Honte

Chapter Three

Parties at Honte were relatively small gatherings. Composed of less than thirty people, you could usually finish talking with everyone in the room in about an hour. The lack of people was made up for by the lavishness of the buffets that made Honte parties one of a kind. One memorable party had a staircase-shaped sushi bar that was virtually unlimited—another involved freshly made pasta sauce and a lot of authentic linguini.

There wasn't much verbal bragging when it came to clothes, as everyone pretty much looked just as lavish as the person next to them. Jewels, on the other hand, were cause for verbal barbs about size, authenticity and most of all, price.

Unlike the other women, Emma hardly wore shiny things to the Honte parties, save for the twenty-carat engagement ring Tomas gave her on the eve of their wedding. Tonight was no different.

"Your uncle will be back tomorrow morning as well," she told me, as we drove off. "He called me up while you were sleeping to let you know."

"Great," I said. I hadn't seen Uncle Tomas even longer than Aunt Emma. His job usually kept him away from the village for days on end... an arrangement perfect for someone who refused to involve himself in intra-village politics.

The welcome cocktail party was pretty much a bust since only about one or two kids had arrived early and hardly any of the older men had come to the party. Instead, the party was rife with women and only about three guys: Theo Santorini, Robert Evermore and Nathan Blake. As usual, Aunt Emma rushed off to her friends Elizabeth Coddington and Rachel Evermore, leaving me to fend for myself beside the drinks table.

I picked up a tall glass of apple juice masquerading as champagne and found a seat away from the throng of older women gathered at the centre of the Sorrel balcony.

"Still an outsider?"

"Oh,"

Desanna Evermore sat herself behind me. The eldest child of Anderson and Rachel Evermore, she was a notorious party girl that barely made it through her four-year culinary arts course at a cooking school in Venice. Best friends with Lucianna Carsichi, the young mistress of Jeffrey Faust, Dessy enjoyed frequenting the Arrow Club almost every night for drinks and a good time.

"I wouldn't be surprised, Abernathy. Once you get old, things never change.

I noticed her look at Nathan Blake-Santorini from the corner of her eye. "He's even worse than you are. But he's doing pretty well—med school, rumored girlfriend, lost virginity. I heard he didn't even wanna come back home for the summer."

"I know I didn't."

"Lemme guess: they threaten to cut you off?"

"No, it wasn't like..."

"Whatever. Just nice to see you back."

"Nice to see you too..." I watched 'Dessy' flirtatiously approach Nathan as I drank.

Just like me, Nathan was an outsider in Honte eyes. Growing up, none of the Honte boys liked him because of his strange tendency to obsess over girls. But despite his quirks, Nathan was actually a pretty smart guy. He managed to get into a challenging pre med course at one of the country's top schools, and was on his way to a good job once he graduated.

"Still not over me?" I knew that voice from a mile away.

"Theo... it's been so long."

Theodore Santorini: known as one of the less gifted Honte boys. He got kicked out at the end of his freshman year at UCLA and ended up with an athletic scholarship for a community college close to Shaleport. Since he studied the closest to home, Theo held (and still continues to) hold the distinction of being the only Honte kid who doesn't leave the village to go to school. He's also the only Honte boy that I've ever dated... only because his parents were so nice to me.