The Life and Times of Abigail Sherman (and Other Such Adventures)

Chapter 4: All Fun Must Come to an End

Alani and Nora had returned to the table and everyone was eating their ice cream in near silence. As one of the only people not involved in this conflict, Riley was incredibly uncomfortable. She tried to ignore what was going on around her. She decided to focus on her ice cream instead of the people around her. Riley had about three ice cream flavors that she liked: bubble gum, vanilla, and caramel. She typically chose one of these three, but when peach ice cream was in season she would sometimes pick that. Anyway, today she had chosen caramel. She loved the sweetness of it and the way it melted in your mouth. Riley had never understood the salted caramel craze. Her caramel was perfectly fine unsalted, thank you very much! She wasn't really one for sweet and salty together but absolutely loved caramel on its own. That was how she first fell in love with Kingston's, in fact, she had found out they had plain old caramel ice cream. Delicious caramel ice cream, she would say now that she had had it several times.

Unfortunately, Riley was forced to come back to reality as a boy walked into the store. He wore a striped shirt, jeans, and a smile. He walked towards the table and pulled up a chair right between Riley and Charlotte, which Riley didn't like at all but Charlotte seemed to like a great deal.

"Eddie! I didn't think you were going to be able to make it," she shrieked.

"Well, neither did I, but my sister was going out so my mom said I could too. Anyway, it's good to see you all...and a new face! Drew, introduce me to your lovely friend, will you?" And so Alani was introduced to Edward as Charlotte called for yet another ice cream. Suddenly, though it made no sense to Riley, everyone seemed to become friends again. The awkward silence was gone, and they all talked happily for a while. There were still hints of the hostility from earlier, such as Charlotte glaring at Alani or Drew rolling his eyes at something Abigail said, but it was mostly gone.

When it started to get dark, they all knew it was time to go home. Nora was the first to go, she waved to them and headed outside to get in her dad's silver car. Next was Abigail. Then Edward. Finally, Riley got a text from her mom that said she was waiting outside for them.

"Come on, Charlotte," Riley said sleepily, "time to go." And so they too waved goodbye to their remaining friends and headed out into the cool night air.

"Hi, girls!"

"Hey, Aunt Carrie! Thanks for picking us up," Charlotte said to Riley's mom.

"It's no trouble at all, sweetie, I'm just sorry Ella didn't get to see you. But you know how it is, she's always so busy!"

"Yeah," Charlotte said, "it's been awhile since I've seen Aunt Ella! How is her new job?" Carrie and Charlotte chatted for a few minutes about Ella's new job and about how Charlotte's trip had been, but Riley zoned out. She was still thinking about what had happened at the ice cream place and decided she better talk to Charlotte about it. Of course, that was going to prove difficult considering how short the car ride was and how much her mom liked to talk.

"Char," Riley said when her mom had finally stopped talking, "why were you so mean to Drew's girlfriend? I thought you said you were excited to meet her."

"I did want to meet her! Just not like that. I don't have any problems with her, I just wish Drew wouldn't bring her along on events that are supposed to be for us only."

"Then why did you invite Edward?" Riley teased.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Charlotte said, blushing, "he's one of us, he's a friend."

"I don't know," Riley said, "seems to me like you think of him a little bit differently than a friend."

"Oh, be quiet," Charlotte said with a laugh.

"I'm just saying, you better watch out! If you think you're just friends, you're probably in for a surprise pretty soon."

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"What do you mean?" Abigail asked angrily. She glanced over at her sisters and tried to see if they were as confused as she was. After all, her dad couldn't possibly have a new girlfriend.

"I meant exactly what I said, and I want you all to meet Rita and her family tomorrow after school. We're all going to get some dinner together, doesn't that sound nice?" Abigail's dad asked desperately.

"No!" Shouted Julia, glaring at her father. "I don't want you to do that, it'll be just like Mom and Nathan!"

"Well Rita and I aren't getting married yet, honey, we just met. Besides, there was nothing wrong with Mom and Nathan getting married, they were together for a very long time and really love each other. Don't you want Mom to be happy?"

"Not really," Julia said with a harsh laugh, "she doesn't want us to be happy." Abigail couldn't help but laugh as well. As much as she and her mother didn't always get along, it was a lot worse for Julia.

"Now that's just not true," their dad said sternly. "Mom loves you very much! We both do." Julia rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to say more, but at that point, Hazel started crying from the other room and conversation was cut short.

"Can you believe him?" Julia whispered as their dad went to check on the baby.

"Maybe Rita won't be so bad.." Abigail tried to reassure her sister, but she was having trouble believing it herself.

"She has kids, Abby, we're going to have to spend time with them," she grumbled. "At least Nathan didn't have kids."

"You were just complaining about Nathan earlier," Abigail said with a laugh.

"Yeah, well, I don't like him. It's annoying enough having him living at our house, now I have to deal with someone hanging around all the time here too?"

"I know," Abigail said solemnly, giving up on trying to convince her sister everything would be alright. "Why don't you go to bed? We can't do anything about it tonight." And with that, both sisters headed off to their rooms for the night.

The next day Abigail could hardly focus on anything. She walked around in a daze, trying to make sense of her world. It was only the second day of school and already two people were trying to introduce her to their new dates. If this kept up, she wasn't sure she was going to be able to make it through the rest of the school year. She wasn't quite sure why it bothered her so much. After all, she loved meeting new people. But something about these situations felt different to her, and she couldn't quite place her finger on it.

When she got home, Abigail went up to her room to find something suitable to wear. She had been told the restaurant was pretty nice, so she wanted to make sure she looked good. She searched through her closet until she found a blue floral dress and some black flats. Abigail wasn't sure why they had to go to some fancy restaurant to meet Rita and her kids, but she never complained about an opportunity to dress up.

"Abigail, can you get Hazel in her car seat?" Her dad yelled up to her.

"Uh, yeah, sure" she responded, "just a minute." She put the finishing touches on her hair and ran downstairs to help Hazel into the car. Once Hazel was all buckled up, Abigail slid in next to her to keep her company. As she read her sister her favorite picture book, she couldn't help but think about what Rita and her kids would be like. She didn't know what this dinner would bring, but she was sure it wouldn't be good.

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A/N: Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear any comments you have, so don't be shy! Life has gotten pretty crazy, but I'm still trying to update every Saturday (and so far I'm succeeding). A few questions to get the conversation going: Who is your favorite character so far and why? Do you think Charlotte and Abigail were unfair to Alani? Has the story got you hooked?

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to comment, vote, and let me know if I could do anything better!