Lonely and Tired

Hail to the King

I noisily sucked up the remnants of my John Daly. Val rolled her eyes and laughed as Meaghan giggled and made a rude noise with her own straw. We sat on the terrace of a very nice restaurant enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. Zacky and Matt had taken their boys to play mini-golf so Meaghan and I had decided to drink golf themed cocktails to, literally, get into the spirit of things. Val had steadfastly insisted that she only wanted a wine spritzer.

"Sorry Val we can't all be as good at adulting as you." I dug my straw around through the ice hoping to find a couple of drops more. "Why don't you like this drink?"

"I still have nightmares about the version Brian once made with Everclear," Val shuddered. It must have been bad because Val paled a little.

"Did Brian go mini-golfing with the boys?" I asked beaming at Meaghan as she signalled to our waitress for another round.

"Oh god I hope not!" Meaghan choked around the final mouthful of her drink.

"Huh?" I was confused, I was under the impression that Meaghan liked Brian.

"I don't want my son learning how to throw a golf club," she replied seriously.

"To what? How would that even happen?"

"Because Brian playing mini-golf is like a scene from Happy Gilmore. It's not pretty, kind of like the aftermath of that hideous cocktail I already mentioned. The one known to the initiated as the Happy Gilmore," Val explained patiently.

I giggled. "I'd actually pay money to see that."

"Well it's lucky you're in the minority. Generally people prefer paying to watch or listen to him play guitar," Meaghan said.

"Well I get that free. Just another reason for the fangirls to hate me," I sighed. I'd thought the online hate would have died down but apparently upset fangirls have a lot of rage to release because it went on and on and on.

"So Meaghan, Zacky's birthday party. What's the plan fam?" I not so subtly changed the subject because really, what else was I going to do? We'd already discussed the way I was still the recipient of not just online but also some face to face hate.

Val and Meaghan had laughed when I told them about my car yard visits and how Cathy and I spent more time discussing colour choices than fuel economy and how when I finally caved and took Brian with me he'd joked about me needing an armour plated model. Had they laughed when I shared a glimpse into the various hateful little digs I'd received from strangers over the last week or so? Not so much.

Meaghan took the change of subject and ran with it like a dog with a stolen sausage.

Apparently the party was going to be epic and in pursuit of said goal she refused to host it at their house and had arranged to have it at a club.

"I can only deal with having the after party at our place." She fluttered a hand. Val nodded sagely clearly understanding this cryptic world of parties and after parties.

Most of the parties I'd ever held had involved a few bags of chips, a couple of tubs of dip and a lot of booze. It was another world.

"You're coming right?" Meaghan asked, "I invited Cathy and Jeff as well."

"Of course I'm coming. Is there a reason you thought I wouldn't?" I hadn't mentioned any other plans.

Val and Meaghan glanced at each other.

"Of course not. It's just Michelle...." Val grimaced and trailed off.

I clapped a hand over my mouth. Sometimes I felt like such a socially awkward idiot. "Oh my god. Michelle doesn't want me to go! Of course you'd prefer for her to go instead of me. She's your sister and your friend." I swivelled my head from one to the other taking in their wide-eyed expressions of horror.