May 11th, 1978
Who: Giada Vance and Avery Sloan (NPC'd at the time)
Where: Dinner party
What: Drunken assholes
It was a beautiful sunny day in the park.
George was there, he’d been hanging out with his friends down the block and had decided to join Giada and Emmet on a wonderful picnic it was a happy, happy day because there were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, there was soda pop, there were grapes and cookies and a big checkered blanket and while George went to say hello to that pretty little poodle a few meters away she and Emmet snogged wonderfully for who knew how long and there was a butterfly floating past and---
“Giada,” the sharp voice of her mother hissed, snapping the girl out of her day dream. Her round eyes blinked a few times before she turned toward the voice and they widened even more at the sight of her mother’s glare. Oh.
“Sorry,” she muttered softly, then turned back to look across the table where the daughter of the host were chattering on about their wedding.
“It will just be marvelous, Eleanor, I’m telling you. We’ve hired, oh, I can’t even speak I’m so excited, we’ve hired cupids to float around and shower people in pink glitter, isn’t that---“
She was interrupted from her gushing by Giada’s choking, as she inhaled her drink quite sharply at the thought of winged babies in togas flapping about the wedding reception. The glares she received from all the women in the vicinity (it was a rather long table) were icy and harsh, and Giada put her hand to her mouth, pushing herself out of her chair to quietly excuse herself while she cleared her throat.
Honestly, flying babies? Because that’s what cupids were, right? Or were they going to be little men? Or…what? Oh, that was utterly ridiculous, the idea of those things floating around as if that was romantic. No! No, floating babies were not romantic, candles were romantic, flowers, shiny things, maybe bubbles---that’s romantic, not flying babies.
Preposterous, she would never have anything as horridly tacky and---oy, what the hell was she thinking? Even her thoughts were all snotty, Giada realized, and it was a good thing she’d excused herself because she was quickly falling back into the crowd. Sometimes---sometimes she liked the parties, there was always something to overhear that was interesting, but tonight had just been dreadful. Adding onto the fact that she had to cancel a date with Emmet and that she still hadn’t found George, it was just fruitless that she would have a decent time.
Of course, it could also be the fact that the man her mother had been pushing on her for the past few months was in attendance. Giada gave a quick look of the room to see if she could spot him (what was his name, she couldn’t even---oh, Avery, or---something, ugh). When she didn’t, she let out a breath and disappeared down a hallway. She didn’t really know this house, so she just decided to walk and maybe find some place quiet to sit until it was time to leave. It wasn’t as if anyone at dinner would miss her except for her mother, and that would only be because she wouldn’t be able to point out some new men.
It was so tedious, Giada thought as she flopped onto a loveseat in front of a large window that looked out over the Thames. Patrick was the heir, so as long as he didn’t embarrass the family he was fine. Allison was the favorite and could do whatever she pleased, so that left Giada to marry well and keep the family ties strong with the influential crowd.
Right. Did they even know the daughter they raised---ha, what a question, of course they didn’t. Giada was the best liar she knew; her parents were quite aware she was a little weird in the conversations she had at home with them, but they also knew she was the perfect lady at social events and it was really surprising that she hadn’t found a match, yet. That was one thing she had to give to her father; he refused, at least until her twenty-first birthday, to force a marriage upon her. Maybe it was why she didn’t decline going to the dinner parties; she knew that her parents did, in their own strange way, care.
But, she felt so guilty about all of it now that she had Emmet, because the second she told her parents about him they’d immediately ask for a family history, they’d want to meet him, and the first thing they’d want was for him to propose marriage which Giada was quite sure of, they were definitely not at the point of thinking about. Gosh, it was still astonishing that Emmet actually wanted to see her all the time, you know? How could she imagine herself marrying someone, yet? They hadn’t even had their first fight, that would be horrible, to have it when you got back from the honeymoon and got to see your husband’s true colors.
“Gigi?”
Giada’s shoulders tensed and she had to clench her teeth down at the horrid nickname as she turned to face, ah, yes Avery. He was handsome, very handsome, and probably quite rich, actually---no, he was, his father was a huge stock holder in Gringotts---yeah.
“Hello,” she said dully, and twisted her lip when he sat down beside her. Avery, he just---there was nothing interesting about him. See, see Emmet, he liked a lot of different things and could talk to her about all of it. He liked hearing her side of things whereas Avery here, and the whole crowd of men her mother thought were simply divine, could really give a damn about what she had to say.
“You look lovely tonight,” he said, pushing his hair out of his face and dropping his arm on the back of the couch, going behind Giada. She bit her tongue and nodded slightly; act shy, just accept the compliments and be done with it. At least she could tell her mother that she’d talked to Avery, give her something to shriek about for a week or two. “I wonder, did you wear that dress for me?”
Her eyebrow lifted in confusion, but it was clear that she was more shocked by his question. Avery had never been upfront about his intentions, he’d always just smiled and nodded, but he was grinning somewhat wickedly and Giada held her breath before she responded.
“No. I did not think about you at all when my mother forced me to wear this atrocious sack,” she said smoothly, sounding disgustingly like the girls she couldn’t stand. The dress wasn’t atrocious at all, it was bloody gorgeous, but Giada did not want Avery thinking that any bit of his words were in the right. She watched as his face twitched in an annoyed manner and she pressed her back into the arm of the loveseat as he leered at her, leaning forward. She caught wind of a sharp stench wafting off of him and Giada made no qualms about rolling her eyes.
Oh, he was drunk.
Brilliant.
“Why don’t you stop being a bitch for once and just get on with it,” he whispered harshly, the smell of the alcohol stinging her eyes and nose. Damn him. Giada huffed and tried to twist away but Avery struck out his hand and gripped onto the arm of the loveseat, trapping her into the couch.
“Why don’t you get away from me before I scream!” she let out loudly, putting her hands roughly to his chest to push him away. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she was sitting up, Avery would be lying on top of her, how heavily he was leaning against her.
“You know as well as I do that they’re all in the dining hall,” he went on quickly, knocking his forehead with hers. Giada let out half a scream before one of Avery’s hands went to her mouth, the other gripping tightly to her side. “It’s why you came out here, isn’t it? To get away from it all?”
“You’re a bloody embarrassment---you’d be up the duff with my heir by now if you weren’t so ridiculous---everyone knows it, Gigi.” Avery tsk’d loudly and her eyes were going in and out of focus as they tried to keep contact with his. “Your father can barely bring you up in conversations anymore, you’re lucky I think you’re fucking gorgeous or else no one would take you---”
She continued to struggle against him, but she was so scared and his words and hands hurt so bad that she couldn’t do more than that; just twist and squirm and he was being so slow and deliberate with his motions and it was only a split second from when he pulled his hand away from her mouth and kissed her, but Giada managed to let out a sharp and loud shriek in that short time.
His hand went to the back of her head to deepen the kiss if you could call it that, and she did all she could to drag herself out from underneath him---it----he was so much bigger, it---
“Er---excuse me, Mister Avery and Miss Giada!” a squeaky voice broke the frantic sounds they were both making, for quite different reasons. Avery’s grip on her loosened immediately and before he could pull away completely Giada struck out and smacked him sharply before jumping up and away from the man and stumbling over the house elf. The creature looked absolutely terrified, and Giada didn’t stop to help it up off the ground as she stormed away and to the front door to apparate home and get the fuck out of this place because she realized there was no reason to go back into the dining hall and make a scene---
---no one would believe her, she was just a ridiculous girl.
