Crisis Of Desire

< XLI >

Celine Elloise Dufort:

'Remind me why we're eating lunch together again?' Marco sighs as he takes a seat in his chair. 

He knows exactly why, he just wants to act interesting in front of Leya. If he still didn't get the point, that she's not fucking interested, he's more of an idiot than I thought. 

'You know why.' Leon chimes as he pours some wine into a bunch of glasses. 'Rio has an appointment later.' 

'And since Cel wants us to act like a happy family and demands we eat at least one meal together, here we are.' Rio smirks, sipping the wine Leon just poured for us. 

'It's not like you haven't been enjoying it for the past months.' I smile as I look at the girls. They seem to enjoy it too. Everyone does, yet they continue to complain about it. Especially the boys. Rio and Marco. 

'What is it you have to do again?' Brandon asks as he grabs a piece of bread and stares at all the other things he can eat. We all grab our stuff and wait for Rio to answer, which takes longer than expected. 

I know it has something to do with Skull. They talked about it last night, without me of course. They think, mostly Rio and Leon, that I can't handle it. Especially since it was Jayden's birthday yesterday.

They treated me like I was made out of glass, too fragile to talk to or even include in any of their plans. 

'That's actually none of your concern.' Oh wow. We all look at him as he simply sips away his words as if they mean nothing. 'It is if you want to take up my time.' 

'Let's talk about something else!' Leon smirks as he turns to me. He certainly notices the tension. 

But now that he's looking at me, I just wish we could watch Brandon and Rio bicker a bit more. 

'What do you want for your birthday tomorrow?' I wish he wasn't sitting on the other side of the table, that way I could smack him as hard as I can. 'It's your birthday tomorrow?' Leya and Neveah ask curiously. 

I sigh deeply and look at Leonardo, ready to kill him for blurting it out like that. 

I've been able to keep it a secret from them for the past months, simply because I know how they're going to act if they knew. 

'Yes, she's turning twenty-five tomorrow.' Brandon chimes, making me glare at him as well. 

They both know how much I hate celebrating my birthday. Yet they keep pushing me every year. 'You're turning old, ma chérie.' 

Of-fucking-course, Kai has to say something about it. And he has to use those fucking exact words. 

'Why didn't you tell us?' Neveah asks a little hurt by the fact that I didn't tell her. 'It's nothing special.' 'Bitch you're turning twenty-five! That's something!' 

Here we go... 'We have to go to a club or something.' Leya suggests, instantly hyping Brandon up. He loves clubbing and he has been trying to convince me to celebrate my birthday for years.

Every time I had to decline, something I have to do again this time. 

'Oh god yes! And we could go shopping, I need a new outfit!' I roll my eyes and look at the others for support, but they don't seem to fucking care. 

'No. We're not-' 'Oh and we need to buy her some presents, cook her her favorite food and all that!' They seem to love planning all of this more than anything. 

But it's not happening. 

'Look, I-' 'Wait, is there something you want? Maybe we could put all of our money together and buy you that car you liked?' Brandon suggests, making my eyes widen.