It Had To Be You

Chapter Four

TWELVE DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING

I STARED at the front porch, my heart feeling like it was jammed into my throat. Everything was all the sudden so much more real now. I was going to be meeting Atlas' family. His mother, his father, his sister. I was meeting his family, and if they were anything like mine, it would be like being thrown to the wolves. My hands started to shake a little bit so I nervously tried to make them busy. I filled them with my purse and my duffle bag, watching Atlas grab his own. "You nervous Gem?" He asked, a smile on his face but one that didn't quite meet his eyes. I could never read what he was thinking. Everything just seemed okay. Everything seemed happy when it came to Atlas McKinley. It was hard to know if that was the truth.

"It's not too late." I said after a pause, biting my lip nervously. "I mean I can catch a bus to the airport. You don't have to do this Atlas. Really." Atlas looked at me, like really looked at me. Looked at me as if he was seeing every inch of me. My skin crawled under his gaze, and I couldn't help but wonder if that's how bugs felt under microscopes. Exposed. Unsafe. Out of control. He placed his bag down, taking a step towards me, placing his hands on both side of my face, his thumbs gently tugging my lip from my teeth.

"It's my problem. Not yours. I'm in this." He looked at me a second longer, like he was going to say something else, but he didn't. Instead, he turned away and grabbed his bag. "Alright, let's go." He nodded towards the door, so I followed him. Completely confused and completely terrified.

He didn't knock on the door or ring the doorbell. Instead, he headed straight in, leaving the door open for me. "ATLAS!" A little voice echoed through the room, a small kid hopping into his awaiting arms. Atlas scooped him up, spinning him around as the little boy giggled and giggled. I smiled despite feeling like an intruder, sneaking in slightly behind him and closing the door.

"Atlas, is that you?" A blonde woman, mid-fifties walked through the door, drying her hands on a rag. She had Atlas's eyes, his smile. Atlas grinned at her, scooping her into his arms and holding her tightly as well. "Ma, how you been?" This was a mistake! A mistake. I tucked my hair behind my ears, watching the reunion before me and allowing myself to settle my nerves until those blue eyes that looked so much like her son's settled on me.

"Atlas John McKinley, are you telling me you brought a girl home, and you didn't introduce us immediately?" She shoved him aside and came to me. To me and wrapped me in the tightest hug I've ever experienced. "I'm Sophia, Atlas's mother, and I swear I raised him with better manners than that!" She kept an arm around me, making sure to give her son a good glare. This was a new side of Atlas that I had never seen before, clutching his nephew, staring at his mom, who was staring at me. These McKinley's and their blue blue eyes. They would be the death of me.

"Ma, this is my girlfriend, Gemma." My stomach clenched a little at the word. Girlfriend. I was his girlfriend. No going back now.

The second he said girlfriend people came out of nowhere. Before I knew it there was a younger girl, who looked like Sophia, an older man, and a younger man and another baby and they were all there. "Atlas, you have a girlfriend? Are you serious? You didn't tell me?"

I think she was his sister, because her hand on my arm was giving me an ulcer. I think. "How did you guys meet? Where are you from? Where do you go to school?" Question after question, and I didn't know where to look.

"How long have you been together? What do you like to do? What are your hobbies?"

I made eye contact with Atlas, who looked content to say nothing and leave me drowning in questions, and I gave him a glare that was mean enough to inspire an intervention.