Midnight Serenade

Chapter 19

When it came time for my family's party, I was far less nervous than I'd been previously. Now I was mainly just excited to finally meet everyone. Stupid as it might sound, kissing Sawyer had changed me. Not because it was mind-blowing, though it absolutely was. But after taking that step with him, it felt as if a piece of me had clicked into place. Maybe like he said, we were looking for each other our whole lives without realizing it, and this was how it was supposed to be all along. I knew that if my life wasn't still so unsettled we would most likely have that telepathic link by now. Unfortunately there was still too much chaos that I couldn't put out of my mind. And when I did eventually make that choice, I wanted it to be my sole focus, not merely a bright spot in an otherwise crappy or scary or overwhelming world.

Even though I felt more comfortable about meeting my family, I still had some butterflies when we got to the house. But Sawyer was right by my side as usual. He held my hand until we got to the door. Not wanting to make any sort of declaration to my family before I even met them, I released his hand before going inside.

It was pretty chaotic at first. I was passed from person to person to person for hugs. First my grandparents and Tony, and then each of my aunts and my other uncles took a turn after I was introduced to them. That familial feeling wasn't quite as strong with the others as it was with my grandparents, but it was still unmistakably there. My aunts had a million questions and I saw my Aunt Nora (who was my dad's only sister) eyeing Sawyer, clearly making assumptions.

After a little while, we headed to the backyard where the actual party was. When I got outside, I halted, seeing the 'Happy Sweet Sixteen' banner under the enormous balloon arch. There were streamers and tons of other decorations, all in soft pink and gold. The effect was really pretty. I was glad that Mrs. Peterson warned me, but still, the pile of gifts made me uneasy. Some of the boxes looked pretty big. 

 "Oh no," I said with a laugh.

My Aunt Jamie linked her arm through mine. "You didn't actually think we'd ignore your birthday, did you?"

I smiled self-consciously as I was led around to meet everyone. My cousins were mostly nice, and I was glad to realize it might be easier than I thought to keep them straight. Only a few of them were close to my age. Aunt Nora and Uncle Marshall's son Cameron was seventeen, and his sister Ashley was sixteen. And Sierra, Aunt Della and Uncle Jack's daughter was fourteen.  Cameron and Sierra seemed friendly, but Ashley obviously wasn't thrilled to meet me. It took me a few minutes to remember that she'd been one of the girls who talked to Sawyer outside of the pizza place the other day. So I guess there wasn't much chance that we'd be friends, I thought with a sigh.

The rest of the kids seemed happy enough to gain a cousin. The little ones especially were very eager to make sure I knew everything they thought was important.

"And my mom said I could get my own tablet for my birthday!" My littlest cousin, Danny was five, and it seemed this was the most exciting piece of news in his world.

"Claire doesn't care about that, Dummy," his eight year old sister, Hana said.

Danny glared at her, and her twin, Heidi shoved her, probably realizing she was being rude.

"Mom! Heidi pushed me!" She ran over to Aunt Jamie who was currently across the yard.

I smiled at Danny. "Your own tablet is pretty exciting," I told him. "I don't have one."

He grinned and proceeded to tell me more of his birthday wish list.

As Sierra's brothers, Justin and Bradley were competing to tell me the coolest facts about life in the pack, Mia hesitantly approached.