this is the start | gilinsky

Chapter Four

    "So...how do you guys know my dad?" I ask while shoving a heap of spaghetti into my mouth. With Violet sitting under the table right at my feet I am able to feel a little more comfortable about eating with these strangers. Well, they're not really strangers anymore but I still really know nothing about them.

    "Haha, funniest story..." Gilinsky starts after swallowing a forkful of pasta. 

    "No!" Sammy stops him. "Let me tell the story!"

   "Sam, are you kidding? I should tell it because it's obvious that I'm the one with the best story telling skills." Johnson assures him.

    "Don't flatter yourself, Jack." Gilinsky says after another bite of food. 

    "I didn't mean to sta-

    "Just let me tell the damn story." Sammy cuts me off and flings his fork (that had spaghetti on it) at Gilinsky and a good amount of pasta and sauce gets thrown onto his face. Sammy's eyes widen as if he didn't know that was going to happen. 

    "Guys..." Dad suppresses a laugh and looks back and forth between Sammy and Gilinsky. 

   "Oh, you wanna play like that?" Gilinsky's tone is playful and his brown eyes are dancing with amusement. 

    "No! It was an accident!" Sammy says worriedly. 

    "Well then this is going to be an accident, too." Gilinsky twirls a big glob of spaghetti onto his fork and flings it directly at Sammy, who punches it away with his left hand, causing it to land on my right cheek, and fall into my lap. It feels like time is stopped and everyone's eyes are on me.

    My mouth opens slowly and I'm pretty sure they all think I'm going to start screaming or something, so when I start laughing they all exchange pleased looks. Unaware of what my next move should be, I scoop up the spaghetti that has landed on my jeans and smash it into Sammy's face. After that, all hell breaks loose. 

    Violet appears from under the table and starts to lick the floor clean as everyone begins flinging wads of pasta at each other. Even Dad joins in, which surprises me immensely. Mom would have a heart attack if she knew this was happening.

    A few minutes later there's no more spaghetti to be thrown around and most of it that landed on the floor has been gobbled up by Violet. Looking at everyone's sauced up faces and messy clothes sparks something in me and I start laughing like I've never laughed before. Sammy joins in right after and soon all five of us our clutching our stomachs. 

    "I can't believe you guys start a food fight in the middle of your first dinner with my daughter," Dad says in-between laughs, "What kinda first impression is that?"

    "Hey! She was technically the one who started it; she didn't have to shove it in my face like that!" Sammy defends himself. 

    "Well if you hadn't punched Jack's spaghetti in my face I wouldn't have had to give you what you deserved!" I fight back with a smile. This is the most fun I've had since I don't even know when.

    "Just help me clean this all up, would you?" I know Dad wants to smile, but he holds it back as he collects the empty plates from the table. 

    "Yes, sir, yes." Johnson salutes Dad and we all follow closely behind into the kitchen. 

    "Okay, here's what's gonna go down," Dad has us in a huddle like we're a football team waiting for our next play. "You..." He points at Gilinsky, "and you..." He points at me, "dishes." I hear Sammy moan from across me and I can't help but laugh. 

    "Reason number ten thousand why I picked Gilinsky to help her instead of you." Dad tells him with a knowing grin. He waves me and Jack off while telling Johnson and Sam to get working on cleaning the table. 

   Jack seems to have done this before because he gets started right away. I stand next to him awkwardly and grab a towel from the counter so I can dry the dishes that he's washed. When he hands me the first plate his eyes meet mine and the edges of his mouth creep up into a beautiful smile. My stomach leaps.

    "Sorry my spaghetti ended up in your face and not Sam's."  

    "It's okay..." I say slowly. I can feel myself blushing and I want to kick myself. If there was an Olympics for blushing I'd win a gold medal.

    "But I'm not sorry that you threw it right back in his face," Jack nods his head in satisfaction as he hands me another plate to dry. "That was awesome."

    With a shrug I continue to blush furiously at his comments. Why am I so weird around new people? Why can't I just be open and sweet like these guys? They seem to be really comfortable with me and I just met them. I don't know how they do it.

    "So, do you wanna hear the story that started all of this?" Jack asks.

    I nod my head instead of speaking, because I know my voice will probably crack if I do.

    "Basically, your dad and my dad were best friends in high school or some shit like that and then when they went off to college they became distant and stopped talking," Jack stops talking and looks at me, I guess to see if I understand everything so far. I nod my head, telling him to go on.

    "Four years ago your dad moved here because he wanted a fresh start after the divorce with your mom - sorry about that by the way..." I clench my jaw and say that it's fine so he can continue the story, "anyway, he moved in two doors down from us and my dad being a friendly person and all decided we should make friends with him, so when the movers left we got my buddy Jack and his family, and all my family to greet him with this big dinner. It was so cool of us..." I raise my eyebrows slightly, wondering if that's the end of the story. It's not. 

    "So we go over to his house with all this food cooked and we knock on his door; as soon as he opens it up my dad practically drops the dish he was holding and literally jumps on your dad shouting his name, making a big fuss and everything. It was actually super funny." I smile to myself. I'm really glad Dad came down here and ended up being with his friend. I'm glad he ended up happy. I was always so scared that he'd become depressed or something like that.

    "Yeah, that's it really, just that our dads were all really close so we would come over here a lot..." Jack ends his story with a shrug of his shoulders and turns the water to the sink off. I place the wet towel back on the counter where I got.

    "Why did Sammy want to tell the story if he wasn't even in it?"  

    "Because he's a doof and just wanted you to pay attention to him." Jack replies.

    "Oh, okay." I feel another blush coming so I turn away and stare down at my hands. 

    "You blush a lot," Jack states, causing me to blush even more. "It's cute." 

    This is going to be a long summer.

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wassup guys! thanks for reading, I hope you liked it! sorry I'm kinda making these first chapters really boring but I'm trying to lead up to the actual plot of the story. chapter five is coming soon and if you have any sugguestions for me don't be afraid to tell me! much love- gilinskyshigh