A little offensive at the end, you have been warned.
Mel, Thorin and I sat back at the table that I had made sure that was away from my family. My plan had been a success, thanks to my little plan and Thorin's tattoos that scared off a lot of the kids. He had one of his arms around me as we sat at the table, enjoying some type of dip with a bunch of chips. A lot of the females that made up my extended family made sure to take the time to take a glimpse at Thorin. It just so happened that my family was basically a matriarchy. The whole family had a pretty bad past with men.
Everyone seemed happy. Thorin was happy and had a smile on his face as I fed him carrots, rubbing his hand on my back and sometimes went a little too low, forcing me to scold him so the kids wouldn't see. I was happy, feeling confident in a t shirt that actually fitted my body. My mother and aunt hadn't fought so far though shade had been thrown and my aunt even welcomed Blaire as her sister in law. Even though I had rejected a few cousins who had barreled their way through my front door to climb up on me, they were happy with playing some of the plastic ducks and some beach balls. Everyone was happy, except for one person.
Mel.
"What's wrong with ya?" Thorin asked his cousin, furrowing his dark brows while munching on the food that I had recently given him. I didn't know if Mel had told Thorin or not about inviting Sai but one thing was for sure, the boy wasn't there. It's not that Sai wasn't hard to lose in a crowd, but it was. The guy was most likely nearing at least six foot six, towering over Thorin by three inches and me by a foot and two inches so it wasn't hard to find him. Plus the only guys that had shown up was my grandfather who was asleep and a couple of uncles that were tending to their kids.
I nudged him at the side to be a little more sensitive to the girl, shaking my head. "Mel, I'm sure he'll come. He's probably just running a little late." My hand went to hers that was thumping against the wooden table. The black thing that had taken a place in my chest, some call it a heart, twinged at the sad little smile she gave me in an attempt to look happy.
"I'm fine." She lifted her eyebrows to look excited. "Trust me." I didn't trust her.
"Flora, a guy is here for you." Mom had announced. I watched from the corner of my eye as Mel perked up, patting at her jeans so the invisible dirt on them would leave. She even went as far to take her hair into her hands to control the wild curls. I stood up to who I hoped was Sai to welcome him to our party so he would feel more comfortable.
The guy wasn't Sai. Green eyes that I had at the store and all of the time of school bore into mine. The holder of the eyes was someone that I had talked to on some random girl's couch and also added me to their list of people whom they slept with because wanted to 'add a chubby girl' even though we didn't do such a thing. Normally, Jace looked cocky with a smirk but this time, he kept his eyes low.
I kept looking at Jace, making sure that I didn't see the disappointment in Melody. "Come here so one of your goons could push me down again?" I crossed my arms, mostly to look tough but in case he did pay one of my crazy cousins with candy to push me down and I could defend myself. "It's not going to hurt as much with grass."
"Don't worry, Flora." Thorin said, walking up to my side with a hand on my shoulder. "He's not going to touch you and live to tell." His voice went lower, totally winning at the intimidating part unlike me.
Jace sighed with guilt written all over his face. "I'm sorry." He whispered.
"Sorry, I didn't hear ya over all the bull shite." Thorin spat, making me worried. Don't get me wrong, it was quite hot but there were kids around and I didn't them to see a murder.
The boy in front of us shook his head. "I'm sorry!" He said louder. "I'm so sorry for everything. I didn't know what came over me!" His hands went into fists, fists that I knew that he wasn't going to use on either of us. "The first time you talked to me, I was so confused and I thought I hated you. But I couldn't come out to say that I hated you because I knew deep down in my heart that I didn't. This made me crazy, I thought about the idea of liking you and that sent me down this path of wanting to create this pain between the two of you."
My mouth was open the whole he talked and basically spewed his heart out. "What I'm saying is that Flora, I'm so sorry. Thorin, I'm so sorry." I could hear the tears play with the back of his throat, turning his voice soft. "I didn't want to admit to myself that I liked you, I didn't want people to know that I was..."
"Gay?" The voice didn't come the two of us. Instead, it came from my mom. "Kid, I know what you mean." She chuckled, grasping for Blaire's hand who was right next to her. "But that's the beauty of finding a partner. They help you understand what you're feeling and help you through your journey."
I fought back the tears that were forming in my own eyes. "Come here." Even though at first, I would rather have had my arms cut off than touch Jace, I went up to the guy and proceeded to wrap my arms around him. "You know, you should really get into acting and maybe go for a villain part?" I said, smiling while looking up at him.
