When the Stars Align (Anthony Rizzo)

15| Suprise Party

Kelsey

It's the eighth of August and that means one very important thing, it is Anthony's 26th birthday. Usually my mom was the one who was all big on the birthdays and making plans and such, she loved the holidays and birthdays, any excuse to bake a cake, but I always helped. And in her absence I make sure we are all enjoying our birthdays and holidays as we should. Even though Anthony technically wasn't a part of my family, he basically was. We were kings and queens of "documentation doesn't tell you how to live", so as far as any of us are concerned he was a part of the family.

So we throw him a birthday party and hope we don't get any noise complaints like we did on family fun night. It's hard enough with five of us in a two bedroom apartment, but we make it work. We decorate said apartment to make it look all nice and festive for his birthday. We get him a cake and some presents to make him feel loved because there was never a shortage of love around here.

As we finish setting up I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket and I see it's Anthony calling so I quickly answer his call.

"Hey baby, what's up" I wonder.

"I know I'm supposed to come over in a hour for my birthday to celebrate with your family, but I kinda messed up" he explains.

"What did you do..." I trail off. Even on his birthday it's always something with him.

"Well I wrote in my schedule that my parents were coming in tomorrow for the game and to get ready for the fundraiser, but it turns out that I wrote it down wrong and they are flying in today so I'm picking them up at the airport right now" he says.

"I fail to see how this is a problem" I admit.

"I didn't just want to show up to your place with my parents and not tell you" he claims.

"It's gonna be a little crowded but you are all more then welcomed to be here. We made enough food to feed the whole building" I assure him.

"Are you sure it's okay? I feel bad" he says.

"Well don't. I can't wait to meet your parents and get all of this food out of the apartment" I admit as he starts to laugh.

"Alright. I'll be there after I get my parents and get them settled into their hotel" he explains.

"Okay, let me know when you're on your way. I love you" I tell him.

"I love you too Kels" he replies.

I hang up and explain to my family what was happening. To them that means they get to decorate more and I let them be. They loved Anthony and they'll do anything to keep him around.

Eventually Anthony and his parents make it over around lunch time. So we introduce ourselves to them and fix our plates. We sit around and get to know each other a little better. I wasn't nervous about me or my family meeting Anthony's. I've talked to them over face time before and my family is all about making friends around here, even if it was hard for us. It was kinda natural that we fell in place together with Anthony's parents, they were incredible people doing incredible things and I looked up to them just as I looked up to my parents.

"So Anthony tells me you work at the planetarium" his mom Laurie starts and I nod.

"Yup! I've been working there since I was 15, so almost ten years" I explain.

"That's so cool! Did you go to college and study astronomy" she wonders but I shake my head.

"I didn't" I say. "I graduated from high school a year early and my further education was working at the museum. I learned about everything that's in the planetarium and that was enough to keep me there."

"I didn't go to college either" Anthony admits and I giggle.

"Baby you didn't need to go to college" I remind him.

"Well if I'm here with you then I guess everything turned out just right" Anthony claims.

"Awww" I tease.

"Awww" Laurie says and we enjoy a good laugh.

"But Tatiana is going to go to college. She has her heart set on UCLA for political science. They've already offered her scholarships and have a wonderful program for her there" I brag. I loved telling people that.

"Oh wow, I didn't even know that. That's awesome" Anthony insists.

"I know a thing or two about politics" Anthony's dad John announces causing Anthony to groan.

"Please don't start" Anthony begs.

"Did you tell them" I whisper.

"Tell us what" Laurie wonders. The room falls silent as we all look around waiting for someone to break the ice. No one wanted to say anything, but that's the moment we need people to talk the most.

"My father came here about thirty years ago on a two year work visa and never went back. He could have gotten married to my mom and became a citizen but it's not that easy. He wanted to protect my mom from the hardship that comes being married to a illegal immigrant, he didn't want people to think they were together for the wrong reasons. So he stayed under no documentation and they started a family. Us kids were all born legal but in order to protect our dad we did a lot of stuff ourselves to keep it under wraps. So when our house was struck by lightning and caught on fire we lost everything. Our mom died in that house protecting the family she loved the most. But now us kids are undocumented and can get detained or sent to a detention and my dad has a very good chance of being deported since we moved without telling anyone. We could have gone and reached out for help but we don't want our dad to get in trouble. So we're gonna keep going, it's what our mom would have wanted" I explain.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I had no idea" Laurie insists.

"It's okay, we were actually pretty lucky that we got to learn from our mom as long as we did and that we still have our dad. For however long that may last" I sigh.

"We're here for you guys" Laurie insists and I give her a small smile. I knew she was political and being in Florida I assume their views on immigration probably wasn't the best. But not so deep down we know that family is what matters, and nothing can tell me we're not a family.

"Thank you guys, so much. I know this isn't the best situation we're in. But with love" I say as I turn to Anthony, "with love anything is possible."

He pulls me into a quick kiss and I can't help but smile at the end. He squeezes my side to let me know he had me, not that I ever thought there was a doubt.

"Thank you for making this birthday so special" he insists.

"Any time babe" I smile.

We light the candles and sing happy birthday to him. He blows out his candles and helps me hand out the cake to everyone. I hand Anthony a bag and he looks at me weird.

"What's this" he asks.

"It's your birthday present. You really didn't think that I didn't get you a gift" I tease and he laughs.

"I learned to never assume with you" he admits.

"You have learned correctly" I assure him.

He eventually opens up the gift and pulls out a picture frame. The frame was all back with a few white spots to represent stars. It had the words "I would pull all the stars down from the heavens to fill your empty skies" and a cute picture of us on the hood of his car looking at the stars like we do most nights. My brother took the picture and I thought it was cute so I figured I could give it to him.

"Oh baby, this is incredible" he gasps.

"I thought it was cute" I shrug.

"It's perfect, thank you" he says as he kisses my forehead. I smile to myself convinced this was bliss.