Arcanum Hominem (#1)

Chapter 10

I usually regret most of the decisions I make. Going to my mom's house was one of them. I thought this was going to be a small gathering, but of course I was wrong. Did he invite the whole neighborhood? I thought as I walked through the many people chatting it up with each other in the foyer. I rolled my eyes at them having a great time and finally made it to the kitchen, where I put Chase's gift on the counter. It was a simple mug that said 'World's Best Stepdad' on it because he was, but I still didn't want to be here. 

"Scarlett! You made it!" 

I groaned inwardly and slowly turned around to come face to face with my happy go lucky stepdad. He had a large smile on his face and his red hair was slicked back nicely, showing off his pale face and freckles. I put on a fake smile.

"Hi Chase. Yes, I did make it though I won't be able to stay long, maybe an hour tops." I told him off the bat, making sure he wasn't expecting me to stay the night. His smile faltered a bit, but then his face brightened back up.

"That's okay! I'm just glad you could make it, you've really made my birthday." His green eyes started watering and I huffed awkwardly. I didn't know what to do when people got sentimental, so I just stood there. He held his arms out and I stood there looking at them for a second before walking forward and giving him the hug he wanted. 

"Oh! I got you a gift. It's on the counter." I stepped back and gestured to the poorly wrapped mug on the counter. 

"You didn't have to get me anything! Your presence is enough for me." Chase told me as he walked to the island and started unwrapping the gift. His eyes literally lit up like a child on Christmas morning when he saw the mug and those fucking tears welled up in his eyes again. Can he stop that? He hugged the mug close to himself and gave me puppy dog eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted before the words could even come out of his mouth.

"Scarlett, you made it." The deep voice that I dreaded hearing came from behind me. I turned and there in all of her annoying glory, stood my mother. She was wearing an all baby blue sequin dress the stopped mid thigh paired with white knee high boots. The colors went well with her dark skin, though it irked me that she was still able to look so good at her age. I wanted to hate everything about her, but I couldn't deny the truth of her looking good.

"Mom." I rolled my eyes as I greeted her, locking eyes with her.

"I see that attitude of yours is still the highlight of your personality." She commented, giving me a smirk.

"I see you're still pretending to be mother of the year for your colleges." I threw back, knocking the smirk off of her face. She rolled her eyes and waved her hand in the air dismissively. 

"Whatever, don't steal anything." Was the last thing she said before exiting the kitchen. What a lovely person, I thought sarcastically. Chase sighed behind me.

"I'm really sorry about her. I'm trying to get her to be better. I promise I'm trying." Chase moved so that he was in my line of sight. He seemed genuine and I chose to believe him.

"Yeah, whatever. I don't care to form a relationship with her anyway. Let's just get on with this party, I don't have much time." I brushed his words off and walked out of the kitchen and to the crowd of family members and friends. This is why I never come here. It's always a constant cycle of my mom bad mouthing me, my responses to her just as snarky, and then Chase trying to be the mediator. It never works out in the end. I grabbed a red drink from the food table and a plate of cheese and finger sandwiches. I wasn't sure what kind of alcohol was in this, but it sure did make me feel good and I grabbed three more after finishing the first. There, I was nicely buzzed enough to tolerate this shit show, but not too buzzed to where I couldn't drive. I found a little corner in the living room and sat there, eating my sandwiches and watching the people. Everyone was so happy, laughing and playfully hitting each other like they all actually liked each other. How is that possible? I couldn't imagine myself liking so many people at once. Some family members, I think, I wasn't totally sure because I was terrible with faces and names, but they came to try and carry a conversation with me. I made sure to give them short responses so that they would get bored and walk away. All of them did, which made me happy and relax. I looked at the time, it was almost seven which means I had an hour before Killian took care of his business in his basement. Thinking about what could be down there got me excited and I almost left, but wanted to stay here a little longer just for Chase.