She made some sort of noise in response from upstairs.

I walked to the kitchen to get a drink. "Mom wants to know if I'm coming to Courtney's wedding. You wanna go with me? I think it's after rugby season so we'll just be missing school work. Nothing important, right? I mean, I know you never really liked the guy she's marrying but I figure a wedding is a wedding, and we're both old enough to drink legally now so it could be fun."

I had my water in hand now and was standing at the bottom of the stairs. No response from her, so I started walking up. "I...