YES, THIS CHAPTER GOES OUT TO SEAN KINGSTON AND WHOEVER THE SHAWTY, WHOSE FIRE WAS DEFINETELY BURNING ON THE DANCE FLOOR, IS.
SOTD: 1996 BY THE WOMABTS (lol I almost put "by the 1975" omg I'm so funny...someone please laugh, thanks)
YOU PROBS THOUGHT THE SOTD WOULD BE SEAN KINGSTON RIGHT? CRANKING THEM PLOT TWISTS OUT LEFT, RIGHT, AND CENTRE 😬
~
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Three distinct knocks on the front door jolted me from my painful position and I sat up straight.
God, my back hurt.
As I sat up, I noticed leather cleaner in my right hand and a rag in the other and began to notice the scene before me.
Directly at my feet, Talia lay with a slight pool of drool escaping her mouth; Ethan was strewn across the coffee table, windex in one hand and a paper towel in the other; and Chandler was leaning against the wall with a feather duster poised over the television and a carnivorous amount of snoring escaping his lips.
Andrew, on the other hand, was gently nestled in a corner of the room, a mini vacuum positioned loosely in his grip and a snoring Seth beside him with multiple bottles of beer between his fingers. I noticed Trish with one hand on her belly and the other with a set of coasters splayed gently across her lap.
Elliott was at his sisters feet, a youthful serenity over his features as he snuggled in closer to a throw pillow.
"Trishelle Bleu Mcguinness, we know you're in there!"
My eyebrows furrowed as the angry voice was followed by three more deliberate knocks and I felt Talia stir, "What's going on?"
I shrugged and listened for the voice again, "Don't make me knock again"
"Ohmigod" Talia gasped, jumping up and giving me an eyeful of her underwear. Deciding to save my gagging for later, I stood up at her urgency.
"Trish! Trish, get up!" Talia hissed nudging her twin awake before tip toeing over to Seth and kicking him square in the gut.
Seth instantly curled in on himself with a loud cry, "what are you doing?!"
Talia dove on top of him and covered his mouth with her palm, "shhhh, they're here"
As she said this, Trish's jaw dropped and she got up almost as quickly as her sister had, "that's impossible! They're supposed to be here by two, it's only...."
"Two" I murmured staring down at my phone with a grimace.
As if on cue, Talia, violently, began waking the boys up as three more deliberate knocks sounded at the door.
"Shove everything into the closet!" Seth grunted opening the closet that stood off to the side of the hallway, "Trish's mom can smell disorder, we can't keep it out in the open"
We all did as told as a male voice barked, "Seth! Is that you? If you don't open this damn door I will~"
"Mr and Mrs. Mcguinness" Seth beamed throwing the door open with a flourish and wiping the beads of sweat off his forehead.
I had never known what to expect Trish's parents to look like because she spoke about them like they were scary creatures. I had expected her mother to look severe in some way and her father to exude magnificent levels of douchosity...but neither did.
Trish's mother had long brown hair that was expertly curled to frame her face, large brown eyes, and the most delicate frame I had ever witnessed. She was much shorter than me, perhaps 5'5 but exuded the confidence of someone ten feet taller; she was graceful and majestic in some capacities. Trish's mom was gorgeous in a way that almost made you look her over; very much like Trish. They were the kind of people that you couldn't get tired of staring at because they were timeless.
If I had been surprised by her mother, I was flabbergasted by her father..unless those two were the same thing; in which case, I was *insert word more surprising than surprised* by her father.
Where Trish was a spitting image of her mother, Elliott and Talia were their father.
Mr. Mcguinness had a messy crown of wavy blonde hair that looked a lot like Elliott's but his was just a level up on the 'tame' scale. He had the same open brightness in his eyes that Elliott and Talia seemed to have inherited and was at least an entire foot taller than his ex wife. If Trish hadn't have already told me that her father was almost 6 years older than her mother, I would've called her a cradle robber. There was a youthfulness in his features that his ex wife lacked and I swallowed as her delicate features turned to me.
"And who is this?"
I opened my mouth and closed it many times before offering my hand to shake, "Hello, I'm Harper Dale"
Mrs. Mcguinness looked at my hand and offered me a tight smile, "Rachel"
She expertly brushed right by me and I allowed my jaw to drop only slightly before clamping it shut as Andrew placed a hand at the small of my back.
"Looks like you've allowed Seth to take the reigns on keeping your home in order?"
There it was! There was the condescending tone that Trish had prided her mother for having.
" I think the place looks fine" Mr. Mcguinness murmured turning to his ex wife and giving her a hard look.
"Of course you would, you never knew a dust pan"
I looked around at everyone and their expressions were a mix of slight fright and composure. Of course they were all used to this: Chandler, Ethan, Andrew and Seth having been almost like siblings and Trish, Elliott, and Talia ACTUALLY being siblings. This was none of their first times at the rodeo and I tried my best to keep a smile on my face,
"She can smell fear" Andrew whispered from behind me. I heard Ethan choke on his laughter before sobering up as Mrs. Mcguinness stared at something behind Andrew.
We all quickly turned and there, in all their glory, were the bottles of beer Seth had forgotten to dispose of.
"Now I see" Mrs. Mcguinness murmured, "you got my daughter drunk enough to agree to marry you"
Seth shook his head profusely, "no ma'am that isn't what happened"
"She couldn't even drink if she wanted to" Talia rolled her eyes and sucked in her breath realizing her mistake, "because she doesn't drink..."
Mr. Mcguinness stared at his daughter with furrowed brows, "Your eyebrows are doing that thing...the thing they do when you're lying"
Elliott slapped a hand over Talias eyebrows and sneered, "she's been getting her eyebrows waxed at this wierd Scandinavian place..."
