To the One I Loved

Chapter Twenty-Four: Paul's Dinner Party

Alex's POV:
Nina and I were still sitting on her bed and I was trying to calm her down. She really didn't want to face her father. She hated him for leaving her family when they needed him the most.

Then Paul walked in. "Hey," he said. He sat on the other side of Nina on her bed.

"Did you invite him here?" She asks. "Did you want him here?"

Paul shakes his head. "I don't even know how he got here. I thought he forgot about us or something and then he just shows up," Paul responds.

"Do you forgive him for leaving us?" Nina asks. "For thinking I was a mistake. That I wasn't one of God's perfect and innocent creations?"

"I don't want to Nina. I love you more than I love him, but every young boy deserves to have a father," he says.

Nina sobs, turning into me and stays there. She doesn't look back at Paul. She doesn't talk anymore, either. She just cries.

"Come down or don't," Paul says, "I'd like to have my favorite sister there, at my birthday party, but its up to you."

After a few minutes of silence, Paul leaves the room. He doesn't close the door all of the way behind him. "Are we going to go to the dinner party?" I ask her.

She nods. "He's my brother and the closest thing I've ever had to a father," she says. "Of course I'm going." I nod. "Let me just clean myself up," then she walks into her bathroom.

I hear the sink water run. It runs for about a minute and then she turns it off. She comes back out. I can tell she washed her face so that no one knows she was crying.

She grabs her makeup bag from the dresser and heads back into the bathroom. While she's in there putting on makeup, I sprawl myself across her bed.

Her bed is really soft. Like really soft. I could fall asleep in it and just stay there forever. I pick up the book I bought her. It was hiding under her pillow.

I opened to the first chapter and started to read. I only got to the third sentence when she came out. "Ready to go spend 'family time'?" She asked putting finger quotes around family time.

I nod and get up. I walk to her and wrap my arms around her waist pulling her close to me. "You can do this," I said. "Just remember you're doing it for Paul."

She nods. "I'm a very good actress," she says, smiling. Then she turns slightly, grabbing my card for Paul off of the dresser behind her. "Don't forget this," she says placing it in between us. Then she kisses me.

I grab it from her. "Let's go," I said. Then we walked down the stairs, her in front of me. Joan, my mom, and Angie were setting the table. There were eight chairs and one for everyone.

Nina walked into the kitchen with all of the other women. And I walked to the couch where Paul, my step dad, and Nina's dad were all sitting.

"Happy almost birthday," I say to Paul handing him the card.

"Thanks," he says. He stands up so that we could do our hand shake.

"Aw, your little broshake," Nina laughs from the kitchen. I look over to her and shake my head, smiling.

"Well," Joan said, "Dinner's ready."

"Yum," Paul says, and he's the first out of us at the couch to go be seated. Paul sits at one end of the table and my step dad at the other. Nina sits on the left of Paul and I sit on the left of her. My mom sits on the left of me next to my dad.

Angie sits across from my mom and to the right of my dad. And next to her is Joan. Nina's dad is the last to be seated. Right across from Nina herself.

Under the table I take her hand and squeeze it slightly, letting her know its okay. "Let's pray," Joan said. She reached for Angie's and Nina's dad's hand, letting us known to all link hands. And so we did.

Then Paul began to pray. My family never really prayed together. We always said or own grace. We went to church sometimes, more when I was younger, but Nina's family goes to church every Sunday. Then Paul finishes up his prayer.

Then we start to eat. There's chicken, corn on the cob, french fries, a vegetable tray, and a fruit tray. I fill my plate mostly of chicken with some vegetables.

Nina basically makes herself a fruit salad. Then everyone begins to eat. Joan pulls seven wine glasses from the cabinet after she excuses herself from the table. She places them in front of Paul, me, Nina, my parents, herself, and Nina's father.

Then she walks to the fridge and pulls out a bottle of wine. I whisper in Nina's ear, "You're mom let's you have wine?" She nods.

"Yeah," she responds, "Since I'm like dying or whatever, I get to choose how I want to live my life before its too late."

I laugh. Her morbidness about her cancer was finally starting to grow on me. I knew she was only joking so that she wouldn't have to feel down about it.

I look to my mom and back to the wine glass questioningly to see if I, too could have some. She whispered something in James ear he nodded. Then she looked back to me and shrugged and nodded.

I smiled at her and mouthed the words thank you. Then Joan poured wine into everyone's glass. She went back into the kitchen and got Hawaiian Punch for Angie.

Then she finally took her seat again. "A toast," she said. "To Paul, who will officially be nineteen tomorrow."

"Cheers," we all said, clinking glasses together. Then Nina's dad talked. "I want to make a toast," he said standing up. Nina grabbed my hand, squeezing it. "To my son Paul, and to both of these amazing families, which I hope to become apart of again."

Nina stood up. "Yeah...no," she said. "Why do you think that you can choose to just walk in and out of our lives whenever you feel like it? That's not how family works! Its an unconditional love. And unconditional promise!" Then she runs upstairs. And I follow after her.

_______
A/N: okay, so its kind of a short chapter. And don't forget to please give me feedback.!