46

                                    

                                          
When the table was cleared after dinner, everyone went their separate ways. Dad demanded a conversation with Violet in his office. Unsurprisingly, it turned into a screaming match that could be heard by everyone downstairs. Jared remained in the dining room, not looking the least bit bothered about the tension, which only pissed me off more. I'd be feeling guilty if I was him for causing issues between my girlfriend and her family, but he seemed almost pleased with himself.
It was only further proof that he wasn't right for her.
And clearly, dad agreed. 
When they returned, he 'suggested' to Jared that he should leave since it was late. I glanced at my watch. It wasn't even eight o'clock yet. That caused another round of arguing between Violet and dad that ended with Vi storming off up to her room and slamming the door. None of us bothered to say goodbye to Jared.
Things remained a little tense after that, especially between my parents. Mom seemed annoyed at him, most likely for blowing up like that during dinner, but they rarely discussed things in front of the rest of us. When they argued, it was always in the privacy of their bedroom. Although often, they'd yell loud enough for us to hear anyway. 
And nine times out of ten, it would end with their bed creaking. 
Grandma aimed straight for her favourite armchair in the lounge, the one by the window overlooking the garden, and immediately fell asleep. I wasn't surprised after the number of whiskeys she'd drank during dinner. Ash placed the baby in her arms and the two slept peacefully in the corner without stirring for the next couple of hours.
Meanwhile, my parents, Ash and James, Alex, Jay, Rose and I gathered around the coffee table to play some board games. The others all ran off to play in the games room upstairs together. "Okay." Mom clapped her hands together to gain everyone's attention, not keeping her voice down at all despite grandma's snoring in the corner. "We have snakes and ladders," she announced, rattling the box before dropping it onto the table, "Articulate," she shook another box and dropped it unceremoniously onto the other, "or Uno. Everything else has pieces missing."
"What the hell is Articulate?" Ash asked from her side. They were nearing the end of their second bottle of wine now and were passed the point of tipsy. 
Mom shrugged. "Let's find out."
She started tipping the contents of the box out until she found the instructions. "Aha!" she held the slip of paper up and narrowed her eyes. "You get thirty seconds to describe an object to your team."
"So, we need to be in teams?" I asked.
She nodded. "Shall we just do couples?" she glanced at me and Rose and then Ash and James, who nodded in agreement.
"Hang on a fucking minute!" Alex snapped while Jay started making kissing noises from his side. I smirked and beside me, Rose started to laugh. "We're not a couple."
Jay slung an arm around his shoulders. "Why are you so ashamed of our love?"
"Fuck off," Alex muttered while the rest of us laughed.
"You two can have your little lovers spat later," I said before turning back to my mom. "How do we play?" 
Alex grumbled something I didn't bother to listen to while mom cleared her throat. "You draw a card and there's a list of items on it," she read out, "you have to describe the items in thirty seconds and the number of correctly guessed words is how many spaces you get to move on the board."
I nodded, knowing there was no way we could lose this with the size of Rose's brain. 
I was wrong. 
"It's a planet," she said."