Dinner and a Show

The meal was progressing at an agonizingly slow pace. Aiden took a small bite of his food while glancing at everyone around the table. Silas had already finished his second glass of wine and was having the third one filled. Luckily, no one else was drinking that fast but who knew what could happen. Cameron kept looking at William and Silas as if waiting for the inevitable explosion between the two. Things were getting increasingly awkward with the persistent silence so Aiden decided to throw caution to the wind.

"The food's amazing. It's almost as good as Mrs. Hudson's." Cameron looked relieved that someone had finally spoken and quickly agreed, hoping to change the atmosphere.

"It is, isn't it? The food's always delicious here."

"Hmph! It better be. The chef was trained at a three Michelin starred restaurant," William added. The conversation seemed to wither and die after that. Meanwhile, Lyla had a waiter fill another glass of wine for her. As the silence continued, Aiden realized that Derek's inability to communicate well was hereditary. Cameron didn't want to give up though so he tried to start another conversation.

"So Derek, how was the vacation you all took to Hawaii?"

"Fine." With just one word, another conversation met its untimely end. In just that short amount of time, Silas had two more glasses of wine, Derek had another, and Lyla had two more. The people at nearby tables would occasionally glance over to see how things were going but for the most part they had gone back to talking amongst themselves. After Lyla finished another glass of wine, Aiden heard a hiccup.

"Oh no," he whispered under his breath. Who gets drunk that fast? "Spencer."

"What?" He was startled and looked confused as to why Aiden was speaking to him all of a sudden.

"Don't you think it would be good for you to take Lyla outside for some air?"

"Huh? No, I'm eating." Aiden hit his forehead again and groaned in exasperation.

"I don't *hic* need any air. *hic*" Lyla tried to call the waiter back again but Derek took her glass and set it down out of her reach. He stood up and pulled her out of her chair by her arm. She staggered when she stood up.

"Let's go."

"Go? Go where? Is… *hic* Is there wine there? *hic*

"Out." Derek walked her out of the hall. Spencer and Becca just kept eating, totally unbothered. Silas chuckled.

"She's a bit of a light-weight, isn't she?"

"Maybe you should slow down too, Dad," Cameron advised. Aiden silently agreed as he had lost count of how many glasses Silas had gulped down in just a short amount of time.

"Nah! I'm fine, you know me." After saying that, Silas drank the last drop from his glass again and singled for the waiter to refill it. Just then, Derek returned without Lyla and he too had his glass refilled. "Where's the wife?" Silas teased.

"Resting." Derek drained his glass and refilled it.

"So what are you planning on doing now that that woman you brought is drunk?" William spoke again and Derek took another sip of wine before answering.

"I'm not sure what you mean. My plan isn't any different now than it was when she was sober."

"Which is what?"

"Eat. Drink. Leave."

"Of course you'd say something irresponsible like that. You should have kept her from drinking in the first place if you knew she couldn't control herself. Instead we were faced with such a ridiculous embarrassment! You should take responsibility for your wife!"

"I have."

"Not as far as I can see."

"Then you may want to visit an eye doctor." Derek took another sip of wine. "If you must know, I already sent for the car. The driver should be out front any moment now."

"Oh, I see. So you're going to use her as an excuse to leave early."

"No. I'm sending her back with Becca and Spencer once they're done eating." Becca interrupted at that point.

"What? I don't want to! Why do we have to go back early?!"

"To take care of your mother."

"Then why just the two of us? What about Aiden? Shouldn't he go too?"

"It's up to him." Becca glared at Aiden who smiled back at her.

"I'll stay."

"No! That's not fair!"

"Becca. You're going and that's final." Derek's expression made it clear that he was done talking about it. With nothing left to say, Becca folded her arms and waited for Spencer to finish his last few bites of food. After that, a servant came in and informed Derek that the driver was there and that Lyla had already been helped into the car. Derek stood up and motioned to Becca and Spencer. "I'll walk you out." Reluctantly, Becca followed after her brother and Derek.

When Derek came back in, he was massaging his temples. He had the waiter come back over to fill his glass and he told him to just leave the bottle. William shook his head but Silas grinned.

"Ha ha! That's my boy!"

"What a ridiculous thing to be proud of. Just what are you teaching your sons?" The bickering started all over again. Derek stayed out of it this time and just continued to drink while Cameron tried, and failed, to mediate. Aiden was watching everything unfold and he couldn't help but think that all he needed now was some popcorn to eat while watching the show. There wasn't much else he could do.

As the banquet started to wind down, people started heading home. William had left the hall during one of his many arguments with Silas and Silas had said his goodbyes shortly after that. It seemed Derek wanted to drink more so Cameron kept Aiden company for a while. It wasn't until Derek looked like he was about to fall asleep at the table that they decided it was a good time to leave. Almost everyone was already gone.

Cameron helped Aiden get Derek up from the chair. They each put one of his arms over their shoulders and struggled to get him to the car.

"Geez! He's way heavier than he looks," Aiden complained. Thankfully, Milo saw them when they got outside and he helped them get Derek down the stairs and into the back seat without much trouble.

"I'm sorry about all this," Cameron told Aiden. "It's probably a lot more than you bargained for."

"There's no need to apologize. It's not like you caused any of this. Besides, it was my aunt that got drunk first, remember?"

"What about him?" Cameron pointed to Derek.

"Milo can help me get him back in the house. It's fine."

"Alright. Thank you, really." Aiden nodded and waved as Cameron headed over to his own car. Then he got in the back seat with Derek and Milo started driving back to the house.

It was already late and the drive wasn't a quick one. It was good that there wasn't much traffic or it would have taken even longer. Aiden had almost fallen asleep several times before he felt the car roll to a stop and park. Looking out of the window, Aiden saw they were home and he had Milo help carry Derek inside.

No one seemed to be awake so they tried to be quiet while moving up the stairs. It was incredibly difficult and Aiden almost fell a few times because of his dress. He paused when they got to the top of the steps.

"What's wrong?" Milo asked.

"I just remembered, Derek told all of us that we can't enter his room no matter what. I guess he didn't think at the time about what would happen if he ended up drunk and unable to walk on his own. What do we do?"

"I guess we won't take him to his room."

"Then where do we put him?" Both of them thought in silence for a moment. "We could take him back downstairs and put him on the couch."

"Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea. If we drag him back down those stairs I am most definitely going to drop him." Milo was panting slightly as he spoke.

"Well, then what?" Aiden was starting to struggle to keep Derek standing too.

"As far as I know, there's only one option left."

"What is it?"

"...Your room." It took a second for Milo's words to register in Aiden's head. When they did, his eyes went wide.

"What?! You've got to be kidding me."

"It's either that, or he sleeps in the hallway." Aiden groaned but gave in.

"Fine. Let's go." With no options left, Aiden and Milo took Derek to Aiden's room and dropped him on the bed. They were both out of breath and almost dropped him a couple of times on the way there. Milo wished him luck and left, leaving Aiden to deal with a drunk and passed out Derek by himself.