Eyes of Fire (Camren/Norminah)

Chapter 1: A Means to an End

"Alright, if everyone could raise your glasses for a minute, I'd like to make bit of a toast."

Dinah-Jane Hansen stood up at the head of the table and raised her own glass, the deep red liquid inside reflecting a row of soft yellow lights that sat embedded in the ceiling. Everyone quieted down and did the same, Cameron Cabello reaching for his tall glass of ice water and shuffling to the edge of his seat. Every few weeks, his massive family would gather for dinner at a respective home, prepare a meal to the caliber of an Italian family reunion, and the evening together.

"Dinah, please don't spill that on the table." Ally Brooke Hernandez reached forward and moved Dinah's nearly empty plate so it was resting just underneath the hovering glass. "If you get red wine on the tablecloth Camila is going to have a conniption again."

"Look, I had just gotten everything dry cleaned, what was I supposed to do?!" Camila Cabello had her own glass of wine held up over the table and a stoic look on her face. "Do you people know how long it takes me to drive across town and bring it to Connie at the Sunset Cleaners? She speaks four words of English and zero of Spanish!"

"Then why do you go to her?" Dinah frowned, taking a sip from her glass.

"Because she does a fantastic job your dear loved ones decide they're going to go all blue raspberry snowcone on the nice white tablecloth that we use for company." Camila replied through gritted teeth, her brown eyes creeping to a particular side of the table as she spoke.

"Oh my god, my arm hurts! Can we please just get on with this?" Lauren Jauregui groaned on the other side of the table, her elbow landing on the table with a loud clatter as a few drops of crimson alcohol splashed out and started to slide down her wrist. "Oh shit."

"Lauren!" Camila barked, setting her glass down and getting up with a irritated huff. Cameron rolled his eyes, setting his own glass down as he watched his mother march into the kitchen and swipe a dishtowel from the side of the counter. Sheepishly, Lauren held out her hand so Camila could wrap the towel around her wrist and soak up the impending disaster.

"Alright, back to my toast." Dinah stood up again, grabbing her glass. "Sit down and listen Mila."

"I love you." Lauren grinned as Camila tossed the dishtowel in her face and returned to her seat.

"Cam?" A hand tugged at the hem of Cameron's t-shirt sleeve, and he looked down to see his cousin Lily trying to get his attention.

"Yeah?"

"One of the dogs is sitting at my feet, am I allowed to feed it anything?"

"Not really." Cam shrugged. "It's not that good for them to have a lot of human food when they beg, but Luke and I do it sometimes anyway. Especially with vegetables."

"HEY." Dinah whipped around and glared at them both. "What are you two doing talking over my expert toast?"

"You're embarrassing." Lily Kordei-Hansen leaned back with a characteristic pout, her sister giggling from where she sat on the other side of the table. "Why can't you just be normal?"

"Normal is boring honey." Dinah flashed her daughter a dazzling grin before lifting the wine glass up a little higher. "Now as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted..."

"Ow!" Across the table, Lily's twin sister Violet was reaching around and rubbing the back of her neck, a confused look on her face. "Em, what was that for?"

"Sorry, you had a little plastic thing from the tag sticking out the back of your shirt collar, I had to break it off before it drove my OCD crazy." Emily Ogletree apologized, taking the scratchy piece of plastic and setting it down on the table beside the eight year old's plate. Meanwhile, her younger brother had slid down off his seat and was now taking off after one of the dogs across the dining room floor.