"So I've been told." He said, laughing while wiping the tears away from his high cheek bones. "Thank you." Jace whispered.
"Come on Thorin." I backed away, sniffling. It looked like Thorin was up for forgiving that day by the way he kept himself away from Jace with his arms still tucked over his chest.
Saying nothing, he stepped up to Jace with a scowl on his face. "Jace, I don't care if you like me or whatever. I don't like what you had done to Flora and that's something that I will never forget." Thorin definitely sounded pissed and Jace was just taking it, looking down at the ground. "But that doesn't mean I'm willing to see how you're going to act now and hopefully it's going to be good." That was all he said and once his line was done, Thorin went back to the table where his cousin was.
"Get some cake, okay?" Cake was something that always cheered me up so I thought maybe it would for Jace who was smiling. Though Thorin didn't quite come out to say it, I think Thorin doesn't really hate him now.
When I turned around, a large colorful bouquet of flowers was in Mel's hands. Her eyes lit up like the Emerald City with happiness and looked kind of wet from tears of happiness. Standing next to the smiling girl was Sai who stood there with a blank face as he placed a fork full of cake with blue icing into his mouth. He had noticed me staring at him and lifted his hand straight into the air in a form of a wave.
"Sai made it." Mel was now probably one of the happiest people there. Not only probably because she was shoveling bites of cake into her mouth while smothering the flowers in her elbow but because Sai showed up. I was glad that he did, anything that made Mel happy and wasn't illegal was A-okay in my book.
"Sorry, I decided to get a piece of cake." For the first time, Sai smiled at me.
I waved at him, telling him it was alright and that I did indeed want him to eat the cake along with Melody. "It's alright, I was going to get a piece of myself." Don't get me wrong, I was still on my diet but I've come to realize it's okay to splurge once in a while and that I wasn't going to lose ten hundred pounds just by eating carrots. "Thorin, you want one too?" He nodded at me, smiling, proud that I was willing to eat the sugary dessert.
A couple of you guessed it, female family members who were middle aged, were standing around the cake. Though they were family, I barely knew their names because their grandmother and my grandmother on my mother side were sisters or something. Either way, two smiled at me while raising their eyebrows.
"Flora, who is that?" Claire, I think that was her name, wiggled her drawn on eyebrow.
"My boyfriend." I said without hesitation, cutting myself a small piece. "Someone who is way too young for you." It may have been said in a joking manner, but I wasn't lying. Thorin protected me so it was my turn to protect him from some perverted old cousins that were barely related to me while cutting his piece of cake.
Turning around, I was faced with another dilemma. The grandfather that I had thought was asleep and was going to stay asleep for the rest of the day because he was around ninety, had his hand on the table that Thorin was at. The wrinkly old hand was right in front of Thorin, taking up his personal space and probably to intimidate my boyfriend that my grandpa had seventy-two years on.
"Now, you're going to listen to me." One of his fingers wiggled in the air.
"Oh grandpa!" I swooped in, smiling and to break the tension between the two. "Do you want a piece of cake?"
The old man eyed me and shook his head. "Flora, I don't want your damn cake. I already had six pieces and it was delicious." He stopped for a second, losing his train of thought. "Anyway, I don't care if you're some young kid. If you hurt my granddaughter...." My shoulder was roughly grasped while I sat down next to Thorin to still break up the two. "I have a full gun cabinet."
"Grandpa..." I chuckled, trying to make it seem like the old man was joking even though he wasn't. I've seen the infamous gun cabinet that my grandfather had before I was born and was very proud of it.
"I believe you, sir." Thorin's 'r' rolled thanks to his thick accent. "I would never do anything to hurt your granddaughter." Thorin grabbed me, pulling me close to his side.
Grandpa nodded with a huff. "Good." The old man left us to go back to his corner in the shade to take another nap.
"My God." Thorin said, breathing in relief. "I thought he was about to ring out my neck there, Flor." His eyes were wide when staring at me. "You do realize that ya saved me, right?"
"Grandpa can be a little scary but he means well." I gave Thorin a reassuring smile that my grandpa wasn't going to kill him... yet. "Don't worry about him." I wish I could be sure that there was nothing to worry about grandpa but I couldn't. My mother's father gave my dad the same talk and did almost use his gun cabinet towards the end of their relationship.
