I listened to Goodnight Moon while writing this i'm going to cry now
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After a short search, Andrew and I found an apartment away from our friends. I could tell that it made Andrew sad to not be living with Nate and Jack, but his excitement for finally being able to take Rose home cancelled it out for the most part. Rose was an absolute angel. We didn't have to discipline her once, not that Andrew or I even knew how to discipline children. She was extremely laid back, not asking for anything at all. It was nice, considering that Andrew and I still had wedding planning to do. One night, after Rose had gone to bed, Andrew brought up the fact that we hadn't picked a first dance song yet.
"I have the perfect one in mind, actually" I said, typing then sending a text to Ashley.
"Which one?"
"It's this one called 'Goodnight Moon' by Go Radio"
"I love that one"
"Seriously? I don't know anyone else who even knows it"
"I'm not anyone else"
He had a point. The song was a bit unorthodox for a first dance song, but it was perfect.
Andrew's parents flew out a few days before from Michigan. I still hadn't met them, and I wasn't expecting them to actually like me at all. I mean you have to consider everything that happened leading up to the wedding, they had no obligation to like me. To my surprise, they were quite possibly the sweetest, most accepting people I have ever met in my life. A few days later my parents flew to the city. My mom pretended that she had never even considered ending my life, and I decided not to bring it up to her either.
The night before the wedding after my mom decided that she was going back to the hotel to go to relax, my dad walked her over and came back to our apartment, talking to Andrew as if he had known him for years.
Rose, being as smart as she was, was wary of my parents. She eventually warmed up to my father after he brought her a smoothie from starbucks after dropping my mom off at the hotel. Andrew's parents came after going out to dinner, and both them and my dad shared stories about Andrew and I as children and even teenagers. Of course, the teenage stories were like pouring salt in open cuts. Andrew and I both winced with invisible pain as Rose laughed at what we referred to as "dark times" in our lives. After a few hours, our parents went back to their hotel to get some sleep.
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The next morning, Andrew, Jack and Nate went to go get ready at their old apartment while Jenna and Katie came over to ours to get ready. Rose was with Andrew's parents and Ashley who wanted to spend quality time with her niece but didn't feel like dealing with my mom. Jenna and Katie were taking a coffee break while I scrolled through the news on my phone when my dad knocked on the door frame.
"Hey" He said.
"Hey"
"You made the right choice. No- let me rephrase that. You found the right choice. You found him"
I smiled.
"I know"
"Well, I just wanted to check in. Do you need anything?"
"No. Hey dad?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks"
He nodded, smiled, and walked out. And honestly, I wished that he had found 'him' too. Yes, my father was gay despite being married to my mom for around 30 years. My mom had no clue, and I was pretty sure that Ashley didn't either. I had figured it out by myself at some point in high school. He somehow knew that I knew, but we never really talked about it. It made me really upset to know that he was married to someone that he wasn't in love with. I hoped that one day he would find a guy and divorce my mom, no matter how angry she would get. I hadn't told Andrew, even though I knew for sure that he would be just as accepting as I was. I just kept it a secret between my dad and I.
After what seemed like a whirlwind of getting ready and heading over to the venue, I was standing next to my dad, waiting to walk down the aisle.
"You know, I've waited your whole life to do this" My dad said as we stood there.
"Me too" I laughed.
"I can't believe that you're all grown up. It really did seem like just yesterday that you were wearing light up shoes, now look at you"
"Dad I swear to god you're going to make me cry"
And with that, it was my turn to walk down the aisle. The rest of the wedding ceremony was a blur, as well as the reception. All of those rumors about your wedding going by faster than the speed of sound are definitely accurate. The first dance was perfect, despite how clumsy Andrew and I typically were. Before I knew it, it was all over.
Andrew and I adjusted to life as parents, and by the time the new school year came around and after much discussion, we decided to send Rose to school. She was 100% recovered and excited to be able to do something normal for a change. Her hair was already nearly shoulder-length and possibly curlier than mine. Rose was incredibly intelligent, having absolutely no problems academically. She made friends easily and, most importantly, she was happy.
Katie had gotten a job as an english teacher and was extremely happy. Jenna, who had obviously wanted a baby for a few months, finally got her wish. Nate and Jenna were both excited to become parents.
We went to the bar as often as we could, but between all of our increasingly busy schedules it was hard to find a time when Rose was with a friend, Katie wasn't grading papers, and Nate wasn't working on finishing the guys' album. Conversations gravitated from us as a group to our day-to-day lives. Nate and Jenna would talk about potential names for their baby, Jack and Katie would talk about whatever was on their minds, and Andrew and I would always end up talking about Rose.
By December, the album was done and Nate was working hard on trying to find a recording company that would accept it. After a long search, he finally found one.
My dad invited us to Pennsylvania for Christmas, and Andrew accepted immediately. I realized how irrelevant my mom's opinions to my life were, so I wasn't as bothered by spending Christmas with her as I would be.
"Pack your bagels Rose, we're going to Pennsylvania" I said at 6AM the morning that we were leaving. We had decided to make it a bit of a surprise, we figured it would make a trip to Pennsylvania sound more fun than it actually was.
"Bagels?" Andrew asked.
"What?"
"You said pack your bagels."
"Bags. I meant bags."
We flew to PA, something that Rose had never done before. She was extremely excited to fly, and maybe even more excited to eat breakfast at the airport. To Rose's disappointment, the flight was short and she didn't have as much time to animatedly discuss all of the places the flight attendant had been with her as she would have liked. My dad picked us up at the airport and seemed to be in a better mood than usual.
"You seem happy" I remarked.
"Oh i'm not happy. Your mother has a severe case of laryngitis and won't be able to talk or get out of bed until around January 6th" He said, smirking.
Andrew, Rose and I all laughed at his evident joy.
Rose, much to my dismay, loved Pennsylvania. Or maybe more accurately she loved the fact that she could go outside and play in the snow and actually build snowmen. My dad taught her the best way to make a snowman, and before dusk the entire front yard was turned into an army of snowmen complete with various scarves and hats. She may have also loved the fact that my parents had a dog. The visit was nice, and for once I wasn't dying to leave. Ashley came home from college and spent most of her time introducing Rose to Seinfeld. By the end of the trip, she had watched the first season and was hooked.
April came with the release of the album (entitled Aim and Ignite) the newest addition to our little group of friends, a beautiful little girl named Julia. She had Nate's eyes yet somehow managed to look like both Nate and Jenna at the same time. Along with Julia and the album came an overwhelming sense that all of the pieces to the complicated puzzle that was our lives were (finally) in place.
