Chapter 125
“Come on, Cass,” Mom said, smiling. She pulled out a chair next to my dad, who was talking to Jamie, and sat down on the other side of me. There was a bit of a line at the buffet, and some people at our table were already eating. While my stomach was growling, I wanted to know who that other guy was. I wasn’t sure why, but there was something intriguing about him, besides the fact that he reminded me a lot of Chris Hemsworth.
I sat down and weighed my options as I spotted my sister still talking to the mysterious hottie. I didn’t really know any of these people, which gave me little choice. “Mom, who is that guy Cadence is talking to?” I whispered. Aaron was only about three seats down from me, but I didn’t think he was listening since he was talking to Christian.
My mom looked over at the door and then, shrugging, said, “I don’t know.”
I made a face I try not to make. My mom calls it my “teenager” face. “You really don’t know, or you are pretending not to know because you don’t want to tell me?” I whispered back.
Making her “I’m exasperated by my teenager’s face” face, my mom replied, “I really don’t know.”
I inhaled through my nose and looked around again to see if there was anyone else I could ask. My dad probably wouldn’t know, and he was still talking to Jamie, so I couldn’t ask either of them. Just then, I realized my mother was talking to Aurora, who was on the other side of her. When she was done, she leaned over and whispered into my ear. “Aurora says his name is Cale.”
My blood went cold. I turned and looked at my mother, wide eyed, who looked remarkably unaffected by this information. “Mom. That’s Cale.”
Still unaware of the significance, my mother replied, “I know. I just told you that.”
“No, Mom!” I said, trying to stay calm as my sister wrapped up her conversation and headed our direction. She looked a little uncomfortable as she plopped down in the chair on the other side of Aurora ungracefully. “That’s Cale.” I glanced past my mom to my sister who was angrily whispering at Aaron, who seemed amused, which I found a little odd considering who my sister had just been talking to. I guess Aaron was confident in their relationship.
“I’m sorry, honey. I guess I’m just dense. Who is he?”
“Mom, he’s the doctor from Nevada,” I said, glancing over my shoulder to see Cale had gone to the buffet. “The one Cadence was dating.”
“Oh.” Full recognition took a few minutes longer. “Oooh!” My mom turned and glanced at Cale and then over at my sister who seemed to be in a better mood now. She was laughing at something it seemed Hannah must’ve said because both Cadence and Aaron were looking across the table at their friend. “Well, he sure is attractive.”
“Yeah, he is,” Aurora chimed in, and I hadn’t even realized she could hear us. I felt my face flush. “Hey, Cass, you wanna go grab a cheeseburger with me?” she asked, standing up and towering over top of us.
“Sure,” I said, glad my sister’s friends were being so nice to me when they didn’t have to be. I hopped up and followed her to the buffet, glad to see Cale heading off in the other direction with his loaded plate before we arrived.
Aurora handed me a plate and then took one for herself. “How are you doin’, kiddo?” she asked, looking down at me with caution. “This has gotta be rough on you.”
“I think it is on everyone,” I admitted, following along behind her as we surveyed all the food. I was going to need a second, maybe a third, trip.
“Yeah, it is,” she agreed, grabbing a hot dog loaded with chili and cheese. “But I know you and Elliott were super tight.”
There was something about the way she made that comment that had me raising my eyebrows. I decided on a cheeseburger and pizza first and grabbed some chips before I said, “We were close.”
We were almost at the end of the table when she said, “Listen, everyone needs someone to confide in. I totally get that. Before your sister got here, I felt like I knew a lot of people but had no friends. You ever feel that way?”
“Sure,” I said, nodding at her as I grabbed a pop off of a table loaded with drinks and skipped the cups. It looked like the same type of workers who had been taking care of the apartment building were restocking things here, which was nice for Hannah so she didn’t have to worry about it.
“I’m just saying, Elliott told me… some stuff. About… some of the stuff you’d talked about.”
My eyes bulged. Aurora knew that I knew.
“Don’t worry,” she said as we started to walk back over to the table. “I won’t say anything to anyone. He just mentioned it in passing once, not even on purpose, I don’t think. But I got the impression he hated keeping secrets from everyone and just wanted to get it off his chest.” We were almost back to the table. “Anywho, I’m sure now that everyone knows that you know, people will start answering questions. But if they don’t… I will.”
A sigh of relief came out of my mouth loud enough to make my mom turn and look at me. “Thanks, Aurora,” I said, taking my seat again.
“No problem,” she said, smiling and setting her plate down. My sister was gone now, and I glanced behind me to see her in line.
“Why don’t you take my seat,” my mom said, seeing that I wanted to sit by Aurora. “I think it’s time to hit the buffet.”
I thanked her and sat down next to Aurora and across from Meagan. Even though all of these people seemed way older than me, and like grownups, I was starting to think maybe I could blend in here just fine. These could be my friends, too. But I needed some answers, and I was hopeful I could corner my sister again soon so I could finally start to fill in the blanks that were driving me crazy.
