As Long As I Can

Chapter 13

It felt great to be home again, to see my mom again. She looked beautiful that day, and her warm smile always comfort me. I just couldn't wait to see my dad and my brothers. My dad worked and my brothers still had to get there. For now, I sat with my cousins. Although they were friendly, I could feel they were a little cold towards me. Before I left a few years ago, I was very rebellious and they got to know me as that. Now, I were standing in front of them a changed person. I just hoped they would accept me now and not think this is an act.
"Who's that hotly you brought with you?" Bianca asked me. She was one of my older cousins by three years and could never hold on to one guy. Apparently, she has been engaged four times already. She was married now and no one knew how long that would last.
"Jake, we've been together for about two years now."
"Oh, that's so cute. I'm happy for you two." It was Demmy who said this. She is known to be the most kind of all of us. I've sometimes thought if she was a fake, but I would still never know.
"Thank you," I told her, "I know I'm lucky to have him. He's really great."
I looked over at Jake and saw him, too looking at me. I blew him a kiss and he catches it and winked at me.
"Aww!" Bianca squealed.
"Okay now Bianca," my cousin Lizzy said, "don't fall in love with him too." Bianca just rolled her eyes to this. Lizzy is the oldest of all of us. She thinks she always knows better, because of this reason and would tell you when you're wrong straight up. She's known to not care about anyone's feelings, but her own. So, we never really liked her much.
"So," I said, "what are we doing before Christmas in four days?"
"Probably the same as every year," Demmy said.
"Oh, that's great." I knew what she meant by that. Every year, we eat ourselves ful and watch movies at night. We decorate the tree together and the little ones always swim during the day. And on Christmas, some of us walk in our pyjamas, while others dress up. Even though we do this every year, none of us cared. We love it, spending time with family is what we look forward to every year. I was glad to hear nothing has changed.
A while later, all my aunts and my mom came out with watermelon with them.
"Come eat!" my mom yelled and the kids got out of the pull and ran toward my mom. We stood up and walked behind them. There was one or two I haven't seen on photos my mom send me once in a while, but I was okay with it. At least I could still get to know them.
"Did somebody say eat?" I looked over at the door and saw my younger brother Theo with a small girl by his side. I walked up to him and as soon as he saw me, he grinned at me. "Hey, sis." He left his girlfriend's side and came to give me a hug. Even though he's younger than me, he's towered above me. I wrapped my arms around my brother and he hugged me tightly. We pulled away and he called his girlfriend to us.
"Ally meet Bella. Bella, this is my sister, Ally."
"Hi," I greeted her and gave her a hug. She was just as short as me with big blue eyes like my mom, but she has red hair. Jake was then beside me, so I introduced him to Theo. It helped that I was friendly with Bella, because this meant he had to be the same towards Jake.

Later, it was time for dinner. All the aunts and uncles sat inside, while the cousins were outside. It was so warm, so we didn't care. Just before we started eating, my two older brothers and father came in. I called Sophie and a he said she would be there the next day. My father greeted Jake and I and went inside. Then, I introduced Jake to my oldest brother, Charlie and his wife, Stephanie (they now had two daughters) and after that came my other brother, Frank. He had a wife now and there were a baby boy in his arms. They both were fine with Jake, but said he should take care of me or else. I think fatherhood made them calmer and I was thankful to that.
"You guys," I said loudly, "I have an announcement to make." I knew Jake would be angry at me if I left out this part, so I just went and said it.
"We're married." I lifted up my left hand for everyone to see. All the aunts and uncles, including Jake's mom then came out and congratulated us. That is, accept for my parents, who pulled us aside.
"This isn't the way to go," my mom said, "we should have been there." Wait till they find out it's a fake marriage.
"I apologize," Jake said, "it was my idea."
"Of course it was," my dad said.
"We have photos," I suggested," it's with Sophie, she'll bring it tomorrow."
"Ugh," my mom went on, "what can we do, anyway? What's done is done, just like all the other things you have done in the past."
My dad sighed, "you may say that again."
"Woah, okay. Marrying Jake wasn't another mistake of mine. I'm sorry you two weren't  there, but there's no need to over exaggerate."
"Whatever you say, honey." my mom sighed again and walked away.
"It's okay," Jake said to me, "they'll get over it, Baby."
"Yeah, I hope so."
For the rest of the night, all the girls came over to look at the ring on my finger and tell me how great it looks. But, I couldn't get my mother's words out of my head. I have hoped they would move on from my past, but it just wasn't happening. I mean, what did I expect? Of course they would still see me as that girl, everybody else does.