Matters over Dinner

He sat uncomfortably at the table, slowly twirling his fork at the spaghetti on his plate. He was hungry, he was all the time now. But that didn't encourage him to eat the food before him. It would've been okay, had they not been playing some pathetic happy families charade. He jabbed his fork at the plate and shoved a mouthful angrily into his mouth. The little girl was watching him with interest, trying to calculate his movements. Damn, why did she have to be here? She was pulling him apart. He would've long left this place if it hadn't of been for her.

"Terrier, is something wrong?" Cameron asked in what sounded to be a concerned voice. He knew better than to accept his stories, his acts of supposed kindness. He meant none of it.

Still, the girl was at the table. He clasped his hand tight around the fork to try and stop his hands from shaking. "No."

"Why don't you tell us about it?"

Terrier bit his tongue. He wanted him to have an outburst. He wanted him to lose control in front of the girl so he could be sent away from the room. Heck, he's give anything to blurt it out right then and there - Chloe, your mum's a traitor, your uncle's a murderer and you need to run away now and don't ever come back - but he couldn't. He couldn't see all her beliefs crumble. Her smile fade. And so he settled with, "it doesn't matter."

It did. The game had changed now. Everything mattered.

[263 words]