November was uneventful, but not boring by any means considering my boyfriend is Alec de Luca. I saw a little less of him than usual, though, because he began working at a local ice cream parlor to try to fish in a little money to help Arianna out. It's Thanksgiving day, and Alec and I are driving to Seattle to spend it with Vanessa who invited us both out last week. It is very kind of her, and Arianna insisted Alec go since Vanessa doesn't have much family and my parents were fine by it because all we ever do is go hunting together on Thanksgiving.
We are eating there, and then staying around for a while, and then coming home tonight. Alec pulls into the driveway of a quaint little house made of stucco and rock. It is much smaller than my house, and a bit smaller than Alec's, but very cute. Almost fairy-tale like, reminding me of the small house I was raised in.
We get out of his car, holding hands as we ring the doorbell. The dark sky rumbles overhead. Vanessa opens the door and smiles brightly at us, looking like she just came off the cover of Home Cooking with her gorgeous tanned skin, long black waves, cheery moss-green eyes, pastel-blue knee-length pencil skirt, and red apron with bits of a navy blue tank-top sticking out from underneath.
I myself am wearing a ruffly peach skirt, white, pink, and golden tank top with a floral design, and matching pink cardigan. Alec is wearing khakis and a blue and white striped polo.
"Oh, it's so good to see you two!" Vanessa gushes, hugging both of us at the same time.
"You two, Auntie." Alec grins.
"It's lovely to see you again, Vanessa." I say much more formally.
"Come in, come in!" She ushers us through the door. It smells like food inside, and there is noise coming from down a long hall with walls covered in family photos, which Vanessa leads us down. We come into a living with a soccer game playing but no one watching, a girl wearing a magenta sweater and jeans with short dark hair tucked behind her ears and soft, jade-green eyes that is probably around nine working on a puzzle of a kitten in a wheelbarrow with a boy who looks around the same age with lighter, wavy hair and eyes in a darker shade of green. A man comes out of what seems to be the kitchen, chocolate-brown hair and pale-green eyes that have gold splashed around the pupils, tall and fit, smiling endearingly at Alec and I.
"Alec, it's great to see you." The man says, giving Alec a short, friendly hug. "And you must be Carlie. I'm Rick, Vanessa's husband. Great to finally meet you." He shakes my hand.
"Nice to meet you." I say politely.
"And these are our children, Melissa and Steven. They're twins. Lis, Steven, this is Carlie, Alec's friend." Vanessa introduces us.
"Nice to meet you two." I tell them both with a kind smile. They each smile at me shortly before shyly returning to their puzzle.
"Melissa and Steven were my parent's names." Alec says quietly to me. My heart breaks inside my chest. I want to hold Alec and never let go of him. I want to make him forget about the hurt of losing his family. He can say he is happy with what he has, that he never has looked back, but that has to be a lie. He has to have wondered what could have been, he has to remember something, maybe the smell of his mother's perfume. He has to miss them, it's human nature. I squeeze his hand comfortingly.
"Food is just about ready, and I hope you're hungry. Rick will show you to the dining room. Kids, go sit down." Vanessa begins instructing the room like most mothers do.
"Oh, Carlie and I brought some cookies and a casserole. I'll go get them." Alec says, turning around and heading back out, leaving me surrounded by three people I don't know and one woman I've only met once.
I follow Rick through an entry way and into a room painted crimson with a glossy table in the middle that has six nicely arranged places. "Sit wherever you like." Rick offers. But considering at two spots there are blue and pink cups with swirly straws and at another two spots there are wine glasses half filled with burgundy liquid, I really only have two options. I take a seat at the far right corner, and Rick sits at the head of the table next to me. The twins file in, bouncing up into their seats. Vanessa begins delivering food to the table.
"So you go to the same school as Alec?" Rick asks me to make conversation.
"Yeah, I just started going there this year." I tell him.
"Oh, where did you move from?"
"New York." I watch his face move from polite interest to surprise.
"Really? That must have been tough, moving to a small town where everyone knows everyone from across the country during sophomore year." Rick says with a small laugh.