"If I were Scandinavian, I'de be offended by that" Andrew muttered. "why couldn't it be a weird Irish place? Stop knocking the Scandinavians"
"Not now, ANDREW" Seth hissed balling his hands into fists and turning to Elliot, "besides, Talia has always had odd eyebrows"
Mr. Mcguinness furrowed his own eyebrows and shook his head as if he only half believed this. Mrs. Mcguinness, on the other hand, was walking around the apartment inspections in order.
She made a face at the couch, "Mismatched throw pillows? Surely you know this shade of green shouldn't be with this shade of yellow"
"It's a pillow from the guest bedroom" Trish snapped, "I don't even live here, you seem to always skim over that minor detail"
"You might as well" I noticed an odd look pass Mrs. Mcguinness' features and she cleared her throat, "Anyways, that wasn't our reasoning for coming here"
"This is like a twisted infomercial " Trish groaned, "But wait there's more!"
My jaw clenched as Trish and her mother engaged in a tense stare off and her father cleared his throat, "Trish...is this what you want?"
"I love him and I can't see myself with anyone e~"
"Then surely this true love can wait a couple of years; preferably after you've gotten your life together and are over the drinking age. I know that right now it seems like you have the strongest love of all but soon, as life comes knocking, things get harder...sometimes it gets harder than you can handle" The way Mrs. Mcguinness spoke made me look around uncomfortably as her ex husband quickly looked away.
"I'm not you" Trish ground out crossing her arms over her chest, "let's just get that one thing straight"
Mrs. Mcguinness shook her head and let out a dry laugh, "Heaven forbid you end up like me; a successful independent woman who can never say she gave up her life."
"You forgot to add divorced and majorly unhappy?" Trish added.
All eyes darted to Mrs. Mcguinness and she clenched her jaw, "I had to find out that you were getting married over the phone! You couldn't even drive out or invite me to lunch? Trishelle, you told me some of the biggest news of your life with streaked mascara! You had just been crying and they weren't happy tears"
Trish mumbled something underneath her breath as her mother continued, "I've seen that look before"
"You let him hurt you again and now you're trying to tell me you want to make that forever? Goodluck not ending up divorced and majorly unhappy"
"I would never hurt her~"
"But you have" Mr. Mcguinness cut Seth off with a stern look, "And that's not something that I, as a father, can overlook"
Elliott scoffed at this before stuffing his hands into his pockets, "And father of the hour goes to, Skylar Mcguinness aka the guy who abandoned his family for an almost legal blonde, ladies and gents"
"Don't do that, E"
Talia seemed to be the only neutral child as she looked between her parents and siblings, unsure of what to do. It seemed like Elliott and his father had trouble because there were so many things the older Mcguinness did that didn't bode well with the younger. But in Trish's case, she was so much like her mother and she hated it; she was willing to do anything to change that.
"Can we all just calm down?" Talia snapped looking around, "Trish doesn't need this stress right now"
Mrs. Mcguinness' eyes snapped to attention and she squinted, "You did it again"
"I beg your pardon?" Talia mumbled giving her mother an odd look.
"You looked over at Trish again"
Talia rolled her eyes, "Stop looking at my sister, mental note taken"
"Not her...her stomach"
I instantly sucked in a breath as Mr. Mcguinness looked around confused as if he wasn't processing his ex wife's words.
"I knew there was something strange happening. There was no way Seth, the same one who broke up with you because of his fear of commitment, could propose to you out of the blue!"
Crap, she was good.
Mrs. Mcguinness took a good look at her daughter and blinked multiple times, "You're clammy but you're glowing at the same time"
"Mom" Trish's words were warning as her mother snapped her slender fingers and brought a hand to her mouth. I noticed a faint mist come over her eyes and she looked at Seth with anger.
"You're pregnant"
Her words were barely above a whisper and, in that moment, it was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room.
Trish looked down and I noticed her already wet face.
Just as I was about to console her, I heard a low "oh my God" before a loud thud sent me careening into Andrew's arms.
"Daddy!" Both Talia and Trish screeched as Elliott jumped to attention.
My entire mind went completely blank as I registered exactly what had made the sound. Mrs. Mcguinness' eyes were saucers as she dropped to her knees and watched Elliott bend over his fathers body.
"Somebody call 911!"
~
PS., FOR THOSE WHO DIDN'T READ 'ALONG CAME SETH' AND ARE CONFUSED BY THE FAMILY DYNAMIC; SKYLAR AND RACHEL (ZEE PARENTS) ARE BESTSELLING AUTHORS AND PROFESSORS (BASICALLY THEY'RE SMART AS SHIT)
I CANT TELL YOU EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED IN TERMS OF THEM GETTING THEIR DIVORCE (CUZ I HATE SPOILERS) SO IF YOUR INTERESTED IN TRISH'S STORY AND THE WHOLE MCGUINNESS CLAN, GO AHEAD AND READ IT :)
ALSO, DON'T WORRY, ANDREW'S CHAPTER IS COMING UP SOON LOVES :)
ALSO ALSO, CHAPTER'S MAY BE GETTING A LITTLE LONGER AS THERE IS GOING TO BE A LOT GOING DOWN FOR THE GANG, I HOPE THIS IS OKAY.
ALSO ALSO ALSO, I THANK ALL OF YOU FOR THE HILARIOUS COMMENTS, VOTES, AND BEING ALL AROUND AMAZING. SOMETIMES I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE HOW AWESOME YOU GUYS ARE BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW ME AND OWE ME NOTHING BUT YOU BELIEVE IN THIS STORY ENOUGH TO STAY TUNED. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE SUPPORT LOVES!