Crazier

Arms (12)

"The world is coming down on me and I can't find a reason to be loved"

-Christina Perri, Arms

 

Skylynn's mouth opened again, showing me her food. I looked away and tried not to gag, disgusted. Luckily, I wasn't the only one. Lev, Carter, and Sadie all looked rather grossed out as well. Tessa wrinkled her nose. "Sky, close your mouth."

Hypocrite. She told her sister to shut her mouth with her own mouth full. I rolled my eyes, only to receive a challenging look from the older Cate. I raised my eyebrows at her, and she crossed her eyes at me as she took a bite of chicken. I snickered into my water glass, making her grin as everyone turned to stare at me.

"What?" I asked finally, and Richard shook his head, chuckling. Emma was smiling at me as Tessa chuckled into her water, and when I raised my eyebrows at her, she spoke. "Shane, are you flirting with my daughter?"

I promptly got a mouthful of water to the face as Tessa did a spit take across the table and James burst into laughter, as did Zeke and Lev. When I opened my eyes, Tessa was staring at me with wide eyes, obviously trying not to laugh.

I considered a lot of things in the next few moments as she turned to her mother and denied her statement heartily, adding an 'ew' at the end for effect. I considered killing her. I considered dumping the water jug over her head and seeing her reaction. I considered doing the same to her.

But in the end, I did nothing.

I wiped my face with the edge of my t shirt, wrinkling my nose in disgust. Tessa burst out laughing, coming around the table and wrapping her arms around my neck from behind, laughing hard into my shoulder. I pushed her off, shaking my head at her and sighing as I tried to get her slobber off my face with a napkin.

"I'm sorry," she giggled.

"No you're not," I disagreed, and she laughed again, nodding as she patted me on the head like I was some kind of dog and went back to her seat. I rolled my eyes, wondering if it would kill me to keep eating if Tessa's spit was all over my chicken.

Sadie, sitting next to me, laughed a bit as she switched our plates. I raised my eyebrows at her and she shrugged, slicing off a bit of my spit-soaked chicken and popping it in her mouth. I blinked, then shrugged and turned to my own plate.

When I met Tessa's gaze next, the others were in a conversation about something or other that I couldn't care enough about to bring myself to join in. She raised her eyebrows, lips twitching into a grin, and her eyes flickered to Sadie.

"Told you," she mouthed.

~*~

The fire we were sitting around didn't smell like it did at home, but it didn't bother me as much as it could have. Carter had ridden her horse over, apparently, and she and Zeke were giggling together, feeding it apples and laughing when it slobbered on them.

Sadie and Lev were on either side of me, Jason having joined us. He was sitting across the fire with Tessa, glaring at me when I made remarks about his hair matching the flames or calling him Weasley when the adults weren't paying attention to yell at me. Tessa was smiling into her hand, and I could tell she really didn't love the guy, and he was probably a pity boyfriend.

Sadie was roasting a hot dog over the flames, her blue eyes wide and focused on making sure it didn't fall off the end of the stick. I watched, amused, as she carefully pulled it towards her, reaching to pluck it off the end.

She knocked it off, of course. I caught it easily and split in half, taking a bite out of one before she could protest. Sadie giggled, taking the half I offered to her and smiling at me before taking a bite. "Thank you," she said, in that rather high, clear way of hers.