"It wasn't too bad, but Hoquiam is certainly different from New York. Alec and I met on the first day though, and bonded quickly after that." I smile up at Alec as he walks briskly through the dining room towards the kitchen, giving me a small smile.
"So how long have you two been dating?" He asks. I think back to our first date on September twelfth.
"Around two and a half months."
"So you two are pretty official then?" He tries to keep his expression back at the polite curiosity, but I can see he is truly interested. His nephew has a new girl around, maybe even the first he's ever taken to meet them, and he's wondering if it's serious enough to maybe get attached to me. Perhaps I'll be sticking around for a while.
"Already popped the question." Alec grins, walking into the room, nodding towards my right hand where the promise ring sits on my middle finger. Rick looks down at it, recognizing what it is immediately.
"Alec has a girlfriend!" Melissa sings.
"Mhm." Alec murmurs, sliding coolly into the seat next to me and leaning over to kiss my cheek suavely. I laugh, blushing a light shade of pink as Vanessa comes in carrying one last tray of food and takes her seat on the other side of Rick.
"Dig in, everyone!" She says, grabbing a plate for herself. The meal is filled with light chit chat and a lot of food. After wards, I help Vanessa do the dishes. She compliments me on the casserole Alec and I made together, and then tells me she has developed the pictures she took of Alec and my first date, which feels like a lifetime ago. "I'll get them out in a minute." She promises.
We all gather in the living room, except for the twins, who go play outside to work off the food we just ate. Alec and I sit on the loveseat and Rick and Vanessa sit on the couch. Alec is enthralled by the soccer game, practically jumping up and down.
"Your father always loved soccer too." Rick tells Alec, eyes lost in memories. My hand on Alec's knee squeezes minutely. Alec looks over at Rick, still smiling.
"I think I would have liked him very much, then." He says jokingly.
"You did. You looked up to him like he was Superman." Vanessa laughs. Suddenly she stands, saying she'll be back in a second, and then rushes off. We return to the game, and within a few minutes, Vanessa returns, carrying a large plastic tub. She sets it on the ground in the middle of the living room and removes the lid. It is filled to the top with photographs.
Alec and I both kneel next to it in interest. Vanessa begins shifting through the things, seeming to know her way around perfectly. Soon she comes up with a picture of a man that looks fresh out of college, muscular and tall, with thick dark hair and blue-green eyes, looking like Superman in every aspect. On his shoulder sits a toddler, hair wild and messy, green eyes shining with excitement, wearing Buzz Lightyear pajamas. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. It's Alec and his father.
"Steven adored you." Vanessa sighs, smiling at the picture. Alec takes it from her hands. He stares at the picture as if it holds the meaning of life itself. I watch him carefully, measuring his reaction. Of course there is sadness, but also a bit of happiness at seeing it.
"And Melissa did too, of course." Vanessa hands him two more pictures. One is of a young woman laying in a hospital bed wearing a hospital gown with a sleeping baby wrapped in a blue blanket in her arms. The other is of the same woman, long black hair blade-straight and eyes the exact same as Alec's, wearing a pair of jeans and a long white raincoat with black polka-dots and holding an umbrella in one hand while holding hands with a small, stout boy wearing a Spiderman raincoat of his own.
"She was beautiful." I whisper.
"I know." Alec whispers back, finger lightly brushing over his mother's smooth, smiling face.
"I loved my sister with all my heart." Vanessa murmurs.
"She was a great woman. And Steven was my best friend." Rick adds from his spot on the couch. Rick and Vanessa's story is cute in a tragic way. Rick was Steven's best friend, Vanessa was Melissa's sister, and they met at their funerals since they were buried together at the same time. They comforted each other since they both just lost the people they were closest to.
As we were sifting through the stacks of pictures, rain began to pour down. "Rick, the kids! They' going to be soaked!" Vanessa gasps. Ricks leaps to his feet and runs to the back door only to find two perfectly dry little angels right there under the balcony of the deck.
