His mom, doing her usual hostess thing, was trying to get to know all of Lexie’s friends that she hadn’t met before. Right now, she had Ellie and Sharon cornered and was talking with them. Well, probably questioning, knowing his mom, and it was more like she was talking with Sharon than Ellie. Ellie tended to be quieter than Sharon anyway and Sharon was currently doing her usual ‘center of attention’ thing... Which irked him.

He just didn’t understand why she felt the need to be so loud. Or to take over the conversation entirely. Poor Ellie had barely said a word, it had been all Sharon. She was apparently entertaining enough, because both Ellie and his mom were laughing. But why did she constantly feel the need to monopolize conversations? Why did she constantly feel the need to put a spotlight on herself? He just didn’t get it.

The smart thing to do would be to move to a different room so that he didn’t have to watch, because then he wouldn’t be so annoyed by it. Easier said than done. It was like the woman had some kind of magnetic draw on him. They hadn’t done more than say hello to each other, but he’d had her in view all night.

“Why are you glaring at Sharon? Or is it your mom that you’re glaring at?”

Jake jumped at the question; he hadn’t even noticed Michael moving up next to him. He didn’t know Michael as well as a lot of the others, since he was a newer addition to the group of friends. While he’d been a member of Stronghold when it had first opened, he’d moved away for a while, and when he’d returned he’d started hanging out with Jake’s friends because he was good friends with Angel.

While Patrick said that Michael was a bit of a ‘shit-stirrer,’ Jake hadn’t really seen any of that. He liked the other man, although he wouldn’t call them close, so the question surprised him. The fact that Michael had separated from Ellie for a bit surprised him even more because normally they were joined at the hip.

“She’s just... She’s so loud,” he said, a bit plaintively, completely aware that he sounded like an ass. He groped for the words to explain his issue. “Doesn’t it bother you that she just runs right over Ellie in conversations?”

Blinking in surprise, Michael’s hazel eyes met his, studying him for a moment. Then he turned his head, his long hair swaying slightly with the movement, to study the three women’s conversation. He kept his voice low, just between the two of them. “Let me ask you, what do you see when you look over there?”