“What did you do about insurance?” Aaron asked. “I sure don’t remember you asking me to put you on our plan?”
“I insured it.” I said, matter of fact, not pointing out how he co-signed without even realizing it.
“Yourself? Well, that’s a relief!” he laughed while looking at his wife, the topic clearly settled for him.
“And why is that a ‘relief’, Aaron?” Danielle asked him with a forced smile, and just a smidge of irritation in her voice.
“Your girl doesn’t have a car yet, Danny, so you wouldn’t know. Paying for those two’s insurances already costs us a small fortune. If he can take care of that himself, I’m all for independence!” he proclaimed. “How much is yours?” he added, looking at me.
“Little under $500 per month.” I answered, to which Maggie almost spat out her food.
“You’re paying FIVE HUNDRED dollars every MONTH! And that’s just for the insurance?! Mom and Dad said, since I don’t really need the car, I’d have to pay for it myself. Why is it so expensive!?” she asked, losing control of her voice’s volume.
“That’s actually cheap. I got a day-long defensive driving course through work. That knocks ten percent off for a year. I’ll have to do one again next year to keep the discount.”
“You’re shitting me!” she commented, earning herself a resounding “Language!” from Grandma.
“Wait!” Aaron shouted, pointing at my siblings but looking at me. “We could save twenty percent off their insurance if we send these two to one of those courses!?”
“That’s ... not at all how Math works, but sure, you could save ten percent on each insurance.” I sighed under my breath, which actually caused John to suppress a laugh.
“John, could you ask Bill if he’d get them one of those courses too?” Aaron asked, completely ignoring my comment.
The conversation became a little chaotic after that, since Princess and Golden Boy were anything but eager to spend an entire day being told how to drive carefully. But John’s attempt to point at my missed birthday had completely derailed.
It’s hard to explain, but I truly believe that, if they were asked for it, they could provide my birthdate. As far as I knew, at least Claire was present when it happened, being my mother and all. They simply didn’t think about me having birthdays, if that makes any sense. It wasn’t something they anticipated, so when the date came up, they didn’t associate it with me.
Whatever Uncle John and Aunt Danielle wanted to achieve that evening by repeatedly putting me on the spot, by the end of dinner, they had given up.
Aunt Danielle kept glancing at me with worried looks, but I was only thinking about how to make my escape. The opportunity arose when my phone got a push notification from the company server, notifying me about a bounced email. I could see from the notification itself that someone just mistyped the email address, but they couldn’t.
When they didn’t even make a fuss about me leaving early, I asked myself why I even bothered to look for an excuse. I had just reached the door and was about to open it, when Danielle came up from behind me, wrapped her arms around my stomach, and gave me a tight squeeze.
“I’m sorry, honey.” she said. For a moment, the feeling of her soft big breasts pressed into my back and her warm breath against my neck distracted me. Then I remembered how she couldn’t even be bothered to say a single fucking word when Logan made his snarky remarks, and any interest I might have had in her body vanished. When I tried to move away, she squeezed again before whispering. “You’ll be Okay, right?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be? Nothing new here.” was all I answered in a deadpan voice, before I removed her hands and finally made my way out of the door.
I contemplated staying with her for a while, just to maybe get some kind of explanation for everyone’s favoritism of Logan. I was also pretty sure the others were just waiting for me to leave, so they could shed their clothes and start their Thanksgiving-Romp. Instead, I made my way home and sat in front of my computer. I was interested in how genuine Aunt Danielle’s sudden concern really was. For a therapist, she sure liked to overlook a lot of the signs she was witnessing.
In my quest to learn about IT-Security, I had long since passed simple trackers on peoples’ phones. In fact, I now had complete control over their smartphones. I could access their drives, read their chats and activate their cameras and microphones. When I gained that access, I discovered that Logan had recorded quite a few of their get-togethers, and while I couldn’t be sure, the angles made me suspect he didn’t exactly do it in an obvious manner.
Figuring Ava’s phone was the most likely to be out in the open, I connected to her’s. While all I could see was the ceiling, the loud sounds of moaning and skin slapping confirmed that they didn’t wait long after I left. If they had gone right to fucking, my question about the depths of Danielle’s concern was answered indirectly, and there was no need to torture myself further by listening to their fucking. When I was just about to close the app, though, I could hear a male voice talking.
It was too far away from Ava’s phone to understand anything. I knew Aunt Danielle and Claire kept their phones in their purses most of the time, so I probably wouldn’t pick up anything from theirs. Hoping John would have his phone in his Jacket, I connected to it and was lucky.
“ ... orget about it!?” I heard Grandma’s offended voice.
“I was ... we just... ” that was Claire, sounding quite uncomfortable.
“Well? Spit it out already!”
“Come on, Gran. You can’t really blame Mom for it.” I heard Logan say. “Tiny NEVER celebrates his birthdays. That’s why he was rather at work the whole day than at home. And he also never accepts any of our presents, so why should she spend money on something he won’t want?”
Bingo! They were talking about my birthday. Danielle and John must have given up on making them remember and simply told them. I was also impressed with Logan’s uncanny ability to make his bullshit sound reasonable. Though, what the fuck was he on about not accepting their presents? Apart from the penis pump, I hadn’t gotten shit from anyone but Claire in years! And I never accepted her presents because she thought the penis pump was funny, so I dreaded receiving something similar from her.
“That may be so, but that is no reason to simply forget about it! And what makes you think I was only blaming your mother? It would do you some good to reflect about your own behavior, young man. No wonder that boy is angry when he has to listen to your insults all the time!” I heard her take a deep breath, as if to calm herself. “Claire, it would’ve only been prudent to at least do the same for him as you did for his siblings, and those two got cars for their sixteenths. Now Tim bought one himself instead, so he clearly wanted one! I also can’t imagine him being happy to pay for everything himself, so don’t even THINK about telling me he wouldn’t have accepted it!” Grandma scolded Logan and Claire.
“We didn’t even know he got his license, Granny!” Logan called out in a whiny tone.
“Logan. I am trying to have a serious discussion with your mother. Not with you! So, stop answering for her and stop distracting her by fondling her.”
There were a few seconds of Logan protesting and assuring Claire how she didn’t do anything wrong, before Grandma finally and firmly threatened to whip him if he couldn’t behave. I smiled at that.