Unpredictable • cth

47

Ella

"Just throw it back, worry about the burn later!"

I cringed at my Uncle Luke's words, watching intensely as he throws the shot of tequila back with no shame. His head shaking before calling after his wife for another, quickly grabbing a lime to suck on with clenched teeth. His death grip was only getting tighter, shaking my body side to side before discarding the lime into a near by bin. Each shake spilling a bit more of the tequila out of my glass, thankfully so.

The majority of the eyes in the room had fallen on my uncle and I, mainly due to the fact that Uncle Luke was quickest to get break his sober shell. He is probably the loudest person in the entire room, yelling down into my ear constantly about taking the shot before stealing it from my hand and taking it himself. So I've been given a total of three different shots and haven't taken a single one.

The concert had been over for about two hours now, the fans had seemingly disappeared from the arena and the crew just had just finished cleaning up and dismantling the majority of the equipment. So here we are, the mismatched family of 11 are all sprawled around backstage watching Uncle Luke try and have a shot with me, which my father is completely condoning. Though for the first hour after he yanked me away, my dad did chase us around demanding that I was not coursed into any underage drinking but soon gave up after my uncles first round.

Ryder and Caleb have been seated on the couch giving me thumbs up, trying to mouth that I need to fake that I haven't taken a shot before, since the first time we had a tequila shot was two years ago when the two bozos came over to my house one night and broke into my fathers liquor cabinet. Let's just say Ryder and I were on really good terms then and Caleb really enjoyed swimming naked in pool before the gardener caught him the next morning asleep on a raft.

We aren't party kids, no where near, but when you hear stories about your parents as teenagers you can only dream of living life the way they did. Meaning we would do stupid shit when we were depressed about them leaving on tour, wake up the next day feeling a bit better and pretend that nothing happened. It's a very thrilling cycle that we find ourselves in, especially when Mia gets fucking legless, but that's a memory for another time.

Speaking of Mia is currently playing some game with her father off at the table, her eyes flicking up and down from the board every few seconds to see if I've managed to take the shot yet, which truthfully every time i'm about to my uncle takes it out of my hand and throws it back his own throat. She laughs in my direction, giving me the same look that Ryder and Caleb have been sending me for the past 30 minutes when the shots started being placed in my hands.

My head turned upward, looking up at the man with the scruffy beard that was slightly overgrown, his curls sweaty and sticking to his forward due to the high of the concert and now the alcohol. His hand squeezing my bicep hard, rocking us side to side before he looked down at me with a shit eating smile.

"Ella, my future daughter-in-law, please take a shot with this old man!" My uncle shouted into my ear sending my entire body shooting back in a way to get away from the now overly tipsy uncle, his arm keeping a firm hold on me as he pulled me back into his side with Aunt S walking up with two shots for either of us.

"If I do, will you let go?" I laughed lightly as I pushed my body slightly farther into his own reaching across to grab the shot glass from my aunt.

"God no!" He shouted, pulling us back slightly. "We are connected at the hip for the rest of the night!"

I shook my head with a breathy laugh breaking through my lips, his glass tapping against my own before he started a count down from 3. My eyes grew wide as I looked over to my father who abruptly stopped his conversation with Uncle Ash as he watched the glass slowly raise to my lips.