Falling for the unloveable

Thanksgiving

Elias:

I love my family, I truly do, or at least I'm trying to convince myself that I do because right now I'm hiding from the rowdy bunch in my aunties broom closet. I've got about a million cousins running around plus my aunties who have been grilling me about Iris, along with my grandmother, since I got here. My uncles aren't much better but the only thing they are interested in are football and of course they can't help but tease me about Iris too.

So I grabbed my phone and found the one place I know no one will come looking and to everyone's amusement, if they found out, I'm calling Iris. My thumbs glide over the screen like they've done a million times before but this time I'm desperate, so desperate that I press on FaceTime instead of the usual call which ends in me talking her into letting me see her beautiful face. I've only seen it through our calls or the photos that our friends and her sisters have been sending me in so long.

Each one she's doing something different from cooking with Gracie, falling asleep with Diego clutching onto her front, cloud gazing with Malcolm, doing Mal and Kim's hair, laughing with Bailey, helping addy and Ava with homework, being taught to skateboard by Luis or Aidan and Jake teaching her to play a video game.

Those photos are all I think about as for three torturous rings I wait, until finally a sea of dark brown locks appears.
"Sunshine get your head out of the dryer!" She yells with her honey voice before I'm finally graced with her blood pumping smile.
"Hey" I smile cringe worthily wide. "Hi" her lips split into a warmer kind of grin.

"What's going on over there? Why is Malcolm's head in the dryer?" I chuckle at my own words, he's one weird guy. "I wish I knew the answer to that-I swear to god sunshine!" She yells off some rapid warnings like some mom yelling at her kid who won't quit being an idiot before she sighs and turns back to me.

Now the original fog of relief and peace that flowed through my brain has cleared up, I can see the dark circles she's attempted to hide and her sunken eyes that look sadder than ever.

"What's wrong?" I sit up, concern spiking my heartbeat. "Nothing I'm just..tired" the smile she gives me is so forced that I cringe.
"I can be there in a few hours I just have to-"
"Don't you dare I've finished cooking, everyone has eaten and we are moving onto karaoke, movies and junk food. I'm okay" she smiles genuinely this time but it's barely there.

"I've been wanting to come home anyway-"
"Newbie" she interrupts sweetly. "Yes?" I huff knowing that I'm going to be shut down.
"If you come home any time before tomorrow I will lock my door and you won't see me until the time we planned before you left" even when she's drained she's stubborn.

"Damn it Moore how do you expect me to stay here when I know you're suffering?" She shakes her head tiredly. "I'm not suffering I'm with all of the people I love most, excluding you of course. Now enough about me, tell me about your thanksgiving. How is everyone?" I narrow my eyes at her but can see the plead for me to just let her change the subject.

"Everyone is great, poppy loves being around all of our family and little cousins, my moms in her element gossiping with my aunties and grandma, my dad has taken over the garden with the rest of his brothers and my grandpa. And I am hiding in a broom closet to get away from all of the chaos" she laughs at the last part.

"A broom closet?" I nod moving my phone around the tight space. "Oh my you're not kidding?" I shake my head seriously and she giggles louder. "Get out of there!"
"No way, I love my cousins but if one more nerf bullet hits my head I think I'll have a brain aneurysm" I rub my head that's had at least one hundred foam bullets hit it in the last four days.

"At least you've been saved from Malcolm's poor singing skills" oh yes five hundred bullets would be better than his signing. "Hey!" I hear a distant yell through the screen. "I'm a great singer"
"In your dreams maybe" I think Ava throws the insult at him. "Oh just you wait Ava" yep that confirms it.