(Vincent's pov)
Clementine and I had gotten back home from the lake, and we had gone to bed after a few more minutes. When we did wake up in the morning, I was woken up by a phone call and I groaned a bit as I grabbed the phone and answered it.
"Hmm yea?" I asked as I opened my eyes a bit.
"Vincent, hey we are holding the party at the park." I hear and I sit up.
"Right birthday party today?" I asked.
"Yes, it's today but Aunt Karen changed the location… again." I hear my mom say and I nod a bit.
"Yea alright, she change the time too?" I asked.
"Sadly, yes, she did she made it an all-day party, how she was able to do this on short notice just… anyway we need to be there in an hour or so but it's fine if you are a bit late." She tells me and I nod.
"Yea, alright we will get ready, I still need to get the gift." I muttered.
"Alright, we will see you then." She tells me and we both hang up. I look to my side to see Clementine looking at me and I smiled at her.
"We going to get the gift?" She asked and I nod as I sighed and grabbed my keys and wallet.
"Oh, where are you two heading to?" I hear my grandmother ask.
"Mom called saying the party was changed, so I have to go and get a gift." I tell her.
"Oh well I need to start working on the cake… actually could you help me, Clementine?" She asked and I looked to Clem and nodded, and she went to go help my grandmother as I headed out to look for a gift, until I got a phone call.
"Hello?"
"Vincent what are you up to?" I heard my cousin say and I sighed.
"Well hello to you too, I'm going to get the gift for the party since Aunt Karen changed it on us…. Again." I state.
"Fuck I need to get one too, mind coming over to get me? my car is being a piece of shit." Jane says and I laughed.
"I can help you fix it, but sure I'll be right over, is Molly coming too?" I asked, I then heard Molly on the other end and then jane came back to me.
"Yea, if that's ok with you." She says.
"I'm cool with it, just give me ten minutes." I tell them and we hang up. That ten minutes ended up being a good twenty when I finally get to the house I leaned back in the seat and waited for my cousins. They come in the car quickly and I start the drive into the city.
"So, where is your girlfriend?" Molly asked.
"Grandma asked her to help with the cake, since Aunt Karen changed the time." I say as I drove.
"I heard, your mom literally just called us and told us about it, I don't know why mom is like this." Jane says and I chuckled.
"She's a nutcase and we all know it, but we just deal with it." I say as I looked at the road a bit.
"So how did the surgery go?" Molly asked and I turned red at this.
"Well, if I want kids I can." I say.
"That's great though, right?" Jane asked and I nodded.
"Yea but I don't want to rush anything… I know grandma was joking but she thinks Clem and I will be together for a long time but… I mean I would want that, but I don't want to pressure her since I'm…. I don't know." I mutter and lean my arm on the window a bit as I drive.
"I get that, hell my dad pressured me about Luke, and we know how that ended." Jane says and I chuckled.
"He still trying to talk to you?" I asked.
"No, no we haven't talked after… well you know, but it doesn't matter I just know what is going on." She says and I nod at this as we finally get to the mall, and we walked around a bit to find a gift.
"She still likes stuffed animals, right?" I asked as I looked to the huge display of said toy.
"I think so, though I don't think she would mind if you got her one." Molly says and I think more, and I grabbed one and looked to it.
"Alright, and if she doesn't want it, she can return it." I say as we looked around more. When we finally finished up the shopping we headed past some other stores, and I stopped and looked at some of the rings on display.
"Oooh is little Vinny thinking about asking Clem to marry him?" Molly jokes as she pokes my cheek and I swat her hand away as her and Jan laughed.
"No, they just look really nice." I muttered as I walked away.
"Oh, come on you know we joke; you have to be dating for at least a year before you ask a lady to marry you." Jane says and I looked to her.
"Uh… lesbians get married after a week." I joke and she looked to me.
"Poor, poor Vinny…. It's actually a day after their first date." Molly says and we laughed at this as we walked back to the car.
"Look, if you want to ask her to marry you it's fine." Molly says as I drive them to Grandma's.
