A Quiet Kismet

Chapter Three

AGE 26

Delia was the one who came to get me. Of course she would though, she was the eldest. She wasn't the nicest like Julia, or the most organized like Jaimie, she was the blunt sister. She cut through all the bullshit and got straight to the point. The thing about her, is that in most families she'd make a situation worse, but in ours her bluntness was effective. She was the wildcard fixer.She fixed everything when it came to everybody else. But she never quite understood how to fix herself.

Delia was the rebel child. She'd always be into something she wasn't supposed to. I remember some of my earliest memories being my parents yelling at her for missing curfew or sneaking boys into her room. Something in Delia just made her want to press every button, and eventually torturing my parents wasn't enough for her. She ran away from home at sixteen (but came home a month later higher than a kite) and married at eighteen a few months after Ruben left us. She had twins when she was twenty eight and got divorced six months later. She moved all the time before she finally settled in a house in the next town over.

Her life was better now, but it wasn't the one she would've chosen. Like right now, she wouldn't have chosen to break the news to me, and then come outside to talk some sense into me. But there she was, because no one else had the backbone to do it.

"Are you done sulking?" She asked bluntly. Nobody would ever call her the nice one. "I refuse to talk to you when you're all moody and shit."

"I'm not sulking, I'm pissed. Now leave me alone." I huffed, turning away from her.

"I was pissed too, you know. I still kinda am." She said, at this I reluctantly turned to her. It was an olive branch, her shitty mangled version of one at least. "But Jule's reached out to him last year after her engagement. She didn't want her wedding to be like mine and Jaimie's."

"You got married in an Austin chapel wearing a mini skirt and an orange tank top. I don't think any of us want that." I joked. Delia punched me twice in the arm and shoved me off the lawn chair, taking it for her own. I laughed, and shoved her legs so that I at least had a place to sit.

"I mean she doesn't want to walk down the aisle alone. She wants him here, and as much as I hated it, this is for her. Not us. So suck it up and deal with it." She said matter of factly.

"Get over it?" I scoffed. "What about-"

"That's right Millie, get over it. That's the right attitude. Now gather yourself up and come inside so we can get started on dinner. Everyone is coming over tonight for a family dinner. That includes our newest brother-in-law and his clan."

"No one told me that." I grumbled. I looked down at my clothes, I was still wearing what I had put on yesterday before my flight was delayed. My sweats and t-shirt were all wrinkled and my hair was beginning to get greasy. "I can't look like this when everyone gets here."

"Too bad, we cook first then we get ready. Deal with it Millie." She shrugged before sauntering inside.

"You suck!" I cried out immaturely.

"And you look like crap." She retorted. "Nice to have you home." She winked.

***

The house smelled like different spices and it all swirled around us like a warm hug. I think my toes curled at the smell of an actual home cooked meal. I may have even stolen a few pieces of Mom's famous homemade tortillas and ate it in the bathroom when no one was looking. God, I was cheating on the Domino's delivery guy with my mom's cooking.

"Oh shit." A familiar voice sang in a lazy tone. "It smells like din-din." Ruby said ambling into the kitchen. That was the thing about Ruby. He never walked, or ran for that matter. Since the age of fifteen, Ruby has ambled. The side effect of always being under the influence of God's gift to man. Marijuana.