Finding Amerie

19- The Giving of The Thanks

I poked the sliced turkey and gravy on my plate, regretting not packing a lunch.

"I get that its supposed to be like Thanksgiving food, but this isn't even edible." Remington said picking up the bread roll and banging it on the table. And what do you know, it was like a rock. "Do they have a contract with dentists? Like they get half the profit off of teeth repairs when we break them from this bread?" 

"What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving anyways?"Kade asked, eating the mashed potatoes aka the only edible thing on the plate. Barely. "My family is going away to visit even more family, I am not looking forward to the madness. Italian families are insane." He looked a little terrified.

"I'm staying here and we're just celebrating with my family." Link said.

"I am staying home end eating ice-cream with movies." I said. My family never did Thanksgiving, not like there is much family to celebrate it with anyways.

"Oh I'm sorry." Kade said, looking slightly guilty.

"Don't be, I'm not so you shouldn't be." I gave him a reassuring smile, which he returned.

"You can come over to my place." Remington said. "My mom has been wanting to meet you because she's always telling me to get more friends. Plus she always complains about how small our Thanksgiving is." He gave me a small hopeful smile. I thought about it for a second. 

"Yeah, sure I'd like that. Tell your mom I'll bring dessert." Remington gave me a big grin and then took our his phone, probably to text his mom.

Apple pie or pumpkin. Apple or pumpkin, apple or pumpkin. I've been pacing around the supermarket finding ingredients for the pie and also having a tiny breakdown because I didn't know which would be better, pumpkin pie or apple pie. I sighed in defeat and took out my phone, scrolling through my contacts until I found the name Remy with an emoji or a rat next to it. 

"Why hello there." He said over the phone. "Not calling to back out of Thanksgiving dinner today are you?" 

"No." I said. "I need to know which one your family prefers, pumpkin pie or apple pie." I said and Remington was quiet for a moment.

"Well, my mom would kill for a good apple pie. But my dad would kill for a good pumpkin pie so I don't know if I can help you there." He said, sounding amused. "And I like both. But you could make either, its not like they're gonna start a war over pie. I hope." 

"Wow, thanks." I said sarcastically. "I'll see you later, for now I'm gonna have a small breakdown, bye." I hung up. I looked at the pie crust in my basket noticing that on the package it said that there are two crusts. Well, I guess problem solved. I went and grabbed the rest of my ingredients before paying and going home to make the two pies. 

Remington knocked on my door just as I placed the pies in a bag. I opened the door, throwing on a pair of heeled boots and a leather jacket. 

"Ready?" He asked, giving me a smile.

"For like my first ever Thanksgiving? Yeah, I think so." I said as I locked the door behind me. We walked to his car and then rode to his house which wasn't too far from mine. We pulled up to a nice one story house. It was painted blue with a white door and big windows. He led me to his front door and held it open for me, motioning for me to walk in. 

"I should've probably told you that earlier but I have a dog. A big dog." He said quickly just as a giant great dane ran over. 

"Hello there." I said, my voice immediately changing to the sweet animal voice that everybody has. "Hello." I said, scratching the dog with one hand, and holding the pies behind my back with the other. 

"Come now Apollo, let the girl at least take her jacket off!" A feminine voice said and I looked up from the dog whos name is Apollo to see a woman about my height if I wasn't wearing heels who looked like she was in her mid 40's. Apollo listened and made him was over to the woman. "Hi, you must be Amerie, Remington will not stop talking about you! It's nice to finally put a face to the name." She said, telling Apollo to sit and walking over to me, shaking my hand. "My name is Rhita" She gave me a friendly smile. Now I see where Remington gets that from. 

"Its a pleasure." I returned the smile and then took of my jacket, which Remington took from me like a gentleman. I bent down to take my shoes off but was stopped by Rhita. 

"Oh don't bother Amerie its okay, we usually don't wear shoes in the house but we make an exception for Thanksgiving since everyone usually dresses up." She said. I noticed she was also wearing heels, which means she was shorter than me normally. She was wearing a nice dress and some accessories. That was the first time I noticed that Remington was wearing a purple button up and black pants. I looked down at my outfit, feeling a bit relieved that I wore black cigarette pants and a grey button up. I gave Rhita a nod and then picked up the pies I set on the floor. 

"Should I bring these to the kitchen?" I asked. 

"Oh yes, Remington said you were gonna bring dessert!" She said and motioned for me to follow her. "Wow, you made two pies! I can't even cook pasta." She laughed as she took the pies out of the bag.

"Yeah I couldn't decide which one to make, and Remington was no help. So I made both." I said, making Rhita laugh again. 

"We had to order our food because I don't know how to cook but we all love Thanksgiving. Remington knows a little but I'd rather order. Plus, less dishes!" I like this woman, she has great logic. "Honey! Remington friend is here!" She called out as she led me to the living room.

"I'm here, I'm here." A deep voice behind us said. I turned around and saw a man that looked like an older version of Remington. He was as tall as him and had the same resting scowl on his face. So the grin is from his mom and the scowl and everything else is from his dad. 

"Hello, I'm Rick, its a pleasure to meet you." He said, reaching a hand out to me. 

"Amerie, and the pleasure is all mine." I shook his hand which was almost as big as Remington's. "I see you guys really like the letter R." I said once I let go of his hand. His dad smiled at that.

"Oh absolutely. You know I wanted to name Apollo Roderick but nobody would let me." He sat down in the armchair in the living room and I decided to sit down next to Remington who was sitting on the couch. He gave me a grin and then his mom sat down on the arm rest of the armchair his dad was sitting in. They were a beautiful couple, and they looked happy together. Something I've never seen before. I was amazed. 

We talked for a little before the doorbell rang with the food delivery. They ordered a whole damn buffet. Turkey, mashed potatoes, salad, mac and cheese, and a bunch of other things. I was excited the most for the mashed potatoes but that excitement went away the second the contained was opened and the smell hit me. Shit. I filled my plate with everything but the potatoes and we carried on the conversation. I found a seat as far away from the potatoes as I could so the smell wouldn't be so extreme. I fucking hate my genes. Remington on the other hand, got a giant helping of them and sat right beside me. 

"Hey, do you think you could eat the mashed potatoes over there?" I asked pointing to the other side of the couch. I turned away and took a deep breath. God why is cilantro so damn evil. 

"Why?" He asked slowly. "Is everything okay?" He looked concerned. 

"Yeah its just that I have a genetic mutation which  makes me repulsed to cilantro. It tastes like soap and I-" I took another deep breath. "And I can't really breathe around it." I said. Remington gave me an amused smile but moved away.

"You know, Link has the same thing, we put cilantro in salsa once and he didn't understand why it tasted like soap." He said, smiling at the memory. The rest of Thanksgiving went by very nice. Everyone enjoyed the pies and both Rhita and Rick were happy that they had their favorite pie. And Apollo sang us some songs because he is a good boy.