"I've already told grandma about waiting for Clem to finish school and so on… I don't want her to be obligated to drop things just so she could plan her wedding while in school, plus the whole grandbabies." I mutter a bit as I drive.
"And I honestly respect you for that, most people don't think like that." Jan says and I nod.
"Anyway, you'll meet her once we get to grandmas." I say.
"Oooh, wait till she meets us, if she doesn't run, we know she can handle our family." Molly says.
"Trust me, her own friends are just like you."
"Oh? Well, that blows, anyway thanks for taking us to get the gifts." Jane says and I nod.
"Yea, anytime… well I mean till I get back home, I can help with the car while I am here… maybe Clem could help too." I think out loud as we finally get to my grandmother's home. I pull in the driveway and get out the car and head inside the house to smell something good.
"Hey grandma." Molly says just as we see her poke her head out of the kitchen door.
"Hello, Molly, Jane how are you two?" She asked.
"Doing fine, and you?" they both asked, and I head into the kitchen as they talk. I see clementine looking in a recipe book and I smile as I come up behind her and hold her waist.
"Hey, how's the baking going?" I asked as she turned and kissed my cheek.
"Going good actually, I never really baked so I am really surprised at this." She says and I chuckled as I move away and help her with the rest of the cookies.
"So, what did you get while you were out?" Clem asked as I pre-heated the oven.
"Just a stuffed toy… I mean I think she still likes them, and if not, they can return it and get her something else." I explained as I looked to make sure the oven was at the right heat.
"Are you nervous?" she asked.
"No not at all…. Just meeting a bunch of the family that hates me but hey, it's a birthday party so I doubt anyone would start anything…. At least I hope not." I muttered as we put the cookies in the oven and my grandmother came in.
"Oh, I'm sorry I forgot about the cookies." She says and I chuckled.
"It's ok Grandma we got them." I say as I pat the stove a bit. After she thanked me, we all took the time to talk to my cousins a bit, they seemed to like Clementine a lot.
"So, what do you plan to study in college?" Molly asked.
"Sport's medicine, but I would really like to play professionally." Clem explained to them. When the cookie and cake was done, we all got into the car, and I drove us all to the park where the party was being held.
"I think you should invest in a truck Vincent." My grandmother says and I laughed.
"Yea? Maybe I should, would be great for the farm." I think and pull into the parking lot.
"But a car is good for now and for trips like this." I say and she nods as I help her out the car and the others got out. We went and set the gifts and food on the proper tables, and I go and talk to my mother.
"Hey mom, where is the birthday girl?" I asked.
"Her and her mom will be here soon." She says and I nod at this and looked around a bit.
"What about dad?" I asked her and she points over to the lake and I look to see him there and I nod, and I walk over to him and take a seat next to him.
"Hey." I say and look to him as he nods.
"Hey." He says and I nod at this, and we both just look to the lake.
"Uh… would you like to go fishing again… before you leave?" He asked and I nod.
"Sure, we can do that." I say and we hear the family getting ready and I look to Clem as I get up and we all go over to the tables and the truck comes on by and my cousin hops out the truck and runs over to us. We all greet her, and she comes over to Clem and I.
"Hello." She says and I nod to her.
"Hey, how are you?" I asked.
"I am ok, and you?" She asked.
"I am good as well, oh uh, Kelly this is my girlfriend Clementine, Clem this is my cousin Kelly." I introduce them.
"Oh, you're the girl that got Minerva and Vincent separated?" She asked and I look to her.
"No, no that is not what happened." I say.
"But that Is what Minerva said on the radio." She says and I look to her.
"No that is not what had happened at all trust me, Minerva and I were broken up long before I met Clem." I tell her and she looked to Clem and then nods a bit. I don't think she fully believed me, but this was the best that I was going to get out of this family. We all went to the tables and talked with my dad's family a bit or well at least I tried.
"So, I heard you are living in Georgia, right?" My uncle asked as I grabbed a beer and looked to him.