"Thank God, your mother was about to have a fit." Rick laughs, ushering the children inside.
"Liar." Vanessa sticks her tongue out at him. It reminds me of Alec and I. Which is weird, considering these two are married and have children.
"Carlie and I should probably head home." Alec says, standing up and stretching, then helping me up.
"I don't know. That storm looks pretty nasty. I feel uneasy about letting sixteen year old's drive all the way to Hoquiam in this." Vanessa frowns.
"We'll be fine." Alec promises her.
"It would really make me feel better if you two just stayed here tonight. Carlie, I'm sure I have something old you could borrow and Alec, I bet you'll fit into something of Ricks." Vanessa insists, looking extremely worried.
"Fine by me." I shrug, really not in the mood to inch through this downpour.
"Are you sure your parents are okay with it?" Alec asks.
"They'll approve of what ever is safest for me." I smile, knowing that driving home is perfectly safe for me but my dad can't force me to do it because it would raise eyebrows.
"Then I guess we're having a slumber party tonight." Alec grins.
"And you'll be enjoying it so much from the comfort of separate rooms." Vanessa smiles cheerily.
"Of course, of course." Alec laughs, waving dismissively. Vanessa rolls her eyes.
"I have the best idea ever." Alec tells me suddenly.
"I'm scared." I stare at him warily.
"No, no, it's going to be fun. We're going to go outside." Alec smiles excitedly.
"It's practically flooding!" I exaggerate, pointing out the window to the heavy drops of rain falling rapidly.
"And that's romantic, duh. We'll be outside, Auntie!" Alec calls even though Vanessa is right there, grabbing my hand and beginning to drag me to the door. I dig my heels in.
"Nope, no way. I will not go out there." I tell him resolutely. He turns and stares at me a moment, then looks me up and down, sizing me up.
"Don't you dare, Alexander." I say in my fiercest voice, taking a few steps backwards. He smiles cockily, then lunges at me. I could have taken him down easily, but to keep up the human charade, I allow him to grab me and sling me over his shoulder.
"Put me down!" I try to sound mad, but that is hard when you're laughing. I beat me fists down on his back, but not hardly.
"Put the poor girl down!" Vanessa comes running after us while Rick just laughs. Alec makes it out of the house and slams the door behind him before Vanessa can catch up.
"Alec!" I squeal as the rain begins to beat down on me. He sets me on my feet on the grass. I make a dash for the house, but he grabs me, pinning my arms by my side and I have no choice but to comply because I have to pretend.
"You're ridiculous!" I laugh as I become soaked.
"I know." He smiles, then leans down and kisses me. It's soft and sweet and lasts briefly, but it has meaning. My first kiss in the rain, and it couldn't be more perfect.
"Now that you have me out here, what do you expect us to do?" I ask with a small smile.
"Honestly, I didn't plan past the kiss." He runs one hand through his hair, and because it is so wet, it stays in the smoothed back position.
"Well," I say, brushing the wet locks back into their rightful position, "until you come up with our next move, we could continue on with your original plan." I smile, moving my arms to wrap around his neck. He leans down, pressing his lips to mine.
We soon return to the warmth of the house, each of us drenched. Vanessa wraps towels around us and scolds Alec playfully. "Show Carlie the bathroom and how to use the shower, the least you can do after what you did to her. Carlie, I got this for you, I hope it fits." She hands me a stack of clothes.
"Thanks, Vanessa." I smile at her.
"Come with me, my lady." Alec says formally, offering me his arm. I giggle and take it and he leads me up a flight of stairs and down to a door. He opens up and inside is a bathroom painted blue with a small, curtained shower, a marble counter top, a toilet, and a sink.
"Well, to use the shower, you turn the knob to the red for hot, and to the blue for cold. The you lift this little thingy, and ta-da." He turns the shower on for me, making the temperature a little warm.
"Thank you, kind sir." I smile, unbuttoning and stripping off my cardigan, leaving me in a clingy, wet tank-top that makes my bra very visible.
