Really eleven?

"Are you really eleven?" Ethan asks.

"No," Samantha frowns, "I'm ten for another three weeks. I told you that."

Ethan rolls his eyes. "But you're..."

"Short?"

The word stabs into Ethan like a dagger, one she's wielded many times before. "Yeah..."

Samantha sighs, biting off a shrimp. "So? Lots of people are short."

Recontextualizing, Ethan considers something. "Oh, are you a dwarf?"

"What?" Samantha's jaw slacks, "Like from 'Lord of the Rings'?"

"No, no! You know, like, Vern Troyer?"

"Who?"

"Uh," Ethan thinks, "The little dude from Austin Powers?"

Samantha rolls her eyes, "Ethan, I'm not a fucking midget."

"Whoa, uh..." Something about hearing the word 'fucking' come out of her mouth makes Ethan deeply uncomfortable. "You're not supposed to say that word..."

"Fuck or midget?"

Ethan considers the question. "Both?"

Samantha looks pensive for a moment. "Hm. Okay," she pops another mini cake in her mouth.

Turning away from her, Ethan sighs, watching the crowd of people. He notices one of the bridesmaids is talking to his father, laughing quite a bit at something he said, reaching her hand out and touching his shoulder. Glancing over, he sees his mom sitting at a table with a few other people, taking drinks of brown liquid out of tiny glasses. Turning his gaze back to his dad, he sees the woman laughing again, at some other unheard joke.

"My mom's flirting with your dad," Samantha states, chewing on a shrimp. "Like, a lot."

"What?" Ethan looks at the bride's maid again, closer. She doesn't really look like Samantha, except for the fact she's kind of on the short side. Ethan looks at her feet, noticing she's wearing heels. Ethan sees where Samantha gets it from now. "My moms, like, twenty feet away..."

"Eh," Samantha shrugs, "She doesn't care about that kinda thing. Wouldn't be the first home my mom wrecked."

Ethan looks at Samantha for a beat then back to their parents in horror. Is he looking at his potential step-mom? Is he sitting next to his future step-sister? Something about that second thought sits funny in Ethan's gut, a feeling he wouldn't be able to process for a few years.

The thought dies when Ethan's mom walks up to her husband, apparently done drinking, turning him away from the giggling bridesmaid and giving him what could most modestly be described as a sloppy drunken kiss.

Ethan recoils, watching his mother shove her tongue down his father's throat. "Eugh..."

"Wow..." Samantha takes a bite out of a shrimp, chewing it, "Is she always like that?"

"Not always..." Ethan looks away, "Just when she's been drinking."

Samantha considers that, watching Ethan's father pull his wife off of his face and walking her off to the washroom. She also watches her own mother sigh, then start looking around the room with some sort of intent in her eye. Sighing, Samantha looks down at her plate.