Couldn't wait for this one. These last three days must've been the best of my life, watching our three families combined. I thought: 'Hey! We'd all interact so well as 30-somethings and our teen-something angel spawn, eating caviar and fancy cheese over the table. Maybe we'd have chocolate mousse and sing songs afterwards!'
Haha, that's me kidding. The family photo was going to be under The Raving Bunch. Forget the Brady's.
Now let's go over some background before jumping into story time, kids. These three families that were mentioned are the Masterson-Garcia family (maybe two, then?) and...well, me. But let's not forget Val, the kid stuck in the middle of all two/three of them. "Surprising, because there was nothing stuck between me and your dad 12 years ago." I would sometimes say to her jokingly. Val's nose always wrinkled and she shook in disgust all over.
I think that she gets that way every time I mention him. I don't blame her.
When I pulled up in the big house in Ontario, Kylie was already at the door, smiling like Satan South herself. Despite being Jen-and-Jonesy's-cute-baby-sister so many years ago, she had been grown to be Aunt Humiliation. Val even thought so; and I was sure because of the intense gulping right next to me. My hand grabbed her shoulder, giving it a quick pat.
"Don't let her bother you. I have all the naked baby pictures to embarrass her with if she messes with you." Val responded with a velvet snicker to my whisper, a big toothy smile casting over her face. It reminded me strongly of one I had known for so long. Maybe for too long.
However, a girl looking quite like Kylie came out, and I couldn't help but grin myself. Before I even realized it, I had bounced out of the car and to the front steps.
"Long time, no see!" I cheered, hugging my friend tight. Jen nodded, holding onto me for another second before releasing. "Same here, Nik. We really do need to keep our promises and see eachother more often!"
"Hey, you saw me in the Christmas card last month. Be nice." I giggled, wandering in. However, I had forgotten all about Val and her Arch-Enemy Aunt. From the story I heard, that heathery little princess came into the car, giggling away.
"Hello, VALERIE."
"Kylie Renee. So nice to see a change of heart."
'Kylie Renee' scowled, probably showing her teeth for how ferociously angry she got. "KIDS! KIDS!" a voice seemed to call everybody in like a magnet, including Kylie and Val.
*************
Everybody was in, chatting up a storm. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it started raining in there. Children were laughing, one was crying and the other adults were trying to ignore them. As was I. But all of a sudden, the world turned silent anyway and all I could see was feet. They were climbing down the steps, and my eyes wandered up that muscle-bound body, finally unto a soft, boy-ish face. It was that same half-grin that I had known too well; the everything-about-him that used to be mine. I couldn't stop my heartbeat because holy mother of God, it was Jonesy.
"What are you crying about? It's alright, you're fine." I heard him speak in the silence of the room. Anybody else could've scarcely heard him as he picked up a screaming little blonde boy. He looked about two years old, and that's when I remembered when...SHE was expecting a third last time I was here. When I got the announcement of his birth and the two other ones, when she got caught in a bed with him by Jude, when Wyatt sent on the break-up message afterwards and when Caitlin showed all the signs that she was up to something! Despite my brain being ravenous right then, I turned around as the volume turned back up.
My friends stared at me like I had an astronaut camp stuck up my ass.
"Are you feeling okay, Nikki?" Jen mumbled, her eyes piercing into mine. She looked like she was soul searching, trying desperately to find out what was wrong with me. But why was she asking when she knew, really?
"Eh, nothing. Just zoned." I wasn't lying. But what was a horrific reunion like this without them?
Val had been sitting at the table, listening to Alyssa tell some story about her first 'boyfriend' in second grade. Knowing her, she had rolled her eyes and nodded to the side, which somehow upset Kylie. "What was that, Valerie?"
"Hey, you interrupted my story!" Alyssa whined with a frown. The eldest at the kid table put her hand out, silently shutting up her niece. "Listen, if you're going to be at this table and in MY vacation house, you need to be nice to my family." I may be exaggerating, but I could imagine Kylie spitting this in her natural, bitchy way in my daughter's face. Despicable, of course, and Val knew it. So she scoffed, standing from her seat. "And I'm NOT family? We share blood lines, you know."
'And honestly, I'd love to cut them', I thought later hearing the story.
Kylie grinned. "Maybe by blood, but to us? You're only here because you are my brother's kid." It was Alyssa's turn to scoff, practically rabid at this statement. "I am, too! So does that mean I'm not fa-"
"You're family, Alyssa, and you are my favorite niece. Now be quiet." That girl spoke mechanically. "So what's the matter with me?" Val had spoken meekly, though I could imagine her trying to be brave. A sniff and a laugh came along. "Because you aren't like the other girls, or like Malcolm. You're here because Caitlin feels bad." That was the appetizer.
"The point?" Yet weaker again.
"Tell her, Lyssie. Don't you know better than me?" The mentioned pet, in response, whimpered and stared at the table. This was how it was all orchestrated, and it would come out of a reluctant kid's mouth. "Uh...m-my dad...he doesn't love you anymore because Malcolm, Emily and me replaced you. Kylie said so." At the last term, the mentioned girl glared, knowing that wasn't part of the plan.
"So what if she says so? Just because I'm not around him..."
"And that's WHY he's not around. Jonesy sent you and your mom off to some place in the US so he could have Caitlin instead. You aren't loved here at all: just in the blood lines. You know what they say..." And nobody knew what they said, because Val's fist slammed into the youngest Masterson's face with a loud bang. All turned silent, but this time not just for me. Everybody's head turned, including mine. Alyssa looked shocked, while Emily started to murmur something about blood on the carpet, even if she had been silent before then.
Before anybody could tell, there was scurrying to get to the kids and I was actually one of them. Before 16, I wouldn't have even bothered to see what happened. But I don't think Jonesy would have, either, and still wouldn't. He was standing there, looking from her to her, her to him like his brain had fell out his ears or something. Now that I look back, maybe he just didn't know who to save.
On one side there was a mob of people (Jen and Emma including) trying to drag their beloved, bawling Kylie into a bathroom to get her nose cleaned up, while only I tried to hold my daughter back. "Val! Stop it, will you? She's gone and I told you not to let her get to you!" But still, she strained and cried in rasping gasps trying to get away. If I had known what had happened, maybe I would have let my girl finish the job, but I held her in a death grip until she had finally gone to putty, slipping out of her defensive stance and crying softly. Bawls slapped from her stomach every now and again as others kept staring and staring. For all they were talking, it would be simply overcast because it was so silent.
Jonesy still stood there, looking stupidly at everybody. "Well, I...we're just going to forget that ever happened." My pulse sped up for the second time in an hour, but this time, I was enraged. ' "Let's just forget we ever had a relationship!" "We should just try not to remember how I couldn't handle a job back then." "Forget it, forget it, forget it!"' This was just another one of those denial lines from the 'new and improved' Jonesy Garcia. He had changed; changed horribly. I could barely realize I was glaring into his eyes then, until his fled to terrified. He knew when I was angry, even after years of being apart and only being together every two years. Caitlin said something in response, but I didn't hear a word she said. Hell, I didn't listen to anything she said anymore.
"Come on, Valerie. We're going back home." I mumbled into her ear, which she only whimpered in response. Hand-in-hand, the two of us walked out and I swear to God, I could feel the heat of gazing eyes on my back.