For Me,There Is Only You |18+|

3.Omichli Mountain

Socializing had never been my strong suit.

I was the kind of person who preferred to melt into the background, unnoticed.

It saved me from awkward small talk and those inevitable slip-ups that would later haunt me at 3 a.m. like unpaid bills.

But today was different.

Today, I was willingly walking straight into the lion's den.

All week, Ash had been prepping me like I was headed into a high-stakes job interview.

Her constant rundown on her family felt less like a casual heads-up and more like survival training.

She seemed genuinely worried I'd say something offensive, or worse, open my mouth at the wrong moment and set the whole house on fire.

Metaphorically... hopefully.

She had two half-brothers, one from each of her parents' previous marriages. Alaric was her father's son. The other one, her mother's son, remained nameless.

Every time I asked, she dodged the question like it was classified intel.

"They're a bit... eccentric," Ash had warned, her voice tight, eyes narrowing like she was reliving a mild family trauma. "Just be careful around them."

Eccentric? Okay. How hard could it be to deal with a few quirky humans?

It wasn't like I was that bad at socializing.

Alright... maybe just a little.

The giggling sound from the front seat brought me out of my thoughts, and when I looked at them, annoyance crept into my voice as I snapped, "How long?"

My patience had worn dangerously thin after three long hours of sitting through Ash and Nate's nonstop whispering and giggling.

They'd basically fused into one human being the moment we got into the car, their honeymoon phase playing on a loop while I sat in the back seat like a forgotten prop in a romantic movie montage.

I shifted uncomfortably, pressing my forehead against the cool window, silently counting trees or trying to calculate how fast I'd have to roll out of the moving car to escape without breaking any bones.

But no matter how hard I tried to tune them out, their giggles kept pulling me back, each one a tiny needle poking holes in what little sanity I had left.

Ash's hand lingered on Nate's arm. He leaned in to whisper something that made her blush. And I tried not to retch from secondhand sweetness.

My inner introvert was screaming, clawing at the walls of my comfort zone, begging for solitude, anything to escape this over-the-top romantic fluff.

Then, as if I didn't have enough to worry about, my thoughts turned to Ash's mysterious family.

Would they like me? Would they even acknowledge me? Or would I just be the awkward outsider, floundering through conversations like a fish tossed on dry land?

Knowing my luck, I'd be the gasping fish no one knew what to do with.

"Why didn't you go back earlier?" I asked Ash. "I mean, it's your big day. Shouldn't you be there already?"

"I didn't want to deal with my family."

Classic Ash.

So here we were, crammed in a car, one day before the event.

At least Nate volunteered to drive, and they both took the front seat, completely absorbed in each other... doing God knows what!

"How long will it take, Ashley?"