I've just inserted myself into this conversation, and I'm going to have to find a way to get myself out of it. On top of that, I've broken one of Rhodes's rules: speak when spoken to when out in public. I don't even dare to take a sneak peek.
"Yes, dear, they are," Lenny grins at me, an evil grin, one that I last saw worn by a cartoon woman making herself a coat out of Dalmatian fur. "Dear," like I'm some seven-year-old who's stumbled into the conversation and started to try and be a grown-up. The nerves have now doubled into anger and fear. How dare he talk about other people in such grotesque ways, and how could everyone at the table just let him do it? Why didn't Rhodes say anything?
"I disagree," I say as I reach for my drink and take a rather large sip. Out of the corner of my eyes, I can see the people around the table moving their heads back and forth between the two of us. His eyes are focused on me, his head tilted to the side with that wicked grin plastered across reddish-tan skin.
He clears his throat before he speaks again. "Well, what would you know, you're so young. Soon you'll learn that the world isn't full of good people. There are some people who are happy to let others do the hard work for them."
"And there are also some people who have fallen on hard times and have nowhere else to go," I quickly retort back to him. Everything inside of me is screaming to shut the hell up, but the messages aren't reaching my mouth as I keep speaking. "I was homeless when I was younger."
Yeah, that shut him up. It shut the whole table up actually, including Rhodes, whose posture stiffens beside me. One of my darker secrets that I carried around with me, one that very few people in my life actually knew about. Now that I've dropped this bomb, I have to start cleaning up some of the debris.
"My dad lost his job when I was five, my mum stayed at home and looked after me. It took a long time for either of them to find work, so we didn't have a place to live for a while. Eventually, they both found work and we were able to move back into a home again, but we were very lucky. We fell on hard times, but we got back up again, as many people try to do when they have nowhere to live." So much for trying to make myself look good or keeping up some high standard of appearance. I may have broken every clause in the contract in one evening, a world record perhaps? Maybe I'll get an award of some kind.
"There are jobs everywhere if you look hard for them." Lenny's smirk only slipped off his arrogant face for a moment before it was plastered back on. What a stupid fucking thing to say. Two older-looking women who are sitting to my left are rubbing their heads in their hands as he makes the statement. I wait for someone else to say something in my defense, but the table is silent. Who did I think I was, waltzing into this event and standing up for myself?