With arms wide open

/ meeting the family /

We spent the whole flight talking and getting to know each other better, we had lunch, watched movies, most of them were Avengers ones and since the TV that I had in front of me had Amazon prime I started watching Downton Abbey, it wasn't until after I had finished the second chapter of the TV show that my Dad told me:

"Want to know something about my family before we meet them?"

I turned off the screen and told him:

"Sure"

And for a long time, our only topic of conversation was his family. I feel asleep when there was only half an hour left to get to Boston, because man! the flight was 8 hours and I was already exhausted Chris woke me up and I groan, not really wanting to wake up, and I asked him with my eyes still closed:

"What time is it?"

"Here in Boston it's only 4 so I hope you're full of energy because my family likes to play a lot"

I stretched myself and told him:

"Yes I am, just give me a few moments for me to finish waking up"

He laughed while I kept stretching myself, and immediately there was a voice through the megaphone that told us to please fasten our seatbelts, we did and soon enough we were getting out of the plane and going to the luggage claim, and once we got to the place in which your family and friends would go get you, when I saw a very large group of people, there was a couple of elderly people, two women, and three men, apart from three children younger than me, they had a big blue banner that said:

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY, LU!

I looked at it, and then back at Chris, who had a smile on his face and I told him referring to the banner:

"You're kidding me right?"

"Your grandma's idea, if you're going to blame someone blame her"

"Who said I was going to blame someone?"

He raised his arms and said:

"Just saying, just saying"

That made me laugh, and I punched him gently on his arm, then turned around again to the banner, I felt Chris's arm go through my shoulder and him asking me:

"Are you ready?"

I looked up and said:

"Yeah, I'm ready"

We went over to where they were and who I had assumed it was my grandma soon dropped the banner to the floor and came the short distance that was now between us and hugged me very tightly, barely letting me breathe, I hugged her back and she told me:

"Hi Lu, I'm Lisa, but you can call me grandma if you want to, we're so happy you're here with us, Chris has been talking a lot about you, you know?"

Still in the hug I ask her:

"Has he?"

Now there was a man's voice the one answering:

"Oh yeah he has, everyday since you started talking with him and every hour of them"

I let go of the hug and told the man, who I thought it had to be my uncle because of similarity with Chris since he had brown bear, as well as my new father:

"Oh well, that so sweet"

I turn around to face Chris, who was watching all of this with a smile on his face, he shrugged making me go hug him.

When I let go of the hug the presentations began, there was Lisa, Chris's mother, there it was Bob his dad, he was a very well known dentist in Boston, then the two women were Chris's sisters, Carly and Shanna, who both of them came with their husbands and their children, two boys Mills and Ethan and a girl, Stella, there was also the man whom I had briefly talked to before, Scott, who was Chris's youngest brother, and as soon as all the presentations were done, my grandma, who was clearly the one in charge said:

"Okay, now let's get going, there's a lot of thing to do, and a lot of things to show Lu"

I smile at her and quickly started looking for Chris, he must has seen me, because he came running to me and grabbed me by my arm and told me while he smiled down to me:

"Got ya Lu"

I smiled back and told him:

"Thanks Chris, for everything"

"Always Lu, always, seems you're now stuck with me forever"

I looked up at him and said:

"Good to know, because I prefer being with you, even if it under a bridge, if that meant that I won't have to see my old family again"

He smiled back at me and I saw how a little tears rolled down his cheek, he quickly rubbed it out and pulled me closer to him for some moments, as a signal that he felt the same way about me.

We got away from the place from which Chris and I had gotten out and looked for the main entrance of Boston's airport, it took a while but we finally got there, and the same moment that we were getting out of the airport was the same moment as a lot of flashes were starting to appear, and I soon buried my face into Chris's chest while he pulled me closer to him while he got into the airport parking and start looking for my grandmother's car and my aunt's one, they came in two cars because all of them wanted to come to the airport to meet me instead of having to wait till I got home