"Yea, I am." I say and take a drink and I look to Clem as she played with the kids. They all seem to like her and I too a drink as I looked over to my family as they talked a bit but then my aunt would look at me with a bit of a glare. I shrugged it off as I went over to Clem and the kids and tapped Clem on the shoulder as she had my youngest cousin on her arm, and she lifted her.
"Oh, hey Vincent, you, ok?" Clem asked and I nod.
"Yea just wanted to know if you wanted to walk around a bit is all." I suggest.
"Nooo, we want to play more." My cousins says and I rubbed the back of my neck a bit.
"Oh uh, well I want to spend time with Clem too." I say.
"Then you can play with us too." My cousin says and I look to Clem.
"I mean they have a good argument." She says and I laughed a bit.
"Yea sure, what are we playing?" I asked and I felt someone jump onto my back and I grabbed their legs so they wouldn't fall.
"Let's play chicken." I hear and laugh.
"Jacob that's for the pool." My youngest cousin Milly says, and I roll my eyes and I make chicken sounds. Jacob follows my lead and Clem looked to Milly and picks her up.
"Come on let's show these boys that we can beat them." She says and Milly smiles as she looked to Jacob, and I chuckled as we began to play this game. It wasn't long till I started to feel a bit tired, and I looked to Clem as she smirks at me.
"You getting tired there Vincent?" She asked.
"A bit, but I can handle." I say as Milly finally shoved Jacob a bit to hard and I faltered backwards a bit and I caught myself before I could fall. I chuckled as I get to my knees and Jacob gets off.
"Ok, I think I have had enough, girls win." I say and all the girls cheered.
"Aww come on." I hear and I look to Jacob.
"Sorry, there I need to work out some more." I say and he sighed.
"It's ok." He says and pats my back as I take a breath. Clem takes a seat next to me and smirks.
"You sure you are doing, ok?" She asked and I nodded as I sit up more and stretch.
"Yea, I'm good just… tired." I say as we get up and the kids played tag. We decided to let them play so we went and got some water and I take a drink.
"Never thought I would say that water tastes so good right now." I say and Clem laughed at this.
"So, we never got any introductions." I hear and look to see my aunt and I clear my throat a bit.
"Oh, sorry uh, Aunt Karen this is my Girlfriend Clementine, Clem this is my Aunt Karen." I introduced and Clem holds her hand out but my aunt doesn't take it so Clem moved her hand back to her side and I look to my aunt.
"So did Vincent here tell you that he was a she?" She says and I glare at her.
"Oh uh, well I knew that yes." Clem says and she looked to me a bit confused and then back to my aunt.
"So, you still want to date this sinner?" She asked Clem.
"Hey wai-."
"I don't think this is the uh, proper opportunity for you to say things like this, especially at a kids party." I say before Clem could say something.
"Oh, now you think of propriate times to talk on these things?" My aunt asked and I look to her.
"Please not today." I say.
"Well, if it isn't Violet." I hear my uncle says and I sighed as I rubbed my face.
"Hi uncle Raymond." I say and look to him.
"Hm, so who is this?" He asked as he pointed to Clem.
"Oh, that's Violet's girlfriend." My aunt says and I don't say anything, I didn't want to start a fight, not today.
"Oh, did she trick you into dating her?" My uncle asked Clem.
"Uh, no he didn't trick me at all, Vincent has been pretty open to me on these subjects." Clementine tells them.
"Her name is Violet, don't let her fool you." My uncle says and I clench my hands a bit.
"No, his name is Vincent, please call him as such." She says and I look to her.
"You know she's just lying to you, it's ok to admit it." My aunt says and I glare at him.
"Hey look, let's just get off this topic, uh how is Kelly doing in school?" I asked trying to get off of this topic.
"She is doing fine, really excelling in the science field, lest she can tell the difference between a boy and a girl." My uncle says and I sighed at this. Of course, he would say that.
"Well, that's good I suppose." I mutter.
