Never Give up Hope

Chapter One

"I'm almost done!" I yell to Lucas who's downstairs waiting impatiently. Getting distracted because of his nagging I burn myself on the finger with the curling iron.

"Shoot, shoot, dang it, darn, arrggg!" I yell turning the bathroom faucet on and running my finger through the cold water. "If you weren't so darn impatient...and if my hair wasn't so freaking long..." I say to myself.

"Why? I love your hair, Azenda."

I snap my head up and look in the mirror to see Lucas standing at the doorway with a...really? A grin on his face!

"Why are you grinning?"

He shrugs. "Maybe because I'm just happy to say we should've left ten minutes ago and now we're going to be late."

"Ha ha." I say, my eyes fixed on my long black hair. I look at myself and then run my fingers through the curls.

"You complain a lot." I tell Lucas, who is still standing there.

"And you worry about your appearance a lot." He shoots back.

I turn towards him and wonder why God picked him to be the love of my life. His short, curly, brown hair and blueish eyes. His fun personality. His...impatience. I love everything about him though.

"My mom isn't going to ground us for being late." I say, turning back to my reflection in the mirror which I just realized was dirty. "You didn't clean the mirror." I tell him. We take turns cleaning the bathroom each week, including the mirror, and this was his week to make the bathroom spotless.

"I figured that since I barely used the mirror, I shouldn't have to clean it."

I sigh. "It doesn't really matter because we both use it." I get a rag from the drawer closest to me, wet it with warm water, and just wipe the mirror down so I can see my reflection more clearly.

I see him still watching me and I throw the rag at him, feeling satisfaction when it hits him in the face. I couldn't help but laugh and yell, "Satisfaction!"

The wet rag falls from his face and the look he gives me makes me shut up. All of a sudden his expression changes. I see a smile tugging at his lips and before I could even react, he picks me up and carries me bride style running towards our big bedroom.

The door was ajar and he opened it more with his foot.

I pound on his chest. " Let me go! My hair, Lucas!"

He stops at the foot of the bed, breathing heavily from running. "You want me...to...put you...down?"

I nod. "Please Lucas I promise I won't throw a rag at you again." I still couldn't help but laugh even harder than I did before. You know that saying that says everything is much funnier when it's actually not supposed to be...or something along the line? Yeah that's the situation right now.

His breathing evens out, but he is still holding on to me.

"You want me to put you down even though you're laughing in a serious situation?"

I think and then nod.

"Well then...okay." Him saying okay isn't what surprised me though. Instead of putting me down normally, he threw me onto the feathery bed.

"What the hell?!" I yell.

"You wanted to be put down."

I glare at him. "Yeah not thrown down."

He shrugged and then threw himself next to me.

"Really?" I say.

He looks at me. "Really."

When I try to get up, he grabs my waist and pulls me closer to him.

"You know I love you, right?" He says.

Looking him in the eye I say yes.

"Okay." He says and then does the unthinkable. Something he shouldn't do to me when I just curled my hair.

"Stop! Lucas, stop!" I yell, laughing.

He is tickling me.

"Lucas! I'm going to-" I get cut off when he grabs my foot, knowing that's my worst ticklish spot. He stops and we look at each other, him with my foot in his hands. Let the battle began.

"Lucas, honey...there's really no need to tickle my foot. I learned my lesson." I say, sweetly. I start tugging my foot to release his grip, but I have no luck. We are still staring at each other. If someone walked in on is it would look like a staring contest with feet grabbing.

I see a grin on his lips and before I know it he tickles my foot sending me into laughing spasms.

"I knew something was up." Came a voice by the doorway.

We both stop and because our bodies are entwined together, we just turn our heads to the voice that belongs to my older sister, Tammy. Her arms are crossed and she looks at us while leaning against the door frame.

I try to get my hand out from underneath Lucas's back to wave to Tammy, but I can't seem to get it, instead I smile.

"Hey, Tam!" Lucas says, untangling himself from me.

She just smiles.

Now is the time to tell you about my family. I have a sister and brother. Tammy, 26, is a lawyer with no husband or little kids. Landon,31, is a police officer and is still with his high school sweet heart, Dana. They have one kid which is my two year old niece, Ashlynne who I call Ash. My mom, Madelyn, is 59 and doesn't look like it. My dad is someone that I or my siblings have yet to meet. We have black hair except for Tammy who has a light brown color. Our eyes, though are all blue. Even though we are all alike we have differences which is...none of my family liked the idea that I married Lucas at age 21, well that's not true. Ash actually loves Lucas.

Anyways.

I get up from the bed and try fixing my hair and clothes. "Why are you here?" I ask.

"Dinner at moms house started like thirty minutes ago." She says, pointing to her watch.

"Okay well I'm almost ready..." I say. "Just need to grab my purse and keys." I say brushing past her and downstairs to the living room.

By the time I find my purse and keys, Tammy was downstairs.

I look up and see her watching me.

"You could've just wore jeans and a nice shirt." She says and I roll my eyes.

I am wearing a pale pink dress that goes down to my knees. The back of the dress is cut out so my back is bare to the middle. The dress has straps, still pretty and I don't give a crap about what my sister says. She always tries to act like my mom.

I point towards her 5' 6" figure. "You're wearing a skirt so what's the difference?"

"Can we just go now?" She asks.

"You have your own car, Tammy." I point out. She lets out a huff and walks out, slamming MY door.

I stand there until Lucas comes over to me, grabs my hand, and kisses it.

"Don't worry, love. This night will be great." He reassures me.

I shrug. "At least one of us thinks so."