-Same day, 7:20pm-
Steve's POV:
As me and Soda come down the stairs our moms coming running at us.
Neither of us have on the full suit, I'm not old enough for a blazer yet. I have my hair slicked back but I'm letting the pieces fall, and no I don't have on no damn suspenders. My pants and now are Pink and Soda's are blue. Blue is his color, especially because of his eyes.
"Aw, look at my little man." She smiles, "I never thought you would make it past mama." She plays with my bow tie and kisses on me just like how she used to.
We go and sit down, waiting on everyone else.
"I gotta wait on my other baby." Mrs. Curtis's sweet country accent comes through with her smile.
My mom's from Jersey so she's never been great at sweet talkin like Mrs. Curtis, a true Oklahomian.
And of course the next ones down are her baby and Johnny.
They're so extra. Johnny has on a sleeveless white crop top, with one of those net like long sleeve shirts over it but it's only covering his arms and his back it's black, then the rest of his outfit has me lost. He has on sagging black jorts with boxers coming out the top, and cowboy boots. A mess I tell you. A mess. He has in his earrings and his hair is in a middle part but the curls are still surrounding him.
"Your perm is killing me, Johnny." His smiles.
"Dad." He rolls his eyes.
Pony's outfit is like Soda's on drugs. He has on a normal rolled up dress shirt tucked into his tight black, leather pants that are tucked in his cowboy boots. It gets worse. He has on a belt just like the cowboys. He has on suspenders with his and a wavy head bang in his thick hair, he has on earrings too.
"Faggot alert on aisle nine."
The whole table looks at me, I meant to whisper that.
My mom shakes my head at me, "I can really beat your ass now that you're an adult."
Please don't, I can't get a spanking at eighteen.
I shut my ass up.
"I think you look very nice, son." Mr. Cade smiles.
"I do too, you've always been pretty." His wife agrees.
"Thanks." Johnny smiles.
"My little cowboy baby." Mrs. Curtis cooes.
I think everyone kinda forgot about Lanson and Branty because we actually start to talk.
"So how was today?" My dad questions everyone.
"We went surfing." Soda smiled.
"Since when could y'all surf?" Mrs. Curtis's warm hazel eyes look interested. I think Pony looks just like her, Darry looks just like Mr. Curtis, and Soda is the only real mix of both.
"We can't." I admit.
"So y'all just flopped on the waves?" Mr. Curtis smiles.
"Exactly that." We share the same answer and laughs about it.
This is when Lanson and Branty come down.
Lanson has a soft middle part his hair fluffy, black earrings to match his dark green dress pants, with his black heels, and his dark green blazer. Why does he actually look, nice? Who styled him?
Branty has a dark green sequins dress, that's short tight, and strapless, they have on the same shoes, necklace, and earrings. Her dark brown hair is curled and long.
What the hell is going on?
"We're not late, right?" She speaks.
"No." Why am I almost intimidated by my own sister?
Pony and Johnny high-five and cheer, "we're so good." Johnny cooes.
"What did you do?" Soda questions.
"We helped with their outfits." Pony smiles.
They can style my sister and her boyfriend but not themselves?
They come and sit down, the conversations pick back up.
"So we have been thinking about playing like games and stuff tonight. So we could all hang out and stuff." Mrs. Cade suggest.
"Like, a game night?" Johnny smiles.
"Yeah." Mrs. Curtis suggests.
"Sounds fun." I answer.
"Yeah, I'm excited, especially now that we're gonna be one big family." She smiles.
"I've always wanted more family." Mrs. Cade admits.
"Me too." Her husband nods.
It goes kinda quiet like some of us know something some of us don't? I wanna be nosy but thats probably not right in this situation, I mean it is family business. But we're a family...
"I'm sorry, Ella." My mom apologizing for something? I'm a little too invested now.
"It's fine, it was like forever ago." She waves it off.
"It was only four years ago." Mr. Cade reminds.
"Oh, of course I didn't know that. Of course." She smiles, but her face looks sad. I feel bad for Mrs. Cade I don't know much about Johnny, but I don't think he's had the best home life.
