Bleed Until You Heal

24- Dinners

Twenty-four people had showed up to support me at the gallery showing tonight. Including me, that's twenty-five people, which means that it's a good thing that I asked Scott to pick a good restaurant for us to go to afterwards because the party room at the steak house sat all twenty-five of us comfortably around many grouped tables.

Once we are all seated, there's a dull buzz of chatter around the room so I stand up from my seat and get everybody's attention before speaking.

"I just want to take a moment to thank everybody for coming out tonight, I know that it was a long trip for most of you. It really means a lot to me that you are all here tonight to see what I've been putting so much of my soul into. I love all of you so much and I couldn't have asked for this night to go any better so just thank you. Anyway, I tried to introduce everybody to each other at the gallery but I know that I probably missed a few of you and I know that not all of you know each other, so I'll introduce everybody again."

And so I go through all of the names of the people that are there. Beside me, there's Sienna and then Bennett in his car seat on a sling thing, Penn, Annabelle in a high chair, Declan in his highchair, Stella, Andrew, Wyatt, Emma, Mason, Colton in his highchair, Brian. On the other side of the table, Uncle Chase, Jenny, Terrance, Nick, Haven, Noah, Conner, Jasper, Aiden, and then across from me, Ana and Niles, with Scott (who I introduced as my boyfriend, with read cheeks) sitting beside me.

Sitting back down, the waiters come around and take our drink orders.

"So, how do you feel? Surviving your first show and all," Sienna asks me.

"Surreal," I say. "I still can't believe that it went so well. And so many people showed up."

"Of course we did, this is huge," Ana pipes. "It would have been absolutely awful of us if we didn't fly in for your big night- and also to meet your boyfriend, who I've heard much about."

"All good things, I hope," Scott says and I can hear the smirk in his voice as my face flushes red.

"You all secretly hate me," I decide. "Your life goal is to humiliate me."

"What? No, that's not humiliating," Ana tells me with a shake of her head. "What's humiliating is that Niles was afraid to jump into the water when we were coasteering in Wales last month."

"How did I become the victim in this?" Niles wonders beside his girlfriend.

"Better you than me," I offer him a 'good luck' smile. "Anyway, what's coasteering?"

"It's basically like exploring the caves and cliffs and going on nature walks but then you get to jump off of cliffs into the water. It was beautiful. A wonderful way to get in touch with nature. But poor Niles thought that he saw a shark in the water, so he wouldn't jump."

"There was a shark," He insists.

"If there was a shark, it would have eaten me when I jumped or when the other people jumped." She giggles at him and shakes her head. "See? Now, that's humiliating. But thinking that your boyfriend's eyes light up the eastern seaboard isn't embarrassing. It's adorable."

"Oh my, God," I groan, recognizing that phrase from something that I told Sienna a few days ago over the phone, who probably told Penn, who told Ana. I want to murder all three of them. "I'd rather get attacked by a shark than to be sitting here right now."

Scott wraps his arm around my waist and kisses my temple as if to comfort me. I don't feel comforted.

"Leave my poor sister alone," Sienna comes to my defense but she's laughing. "I embarrassed her enough this afternoon. I mean, in my defense, I didn't know that he could hear me but still."