His frown doesn’t find my attempt at a joke funny whatsoever. “I’m sorry, Crew,” he repeats.
I nod. “Me too.”
He turns around and walks back inside the restaurant, leaving me standing without a purpose.
Those two, as sad as it is, have been the only family I knew.
And right now, I’m watching that family fall apart by the second.
20
Crash Out 101
Carly
Humans are a very flawed species, and my family is living proof of that.
Do I have anything against my family? No, I love almost all of them, even at times when Carson drives me crazy. He still cares about my well-being, and I couldn’t have asked for anyone else to be my brother.
But family dinners? If it’s just me, my parents, and Carson, maybe. But my cousins, and Aunt Janine? Someone, please help me from above, because no amount of ripe, unpeeled mangoes waiting for me at my apartment is going to motivate me to get this dinner over with.
All of us are seated at this adorable little Italian restaurant in Marbella Beach on Main Street called Mazzola’s, and I’ve been sitting here, waiting for my scallops to be cooked and delivered to me. We, as a family, have eaten a shit ton of appetizers since placing our orders. I pity whoever is going to end up paying—probably my mom, since she’s the one who suggested a celebratory graduation dinner for Carson and I.
A celebration dinner that includes everyone drinking, except for me and Carson—because I’m driving and he doesn’t drink—and my cousin Ellie, because she’s only seventeen.
“Why didn’t Diana join us, again?” I whisper to Carson, who sits to the right of me. Diana and her family were invited to the dinner, but she declined the invitation.
“She wanted to celebrate with her dad and sister tonight,” he whispers back. “She’ll celebrate with us after she drops them off at the airport.”
I wish she had accepted because this dinner could have been a lot more bearable with her interacting and shielding Carson and me from the questions Aunt Janine would ask us. Starting with the usual:
“When are you going to gain some muscle?”
It was targeted towards Carson long ago and was probably the root cause of his people-pleasing tendencies.
Then, that question would be followed by:
“Carly, when will you bring a man over to these gatherings?”
And—to top it all off—since Carson and I have graduated:
“What are you going to do next since college is officially over?”
So far, we have survived two of three questions, and I’m practically preparing myself for the third one if it comes out of nowhere. Sometimes, I have to take another dose of Adderall before Christmas dinner just to tolerate her, but Janine Ryder-Emerson is the relative of resistance—meaning no large amount of anything can resist her pain-in-the-ass personality.
If it wasn’t for this restaurant having my favorite appetizers, I would have driven back to my apartment by now, scallops be damned. Especially because everyone feels like celebrating tonight—except me and Bailey.
She sits right across from me, a permanent glare on her face aimed directly at the mai tai in her hand. Unlike most occasions,this attitude is due to coming off a breakup. Yeah, according to Carson, Bailey caught her now-ex-boyfriend in bed with another woman. My brother’s pissed about the situation, too, because he’s the reason Bailey started dating that guy in the first place.
At least he can hide it. Bailey, however, is a lightweight who ordered a fairly strong cocktail—not a good combination.
This dinner is about to head south, and we just got our appetizers.
I should be relieved that the one person who changed Bailey for the worse is out of her life. Instead, I’m more conflicted than ever, because I'm glad Jake is out of our lives. However, what Bailey had to witness for that to happen was shitty. No one deserves to get cheated on.
Not even her.
“How’s your movie star doing?” Carson whispers, swiping a piece of truffle garlic bread from in front of me.