"You know it's okay to talk about it? Nobody's gonna judge you." Mrs. Curtis is an angel. I never get how sweet she is sometimes.
"I don't even know where to start though? I genuinely missed all it, it was like a movie, but I left after the b-"
"You're talking about me."
Please don't cry Johnny. I'm just tryna eat my dinner man.
"My life's the it you missed it all because of your own problems."
"Andie." His dad speaks.
"What? Mrs. Curtis said we can talk."
"Well, time doesn't go backwards. We gots to keep pushing. Take what you got and make something with it." Dammit, Mama! We were almost there!
"We don't have anything." And just like that Johnny and Mrs. Cade are both crying.
"Actually it's terrible. I don't know his favorite color, his favorite food, I don't know what middle or elementary school he went to, I don't know his full name, I barely remember his birthday on a good day, I don't even know how old he is?" Her husband just sits here and holds her. Damn, this is really going down.
"You don't even know me. Who am I to you just some kid who kicks around at your house?.. Or am I just another stranger on the street? If there was a line of twenty other boys named Johnny you wouldn't even know which Johnny is yours. Hear that? Yours. I'm your son and you don't even know who the hell I am." He leans back in his chair with a huff.
"Okay well who are you, son? Tell me who you are." She decides.
"I'm Johnathan Andrew Cade, I'm sixteen my birthday is March 1st, my favorite color is Maroon, my favorite food is Asian food, and I went to Kent Miller Elementary and Garden Hill middle."
She reaches out her hand for him to shake and he does, "Hi Johnathan, I'm your mom. Do you know me?"
"No, I actually don't." He's gonna make her soul HURT tonight.
"I'm Michella Morgan Cade, I married your dad sixteen years ago. My favorite color is lime green, and my favorite food is green bean casserole."
Everyone seems to relax after that whole scene was over.
"That needed to be done." Mr. Cade smiles.
Johnny and his mom both sigh, "yeah." They laugh at how they did the same thing.
"Next." Johnny smiles.
"Sarah, why didn't Darry come?" My mom questions.
"Oh he's off doing his own thing. Didn't even come home yet. You know, Dar-Bear went to college and became a man. He's having fun, and making good grades so I try not to miss him." She pauses looking up at her kids, "y'all know Darry's my step-son?" She smiles.
"Actually?" Soda questions.
"Actually." She smiles.
"He was three when he met you, long story. His mom passed during birth. I remember I was sad as hell." Mr. Curtis shakes his head.
"Yeah cause didn't your parents like take you away from civilization so that's how you go to stay on my farm?" Mrs. Curtis grins in remembrance.
"Yeah, it was my mom's friend's mom was your mom. So she was like 'Joey I'm keeping my grandbaby, and you're going south for the summer'. And I was just like dammit." He grins.
"Yeah and then you met me. And I was just a little farm girl, but I remember was into you and you told me you had a son and I nearly ran. I did not want to be a mom I just wanted to live my little farm life with a boyfriend and keep pushing. But when I met Dar-Bear my whole world fell apart. He was just the cutest."
"I remember the first time he said it, I was tucking him in and he said, mind you he was like two years old. He said, 'can we go see Mama, soon?' And as soon as he said it I knew I had to marry you."
"You knew?" She blushed.
"I knew, and then I went to your house that weekend and I left and on Monday morning you called and said, 'Joey I'm pregnant.' And then we had a baby."
Mrs. Curtis laughed, "and then two years later we got married. And then right after that."
"Another baby." They giggled.
"So I was the accident kid?" Mr. Perfect is in shock.
They look at each other before looking back at him, "Darry was an accident too." Mr. Curtis corrects.
"So that was on purpose?!" Soda cringes, pointing at Pony.
"We were hoping for a girl." His dad shrugs.
"I wish our story was that easy." My dad joked.
"Nothing about me is easy, baby." My mom shook her head.
"It wasn't. I went to a bar out of boredom with some of my friends right? And I meet this little lady, so I'm like 'Aren't you a little too pretty to be a bartender?'." He explains.
