I put that bouncer's weird stare to the back of my mind, for now.

As we followed Harry into the celebration hall I felt a multitude of stares follow us and we were presented with a rather well-dressed crowd. Harry then stopped and turned to me and Gwen.

"Now you two should go and explore around while Max and I talk with some of my friends here before the main event starts then I'll take Gwen and introduce her to said friends "

He gave us a smile and then turned to leave with grandpa but before grandpa left he didn't forget to remind us

"Now, while I am with Harry don't make a ruckus"

Then he gave us the evil eye.

Gwen had the conscience to look sheepish while I just quietly nodded my head.

"Come on let's check out the buffet"

Gwen said and pulled my hand to where people gathered the most which I assumed was where the buffet was.

We soon arrived and went around the large circular arrangement of tables and picked up whatever we saw looked good.

I was quietly munching on my food as I looked at Gwen and saw how nervous\excited she looked and wanted her to calm down a bit.

"Hey, what is a sea monster's favorite snack? " she distractedly looked at me and asked "What ?"

"Ships and dips" I cheekily smiled with the answer.

She stared at me dumbly for a bit before she gave me a smile which then turned into a giggle which finally turned into full-blown laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" she kept laughing at the lame joke almost as if to relieve her stress through laughter.

After a while, she got calmer and then wiped her eyes as she had teared a bit from laughing.

"Thanks ben, I needed that … What's with you recently? You've suddenly become so understanding and… nice?" she asked with a puzzled look on her face.

I kept quiet for a moment but finally opened my mouth and said

"I guess I realized what kind of a jerk I was and how we'd eventually become estranged if I kept treating you badly which reminds me"

At this point I bowed my head a bit and said

"I am sorry for being such a jerk for so long and I hope that from now on we'll become good friends and be able to trust each other"

A few moments of silence passed between us until I raised my head to look at her face and saw a bright smile that had my heart skipping beats and at the moment I suddenly decided that I wanted to protect that smile.

"Thank you ben and I am sorry too as I wasn't the most mature person and also contributed to escalating our fights"

Her reply broke me out of my stun and made me smile at how forgiving she was as past ben was messed up even for a ten-year-old and she didn't have to say that she was at fault too but she did.

The atmosphere between us became very harmonious and any kind of tension that could have been there melted away like ice in heat.

Unfortunately, such a good thing doesn't last for long as an arrogant nasally old voice reached our ears.

"Who the hell invited little brats to this celebration? I know we said you can invite close friends but there has got to be some sort of limit."

I and Gwen stared at each other for a bit in disbelief before Gwen quickly got herself together and stood up to look at the source.

"Excuse me, are you talking about us?" she asked in disbelief.

 

"Do you see any other runt in here?" he answered with a sneer.

Gwen clenched her fists as she fiercely stared at the old man and burst out in a loud voice.

"Whether we're here or not is none of your goddamn business you old bastard!!."

At this point, though instead of jumping out and supporting Gwen I looked around ,noticing something odd.

Everyone around us continued as if nothing was going on which had me suspect the importance of this old man's identity and the weirdness of this situation… it seemed that things wouldn't end easily if it continued like this.

Gwen's words seemed to have provoked this old man as his face reddened from anger and he burst out.

"You dare call me a bastard you little bitch!!"

Just then I noticed the old man's body tense and I immediately pulled Gwen behind me and took a step to stand where she was standing earlier and in front Gwen's stunned face….SLAP!

Ouch, this old bastard seems frail but he put all his effort into that slap as I had definitely felt it and this slap was intended for gwen….

"You don't get to touch her you freak..."

I glared fiercely at the bastard in front of me as I spoke in an emotionless voice but the rage could be seen in my eyes.

He was somewhat surprised at the sudden change of target but the bastard wasn't intimidated and took a step forward right into my strike zone but It still wasn't the time to pay him back...not yet at least.

He seemed to let out all his rage in that slap as he went back to his sneering expression and said

"The other runt finally speaks up, tell me brat did that sting just now? I know I am old but my slaps are quite well known." 

He was trying to goad me into something, that much I could easily see but I just stared at him expressionlessly and said

"I can honestly tell you that my ten-year-old cousin here can hit harder than you so be grateful that I was the one your filthy rat claws got to touch or else your heart might give out after she laid her hands on you."

I spoke in a slow but loud voice because I wanted to stall for any amount of time as our host should be making his way over to the noise.

The arrogant bully was quick to anger again and this time his face distorted into an ugly expression

"You goddamn insect, how dare you talk back to me and where the hell is the security of this place? Come and throw these two trashes out of here"

At this point, a familiar voice came into earshot and unfortunately it wasn't the one I was waiting for.

The bouncer that stopped us outside came rushing as he spoke

"I am so sorry sir for keeping you waiting for so long, who's bothering you?"

"It's these two insects, come and throw them out of here immediately!!"

The old man roared and it might have been intimidating if his voice wasn't so ridiculous

At this point, I was feeling very suspicious as the events that happened until now were very odd, this old man targeting us when there were other children in here who were also unattended by adults, the people around us ignoring the argument and, especially this doorman since he knew who invited us yet kept on siding with this man.

Still this didn't mean that I was going to keep quiet as they kept humiliating us , the previous slap was necessary as evidence since I suspected that no one would aid us right now.

The bouncer aggressively walked towards me and Gwen.

"If you try to lay even a single finger on us I promise you that you will regret it."

He didn't even act like he heard me and continued stepping towards me …. I warned him.

As soon as he was in my strike zone I suddenly gave a powerful kick to his crouch….well…. any kick there is powerful….regardless of the strength behind it.

OOF

The doorman couldn't handle the unexpected blow and collapsed on his knees and was just tall enough for me to knee his face but fortunately, I heard a familiar voice that was just loud enough for me to snap out of the violence that I was about to lay on this thing.

"What the fuck is going on here!!!"

Sigh, They're finally here.