Kieran Tate is the type of person who just floats through life. He had a somewhat average childhood, has somewhat average grades, and isn't really anything special. That's the way he likes it to be; do all of the needed tricks without falling off th...
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"Kieran!" my mom says frantically. "Is e-everything in place? The forks, the spoons, the napkins—are they all set?"
She takes one look at the dining table and nearly passes out. She anxiously soothes down her modest white dress before rearranging the table I just set as a bead of sweat lines her brow.
"No. No, no, no," she mumbles. "It's wrong, it's all wrong. The forks should be on the left, everything else on the right!"
When her fumbling hand doesn't let her perform the task perfectly, she drops the loose silverware to the table with a big clang. She puts her hand to her forehead before madly darting to the kitchen to now nitpick everything Jackson does.
"Bud, that's not the proper cutting technique for the vegetables!" she says exasperatedly, wringing her hands together with anxiety.
She takes the knife from Jackson's hands and she starts dicing the celery in the exact same way that Jackson just was. She wipes the back of her hand across her sheen forehead before continuing her shaky chopping.
Me and Jackson's eyes connect, and it goes without saying that we are worried about Mom.
The doorbell rings and Mom nearly jumps out of the hair tie at the end of her flawless braid when she usually prefers a messy, loose look.
"Oh, no," she mutters. "Oh, no, no, no, no. They weren't supposed to be here yet."
She scrambles over to the door only to release a sigh of relief when Cassius is on the other side. However, her second of calm is cut short when a wave of panic washes over her.
Cassius gives her a strange look when she doesn't greet him as she normally does. He has no chance to say anything, though, as she starts pacing in the middle of the living room, biting her fingernails into small stubs.
"Oh, gosh," she whimpers. "Where's Lilah? S-She's supposed to be over any minute."
Cassius walks over to me silently and kisses me on the cheek in greeting, but I'm still eyeing my mother, who seems to be suffering from a nervous breakdown.
"Mom," I say wearily. "Are you okay?"
"Okay?" she questions back, her eyes hectically flitting around the house to make sure nothing is out of place. "O-Of course!" she answers. "Of course I'm okay. It's not l-like my parents are coming over anything for the first time ever or anything. Everything's fine. Everything i-is j-just fine. And I—"
She clutches a hand over her chest like she can't breathe. She has no choice but to collapse onto the couch as her legs give out from the amount of stress she is putting on herself.
"Mom?!" Jackson says in concern.
Jacks, Cassius, and I all instantly rush to her aid as she starts to wheeze and becomes pale.
"C-Cam," she gasps. "Please, get C-Cam."
Before either Jackson or I can get our father, Cassius jumps up and runs down the hallway to fetch him. Unrelenting knocks are heard from deep within the hallway. After the sound of the opening door and a few quiet words are exchanged, Dad comes racing into the living room half-dressed, one arm out of his prim collared shirt as he rushes to his wife's side.
