Blaire’s face lit up at her father’s smile, she’d always loved to be the reason for him to smile especially recently when she’d done so little to be proud of. She supposed she was trying but drunken nights out caught in the holomags and needing her dad to bail her out of jail were not likely to bring a smile to anyone’s face.
“Thank you, daddy.” She said when he complimented her dress which she was very proud of. She giggled at his suggestion that he run off any potential suitors. “That,” she said looking around the ballroom “is supposed to be what Jaa is doing but I can’t seem to find him.” She tried to keep her tone light but a little bit of her annoyance at her bodyguard surely slipped into her words.
“Yes, she did,” Blaire said when her father passed the credit for his sharp dress onto her mother. Absentmindedly Blaire’s hand reached out to her mother’s wrist and she started to toy with one of the bracelets she wore, the same as she had done since she was little. She laid her head on her mother’s shoulder.
“You really did do a great job.” She said turning her head to look at her mom. “He
almost looks dashing enough to deserve to have you on his arm.” She teased and thought about her and Jaa and just how good he looked in the suit she had chosen for him. She lifted her head and gave the room another scan looking for Jaa trying to figure out where exactly he had gotten lost, there were plenty of pretty girls and more than enough alcohol for him to get distracted.
Of course. She thought when she finally laid eyes on Jaa across the room, his hand on Briana’s back chatting away with her and some guy, with that stupid smile on his face too no doubt.
She looks amazing. Of course, she does.
“I should probably say hello.” She said of her brother. She was happy to see daddy trying. All these years later and she could still see that the gulf between her dad and her brother was still there if not quite as wide.
Suddenly her father became very upset and she worried that she’d done something wrong by mentioning Brandyn, that was until she saw her dad’s watch. The New Way was claiming an attack on Coruscant. Instinctively she reached out and squeezed her father’s free hand. Just then out of breath Jaa Ardan joined them.
“Sir,” he addressed her father like he meant to say more before noticing Baros wasn’t alone.
“Ma’am.” He said with a nod to her mother.
“Blaire, there you are,”
She stared daggers at him. Was he such a fool that he would possibly think she would believe he had been looking for her? He looked positively worried.
“Here I am.” She said sarcastically. “Where have you been?” She asked sharply.
“What do you mean?” He asked quickly, his eyes wide.
She glared at him.
“Oh, I, you said to leave you after…while you finished getting ready. I said hello to some people. What's so wrong with that?” He asked, infuriating in his ignorance. “ I only did what
you asked.”
“I did not ask you to ignore me in favor of…I did not ask to be ignored.” She’d come dangerously close to admitting how much his hand on Briana’s back had bothered her.
“Ignore you?” He began and she knew him well enough to know his anger was rising. He made a sidelong glance at her father. “My apologies, Blaire. You’re right.”
Coward.
She let go of her father and mother, turned on her heel, and pushed her way through the crowd, purposeful in her avoidance of Briana. She walked until she found another member of her family.
“LuLu!” She said as she approached her cousin Luric. In his arms was a girl which was a little surprising but only a little, Luric was handsome after all, she had just never seen him as the womanizing type. Her smile faded however as she realized the girl seemed unwell.
“Luric is she okay? Can I help?”
Baros Sal-Soren
Teyla Sal-Soren
Luric Ee'everwest
Lossa Aureus
