Weekend With The Gods

6: 'I-don't-care-about-smoking' father

After finishing off my second burger, I felt like I was falling into a food coma as I sat back in my chair.

Clive was a great barbeque chef.

In total, he made 13 burgers and 10 hotdogs for all of us. Also, he served up a lot of salad (for Angela: the vegan) as well as a few skewers. In other words, 2 hours later after he started cooking, we were all in food coma. Everything tasted great and I knew I should've stopped eating after the first burger but I couldn't help myself.

Mum checked up on me and the conversation was quite basic and parental.

"hello sweetheart," she greeted me,

"hi," I said dryly.

"are you okay?" she asked concerned,

"I'm fine," I said vaguely,

"that's good," she said not trying to push the conversation,

"yeah," said as I awkwardly nodded,

"its great weather in Mexico," she said trying to spark up any moment of speaking,

"that's good," I said as I stoked my full-up belly.

"what's the weather like where you are?" she asked me,

"it's okay... nothing too special," I responded with.

"so, I should probably go now, say hi to your brother for me," she said and then hung up shortly after,

'bye to you too,' I muttered to myself.

"did you say something?" Calvin asked as he whipped his head around to face me,

"oh, nothing... just talking to myself," I said as an excuse.

"that's weird, you know?" he said with a strange face: almost disgusted.

"okay," I said with a sarcastic nod and a fake smile, which caused his eyebrows to rise and fir his head to turn back to face the others having a conversation.

I think it was safe to say that I was going to have a very boring night surrounded by normal parents, good-looking guys and a screaming child who I kind of wanted to scream at to show her how annoying it was.

'She's 6 for goodness sake! 6!' I kept saying to myself over and over again as she cried louder and louder over the fact that her dad wouldn't let her have any more chocolate milk.

You could tell that they were trying to pretend like they never gave in but I think everyone knew it was a lie. The hint was given away when Calvin turned to me at the sight of his dad saying no to his half-sister and muttering, "that's new," and then grinning. Bobby sat across from me on one of the logs playing on his phone and Louie was sitting watching as he played the game. They both looked so bored sitting there.

The sky was now a soft navy colour which reminded me of my school uniform. Instantly, shivers went down my spine from the thought of school. The stars were just beginning to appear and I could tell it was going to be one of those nights where I sit and watch the stars for hours. They always mesmerised me and I was utterly fascinated by them. The way they are so bright and individual; no star is the same as another.

"earth to Eden!" someone sings.

"huh?" I ask baffled by why they wanted my attention,

"are you okay with going to the lake tomorrow?" Bear asked me with a raised eyebrow,

the memories from the last time I went to the lake flashed back when I got attacked by a swan.

They're pretty vicious animals.