Page 39 of The Perils of Pretending
I start drawing a cat. Maybe if I go through as many animals as possible in the time I have left, someone will finally guess right. We’ve lost every game so far. Every. Game.
At least in this one, we’re tied, down to the final sketch. One point. Our last chance not to be the ultimate losers.
“Cat,” Uncle Jeff says in a bored tone.
I move my hand in a rolling motion, asking him to keep going.
“House cat?” Dorian adds unhelpfully.
I grip the marker tighter, stopping myself from screaming the answer. Drawing arrows, I surround the cat’s tail.
“Oh!” Maude says like she finally knows. “It’s a ta—”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
“Time’s up!” Aunt Kathleen announces, clapping her hands with joy. “We win!”
I snatch the timer off the table, smacking the button to stop the noise.
The other team starts talking, thanking us for a great game.
I force a polite smile, but I’m annoyed, embarrassed, and frustrated. It takes special skills to lose at Uno, The Ultimate Card Game, Taboo, Charades, Sushi Go, and Pictionary, but lose we did.
Dorian puts his hand on my shoulder, squeezing. “Tough loss. At least we had fun.”
No, there was absolutely nothing fun about losing and having Dorian sit too close to me at every table.
“You two are cute together,” Great-Aunt Maude says dreamily. “I bet you’d make adorable kids. And when you move to Alaska, Sadie, your children will get spoiled like they deserve.”
I step away from Dorian, forcing his hand to drop. Everything about that sentence is wrong. We wouldn’t make adorable children, because there will benooffspring between us. I’m not moving to Alaska, andcertainly not to be with the family. My children will get what they need with some wants, but they don’t deserve to be spoiled except on special occasions like birthdays and holidays. Even then,Iwill be the one to spoil them, not the Buttcombes. All morning, Maude’s said stupid things like this.
“I have a boyfriend,” I say through clenched teeth, trying to make my grip on my necklace look casual and not like I’m trying to summon a genie to wish me away from here.
“Posh.” Maude waves my comment away.
I throw my hands up in the air. I can’t win. No matter how many times I say it, Grandma and her sisters don’t care about Max. I hope his grandparents aren’t as rude and dismissive as my family.
Grandma grabs the microphone at the front of the room. “We’ll announce the official winners right after lunch before we play lawn games this afternoon.”
I catch Brody’s eye from across the room. He smiles likes he can’t wait. We better be switching teams. I can’t handle losing another game, or being with Dorian any longer. He keeps touching me. Sure, he makes it seem innocent. A hand to the shoulder, a pat to the forearm, a high-five here or there. But it’s the fact that he’s touching me at all. I told him I didn’t even want friendship with him. Why isn’t he listening?
Before we head upstairs for lunch, I need time to myself. Space away from the noise, my extended family, and Dorian. A moment to decide what activity on my bucket list I’m going to do first that will get me away from here and feel connected to Dad.
“Thanks for playing, everyone.” I wave then head out the back doors that lead to the patio. Walking to the railing, I lean against it, staring out at the water, looking for Captain BR (he’s nowhere to be found). A few boats bob in the waves, fishing lines hanging over the sides. A breeze tickles my cheeks and hair.
“Hey.”
I look over my shoulder to find my brother. “How’d your team do?”
He stands next to me, leaning his forearms on the wood railing. “Fine. Are you okay, Dee?”
“We lost. Every time.”
He nods. His lips are turned down in a frown. “I saw.”
I turn, facing him. “They don’t care about Max. Their disrespect is aggravating.”
“You’re not actually together.”
