Back Flip Boy [ Ethan Nestor ]

44.

November 2017

Mark rushed around the kitchen, me and Amy watching him intently as he tried to find his turkey baster.

We both knew where it was, we had purposely moved it as a small little prank on him just to see him get all flustered before everyone showed up for dinner. We were having the whole gang, Amy's parents, the Nestor's and our parents over for dinner, which meant we had cooked two - yes, you read that right - turkeys, a shit ton of stuffing and a lot of mashed potatoes. Everyone else was bringing some sort of side, and we had gotten a lot of those fifteen packs of take out containers from Walmart so everyone could take home some food. Ethan had decided to spend the day with his family before coming over, saying something about needing to make sure the present his mom got us wasn't sending them into bankruptcy, which made me chuckle. She had probably gotten a new bed or something for Luna but made it out to be an extravagant present.

Amy and I had to hold back a chuckle as we watched Mark pull out all the contents of the cabinets, clearly not looking on top of the fridge where it so clearly sat, right in front of his face. It was quite a funny sight to see, and possibly a bit mean since it had been going on for an hour. Before I could interject and say anything there was a knock at the door and both Luna and Chica got up and ran towards the front hall, Luna barking and howling like there was no tomorrow. I got up before Mark could leave the kitchen, shuffling my way through the pile of dog toys to see the Nestor's, sans Ethan, standing on the front porch.

"Uh, where's Ethan?"

"Oh, he said he had something else to do real quick before he came over. Not sure what he meant by that though." Mr. Nestor shrugged. "But we figured we would drop by a bit early and see if you all needed any help."

"Oh shit, yes- I mean, crap, uh... yeah, come on in." I stepped to the side as everyone filed in. "Uh, kitchen's that way."

I took the platter of food from Mrs. Nestor and she, along with Andrew, made their way towards the kitchen with me hot on their trail. I barely had a second to register what was happening before my other hand was in Mrs. Nestor's, flipping it over so she could admire my ring. It was a nice ring, a beautiful ring even. It wasn't anything fancy or flashy, which was perfect. Which was exactly the kind of jewelry I wore anyway. We talked about everything for a bit before we both got startled by Mark screaming "AHA!" at the top of his lungs, meaning he most likely found the baster. We couldn't help but laugh, making our way to the counter to join in on their conversation. I realized Mark- or Amy, who really knew at this point- had set up the camera to get some B-Roll of everyone for what apparently would end up being a Thanksgiving type video, which I had found out about moments after I walked into the kitchen. Part of me was surprised, but also I wasn't surprised since Mark could be very much "oh shit we need footage" instead of planning everything out.

We had been talking for about an hour before Amy walked over to the picture gallery on the wall, pointing at a drawing. "Is this new?"

"Oh yeah," Mark looked up from whatever he was doing. "I finally got that in a frame, we've had it since what... 2015?"

"It took you that long to get a frame for it?"

"I've been busy, Y/N." Mark dramatically rolled his eyes. "But yeah, a fan gave that to us at Pax one year."

"That's my drawing."

"I- what?" Both Mark and I stared at Amy. "It's yours?"

"Yeah. I have the sketches and everything saved from before I finished it."

"Wait wait wait. You were at Pax that year?"

"To be fair, I gave it to Y/N when she was in the hotel alone. There were a bunch of us asking for pictures."

That's when it clicked.

"No fucking way! That's- I remember that now!" I broke out into a giant smile. "You waited in the lobby for me."

"So you met my sister before you met me and didn't say anything?"

"That's what you have to say about the situation?" Amy and I both looked at Mark, dumbfounded looks on our faces. "Seriously?"

Everyone in the room burst out into laughter, and we all fell back into our nice little conversations. The rest of the Iplier Gang had shown up about an hour later, all bearing different sides, so now the only person missing was Ethan. I was starting to get a bit nervous, because there shouldn't have been a reason he hadn't shown up yet. We both had cleared this whole week out to spend time with family- no meetings, no streams, no nothing. So where the fuck was he?

That's when I heard the car in the driveway. Both the dogs and I perked up, looking towards the front door. It had to be Ethan. I was gonna slap him to Mars if I didn't figure out where the fuck he had-

"MIKA!?"

I screamed like a five year old school girl and ran into her arms, the two of us falling to the floor from the sheer force of my hug. Ethan had his vlog camera out and was filming as well, barely dodging out of the way as we fell.

"What the actual fuck? What the fuck! How did you- what?"

"Surprise!"

"Did you- was that why you- you fucker. I hate you."

Ethan chuckled. "I love you too, babe."

"We've been planning this for like a month."

"I hate you too."

"No you don't."

"At this very moment I do."

"That hug you just gave me said otherwise."

"Then I take back my hug. Ohmygod get off of me Mika you're crushing me-!"

Everyone settled in for dinner around six, finally getting everything settled and on the table. Mark and Tyler had banished all of us ladies from the kitchen, leaving us to "gossip or whatever the fuck you guys do on holidays" in the living room. I got to introduce Mika to my mom, and they got along very well which was what I was hoping for in the first place.  Dinner went very smoothly, and we all settled in the living room to watch whatever football game was on the TV so the boys had something to do while us girls went back and took over the kitchen to clean all the dishes.

"So..." Mika bumped my hip. "What's it like being engaged?"

I shrugged. "Not that different, honestly."

"Really?"

"I mean, we've been engaged for a few months now, so the initial excitement has worn off."

"Are fans still up your ass about it?" Amy looked over to me.

"A handful are, yeah. It's still kinda dumb but like, I get it. Not everyone has to believe us."

"I can yell at them again." Mika got a crazed look in her eye, causing me to chuckle.

"Feel free too, but it's kinda old news now."

"I think the real question is, when are you and Mark getting engaged, Amy?"

Amy spit out her drink as Mika and I burst out laughing at my mom's question, not even attempting to hide how amused we were with the situation. I fell down to the ground again, this time from laughing so hard. Mika had to hold onto the counter to stop herself from falling down. Unfortunately, Amy didn't warrant my mom with an answer, which made us laugh even harder, and I swear to god I was laughing so hard I was seeing stars. Ethan poked his head into the kitchen and saw me on the ground, practically dying of laughter, and instead of helping me, simply looked Mika in the eye and said:

"What the fuck did you do to my fiancé?"

Mika and I looked at each other before bursting out into laughter again, causing her to fall to the floor and join me in a heap in front of the oven. We sat there for probably about an hour, calming down from everything and finally being able to eat dessert without snickering at each other. Ethan, Luna and I made our way home around twelve, Mika sitting in our back seat since apparently she was staying in our guest room for a week, leading me to slap her arm very hard when I found out.

Either way, everything was going great, and that's all that matters.