Free Freeform by Xavier Neal Page B

world.”
     
    “So you say,” my mother snidely whispers.
     
    “No souvenirs?” Uncle Brett jokes, his huge frame leaning back. “Thought I was your favorite uncle.”
     
    “You're my only uncle,” the correction is met with another bite of the salad.
     
    “Well I've got two brothers,” David tosses himself once more into the conversation. “So that statement won't be true for too much longer.”
     
    Uncle Brett's face scrunches seconds before I snip, “Just because you're banging my mother doesn't make us family.”
     
    “Tucker!” She sharply shrieks.
     
    I catch the sight of June's mouth cracking open before I have another bite of my salad.
     
    “I'm going to need something stronger,” Aunt Brandi sighs finishing the last of her wine.
     
    “That makes two of us,” Uncle Brett mumbles.
     
    “It's fine,” David insists. “He's entitled to feel protective. The aggression is understandable.”
     
    “You haven't seen me be aggressive.”
     
    “Tucker,” my mother warns sharply.
     
    I roll my head her direction. “You can say more than my first name mother. Perhaps my middle? The one named after the husband you're trying poorly to replace.”
     
    “Oooo,” Aunt Brandi tisks. “Not...not good...”
     
    “Flag on the play for unsportsmanlike conduct,” Uncle Brett grunts.
     
    His sports references typically only come out when he's extremely uncomfortable, which isn't something you would think an ex NFL player could get.
     
    “I'm not here to replace your father,” David calmly states.
     
    “You never could even if you wanted to.”
     
    “It's understandable how you might come to that conclusion with me in what used to be his home, eating dinner with what used to be his wife, from what used to be his chair-”
     
    “My father never sat there.” I reach for my previously untouched wine glass. “He sat beside the woman he loved every night he could because that's where a man in love sits.” Our eyes meet and I push, “ Beside the woman he's devoted to. Not across.”
     
    “Tucker,” my mother's growl gets fierce. “That's enough.”
     
    “Is that why you're sitting beside June?” David throws back at me.
     
    Don't...read....into that. I fall in love as easily as I fall out of it.
     
    “You're a psychologist, aren't you?”
     
    “Would that sway your opinion of me?”
     
    “For sleeping with a patient or using babble bullshit in an attempt to irritate me?”
     
    “You're the one who started putting meaning behind seating-”
     
    “And you're the one trying a co-parenting speech to a twenty-six year old.”
     
    “Enough!” June's voice breaks the conversation unexpectedly. She makes an attempt to lift her hands and bumps her wrist against the table. Despite possible discomfort she fumbles to say, “Adults.” The frustration on her face forces me to settle back down as does the deep breath she expels. “We're all adults. How about we....behave...like it?”
     
    “What the assistant said,” Uncle Brett backs her up.
     
    “June,” the annoyance twitches my eyes his direction. “Her. Name. Is. June.”
     
    He tries not to grin. “My apologies.” When his eyes move back to her, he gives her a nod. “I'm sorry, June. I'll make sure to remember your name.”
     
    “It's quite alright,” she mutters, face dropping down to look at the table. “Really. No one...ever...does. It's fine,” her whisper tries to hold steady yet fades to the point I almost miss the tail end of it, “No one ever will.”
     
    I don't agree with her there. And one day I wanna know who taught her to believe that.
     
    Thankfully, the next part of the course is brought in, moving along this living hell.
     
    “So everything has been finalized for the reception,” my mother calmly informs, giving her blonde hair a nervous touch. “I'm very grateful you will be attending, Tucker.”
     
    I don't reply.
     
    “We all are very grateful for that.” Aunt Brandi pins me with a