"Oh yea, it's great cause then she won't get confused." My aunt says.
"Confused on what?" Clem asked and I place my hand on her shoulder.
"Well, confused like Violet here." My uncle says.
"There is no Violet here." Clem says and I pull her back a bit.
"Well, it was nice talking with you two we are going to go talk to Grandma now." I say and pull her away and she moved away from me and glared at me.
"Why did you let them treat you like that?" She asked.
"Look I don't want to start anything ok, it's Kelly's birthday and I don't want her to think I ruined it because her parents are assholes to me, so please just drop it." I say and she places her hand on my shoulders and I look to her.
"Alright, I am sorry I shouldn't have said anything, I apologize." She says and I smiled a bit and kissed her cheek.
"It's fine, I know how you are, now come on let's go talk to Grandma." I say as we walked over to my grandmother, and she gives us each a hug and I grabbed one of the cookies her and Clem made.
"Mmm chocolate chip." I say and grab one for Clem and hand it to her.
"Ok no more, your dad is making burgers and hot dogs." My grandma says and I nod as I finished the cookie.
"Alright, but you know I can't resist grandma's cookies." I say and she slapped my shoulder a bit and we laughed a bit at this.
"Oh, you are just like your grandfather." She says and I smiled a bit and grabbed another beer.
"Don't drink too much there Vinny." My grandmother tells me and. Nod.
"I won't I promise." I tell her and she nods, and I drink a bit. As lunch time was coming around Clem and I went to my father, and I looked at the burgers.
"Smells good." I say.
"I hope so, grandma would kill me if I messed up grandpa's burgers." He says and I nod.
"Did Karen and Raymond bother you?" He asked.
"No."
"Vincent?" He asked and I look to him.
"Look I know I wasn't the best dad, and I regret what I had done but you are still my child, and I won't have my sister and her dumbass husband speak bad about you." He says and I look to him.
"No, they didn't bother me dad, I handled it." I tell him and he sighed a bit and flips the burgers and I looked to Clem.
"So, I heard from grandma that you are still helping your old band out?" He asked and we talked a bit on this till he finished the food. Clem and I grabbed our plates and sat next to my mom and Grandmother. My father came over to us and we all talked a bit.
"I'm telling you; he looks just like your father." Grandma tells my dad.
"Ok, ok I can see it, if he shaved his beard a bit then yea spitting image of dad in his twenties." My dad says and I chuckled at this.
"So, the surgery went well." Grandma tells them.
"That's good, are we going to be having grandkids soon?" My mom asked and I coughed a bit as water went down the wrong pipe and Clem pats my back a bit and I hear my dad laughing.
"Oh, come on, it's not all that bad." My mom says and I clear my throat.
"I mean uh, well we can talk on that later." I say and they nod. After we finished eating my aunt decided that it was time for cake, and we all sang happy birthday and got some cake. When we all finished Kelly opened her gifts and thanked everyone and then she opened mine.
"Thank you, Cousin Vincent." She says as she hugged the stuffed toy a bit and I nod, and I take a sip of the beer I had.
"it's Violet sweetie." Her mom says and I just keep quiet and looked to Kelly as she looked to me and she shakes her head a bit as she opened the other gifts. I felt Clementine grab my hand and I hold it back as we just sat and watched. I ate some cookies and I handed one to Clem who took one and ate it. It was starting to get late, and I helped pack some of the supplies in the cars and then helped Grandma in the car.
"Well thanks for coming Violet, though I thought you would have gotten Kelly a better present." I hear and look to my aunt.
"She seems to like the toy I got her." I say and I closed the door for my grandmother.
"Hmm, sure, so what did you spend my father's money on?" She asked and I look at her confused.
"I didn't-."
"Don't lie You spent it on drugs didn't you." She says and then her husband comes over to us.
"No, I didn't I can't touch his money, so shove off." I tell her.
"Don't talk to you elders like that, I don't know how my brother could have had a disrespectful daughter like you." She says and I clench my hands a bit.
