I turned to start unpacking my much smaller bag, breathing deeply. Cade didn’t seem lame, actually. And if I was sharing with a girlfriend, he would have been left on his own – or not even allowed to come. Maybe it was a good thing that I was single. At least from the perspective of giving him a buddy.
Or, like, annoying the hell out of him, which was what I was sure I was already doing.
There was a knock at the door and relief washed over me. Already five minutes into our rooming together for the weekend and I was relieved to have someone else interrupting. Yeah, this was going great.
“Hey!” Keaton said, the second that I opened the door. “I just wanted to tell you guys, we’re going to all meet at mine and Olly’s cabin for lunch. We’ve got a huge table out front so we can all sit together and enjoy the view.”
“Great,” I said enthusiastically. I hadn’t taken my coat off yet, anyway. “We’ll come straight over. Right, Cade?”
He looked up and nodded. “Sure,” he said.
But why did I get the feeling it was the last thing he wanted to do in the world?
Cade
I sat on the edge of my bed for just a moment longer, hoping there was something that would save me.
A big lunch with everyone together. It sounded great – for the people here who actually knew each other. But for me, alone here with only my brother (who was bound to be more interested in Aubrey than me), it sounded like hell.
Aiden was still waiting expectantly by the door, so I forced myself to get up and walk over to him. “Okay,” I said with a nod, forcing myself to try to smile like I meant it. “Let’s go.”
“Sure,” Aiden said. He waited for me to step by him and then shut the cabin door, rubbing his hands together against the cold air we’d stepped back into. “What’s up, anyway?”
I looked at him sharply. I thought I’d been doing a better job of hiding it, but obviously not. “Um, nothing,” I said.
“Alright,” Aiden replied, and I closed my eyes in a silent thanks to the universe when he didn’t press it any further.
It wasn’t a long walk to the cabin where Keaton and Oliver had set themselves up, right up at the top of the slope that we were occupying – but it was uphill, and by the time we got there, I was panting for breath. I glanced sideways at Aiden. Just like my brother, he was in amazing shape because of all the football practice and the games, and he hadn’t even broken a sweat. He seemed to be breathing normally, too.
Just one more reason for me to feel inadequate.
I made a beeline for the spot on the bench seating next to my brother – he and Aubrey were already seated – and sank down into it with some small relief that I wouldn’t have to sit far away from him.
“Hey,” he said quietly, nudging me with his shoulder. Thankfully, he took care with the motion, or he could have easily knocked me off my perch. “You doing okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said, fixing him with a smile that I hoped would be convincing.
There was enough to pay attention to that I hoped he would be distracted from asking again. I glanced at all the activity bustling around us, trying to take it all in. The other couples were arriving and sitting down, Keaton was rushing around putting plates and bowls on the table, and Oliver was calmly placing big serving platters down in the center of it. It looked as though they’d gone to quite a lot of effort for this welcome meal.
Aiden had sat down on the other side of the table – almost exactly opposite me – next to one of the other football players. I checked my memory, thinking back to our group text conversation and the profile photos attached to it, and I thought that it must be the one they called Davies. He had an open beer in his hand already, and when he cracked the lid off another for Aiden, they cheered and clinked the glass bottles together merrily.
It was overwhelming – around the table, everyone seemed to be talking loudly to and over one another. They all knew each other. They were sharing stories and anecdotes, catching up after having not seen each other for a while, cracking in-jokes. I sat in silence, feeling like a stone sitting in the middle of a river, everyone else rushing like water around me. I’d chosen to sit facing the cabin, which meant the spectacular view was behind me – I couldn’t even pretend I was just awestruck and staring at that.
“Dig in!” Keaton called out at some point, finally taking his seat next to Oliver right on the edge of the bench, and there was a chorus of appreciation as hands shot out for serving spoons and tongs.
I surveyed the food helplessly. There was salad, big chunks of what looked like barbecue-style meat, corn, bread rolls, a whole array of sauces and dips, and even bowls of chips. I didn’t even know where to start.
“Pass me your plate, honey,” Aubrey said, leaning around Caleb to fix me with a motherly smile. “I’ll grab you some things from this side of the table.”
Great. Now I was coming across as so pathetic that everyone wanted to treat me like a child.
Not that I was complaining too loud. “Thanks,” I said, handing the plate over.
I watched her load it up before her own plate, then reached to take it back – only for Caleb to take it without even looking at me, deep in conversation with Oliver and Davies and Jason about some play they’d made in their last game, and continue loading it even more with things from this side of the table.
When he put it down in front of me, still without a word, I wasn’t sure what to feel.
Happy that my brother and his girlfriend were here to take such good care of me and stop me from feeling lost or left out?