Alec kisses me unexpectedly, catching me off guard. I respond nonetheless, smiling slightly. He hoists me up on the counter, his tongue meeting mine. He shuts the door with his foot. The shower is still running, filling the room with steam and fogging up the mirror.
The air becomes harder to breathe. He pulls back, staring into my eyes, both of us panting. He soon begins kissing me again, hands playing with the hem of my shirt. I pull back then and lift my shirt up and over my head, tossing it onto the tiled floor. His hands slide up by bare skin, cupping my breasts gently.
Suddenly, he grabs my waist again and pulls me off the counter, pushing me up in the wall space between the toilet and shower. His hands softly squeeze my breasts. I run my hands down his damp shirt. He begins kissing down my neck, sucking in different spots intimately.
He grabs me again and seems to forget there is no longer a wall behind me because he proceeds to push me backwards. To make matters worse, I lose my footing as I slip on my shirt laying rumpled on the floor.
I shriek as we go tumbling into the shower. I bang my head hard enough against the tub to knock out a human, but Alec's damage isn't too bad considering his head has my breasts to break his fall. He lands face-first in them, the water pouring down on us. He looks up at me, sprawled in the tub, and we both break into a round of uncontrollable laughter.
After a few minutes, he stands up, helping me up. I'm surprised we didn't rip the shower curtain off from the rack holding it up. Alec gets a towel out from under the sink and dries himself off again. "I'll see you after your shower." He grins, then slides out the door, shutting it behind him. I calm myself with a few deep breaths. This is the first time Alec and I have gotten physical like we did the night of his birthday, and things were once again swept out of control.
I take a brief shower, then dress in the clothes Vanessa provided, which, embarrassingly enough, include a green thong and a matching bra that is a bit too big. The baggy red shirt covers that up though, and the loose sweatpants are very comfy.
I go ahead and just throw my clothes away, knowing I'll never wear them again anyways. I brush through my hair with a brush in one of the drawers, and then head downstairs. I find Alec, showered and clean, wearing Rick's loose clothes.
"Hey, baby." He says as I come down stairs, opening his arms for me. I take my place in them and he holds me tightly. It comes as a shock to realize it is nine thirty.
"Dessert?" Vanessa asks, holding towards me a plate of the cookies Alec and I made. 'They're delicious." She adds.
I carefully pick one up and tell her thank you, nibbling on it absent-mindedly. The storm is still howling away outside. I can hear deep breaths and steady heartbeats coming from a single room upstairs, and assume Melissa and Steven are sleeping.
"Alec, you'll be taking Steven's room, and Carlie you can have the guest room. Alec will show you to it." Vanessa informs us. We all go into the living room and watch the last of an episode of CSI: Miami. At ten, Vanessa and Rick retire to their room.
Alec and I remain in the living room. He turns on a movie called The Crazies, and soon enough I am cuddled into his arms and trying not to scream. He knows I hate scary movies, but he also knows I need to be comforted when watching them.
By the time the movie is over, it is nearing midnight. "Come on, I'll show you your room." He says. We flip the Tv off, then tiptoe upstairs and past Melissa's room, Steven's room, the bathroom, and to the room at the end of the hall. Inside is green walls, a queen-sized bed, an old Tv, and a lot of free space in the middle of the room.
"I'm really glad I've gotten to spend all this time with your family. I like getting to know all the sides of your life. I guess all I have left is your dad's side." I joke, walking over to the nightstand and turning on the lamp.
"I don't think you'll ever be meeting that side of my family." Alec's happy attitude swiftly disappears, replaced by darkness.
"D-did I say something wrong?" I ask him in confusion, not understanding the dramatic mood shift.
He sighs. "No, of course not. It's just.. My dad is lucky to be the person he is. He's lucky that he is a nice guy, a good man. The rest of his family are liars, cheaters, druggies, alcoholics. They live on fringes of society in Wyoming. We go there to visit them out of courtesy and because my father feels he is obligated to. He's always giving them money and stuff. We never stay at any of their houses, always rent a hotel in the city, but we stay with them for most of the days for sometimes weeks at a time during the summer. It almost makes me feel dirty being around them. Alissia stays here at my aunt's house when we go. That's good, but still, I don't understand why they ever make us go around them." A shiver runs through his body.
