Ticking Clock

Chapter 3

The sun was beaming down on Adalynn and her family, the sound of kids splashing in the lake made its way up to the house, and everyone seemed to be enjoying their time catching up with one another. Their family reunions were one of Adalynn's favourite moments of the year because it was a day when everyone got along and she was finally able to see certain family members that she hadn't all year long.

Adalynn sat up on the deck, surrounded by her aunts and uncles drinking and chatting about various events that had happened during the previous year. Adalynn kept to herself for the most part as she watched as some of her cousins and their children play in the water. She was most excited to catch up with a few of her cousins after they came back up to join the rest of the adults, but until then, she was stuck listening in on everyone else's conversations.

Everything was fun and joyful until the one conversation Adalynn had been avoiding resurfaced. She had done a decent job of avoiding the topic of boys and potential boyfriends, but as expected, her mother had to bring up a new opportunity for her to find a man. Her mother walked over, taking a seat amongst Adalynn and the other family members, not really minding to keep these ideas between only the two of them.

"By the way, Adalynn, I was catching up with Joanna and I was telling her how you and Ben should catch back up and go on a date or something. What do you think about that?"

Adalynn looked to her mother, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Really, mom, you're going to try this again? It didn't end well last time, don't you remember?"

Her mother just gave her a blank stare, not catching on to what she was saying. She shook her head slowly, clearly not remembering. "I don't remember setting you up on any dates with Ben, maybe you're thinking of someone else,"

Their conversation had started to catch the attention of their family sitting next to them, so knowing that they were listening in, Adalynn was careful not to go off on her mother for even bringing the subject of Ben back up. She had no problem with Ben, but she really didn't want to go through the whole reason as to why she didn't want to go on a date with him to her mother and the rest of the family.

"No mom, you tried to set up Ben and me on a date during Christmas. I only agreed to go because you said you would call Joanna, but you didn't," Adalynn said rather calmly, it even surprised herself.

"Oh," her mother said, seeming genuinely confused about the information being placed in front of her.

"Well I still think you should consider dating Ben," Her mother smiled, taking a sip from her blue-hued cup. Adalynn shook her head.

"Mother, I had already explained this to you,"

"Vivian, I think you need to calm down on the whole dating talk," Adalynn's Uncle Scott said turning towards to their conversation. "I really don't mean to eavesdrop but Addy is just about to turn twenty-one and I think she is able to control her own relationships," Her mother never said anything after. Adalynn gave a quiet thank you to her uncle before she got up to go and see her cousins whom all lounged down by the lake. She looked around and felt happy as she saw her favourite cousin sitting alone.

"Hey, darling, how you doing?" Adalynn's cousin Victoria said, flipping some of her blonde hair off her tanning shoulder. Adalynn sat down next to her cousin and enjoyed the sunshine for a few seconds before answering.

"Things are okay, crazy, but okay," Victoria nodded and simply responded with 'same'. The girls let the silence linger as they listened to their younger cousins splash around in the shallow water of the lake.

"Victoria, can I ask you something?" Adalynn asked out of the blue. Victoria propped herself up further and turned to her younger cousin.

"Yeah, what's up?" Adalynn thought about how to pose her question. She was overwhelmed with the things that had happened earlier in the year and she was scared of the judgement of everyone else in the family, especially her mother. Adalynn knew that it was risky to talk about this around so much family but she needed to get this off her chest.