Watch Over You

Ill Lit Ships

The amount of people in this room was almost astounding. Four different families all in one place made for a big crowd. There must have been enough food on the tables to feed a small army, and in all honesty, we could probably take over the state of California.

“All right, can I have your attention please?” Mrs. Montez, who was about the same size as her daughter, had the same loud voice as Lola. When everyone was quiet and looking at her, she let a satisfied smile slide across her face. “Now, as you all know, we are gathered here today to celebrate the graduation of our four beautiful girls, Lola, Mina, Megan, and George.” There was a loud round of applause complete with cheers and whistles. I could only imagine how loud they would be at the ceremony this afternoon. “I just wanted to say how proud I am of all of them, and how much I’m going to miss them.”

“Aww, Mrs. Montez, you know we’ll be back to see you.” George called from her place between her parents. “No one makes pozole like you do.”

“Thank you George, that warms my heart.” Mrs. Montez laughed. “I love you all. Good luck on your tour!” Another round of applause and a series of toasts followed that. We were all crammed into the Montez’s home to have a family breakfast of sorts. Megan’s dads were sitting next to my grandparents, sneaking strawberries to Mikey. Cissy and Mrs. Montez were discussing how to send care packages out to us on the road. Dad was assuring Mrs. Jennings that we had a very good manager and we would be taken care of. He had been incredible during this whole process. As much as he tried to deny it, we knew he’d been calling favors in to help us out. He’d gotten us hooked up with a good-sized RV, someone to print our merch, and an excellent lawyer.  James Holt, our manager, was an old friend of his. He had stepped away now, letting us spread our wings and fly. But if we ever needed help, he was just a phone call away.

“You here, Min?” Lola murmured to me, squeezing my hand under the table.

“Just thinking about tour.” I leaned my head on her shoulder. “I’m kinda nervous about graduation, too.”

“Is the she-devil coming?” Megan asked.

“I don’t think so, but I know Cissy invited her.” I shook my head. Cissy had never stopped trying to rebuild the bridge between me and my mother, but I couldn’t forgive her for what she’d done and she had no desire to apologize. I didn’t really care if she was here or not. I had enough family here to be happy.

“Minnie?” Grandpa called from down the table. I leaned back in my chair so I could see him around Megan. “Could you get me another cup of coffee?”

“Sure thing.” I headed into the kitchen to see if there was any left in the pot. There wasn’t, so I set up another one to brew and leaned against the counter to wait. Today was going to be a very long, very stressful day. After breakfast, we were going to a salon to get our nails done, then we were coming back here to get ready and go to graduation. After graduation there would be pictures taken, and then the four of us were going to a huge party down on the beach with most of the graduating class. I could probably use another cup myself.

I pressed a kiss to the top of my grandfather’s head before handing him his fresh cup of coffee with two heaping spoons of sugar. He had the biggest sweet tooth I’d ever seen, except for maybe Patch. That man hoarded Sour Patch Kids like they were being discontinued. I had another bag of candy for him from that old candy shop on State Street. He’d probably eat the whole thing during the graduation ceremony.

“Thanks pumpkin.” Grandpa said, squeezing my hand. All too soon, it was time for our families to filter out and go back to their hotels. Those of us who had to walk across a stage today piled in Lola’s car and headed to the nail salon. My nails were painted with silver glitter to match the dress I was planning to wear. I just hoped I wouldn’t fuck them up too badly while I was getting ready later.