Twenty-two #2
After spending a few hours at Ricky’s house, I made it back home.
He had dropped me off before he went to try and make up with his girlfriend.
Javier and I made plans to study at his place, so I needed to grab my backpack and other study materials before I made the walk to his house.
He insisted that he come pick me up. It took a lot of reassuring that I was alright with walking before he let me.
After I had everything together, I sat on the floor to put my sneakers on so that I could leave. I had thought I was alone in the house because I didn’t see any cars in the driveway when I got dropped off. I soon realized that I was mistaken when I saw the shadow of my aunt standing over me.
"Where are you going?" she asked, her tone snippy.
I stopped tying my shoe as I looked up at her. "A friend's house."
"No, no you are not."
I internally sighed. Why did she have to choose today out of all days to be on my case? She had been doing a decent job at letting me do my own thing lately, there was no need to ruin it now.
"You and the others will be here tonight so that we can all have a nice family dinner." Her tone was oddly chirpy as she spoke. "We are having a special guest, and we need to look like one big happy family.”
Oh, a special guest. Aunt Macy did this at least once a year. She would find a man and put him under a spell to make him like her, and then she'd introduce us to him when she felt their relationship was getting serious. She wanted him to think that we were a perfect, happy family.
These relationships of hers would never last. She was a bitter person and all the men she dated would eventually realize it. The crazy side of her eventually came out.
"I think Easton has work today," I mentioned. Easton normally had work on Sundays.
"Oh well." Macy shrugged carelessly. "He'll call in sick. Call your siblings and tell them to be home before five. Go take a shower and make yourself look decent for once in your life."
Life had been going decently for me, and I was two steps from being on my way to see Javier—someone that made me feel that they genuinely wanted to be around me—and Macy had to ruin it. Well, making me feel like shit was her specialty.
I shrugged my bag off my shoulders and it dropped on the floor. I kicked my shoes off and left them on the floor as I stormed off, too pissed off to keep a calm attitude.
"And you're grounded for your bad attitude!" My aunt shouted as I shut the door. I had barely kept myself from slamming it.
I took a couple of deep breaths before taking a sip of whatever I had left in a cup on my nightstand. I didn’t even know exactly what it was, but I didn’t care. I needed something to take the edge off.
I couldn’t wait until college so that I could be as far away from Macy’s house as possible.
I told Javi that a family thing had come up, so I wasn’t going to be able to make it. He said it was fine, but I was afraid he would think I was lying and ditching him for no reason. That he would think this was just a way to be a dick to him because of our rivalry.
It wasn’t that at all.
If the dinner went perfectly, then Aunt Macy would be occupied for a while and leave me alone. If the dinner went terribly, she’d take it all out on us. I didn't have much hope for it going smoothly because we had a horrendous track record.
I called Easton’s phone twice and he did not pick up. It wasn’t until I blew up Emerson’s phone that I got a response from my siblings. They were not thrilled about having to sit through another tortuous dinner with the next man on Macy’s list, but they knew there was no way around it.
It didn’t take them long to get home. Where had they been all of this time?
I didn’t know. They spent most of their time together and I learned a long time ago that I was never going to be part of their sibling adventures.
Their bond was tight, unbreakable, the two couldn’t live without each other.
They did not share that same feeling about me.
The three of us were sitting on the couch beside each other and giving our undivided attention to Macy. She insisted that we sit quietly and listen to her lecture, the same one she regurgitated to us every year.
"I have been going out with Daniel for three months and it's been going really well," my aunt paced before us as she spoke. "You three will not mess it up."
"You are going to keep that mouth of yours shut at all times." She pointed an accusatory finger in Easton's face. "I don't want to hear you utter not one word unless you are spoken to, understand?"
Easton tended to ramble to our yearly guests.
I believed it was his way of dealing with not wanting to be there in the first place.
He would often take up the entire conversation, not even leaving my aunt enough time to speak herself.
It was quite funny, actually. He spoke high nonsense, and it made the dinner a little more enjoyable.