"And I said, aren't you a little too old to be hitting on little ladies, and he was like, I'm twenty-five. And I was like, I'm twenty, what do you want from me?"
"But then of course my flirting is shit so I spill all the beans and I literally say, 'Jeez lady you're cute could we go a date? Or are we doing this on the clock?'" He laughs his dad chuckle that makes me wanna fall out. I cannot.
"And of course I give in because I just wanted to be an ass. And eventually I'm like falling in love with this guy. Two years later we're married and another year after that, my little man was born." Imma need her to stop immediately.
"Your mom couldn't get enough of her 'little man.' You were just perfect." My dad rolled his eyes.
"I couldn't you were the smallest little boy ever, and you started growing but your little legs weren't letting you run with the big kids and I was just like, it's okay baby, mama's here. And your green eyes were so huge, they were like little bawls on your face. You were my baby."
Soda's giggling at her talking about my eyes.
"What about me?" Branty smiles.
They go silent, "uh..." Mom looks at her husband for an answer.
"We weren't exactly. Ready. for you..." He decides.
"So you didn't want me?" Branty frowns.
"Oh we wanted you, we loved you so much. After you got here." Mom trails off.
"What do you mean?" She questions.
"We weren't planning on anymore kids but your brother loved you. He did and he does he really does. I remember I would be tired as hell after keeping you all day and Steven would come home from kindergarten and just scoop you right up. He thought you were some special species or something really." Mom smiled.
She giggled, "before you could walk or talk he would hold you and talk to you. He would say, 'Mama, Branty's hungry.' And I would say how do you know Steve?' And you would say, she told me. And it was so dumb, she couldn't talk but it was like you could translate shit. Everything you said was true."
I'm so good.
"I remember one day Steve was holding her and starts screaming, 'Dad, she said my name!' And I'm like you're full of shit. Cause he's like five, and I go in the living room and sure enough my daughter is sitting there and she's giggling and she goes 'Steeeeee'. And I was just baffled." My dad thinks.
"Oo I remember when y'all were in Brantley's room and I left for five minutes to make lunch or something and while I'm gonna I hear, 'she's walking!' And I'm like oh fuck here we go again. So I walk in there and sure enough she was walking. Straight for her brother."
They sigh as they go over memories.
"I remember this one time it was thundering outside so I went in Brantley's room because she was only like three so I knew it was keeping her up, but she was gone. So I go into Steve's room and what do you know, she was curled under her brother."
"Steve sleep is the best sleep." Branty smiles.
"I don't know how you're gonna Steve sleep with Steve an hour away?" I shrug.
"Don't remind me." She pouts.
We soon redirect back to the Cades, "I remember we met in college and your parents hated me."
"Hated you." Mrs. Cade shook her head smiling, "they did not like the fact that you were white which is crazy because my dad wasn't Muslim when he met my mom, he's black. But they hated you. So I ran away, I ran with the love of my life and I said I was have my own family, dammit." She grinned.
"I won't ever forget the smile on your face when you had Andie. You were so happy." He had the proudest look on his face a person could wear.
"I was, I remember how his hair was blonde for a while when he was a kid. Y'all looked just alike, still do. I remember he used to like coloring and doing makeup so I would say, 'make Mommy look stunning.' And he would take his little kits and just clown me. But the smile on his face was so worth it. And I remember when he was a baby, he had the cutest little giggle. And you would tickle him and his little nose would scrunch up." She looked in awe at her son's beauty. He is no stranger.
"I remember when we let him get his ears pierced and he liked the ones with the cupcakes on them." His dad agreed.
"Or the stars, my Johnnycake loved his stars."
Johnny's POV:
Johnnycake
Johnnycake
Johnnycake
The name brings back all sorts of things I had forgotten. Good things. My mom.
Johnnycake. Loved his stars, his little giggle, the smile on his face.
My mom. The mom I had, The mom that was there. The mom that left. The mom that's trying to come back.
My mom.
-this is our biggest chapter of the story coming in at 2,496 words! Also I'm literally about to go to school as I'm typing this so you probably wouldn't get another update from me for a while, anyway byeeeeee-