Comfort her?

At eleven, Ethan lacked quite a bit of empathy, but even he could tell Samantha was upset. "You okay?"

"Yeah..." she mumbles, "I'm okay."

Ethan nods, not believing her. "Okay..."

"I'm spending the night at Ashley's," she shrugs, "My mom planned it ahead of time so I'd be out of the way tonight. She sends me there a lot."

Ethan winces upon hearing that. "Yikes... Why don't you stay with your dad? I assume your parents are split." Enough of Ethan's friends have divorced parents for him to know it's fairly common.

"I don't have a dad," Samantha makes a face, something between a pout and a scowl.

Ethan winces again. "Oh, sorry..." he rubs the back of his neck, at a loss on how to follow that up.

Sensing his discomfort, Samantha glance over, her face returning to normal. "Oh, um..." she takes a second to think, choosing her next words very carefully, "I do have a... father... but, I don't have a relationship with, erm, them."

"Oh," Ethan feels like he dodged the dead dad bullet, "Well that sucks."

"Yeah," Samantha frowns, "It does."

The two sit in silence for a moment.

Ethan glances over at Samantha. Looking at her now... Something inside of him shifts. Just a bit. Just enough for him to grow up just a small bit and muster up something new. "Hey, Samantha..."

"Hm?" She looks over, eating her last mini cake.

"Do you..." Ethan almost cringes, "Wanna dance?"

Her eyes widen, and Ethan can see just how blue they are. "Oh... Um, Y-Ye-"

"Samantha!" A voice calls out, turning both her and Ethan's attention off each other. Samantha's mother is calling her over, looking mildly annoyed. "Mrs. Quintero is here to pick you up! Let's go!"

"C-Coming..." Samantha hops to her feet, turning to look at Ethan. "Sorry..." she turns and scampers off, her little legs moving fairly fast.

Watching her go, Ethan feels something inside of him turn off, going dormant for now. Shrugging it off, Ethan lets out an annoyed sigh.

Weddings sucked.