Things You Never Knew

Chapter 2

"Tyler, come on, dude." Aiden shouts from downstairs. A certain sense of déjà vú hits me right up when I remember the times he used to call me to go to school.

"Geez. Chill your ass out." I said, walking down the stairs.

He laughs at my expression and Angela crosses her arms against her chest.

"Tyler!" She exclaims. "Aiden doesn't have the best of the vocabularies. Saying things like that next to him will only cause him to worsen what is already bad." She says and Aiden sticks her tongue out like a six-year-old.

I wonder if Aiden will ever grow up. When I see him trying on Angela's heels, I'm sure he won't.

"Ouch, it must hurt like hell to wear these kind of stuff," he makes a face while holding the shoe in his hand and examining it like a science project.

"Yes, but you can endure the pain when you see how hot you can look in a pair of these." Angela giggles.

"Okay, we better go now. I'm not the one who wants to listen aunt Margaret naming her seventeen cats." I huff.

"She has twenty three now." Aiden chuckles.

We take our bags to the car's trunk and close it as soon as everything is packed up. Mom decided to reunite the family at Nana's house.

Aiden starts the car and turns on the radio. Angela hops in next to him and sighing, I go to the back seat.

The song that's playing is She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5. I think of how this song makes me think about her, but I just ask Angela to switch it to another station.

The drive is calm and I look out the window to see that not much has changed around here. It's amazing. Almost five hundred thousand people live here and only one of them was able to mess with me in a way no one else couldn't.

I push that thought away from my mind. She just pops up into my head at random times.

Aiden and Angela start to sing according to the lyrics of Seven Years by Lukas Graham and I just sigh.

Some minutes later, we arrive at Nana's house. Dad's car is already parked in front in the house, along with some others. We get out of the car and walk to the house.

The place isn't full, but there are a couple of people. Dad is making a barbecue and I spot Nana watching her favorite soap opera from 1987 or so.

I walk up to her and cover her eyes with my hands in order for her to guess who I am.

"Oh, my." She says. She touches my hands and from the reflection of the television, I see her smiling.

"Tyler!" She exclaims happily and embraces me into a hug. Nana always has been shorter than anyone in the family, making her hugs the best ones. "I've missed you!" She says.

Everyone in the room turns to see us. She lets me go to hug me back in only a matter of seconds.

"How have you been, my boy?" Nana asks. "It's been ages since I last spoke to you." Her smile is warm and genuine.

"I've been great, Nana. Studying and working a lot, but I've been great." I tell her and she smiles in response.

"I've made some brownies. They're in the kitchen. Eat as many as you like, I just can't tell you I'll walk there with you because that way I'll miss my SO  and that wouldn't be a good thing." She tells me and I laugh and kiss her forehead.

On my way to the kitchen, some uncles and family members greet me and tell me how grown up I am. I laugh and explain to them how the past years have been back in Washington.