"Because he's a bitch too." My uncle says and I glare at him.
"HEY, SAY THAT TO MY FACE!" I hear and I see my dad come up to us.
"I said because you're a bi-." Before my uncle could finish my dad punches him in the face and he falls back a bit, and I grabbed my dad and pull him back just as my uncle comes up to us and I see my grandma trying to open the door.
"CLEM WATCH GRANDMA!" I yelled as I shoved my uncle away from my dad and I stayed between both of them, and I see Clem go over to my grandma and I look to my uncle.
"MOVE OUT THE WAY YOU BITCH!" My uncle yelled at me.
"No, grow the fuck up." I tell him and he takes a swing at me, and I duck away, and I feel my dad shove past me, and he grabbed my uncle and tackled him to the ground. My aunt yells and other members of the family are coming over and I grabbed my dad off of my uncle and shoved my dad back a bit as I faced him, I felt a punch to the back of my head and I hold my head and I turn to look at my uncle and I look to my dad as he tried to get past me but I stopped him as I held him in place.
"DON'T EVER TOUCH MY SON YOU BITCH!" He yells at my uncle.
"THAT THING IS NOT A BOY!" My uncle yelled.
"STOP THIS NOW!" I hear Molly yell and I see Jane try to move between us and I hold my hand out.
"STOP THIS NOW!" I yelled.
"I AIN'T LISTENING TO A FREAK!" My uncle yelled as I push my dad back a bit more as he tried to shove me.
"LET ME AT HIM!" My dad yelled and I felt some hands on me and I am shoved away, and I fall to the ground hitting my head on something, and I get up to see my uncle tackling my dad, so I get up quickly kicking some dirt as I grabbed my uncle and shoved him off my dad and I punched my uncle a few times. I was seeing red I was angry I was remembering all the times I was bullied for who I am by him and his wife, I was livid.
"GET OFF HIM!" I hear my aunt yell, but I didn't, and I kept punching him breaking his nose. He then shoved me off and got a few swings in but I was able to shove him to the side as we both got up and he ran to me to try and tackle my, but I moved to the left and I tripped him and he landed on his stomach and I go over to him and turn him onto his back and I grabbed his shirt and I punched him again.
"FUCK YOU, I AIN'T NO FREAK!" I yell as I punched him more and I am pulled off and I try to shove the person off me.
"NO LET ME KILL THIS FUCKER I AM TIRED OF HIS AND KAREN'S SHIT!" I yelled as I finally shove the person of me, and I tackle my uncle to the ground again I was about to punch him, but I was shoved off of him and I am grabbed by my dad as he pulled me away and I tried to get out of his grip.
"I'LL HAVE YOUR ASS IN JAIL!" Karen says.
"FUCK YOU SLUT!" I yelled as she helped her husband up and I laughed.
"GOT YOUR ASS KICKED BY A GIRL HU? HOW'S IT FEEL ASSHOLE!?" I yelled.
"FUCK YOU FREAK!" He yelled as he held his nose and I shove my father off of me and then Clem gets in front of me, and I stopped.
"Stop right now." She says and I look to her then to my uncle and I glare at him. I take a few deep breaths to try and calm down and I slick my hair back and I looked to Clementine, and I nod as I calm down a bit.
"You head on home now." I hear someone tell my aunt and her family they leave, and I hold my head a bit.
"Are you ok?" I hear and I move away.
"Vincent?" I hear and I look to Clem, and I nod a bit.
"Just… my head." I mutter and I take a breath.
"Is he ok?" I hear my dad ask and I nod.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm good just… give me a bit." I say and I walked away from them, and I try to calm down. I hear someone come up to me and I look to see Clementine.
"Your parents are taking your cousins and grandmother home." She tells me and I nod a bit at this.
"Ok… ok." I mutter and I take some time to think and sighed.
"Ok I think I am good." I tell her and look to her.
"Your grandmother wants to talk to you when we get back to her house." She tells me and I nod at this and look to the car.
