19. Laila
Laila
The sound of the doorbell echoes through the house after Bryce presses the button. I shift from foot to foot, trying to calm my nerves.
“Don’t be nervous,” Bryce says with a soft squeeze to the hand that he holds in his. “Just be you and know that I got you.”
Before I can respond the door to the house is flung open by his sister.
“Thank the lord it’s you,” Bryce’s sister says. “Your mother is driving me crazy.”
Bryce chuckles as we step inside. “You know how she is. She wants everything to be perfect.”
“Which is why she should’ve hired a company to take care of all of this instead of putting us all to work.”
“I offer to pay for it every time she throws her birthday party and every year she says that she doesn’t want it.”
“I know,” Lauryn says, rolling her eyes. “She’s stubborn as hell.”
Lauryn pulls Bryce into a hug and then turns and pulls me into a hug too. I’m stunned at first by the action, because I don’t come from a family of huggers, but then I wrap my arms around her and hug her back.
“I’m so happy to finally be able to actually meet you,” Lauryn says.
“Me too,” I reply with a smile.
“C’mon, she’s in the kitchen,” Lauryn says, leading the way.
“Ma, this is Laila,” Bryce says, introducing us when we reach the kitchen. “Laila, this is my mom, Janet.”
“Hi Laila, it’s nice to meet you,” she says.
“Thank you, and happy birthday. I brought these for you.”
I hand her the flowers that I spent a ridiculous amount of time choosing at the florist this morning. I ultimately decided on pink lilies and red roses, something classic.
“Honey, these are beautiful, thank you. The two of you go on and wash your hands so we can finish setting up since folks are starting to arrive.”
We do as she asked and wash our hands in the nearby half bathroom.
“See I told you everything is gonna be fine,” Bryce says, placing a kiss on the top of my head before walking out of the bathroom.
He did the action so casually and effortlessly, as if it was no big deal. As if it didn’t cause my heart to stutter and my breaths to rapidly increase.
I take another moment to myself before rejoining everyone in the kitchen. Bryce’s other sister Shannon is seated at the island typing away furiously at her phone. She doesn’t look up to acknowledge me and I opt not to engage and instead focus on the task given to me, to cut up the fruit.
“Bryce, go bring these pans out to your uncle on the grill.”
“Yes ma’am,” Bryce says, picking up the pans.
“Ms. Janet, we didn’t see those tablecloths that you were looking for,” a middle aged man says walking into the kitchen.
Bryce’s mom sighs and shakes her head. “I know they’re in there. Let me go look and see.”
The kitchen is quiet except for the sounds of music playing outside in the backyard and the chopping sounds of Lauryn and I doing the things we were tasked with by her mom.
“Soooo,” Lauryn says next to me when she finishes the salad she was tasked with making. “What’s going on with you and my brother?”
I shake my head. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“I mean I was just wondering if you and B are together or…”
Lauryn lets the end of her sentence hang, waiting for my answer.
I knew it was a possibility someone would ask me about my relationship with Bryce, but I still feel unprepared to answer. I look out the windows that overlook the backyard and see Bryce talking and laughing with a small group of people who have just arrived.
“Um, not really,” I reply. “We’re just good friends.”
“Interesting,” Lauryn says.
“That’s not really how it works,” Shannon says looking up from her phone.
“Excuse me?”
“You said ‘not really’ but that’s not an answer. You either are or you aren’t.”
I pause mid cut at her words. The tone of whichdoesn't sit right with me.
“It is an answer because it’s the one I gave,” I say calmly, my eyes locked with Shannon’s. “Bryce and I are friends. If we ever become more than that, he can tell you himself if he wants to.”
Shannon snorts and rolls her eyes, murmuring something I can’t hear under her breath. Lauryn shoots her a look and Shannon stares back, the two of them locked in a silent conversation.
“Am I missing something?” I ask, holding back the less nice version of the question that was on the tip of my tongue.
Lauryn breaks eye contact first and smiles at me. “Well no, it’s just that B hasn’t ever brought ‘just a friend’ home before. So we were just surprised, that's all. And you call him Bryce, he usually only goes by Sonny. ”
“Oh, well I guess there’s a first time for everything,” I say with a shrug, trying not to read too deeply into Lauryn’s words.
“Leave it to a man to not be able to see what’s right in front of him,” Bryce’s mom says, walking back into the room with the tablecloths in her hand.
Bryce's mom must notice the energy in the room as she looks between the three of us. “Everything alright in here?”
I nod my head, “Yes ma’am.”
“I’m going to go check on RJ,” Shannon says, sliding off her chair.
Lauryn nudges me. “Don’t pay her any mind.”
Without Shannon, the mood in the kitchen improves dramatically.
Talking with Lauryn and Bryce’s mom comes easily as we finish preparing for the party.
They don’t interrogate me, or make me feel uncomfortable, like my nerves made me want to believe before I arrived.
If anything it’s the opposite. Before I know it, everything that was left to do is finished.
“Is there anything else you need help with?”
“You’ve done more than enough. I’ve got it from here.”
“Are you sure?” I ask. “I don’t mind.”
“Honey, go on and find that son of mine and enjoy yourself,” she replies, shooing me out of the kitchen.
Someone walks in and gets her attention, whisking her away to do something else, so I follow her direction and go off in search of Bryce.
In the backyard, I see that the party is in full swing.
The music has been turned up and there are a lot of people talking, eating and overall enjoying themselves.
I scan the yard for Bryce and see him across the yard with who I assume to be his uncle on the grill.
I leave him to talk and grab a seltzer from a nearby cooler and take a seat at an empty table.
Only a few minutes pass before I see Bryce walking towards me.
“Hey you good?” he asks.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You sure? You’re over here hiding out by yourself,” he says, skeptical.
“I’m not hiding,” I argue back. “I was just hanging back and letting you be with your family.”
“Nah, none of that. Let’s go get you a plate.”
He takes my hand and leads us to where all the food is set out on warmers and we take our spot at the end of the line.
“Is this all your family?” I ask, looking around at the growing number of people arriving.
“For the most part yeah. There’s some of my mom’s friends, but she’s been friends with them for forever so they’re damn near family at this point. Everyone else is related to me in one way or another.”
He points out different people throughout the yard, aunts, uncles and cousins, telling me their names.
“Wow,” I reply. “I didn’t realize people actually had big family gatherings like this.”
“You don’t have family parties?”
“Not like this,” I say, gesturing to all the people. “My mom is an only child and she isn’t close with her extended family.”
“My mom is one of six and my dad was one of four and they all had a bunch of kids so I’m used to having a lot of family around for events and stuff.”
We inch forward in the line and the older man Bryce was talking to earlier, walks up to the both of us. “This you nephew?”
He holds his hand out to me and I take it, shaking it. “Hi, I’m Laila.”
“Laila, what is a beautiful lady like yourself doing with a knucklehead like this one here?”
“You trying to take my girl right in front of me Unc?” Bryce says, joking. “That’s cold blooded.”
“Just calling it like I see it nephew,” Bryce’s uncle says before turning back to me. “If Bryce here ever gives you any trouble, you let me know and I’ll make sure to get him in line.”
I laugh at the back and forth that Bryce and his uncle go through before his uncle pats him on the shoulder and leaves.
“That’s Uncle Henry, my mom’s brother. He’s a smooth talker but he’s harmless.”
Bryce and I finally make it to the front of the line and make our plates of food.
It’s a full barbecue spread and everything looks delicious, so I fill my plate up with a little bit of everything.
Bryce leads us to a table full of people around our age and he introduces me to his cousins.
We eat and talk and I find myself able to completely relax as the night goes on.