"I'm sorry.. I didn't know.." I murmur, unsure of what to do as I stare up into his eyes.
"It's no big deal. Just don't hold your breath on meeting them. There is no way in hell I'd ever take you." He vows, shivering again.
"I understand." I assure him, flicking the light off so the room is only illuminated by the lamp.
"Good. Now let me turn this Tv on for you, it's hard to work." He grabs a remote of the nightstand and hits a couple buttons. The old dinosaur makes a low buzzing sound before lazily waking up, projecting a dull image on its screen.
"Thanks, babe." I lean up and peck his cheek.
"What, that's all I get?" He looks down at me incredulously.
"I think you got more than enough earlier, buddy." I pat his chest.
"Don't pretend you didn't like it." He smirks.
"Believe whatever you want." I smile, turning and heading for the bed. Suddenly he grabs me by my waist from behind, tickling me. I squeal, and him, already anticipating that, clamps his hand over my mouth.
He tickles my sides, removing his hand from my mouth and expecting me to have enough self control to not make any loud noises. I battle him off, only able to use as much strength as would be expected of a teenage girl. We end up wrestling each other on the ground, rolling around.
We are both tuckered out as we roll over with him on top of me. He has me pinned down, and we are gasping for air. He smiles at me charmingly, then leans down and kisses me quickly.
"It could have been so much simpler." He laughs, then gets off me. I stand up and brush myself off.
"I'm sure you would have found a way to make it complicated, anyways." I roll my eyes.
"Touche. Well, night Carls. Sweet dreams." He winks at me, then disappears out the door. I collapse on the bed and fall into a peaceful sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.
The next morning, I awoke with three bruises on my neck. Alec had given my three very noticeable hickeys. I have no make up with me, no scarves or anything, and my hair is such a mess that I would be humiliated to present myself to Vanessa and Rick with it down. I dart over to Alec's room in a panic.
He opens the door with a lazy grin, probably assuming who it was. But he didn't assume that I would shove right past him and into his room angrily. He shuts the door, turning to me in confusion, mouth open to say something, but I start speaking before he can take a breath. "Look what you did to me!" I whisper-hiss, pointing to the bruises on my neck as if I am pointing to an enlarged womb. Overreacting? Yeah, just a bit. Did I need that to be pointed out? Preferably not. Did he? Of course.
"You're overreacting." He comes over to me, grabbing me hand and attempting to stick it to my side. I swat him away.
"I refuse to go downstairs and let Vanessa see these. She will think I'm some kind of tramp." I cross my arms, looking at him for a solution.
"I have a hoodie in the back of my car that will cover them up. I'll go get them, just calm down." He laughs, kissing me. The problem solved, I allow myself to relax into the kiss. Feeling my tension ease, he kisses down my jawline and onto my throat. He begins sucking lightly and I push him off.
"So not the time." I tell him in an irritated tone. He just shrugs as if to say 'can't help it' and then heads downstairs. I sit on his bed, wait, and yank the hoodie out of his hands as soon as he walks in the door. I pull it on over my head, staring in the mirror of his bathroom and very pleased when I find the roll of the hood covers up my neck nicely.
Alec and I prepared to leave at around ten, after eating muffins for breakfast. As we were walking out the door, saying goodbye to everyone, Vanessa suddenly pressed a package into my hand. "I nearly forgot about the pictures from the zoo!" She laughs. I hug her and then we are off (after Rick and Vanessa take a picture of the car, of course).
As soon as I arrive home, I change and head out to the store. I buy an armful of picture frames that are plain and simple and frame every last one of the pictures taken. My favorite is the one of Alec and I kissing on the bench. It goes right by my bed. The rest are scattered around my room. It completes my room, adding to it the most important thing in my life – Alec.