Modern Family (Luke Dunphy AU)

THE BICYCLE THIEF

Javier, Manny's father, decided to take both of us to Disneyland for the weekend. He is supposed to pick us up at 3:00 and I just couldn't wait. I never met him, but just by the fact that even if I ain't his daughter, he takes me to Disneyland with him and his son, was saying a lot about him. Manny spoke about him a lot and I was really looking forward to meet him.
But now I had to fix our fan with Jay. Well, I was reading a book, Manny was reading the instructions and Jay was doing all the work.

"So, let's do this." Jay began.

"Okay, but we need to be done by 3:00. That's when my dad's picking us up."

"Hey, if we're not done by 3:00, I'm gonna tie a noose on this thing."

"I just can't wait!!" I excitedly said.

"Yeah me too!" Manny replied. "My dad's taking us on Space Mountain. It's supposed to be really fast, but he's not scared of anything. He doesn't even wear a seat belt when he drives." Okay, that's not the safest thing in the world.

"Wow. How 'bout that?" Jay asked.

"Killed a bear once." Manny continued. Okay, I really like bears... Poor thing. But people aren't perfect, they all have flaws. Maybe it was just an accident.

"Really? Was the bear sittin' in the passenger seat?" I almost laughed when Jay said that. "Celia, read me the instructions."

"Okayyyyy...." I sat up and took the paper from Manny. "Safety tips. Warning: to reduce the risk of electrical shock"

Jay cut me off. "We can skip that."

Manny read next to me. "Failure to heed these warnings can lead to serious injury or death."

"You know, you worry too much. You know that." Jay cut him off. "Nobody's gonna get shocked."

"One time my dad was struck by lightning. That's why he can drink as much as he wants."

"Okay, that's one of the coolest things I've ever heard in my life."

. . .

Manny and Jay were now fighting because Jay wasn't respecting the order of the instructions. I let it go at the very beginning because I knew how it would be ending, and now I knew I was right.

"What's going on in there?" Gloria climbed the stairs with 3 lemonades on a silver plate.

"That's not step four." Manny said.

"Don't worry about it." Jay replied.

"It says right here that you should-" Manny gets cut off by Jay.

"That's worrying about it."

"I thought you guys might need a drink." Gloria offered.

"Oh you have no idea." Jay told her.
I tried to take one but Gloria didn't let me.

"For the guys Celia, don't think I don't know you didn't do a thing." I made puppy eyes (that I knew she could never resist) and after a few seconds, she let me take one.
"Celia, Manny, mis amores, I have to go get some stuff for our trip. But have some fun with Javier, okay? And I'll see you both Monday." She said hugging us. "It makes me so happy to see my two boys working together." She said looking at me. If she thought I was going to help when those two weren't agreeing on a single thing, she was very wrong.

"Jay shocked himself twice." I told her, laughing.

"Okay, Celia." Jay said.

"Well, I warned him." Manny added.

"I didn't. It was just so funny." I said laughing.

"Yep, these two have been a big help." Jay spoke sarcastically.

"Look at you three with your private jokes already. You're regulars Salazar and El Oso." She left the room.

. . .

"Ah, son of a.. You gave me the wrong screwdriver." Jay complained.

"Maybe you're just using it wrong." Manny replied and I gave him the right one. "My dad's great with tools. He can get the wheels of a car in less than a minute."

I heard Jay mumbling something but I couldn't make out what he said. And then suddenly really heavy fell on my right arm. I yelled. "Owwwww!"

"Sorry!"

"I think her arm is broken." Manny told us.

"Relax, Manny. I'm okay. It just the impact that hurt me."

"Yeah, relax. It's not broken." Jay added.

"How do you know? You don't know anything." Manny was getting angry and I had to stop it. "You have no concern for safety. If it hit Celia in the head she could have died!"

"But it didn't! And I'm perfectly okay!" I tried to calm things down but it was useless.

"Because it didn't hit her that hard." Jay ignored me.

"Why don't you just say it? You don't want us around." Manny said.

"You know what? Right now, I don't!" Jay raised his tone.

"We don't wanna be around you either. We're gonna wait for my dad." And he began to drag me out the room.

"Oh, but if you leave, how will I ever finish?" Jay sarcastically spoke to us.

Manny stopped and turned around to have the final say in the conversation. "You know what? I wish you never married my mom. I hate living here."

Wow. He was harsh. I dragged him out because I didn't want things to go more downhill. "Come on Manny, let's wait outside."

. . .

We were sitting on a curb, my arm around him, waiting for Javier to come when Jay came out of the house.
"Say, listen. Sorry, but I got some bad news."

"What?" I asked.

"Javier couldn't make it."

Manny raised his head from my right shoulder. "Why not?"

"The plane was full, and this old lady needed to get home, so he gave up his seat." He was making that up and Manny read my thoughts.

"You're making that up, aren't you?"

"No."

"He just didn't want to come." Manny told him.

"Are you kidding me? He was very upset. He was dying to see both of you." A limousine arrived. "In fact, look what he sent."

"A limo?" I asked rhetorically.

"Yeah. He wanted me and Gloria to take both of you to Disneyland."

My friend turned to me. "I told you he was an awesome dad."

"Yeah, he's a prince." I said happily.

. . .

During the ride home, I fell asleep on Gloria's shoulder.

..........

Heyyy!
I hope you liked the chapter, and see you next week!