Claire jumped right in. "Abigail Marie Hunter, you know that is not true so please do not play the ‘poor me’ game, I am sick and tired of it! You know that I have encouraged the dance company to let you take my place some days, but they will not do it. You are my understudy and that is not my fault. Maybe if you practiced more often and were more dedicated to dance you would be able to be the star of your own show. It’s not my fault that you don’t put the same amount of time into your work as you do your questionable boyfriend!”
You could have cut the tension in the air with a knife as the two girls sat glaring at each other across the table. Mr. Hunter opened his mouth to speak but Bunny raised her hand to stop him.
"Girls, you stop this rude behavior right now! I will not have you arguing like this at a holiday dinner in front of our guests, do you understand me?”
Both Claire and Abby instantly looks remorseful and they apologized to Bunny and to the entire room, but I could tell that they were both really pissed at each other and I felt like it was all my fault. I felt that I had to say something to try to break the ice.
I looked at Abby. “I’m really sorry that I asked, I didn’t mean to stir up any trouble.”
Jonathan gently rubbed my leg, silently letting me know that it was okay, but I still felt horrible. Who knew that the sisters had this kind of animosity toward each other?
Bunny spoke up before anyone else did. "Skylar dear, you have nothing to apologize for. What you witnessed is something that has been going on for years and should have been resolved ages ago. These girls know better.” She gave them both a disapproving look as she finished her sentence.
Things were silent for a couple of minutes and then everyone broke off into different conversations. I was really relieved that the awkward silence was over. There were probably four groups of conversations going on at the same time, and I was talking with Claire, Keegan, Emily, and Jeremy when I heard someone ask me a question. Jonathan was in deep discussion with his uncle Jake and aunt Lauren so he was oblivious to whoever was speaking to me.
“Skylar, have you been there?”
Who is talking to me? I looked around the room to figure out who had just asked me that question and my eyes landed on Abby’s cold, hard eyes.
"I'm sorry Abby, I didn't hear what you were talking about before you asked me the question." I tried to sound as nice as possible because this girl clearly did not like me. What did I ever do to her?
"Barbi and I were just talking about how fantastic Aspen is and counting how many times we had been there. I think everyone at this table has been there at least twice. Have you ever been there?”
The question sounded innocent enough and if anyone else at the table, besides Barbi of course, had asked me I would not even have thought twice about the motive behind asking me that question. I would have just answered them. But I could see that there was an edge of nastiness in her eyes and an air of arrogance in her voice and it made me really uncomfortable. I didn’t like that she made me feel this way and I started to get irritated with her nastiness.
“No, I’ve never been there. Actually, I haven’t really been anywhere outside of the country.”
The look of shock on her face was annoying.
“You haven’t?” She glanced at Barbi and they both started to giggle.
I felt like something was wrong with me with the way they were both looking at me but I held my head up and pushed my shoulders back. I decided I was not going to let these girls intimidate me. For whatever reason Abby did not like me and I knew that Barbi was jealous of my relationship with Jonathan, but that was their problem. Besides, very few people in the world had access to the kind of wealth that these two did.
I looked her squarely in the eye and held her gaze. “No, I haven’t. Why is that funny?”
The tension between us must have been palpable because the table became silent and I could feel all eyes in our direction.
Jonathan must have seen the cold glares exchanged between us because he turned to me and instinctively put his arm around me. He looked back and forth between his sister and me, pausing quickly to also glance at Barbi. A look of concern quickly fell over his face.
“What’s going on here?”
“Nothing Jonny, we were just talking about Aspen.” Abby tried to look innocent but I don’t think she was fooling anyone.
An exasperated sigh escaped his lips as he narrowed his eyes at her. I glanced around the table and my eyes fell on Mr. Hunter who did not look pleased at all. His voice boomed across the table as his eyes turned cool toward his daughter. “Abigail! What did you say to Skylar?”
She looked sheepish as she glanced down at her plate and slowly moved food around with her fork.
“Look at me when I am speaking to you!”
She raised her eyes to his and her face turned ghost white.
“I just asked if she had ever been to Aspen.”
He pursed his lips and clenched his jaw as he ground out his words. “Given the silence in the room, I know that your question was not asked in a genuine manner. Skylar, I apologize for my daughter’s rude behavior, my family and I do not want you to feel uncomfortable in our home in any way.” He looked at Abby and it was the look that a parent has on their face when they are fed up with their child’s behavior. “Abigail, apologize right now!”
She looked at me with apologetic eyes but also was terrified. “I’m sorry I was rude Skylar, I didn’t mean any harm by it.”
“That’s okay.” My words were soft because I couldn’t believe that I was in the middle of this scene.
"It is most certainly not okay and Abigail, I want to speak with you when we are all done with dinner. Everyone, please accept my deepest apology for my daughter’s rude behavior. Now let’s enjoy some of mother’s delicious pumpkin pie which she has been preparing for us all day today.”
Bunny was so cute, she perked up when she heard her pie mentioned and I could also tell that she was happy to have the awkward moment behind us, and so was I.
“Yes, you are all going to love my pie, and if you don’t then don’t tell me. Just let me believe that it’s perfect!”
Everyone laughed, happy to have something to lighten the mood. The rest of dinner was, thankfully, uneventful and we all enjoyed Bunny’s pie which was actually very good. After dinner a few people went to take naps and Jonathan was one of them, he told me he would stop by my room when he woke from his nap. I called my family to wish them Happy Thanksgiving and I could tell that my mom was sad that I wasn’t there. I reassured her that I was having a good time and told her that I would see her in a few short weeks. I was in my room reading one of my textbooks when I heard a light knock at my door. I opened it to see Jonathan’s mom standing there with a friendly smile.