there's no way | ethma

Eighteen

It was a four hour flight, but since New Jersey was three hours ahead of California, it was 3 PM by the time we arrived.

My mom picked us up from the airport, giving Emma and Joey huge greeting hugs.

I could tell that my mom and Emma were excited to meet each other.

We loaded everyone's luggage into the car, and Emma sat in the front passenger seat while my mom drove. It made me smile that Emma was already getting to know my mother.

Grayson told me that I was smiling like an idiot.

I didn't care.

Once we got home, all of us boys grabbed our bags, and we led Joey to the guest room, and my mom said that Emma could stay in my room, but the door had to stay open.

"What? Mom, I am an adult." I argued.

"My house, my rules, Ethan." My mom said.

"Fine." I said, taking Emma's bag along with mine and walking upstairs to my room.

Emma followed closely behind me, and she explored my room while I put my bag away.

"Em, there's an empty drawer in my dresser for you." I said, pointing to the middle drawer. She opened it, and gave me a thumbs up before putting her neatly folded clothing into it.

After she was done, she grabbed a long sleeve sweater, and some jeans, and then she walked into my bathroom and shut the door.

I got done unpacking at headed downstairs.

"Hey, Ethan!" Cameron said. She was in the living room, and I hadn't seen her since I've been home.

"Hey, Cam. Good to see you again." I said, giving her a hug.

"Where's your girlfriend?"

"She's in my bathroom getting changed out of her airport clothes."

"You should too. You stink." Cam teased, hitting my arm. "Welcome home, little bro."

Emma came downstairs, and she saw that I was in the living room. I smiled at her and motioned for her to come here.

Emma walked towards me, and I wrapped my arm around her shoulder.

"Cameron, this is my girlfriend, Emma. Emma, this is my older sister Cameron."

"You can call me Cam if you want. Sorry that Ethan's kind of an idiot."

Emma smiled while shaking Cam's hand.

"He's my kind of idiot. Nice to meet you, Cam."

"You as well. I'm glad that you're here for the holiday. This just means I get to embarrass Ethan and Grayson as much as possible."

I flinched. "How?"

"Ethan, I'm the oldest. I'm the superior of us Dolan children."

I wrapped my arms around Emma. "Shut up, Cam. Emma, don't listen to her."

Cameron mouthed something to Emma, and she giggled.

It was around 5 o'clock, and dinner wasn't gonna be ready for another couple of hours, so Emma, Grayson, Joey and I went down the road to an indoor track that my mom was a member at, so that we could all go on a run together.

It felt nice to be back in New Jersey, but it was even better now that Emma was here with us.

And her brother by all means. He was becoming one of my close friends too, now that I lived in LA, plus he was Emma's brother, and he fit in with the whole friend group perfectly.

He added a comedic touch to the group. Him and Emma both. I could see where they were coming from when they told me their parents were both really funny.

When we got back for dinner, everyone put their phones away so that we could have a nice family dinner.

We talked about how each of us have lost very close family members, and all of us had a long discussion about losing a parent or in Emma and Joey's case losing parents.

It made us all closer, and it helped my mom and sister get to know Emma and Joey more.

Hell, it even helped me and Grayson get to know them better, and I'm Emma's boyfriend.

We ended the evening with a good old-fashioned game of apples to apples, and a rerun of a Thanksgiving special of Saturday Night Live.

SNL was a mutual favorite of both Emma's and mine, and we even got our whole friend group into watching it.

Once we went upstairs for the night, Emma changed into some leggings, and one of my long sleeves, and then she brushed her teeth and climbed into my bed.

I changed into some pajama pants and a t shirt before also brushing my teeth, and then walking back into my room from my bathroom.

"I'm so glad to be home, but I'm even more glad that you came home with me." I said, slipping under the covers next to Emma.

I wrapped my arms around her stomach and pulled her closer so her back was pressed against my chest.

"Thanks for bringing me home, E."

I leaned up and kissed her on the cheek before she turned her head and pecked my lips.

"Goodnight, baby. I love you. Wake me up if we need more blankets. It gets cold at night in Jers."

"Thanks, Ethan. I love you too." She mumbled. "Goodnight."

And with that, we fell asleep, and I was so happy that I was at home AND with my girl.

It can't possibly get better than this, can it?