After the grandpa fiasco, everything went to normal. Well, normal enough for me to not be freaking out. I was watching the kids who were still playing with a ball and how much fun they were having. Just as my cousin Seth slapped the ball with the palm of my hand, the strike forced the ball to go into the air and past the point of where his sister Anna could reach it. The plastic flew quickly before being abruptly interrupted by the side of Sai's head.
He did nothing except for stand there, staring into the distance while eating his piece of cake. Thorin and I looked at each other, make sure what we saw had actually happened. I frowned, shaking my head and shrugging my shoulders because I didn't know what else to do. Silently, Thorin laughed, pressing his head to my shoulder to hide his laughter. It was cute and something that I wanted to keep on going but something just had to interrupt us. Once again.
A lot of things had been interrupting this day.
It was then when I saw him. His tall, lanky body that was skinnier than mine. A face full of scruff liked I had remembered the day I moved away from him, making it seem like none of it had happened and that I was still that girl. He looked around, awkwardly, smiling at the family members that scowled at him. It didn't matter, shit like that didn't bother him. If anything, it gave him power.
Mom's eyes glanced over to me before going back to the man that she was once married to. "What are you doing here?" She went up to him, squinting her eyes at him.
"I'm here to come get my daughter." He spat at her mercilessly. "It's my turn to have her." He acted like I was a piece of property and that it was his time for the toy. It was funny how he wanted me now and not when I was actually living with him.
"You don't have a daughter here." I stood up, leaving the table once again to meet with the guy that I hadn't spoken to face to face in quite some time.
Chad, if I remembered correctly, laughed. "Flora, I thought I heard about you working out or something? Or were those just rumors?" He eyed my stomach area, forcing me to put my arms around it to protect myself.
"Any trouble here?" Thorin asked, joining our little group, popping his knuckles while smiling.
"There is trouble here." Chad spat. "My ex-wife is some dyke now and my daughter is going to come with me where she can actually learn how to eat right."
It was one thing to make fun of me, but making fun of my mom? Calling her a name because she was happy and he wasn't? That not only crossed the line, it destroyed it like some laser that was created by a dick. A dick who had pushed my buttons for the last time and was never going to see me ever again.
Slowly breathing, I made sure to keep my thumb outside of my fingers. Like how I had imagined all of those times I practiced with Thorin, I imagined driving my fist through the cheek of the asshole that my mom had married. Though when it was just Thorin and I, I had to actually picture the guy, this time I looked him straight in the eye while pushing my fist into his unshaven jaw.
"Fuck!" I yelled, holding my hand while the body dropped unconsciously.
"Holy shit." Blaire said, looking at my dad with disgust on her face. "You got him."
The man began to moan as if he was beginning to regain consciousness.
"Well, I'm out." I gave the party who was looking at me a nervous chuckle. "Come on Thorin!" My other hand that I hadn't used for the punch, grasped onto Thorin's t shirt, forcing him to move with me. All of the running that I had done in the gym was finally paying off as Thorin and I ran down the sidewalk just in case Chad did wake up and the police would be there and maybe press charges against me.
"Wait!" Thorin stopped me.
"Thorin we better get going before Chad wakes up and calls the police.."
My cheeks were cupped by Thorin's tattooed hands, the ones with LOVE and FIGHT on them. Quickly, he placed a kiss on my lips and smiled. "Let's go." I smiled along with him, hand in hand with him as we ran down the sidewalk. He laughed as I eyed his broad shoulder that I heavily depended on.
My life has changed, I'll admit that. My mother and I had become on better terms, closer and more willing to talk even though I do still keep some details from her so she doesn't die from a heart attack. I'm a lot more confident and even did a public service announcement type thing while standing on a cafeteria table just to clear the air a few days after kissing my boyfriend in front of everyone. I did all of that without any stimulants that kept me going so I could lose weight that I honestly don't really think I needed to. I had friends, friends that I didn't think I could ever have because of how socially awkward I was, but I did.
A lot of things had changed since I've met Thorin and I wouldn't have progressed had I not downloaded Cutesy, the bad boy's app.
Okay so it's 5: 14 am while I'm writing this and I'm seriously fucking crying, trying not to wake up anyone omg. Anyway, there's going to be an author's note here pretty soon but before I do write one I must say: If you have any questions about the story, or what is going to be in store for the future, this is a good time to ask away.
Thank you.