays?” she asked crossly, making me feel guilty.

“I just wanted to spend time with my American friends before I moved back and couldn’t see them anymore, you know?”

“Yeah, I know, I suppose I’ll let you off.” She said teasingly.

I spent the next three hours through dinner catching up with Megan and a couple other girls, Olivia and Emma that I used to hang around with when I was home. I really got along with Emma, she was into photography and drawing like me so we had plenty to talk about and there was never an awkward silence, especially not with Olivia sitting on my right. During dinner we discovered that we both hate these sorts of parties and the stuck up people that attended them so we sat throughout the main course and dessert making jokes about the women and their poor husbands who had obviously been forced to come tonight. I felt sorry for them and as if I should apologise to them because my mother had thrown this party for me but as soon as dinner was finished my father and the rest of the men went outside to sit on the back deck and have a drink while the women went to the living room to finish their gossip.

I heard a voice calling my name from the doorway and turned to see my older brother, Blake standing there with a big grin on his face that mine immediately matched as I hopped up from my seat and dived into his out stretched arms.

“How’s my little sister doing?” He asked, squeezing me tighter than anybody else had so far.

Out of everyone I had seen Blake the least over the last seven years because the school holidays over in America are different to the holidays in England so I only ever saw him on Christmas.

He came over and sat with us to catch up but I couldn’t help notice the way Megan would laugh a little louder at his jokes or the way she would touch his arm every so often and the way he put his arm across the back of her chair and angled his seat towards her. I wondered what had been going on with the two of them since I had been gone.

My mother came over to me then and told me I had to go talk to my father and his friends for a while before I come back in and talk to the women that were in the living room drinking coffee.

“Why? They're talking about business crap, I’ll be bored out of my mind!” I complained but she just gave me that look, you know the one all mothers develop that tells their kids that they're in serious trouble or not to back chat them and do what they're told. Yeah that one.

“Because this is your party and that’s the polite host thing to do!” she told me.

“Actually, if we’re gonna get technical then this is your party, not mine.” I add a sweet smile at the end to emphasis the sarcasm.

I got the look again and promptly did as I was told.

Now I may be mad at my mother for letting my father send me away to a boarding school but that look still scares me and gets me to do whatever she wants, so with a heavy sigh I grabbed the crystal bottle of scotch from the side and walked out onto the back decking.