Chapter 8

Michael Estrisden POV

Dinner was as always fancy and kind of gross. Don’t get me wrong everything tasted delicious. As in 5-star restaurant delicious. The problem was:

It reminded him of home

And

It tasted like the chef was trying too hard.

The funny thing is nobody in the family particularly liked this fancy small tasteful cuisine. One of the happiest he had seen his mother was when he stumbled upon her eating a burger. With her hands! That was a particularly nasty afternoon, it left him feeling dirty….

Well anyway, dinner was kind of quiet. Same old same old. Anna had a weird smirk on her face like she had caught onto a joke nobody else had. I didn’t even want to know what was going on within her mind. Mother nibbled delicately on her dinner, perfect table manners as always. (You don’t fool me mother!) Father is in a world of his own you wouldn’t think he was at dinner with his family. The small talk revolved around the weather, mother’s charities, Anna’s end of year exams and who Michael had been spending his time away from his family with. All in all, it wasn’t memorable but it ensured he stayed in his mother’s good graces. A happy reminder of his childhood. I can’t wait to go home.

After dinner, his mother cornered him before he could make his escape. He had planned to spend 25 – 30 minutes hanging with Annabeth. Give her an invitation to stay at his apartment whenever she was in town or wanted to escape the house. (Hopefully she never took him up on that offer)

“You’ve been ignoring my calls sweetie”, she smiled. (The smile terrified Michael)

“Well err… umm”, he stuttered.

She raised an eyebrow.

“To be honest I spent the entire time trying to work out what I did wrong” he said defeatedly.

“Have you?”

“Have I what?”

“Done something wrong?” she asked more amused than evil now.

“I don’t think so… well I hope not. You know I hate disappointing you mother.”

Sara Estrisden laughed a little. “Yes you do. I make sure you do. Well I’m sure your sister has told you by now. You are chaperoning her on Thursday.”

“She did mention it. Although I’m not arguing I don’t understand why you can’t hire one of those professionals that escorted me when I went partying at her age.” (The professionals were pretty much a younger version of Arthur. Worst night ever.)

“Well we kind of want her to enjoy herself… For you we wanted to make sure you didn’t get into trouble.” She smirked. (That doesn’t sound fair.)

“That hurts you know mother.” he gasped. While wiping fake tears.

She laughed and pulled him into a brief hug.

“Goodnight Michael, get home safe.” she dismissed him.

“Goodnight mother”, he smiled thanful to be heading home.

Walking through the main lobby, nodding to Arthur as he passed him. His phone beeped.

“I expect reports” – Father.