Till death do us part

10

Juliana Thorne

We make it to my mom's house and smell the delicious food she's cooking. Rome and Milana run to the living room and jump on the couch.

"No shoes on the couch, come here, I'll help you." I sit them and take their shoes off. Then they go back to jumping.

I walk to the kitchen and see my mom taking out the lasagna from the oven. I grab mittens and help her, she smiles.

"Please try to be nice, okay?" I say.

She rolls her eyes, "She knew her son took you and didn't say anything. I could have got you out of there sooner and this wouldn't be happening-" her eyes tear up but she wipes them quickly.

"I hungry." Rome runs into the kitchen.

"The food is almost done, honey." My mom smiles and Rome nods and runs back to Milana.

"But at least we got two little angels out of it, didn't we?" She refers to the twins. I nod and smile. The doorbell rings and I walk to the front door.

I open it to see Veronica, she wore black pants with a white button up shirt and a long coat. She smiles warmly and a little sadness shows in her eyes. I lean in to hug her and she wraps her arms around me hesitantly.

"I'm glad you came." I say. As I pull back, I see tears in her eyes. "Oh it's okay, please don't cry it's supposed to be a good night, okay?"

She nods and smiles appreciated, a loud squeal is heard behind me and her eyes widen. She looks at me, then looks behind me hesitantly. We look at Milana grabbing Romes hands and stomping her feet while he giggles at her.

"Would you like to say hi to your grand babies?" I ask softly. She looks at me with tears and nods.

I give her a smile and look back to Rome and Milana. "Babies, come say hi to your grandma."

They run towards us, "Hi" Milana says and Rome waves. "No grandma. Already have." Rome scratches his head confusedly.

"Well you're lucky, you both have two grandmas. Isn't that cool?" I say.

They stare at Veronica and giggle. They nod and hug her legs. She gasps and looks down to them, wrapping her arm around their tiny bodies. Then Milana runs to the kitchen and Rome follows her.

"They are adorable, they look just like you." She smiles warmly. I smile and nod.

"My moms in the kitchen." I say and start to lead us to where she is but she stops me.

"Oh, I, invited Caleb too, he's coming soon." She says softly.

"Oh"

"I hope that's okay. I rarely see my son and I thought since you haven't seen him in years-"

"Oh, yeah, it's perfectly fine." I lied. I'm actually not perfectly fine with it, I'm embarrassed to see him. But she said she hardly sees him and it is true, I haven't talked to him in years.

I take us to the kitchen and my mom and Veronica hug. I smile, they've been best friends since high school and went through a lot together. It's so nice having an old friend and sharing memories together.