"Aye aye captain," Easton mimicked a pirate's voice, saluted, and then laughed at himself afterward.
My aunt took a deep breath and ignored his antics. She then shot a glare at Emerson. "You are going to lose the attitude that I can already see brewing. I can't have him thinking I raised a brat."
"But you didn't raise me," Emerson sassed with the same attitude that Macy had just mentioned.
"See? That's what I'm talking about," Macy spat. "If any of your bitchiness comes out tonight you will regret it. Understand?"
Emerson shrugged carelessly, her eyes dull and bored.
My sister was known for having an attitude throughout the entire dinner.
She hated being forced to pretend like we were a happy family that ate dinner at the table every night.
I also believed she upped her attitude because she wanted to run away our aunt's new boyfriends.
"And you." Her eyes were dark as they glared at me. "Quit looking like your dog just got run over. The sulking is annoying, and it will give Dan the wrong impression. He'll think I abuse you or something, that's how damn miserable you always look."
Being in the house in general made me feel miserable, but having to act like a happy family made it even worse.
"And finish all of your food. We don't waste in this house."
The couple of times that she would cook for all of us she would normally cook the same dish: chicken pot pie.
To say it tasted gross was an understatement.
I had never had the meal from anyone else, so I couldn’t tell if I didn’t like the way she cooked it or if I didn’t like it in general.
The twins also thought it tasted bad, but they tolerated it better than I ever could.
"Why do you keep making the same dish that you know he hates?" Emerson asked with a scowl. "You know he isn’t going to eat it and then act flabbergasted when he does not eat it.”
"Because that's all she can fucking cook," Easton muttered.
Macy’s jaw clenched and her fists were balled so tight they were shaking. Closing her eyes, she took another large breath. "Just a couple more months."
Emerson spoke coolly. "A couple more months until this new guy leaves you?"
Emerson's comment made Easton and I chuckle, but it obviously did not have the same effect on my aunt. She was seething at the offensive comments that were being thrown her way.
"You all think you’re so funny, don’t you?" Macy shouted. I flinched at her outburst, but my siblings remained unaffected. "Well guess what, you can all kiss any plans you had goodbye because you're punished."
I raised my hand like we were in a classroom. "I thought I was already—"
"I don’t need your extra," Aunt Macy cut me off. I lowered my hand.
Then there was a knock on the door and her attitude did a 180. She put on a smile and perked up. "That must be him!"
Easton was twirling his finger in a circle by his head while mouthing the word ‘crazy’ in relation to Macy as she ran to the door.
She was fixing her clothes as she moved, wanting to look her best for the man on the other side of the door.
In my opinion, she needed a lot more time to look decent than she gave herself, but whatever.
The door was barely opened before she rushed through and engulfed him in a hug, and I heard the deep voice greet my aunt with care. He sounded truly happy to be here. I wasn’t sure if that would be the case after dinner was over.
She invited him in and that was when I could finally see the man. When I say he was tall, I truly meant tall . This guy was like a giant. A hot giant, at that.
My aunt put her hand in his and introduced us. "Kids, this is my boyfriend, Daniel. Daniel, these are my nephews and niece."
Daniel waved at us. "Nice to meet you. You three seem like lovely kids."
"Let’s see how long you think that for." Easton whispered before chuckling to himself. My aunt glared at him, but Daniel hadn’t caught what Easton had said.
Macy then led Daniel to the dining table and had him sit down.
We followed behind and grabbed plates for ourselves to fix our own food.
Macy did the same and she put a generous amount of food on it for Daniel before making her own.
Once we were all sat at the table, she put on a smile as if this was a normal routine.
Easton picked up his fork and started digging into his food like he hadn't eaten in days.
My aunt cleared her throat three times before she caught my brother's attention. No one else was acting like a starved animal but him. I could see Macy’s lip trembling as she held back the urge to lash out at him.
"Easton, we have to say grace," she said in the calmest tone she could muster up.
"Oh," Easton said with his mouth full. For someone who agreed that the food was never cooked well, he sure seemed eager to eat it.