"I uh… we should head home." I say and she nods as we head to the car. I drive back to my grandmother's house, and I see my dad's truck still there and I groan a bit at this.
"Hey, we can stay in the car a bit till you're ok to talk." Clementine tells me and I nod at this. That is until I see the house door open, and I see my dad and I take a breath.
"Might as well get this done now." I mutter as we get out and into the house.
"Are you ok?" He asked and I nod.
"Yes, I'm ok." I tell him and he nods, and I see my grandmother as she looked to me.
"I uh… I'm sorry." I tell her.
"He had it coming in all honesty…. Are you sure you are, ok? You hit your head pretty hard." She says and I nod.
"Yea no blood or anything." I tell her and I see my mom come out the hallway and she holds my face in her hands.
"No cuts, that's good." She says and looks to my knuckles, and she goes and gets something I clean my hands a bit.
"Now… you know I don't condone violence." My mom says and I nod.
"I'm sorry I-."
"I know, I know, he should have stopped but he didn't…. just… be careful, ok?" She says and I nod.
"Yea." I say as we take a seat in the living room and Clem takes a seat next to me and holds my head to her and I closed my eyes a bit.
"I'm… we are going to head back to Georgia tonight, I'm sorry." I tell them.
"It's fine, we understand." My grandmother says and I nod as I opened my eyes.
"Just come and visit at some point, ok?" My dad asked and I nod.
"Of course." I say.
"Why not stay the night? Just to make sure nothing happened to your head, ok?" my mom suggests, and I shake my head.
"I'm fine, we will be fine." I tell her.
"I just don't want to get a call saying something happened." She says and I nod.
"I know but I'm ok, trust me, I know." I tell her and she stops and nods.
"Alright, alright." She says and I nod. We all kept quiet for a bit, and I get up and I pack mine and Clem's stuff and I go and set them in the car, and I hear someone behind me and I look to my dad.
"You shouldn't have gotten involved and I'm sorry." He says.
"Nah it's fine, like grandma says he had it coming." I tell him.
"Yea but-."
"Dad you didn't do anything wrong it was Uncle Raymond." I tell him and he nods and then gives me a hug and I hug him back. We pulled apart and it was a bit awkward as we went inside, and I looked to Clem, and I go and give my mom and grandmother a hug. They all give Clem a hug and we head out to the car, and I start to drive back home.
"They worry about you." She says and I nod.
"I know but… I just want to go home right now." I tell her and I look to her as she nods, and I nod back.
"We should take the long way home." She says and I chuckled and nod as I did just that. It took us a few days and we called my parents and grandma to update them on where we are so they don't worry, we haven't heard anything on social media or even the radio about anything happening, but I think that's because my aunt knew she really couldn't do anything on the fight, plus it might hurt her husband's ego a bit. We finally get into Georgia, and I go and take a break at one of those rest stops and both Clem and I get out the car and head inside the building to get something simple to eat and drink. We then went over to one of the picnic tables and relaxed a bit and I took a drink of my water.
"So, you start school next week?" I asked.
"Well just to get things set up really and so I know where I am going and when practices are, I think I missed a week, but they were ok with that." She explained and I nod.
"You're still going to live at our house, right?" I asked and she nods.
"Yea, unless you want me to get the dorms." She says and I shake my head.
"No, I was just making sure." I say and she smiled at me and nod.
"I know I was joking." She says and we laughed at this a bit. She then goes and makes a call to her parents, and I lean back a bit as I looked around. She comes over to me as she finished up her call and kisses me and I kissed her back and pull her to me and she sits in my lap. We stay like that for a bit and just take the time to relax before we had to drive again. I put my face in her neck and breathed a bit.
"I love you." I tell her and I fell her move a bit and I looked to her as she looked back to me. she was a bit shocked, and I look away a bit.
"Sorry I shouldn-." I was stopped as she placed her hands on my face and she kisses me, and I kissed her back and I look to her as we pull apart.
"I love you too. She says and I kissed her again and we headed to the car and drove home.