How to stitch wounds

9. Family reunion

Nathan POV

I hope he calls me. I hope he's okay.
I think to myself.

I pull into the driveway and see my siblings wrestling near the pool. I watch as my younger brother gets thrown in and my parents scold my older brother.

My older brother!

I quickly turn off my car and get out.
"Nathan!" He yells, running over to me.
"Hey, you're home." I say happily. He quickly wraps me into a bear hug, half suffocating me.

"Okay okay, kinda dying." I laugh. He lets go and punches my arm.

"What you been up to? Where's that beautiful girlfriend of yours?" He asks, rolling his eyes.

"Cheated on me so I dumped her." I say simply.
"Thank God! She was such a bitch!" He yells happily.
"JASON! LANGUAGE!" Our mom yells.

We both laugh and make our way over to our dad who was barbecuing burgers and hotdogs on the grill.

"Where you been? Schools been over for at least an hour." He asks.
"Sorry, went for a drive." I respond.
"Speaking of which, who'd you scam to get that beauty?" Jason laughs, pointing at my car.

My father laughs.

"I'm sorry, but unlike you, I didn't scam anyone. I earned my car. I worked all summer." I say proudly. Jason laughs at me again.

"What?" I ask confused.
"You worked all summer? You didn't hang out with your friends at all?" He asks.
"Yes Jase. What's so funny about that?"

"Oh nothing, I just remember us scamming people since you were a toddler." He says, sitting in a beach chair.

"I was an accomplice to your scam jobs. I didn't know. I thought I was just helping you." I laugh, taking my jacket off and tossing onto the porch along with my shoes and socks.

"You were helping." He laughs.
"You are such a son of a b-
"If you finish that sentence you'll be grounded for the rest of your life." My mom says,slapping  my arm.
Jason looks at me expectingly.
"Shut up!" I mumble.

We both laugh as we help dad with the grill, still arguing over the dumbest things.

"Dinners ready!" Dad yells. I see my little sister, Rose, running up to dad so I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder, earning a shrill squeal of delight from her.

"Put me down!" She yelled.

My mother takes her from me and sits her in one of the patio chairs with a plate of food.
"If you wind her up, you're staying up with her." She says warningly.

Jason throws an arm around my shoulders as we walk over to the outside table to eat, both taking a chair.

"So what have you been doing in college, being productive I hope." My mother asks.

"Well, about that. You guys remember Shia right?" He asks, eating some of his food.

"High school girlfriend right? You're sharing college classes now aren't you?" Dad responds.
"Yep!" He says swallowing his food.
"She's gonna stay the night here, only if it's okay with you guys, and spend winter break here. Again,only if it's okay with you." He says hopefully.

"Why would they let-
"That would be great honey!" Mom responds happily, interrupting me.
I quickly turn to face my parents with a dumbfounded look on my face.
"Yes, she's more than welcome." My father agrees.
"Yeaaaa!" Rose yells in excitement.
"What do you think Jeremiah?" Jason asks our little brother.
"Sounds cool, she's a lot of fun. We could go done to the lake with her and stay at the cabin!" He says quickly.
Oh yeah, the lake! Can we dad, mom?" Jason asks excitedly.

"Sure! We can bring Rose down for the day and you older kids could spent the night at the lake house!" He says happily.

"Isn't it to cold for swimming?" My mother asks. "Let them be Linda. They're old enough to take care of themselves." He chimed.
"Oh fine." She huffed a smile still on her face.

"Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this?!" I ask, confused. Both my parents and Jason look at me.

"What do you mean dear?" My mother asks me. "I was never allowed to invite my girlfriend to spend the night or go to the lake house together!" I huff. "Ex-girlfriend." Jason chimes in.
I punch his arm, outraged by my parents sudden need to let him do whatever he wanted.
"Honey, you're growing up. You're not going to be at home with us for much longer. Soon you'll be in college to. It was hard enough for us when Jason left. Now that he's here, I want you guys to be able to be adults together, as long as he promises alcohol isn't in the equation."

Jason gets up and kisses mom on the cheek. "I promise mama. He says before sitting back down and continuing with his dinner. I sigh heavily as I continue to eat my food.

Jason leans over to me. "Loosen up, they aren't usually this loose on things. Enjoy it while it lasts." He says happily.

"I'm gonna go change, then you owe me a wrestling match." I say punched his arm.

"First to get thrown into the pool buy's takeout for the lake house!" He yells as I walk away.
"Deal!" I shout back.

After a long wrestle and me ending up in the pool, we all clean up while mom puts Rose to bed. Jason and I head upstairs, fighting over who gets in the bathroom first, Jeremiah did. After staying up and watching movies together, we finally settle down and go to bed. I however, was still wondering if Micheal was going to call me.