Baby Steps

Chapter 11 - The Family Reunion

When my relatives had finished admiring us and telling us how sweet we were, I took Lisa off to meet my cousins, in the hope that they'd be both accepting and somehow more chill about the matter. It didn't take me long to find Dotty, or rather for Dotty to find us.
"Come on Faye you're not drunk!" Dotty said tugging on my arm.
"Lisa this is Dotty-Danny, Danny this is my girlfriend Lisa." I said.
Dotty stopped, narrowed her eyes and stared at Lisa and I. Lisa squeezed my hand again and I brushed my thumb across hers. There was a moment where none of us spoke.
"OH MY GOD! That's so cute!" Dotty squealed, and took Lisa and I into a tight hug together, before dragging us both off to be brought drinks.
"How long have you been dating? Was it while you were still in that silly group?" Dotty asked as she led us across the room to where her siblings and both my sisters were sat.
I sighed. "Given we were both in the 'silly group' together what do you think?" I replied.
Dotty stared at Lisa again. "Ohhhhh yeahhhhhhh... you were!" Dotty whispered as she realised. "So when the group split up what happened? Did you move in together?"
I'd forgotten Dotty was the one who was always full of questions. Fortunately Lisa explained so I didn't have to and we sat down with my sisters and cousins so Dotty was prevented from asking any other questions.

Lisa's point of view
"I still think it's adorable." Sammy said as I finished my third pint of the night.
I smiled. "Thanks!" I glanced round. I was getting worried now, Faye still hadn't returned from wherever Danny had dragged her off to after introducing us to the others and making us suffer though what felt like an interview on our relationship.
"She'll be back soon, its something they always do at family gatherings." Sammy explained, it didn't make anything any clearer.
Clare groaned and looked round the room to see if she could see her little sister anywhere. "They have to go say hello to everyone together, the only problem is that they have to drink while they do it. It was alright when they were kids and mum wouldn't let Faye get drunk but its a nightmare nowadays. She's a bleeding monster when she does. Anyway, what's it like living with my monster of a sister?" She teased.
Clare loved Faye really and I knew that. "Faye's not a monster and you know it! Its lovely for us two that we get to live together. Even if she is messy and chaotic at times. When we were first together we never really got any time to ourselves because the five of us, you know Steps, shared a house together, but Faye and I shared a room. It wasn't the same as having our own house..." I replied. I knew I'd of carried on talking for ages if someone hadn't slipped their arms round me from behind. I tensed then tried not to panic. I'd had enough experiences with drunk, mostly (but not always) males, doing stuff like this. Every aspect of my being told me this wasn't a good sign. I took a deep breath and dared myself to look up. To my immense relief I saw it was Faye, not a random person. I breathed a sigh of relief, and she kissed my forehead.
"Sorry if I scared you Scottsie." She said with a worried smile.
I smiled back at her. "It's fine Tozie." I replied.
She let me go and fell into the chair next to me before leaning her head up against my arm. I could tell she wasn't actually drunk, just trying to make everything seem like an effort.

A few drinks later Faye, Danny, Sammy, Cas and I (along with a couple of the boys) decided that talking was boring and that we needed to show all the respective small children in the room how use a dancefloor. Which probably would have been fine if Cas could stand up without having to hold onto something, and if Danny and Sammy could actually dance. Faye and I did fine at dancing though. Well we thought we did fine, but in reality we probably looked like utter morons. But it didn't matter to me though, and I wasn't sure it really mattered to her what she looked like, we were having fun.
At the end of one of the songs we'd been dancing to she looked at me and, very gently, kissed me, as if she needed to prove to someone we really were together. I was drunk and happy, so I didn't care and I just kissed her back. We were sensible and didn't make it too gross, knowing that there were small children nearby. I didn't realise until after it was the first time we'd kissed when we knew there'd be people who weren't our closest friends watching.
"You taste like... something fruity, and you're a very good kisser." She whispered to me, her breath blowing the loose hairs that had escaped the style I'd put them up in out of my face.
"You're a pretty awesome kisser too. And you taste like cider too." I replied smiling at her.

Faye's point of view
All I recall of the evening after us kissing in front of my family is that Lisa and I danced with my cousins and drunk more alcohol. And Clare naturally had an element of disappointment in how drunk I was. I was both drunk and so full of happiness that no-one's opinions mattered anymore, and neither did the music choices. In that time where I was dancing badly, and singing both tunelessly and loudly along to the music with Lisa beside me I felt like I never wanted anything to change from that. If that was what the rest of my life consisted of then I'd be happy. In fact I wouldn't have minded being stuck in that moment forever.
We'd made it thought the night without Lisa saying anything stupid, and I was proud of her for that. In fact most of my relatives had commented on how sweet she was, just as I had predicted they would. I also hadn't done or said anything stupid, although Aron had tried to lift me above his head (causing me to squeal and try to wriggle out of his grip) anyway, though mostly to prove his strength.
I vaguely recall us being told we should probably go to bed at some point, and the two of us crawling into our room at about 2am. At that point we'd both got changed, got into bed and lay there curled up together, our arms around each other for a while before falling asleep.

My hangover the following morning killed when I woke up at a time I was too lazy and comfortable to roll over and check. The hangover was strangely reminiscent of the night in Berlin when we'd got absolutely hammered and then had to do a silly tour of the city's history the next day while Lisa and I were hungover beyond belief. Unfortunately neither H or Claire were here for me to tell, less than politely, to go away.
I smiled slightly at the memory, and snuggled closer to Lisa, glad I still had her, glad that when it had come down to the choice between her and Lee I'd eventually made the right one. She mumbled something as I hugged her a little tighter, but I didn't hear what. I relaxed my grip on her a little anyway. I buried my face into the top she was wearing, whispered to her that I loved her, then drifted back off to sleep again. Her hair was soft and slightly silky even after last night, and it was a nice feeling where it had ended up flicked across my arm, and weirdly (perhaps where it was reminiscent of the past) it made me feel more comfortable.

The next thing I was aware of was Lisa having moved and I looked up to see her letting Dotty into the room. I smiled at Lisa, she was in one of my too-big tops that was basically a dress on her. I knew she'd slept in it because I knew my tops kept going missing and that I kept finding her wearing them in the evenings. Lisa sat herself down on the bed next to me and I forced myself to sit up. I looked at Dotty and Dotty looked at me. One of us was going to say something stupid it was just a game of who.
"Enjoying that hang over?" She teased. I contemplated sticking my middle finger up at her, but she carried on talking before I could. "Anyway, most of us are going out this afternoon for a walk together, are you going to come?"
I looked at her. "Sure." I replied before rolling over.
"Great we're going at half two." Dotty said before leaving again.
I called a few swear words after her, more because she was being bossy than anything, but I had no idea if she'd actually heard them. I might not have Claire to swear at while hungover anymore, but I could always use a sober Dotty instead.