Above is a picture of her (GABRIELLA) dress.
WES' POV:
"Raise the banner higher!....no lower. No raise it high, it's not straight. Raise the two sides higher!"
"Send for the cake, the party is starting in two hours. I want everything set, this is my sister's sweet sixteen we're talking about."
"I want everything to be perfect!"
I am never doing this again. Next year, we're hiring a party planner. Who knew doing a party was hard?
"PINK?"
I turned and saw Jake, already dressed.
"You're here early." I said then faced my checklist.
"I just wanted to see how the place is. And what you've done. Dude, this is amazing."
"I carried it from my mom." I bragged without looking at him.
"But there's one problem."
"What?"
"I don't think Gabriella is a pinky kind of girl."
"Of course she is. Who doesn't like pink?" I argued with a frown on my face as I looked at him.
"Probably Gabriella." He shrugged. "Well, it's too late to change anything. The party's starting in two hours and this took days to set up so let's just leave it like that."
****
GABRIELLA'S POV:
****Two Hours Later****
****LOCATION: Party Venue****
"Happy Birthday Gabriella."
"Wow you look so beautiful."
"Happy sweet sixteen."
"You're finally fully becoming a young woman."
"God bless your new age."
"Wish you nothing but the best!"
"You dress is absolutely beautiful."
"You look stunning as ever!"
"Belesima!"
"You're really a diamond mi amor!"
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo MANNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY PEOPLE!
SOME, MY FRIENDS, SOME ARE CLASSMATES, SOME SCHOOLMATES, SOME I KNOW BUT NEVER MET IN MY LIFE - My mother's fellow people, Celebrities of different kinds plus their children, superstars of different kinds.
WES! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?
DID YOU INVITE THE WHOLE WORLD?!
And dammmmnnnnnnn, this hall is bigggggggggggggg.
"André where is Wes?" I said once I found André with Italy.
He just looked at me without saying anything.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer!" I lashed at him.
"Hey what's wrong?"
"I'm sorry." I heaved a sigh. "It's just, there are a lot of people here and most I haven't socialized with them. I know them but-"
"I understand." He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. "Wes really went all out."
"Yes he did. And I'm not really okay with this. I haven't handled this kind of crowd since I was little. Recently, my birthdays have just been very casual, well, beside last year which was my quinceara. There was no compromise with Abuela last year. It had to be grand - those were her wishes. It's like I'm redoing the birthday again. I'm in a very big pink and princessy ballgown, plus my hair, makeup, my shoe. By the way André please be with me at all times, the heel is very high." I locked my arms with him.
"Really? But you're still short." He teased me and I scowled at him but he just laughed.
"Kidding."
After André's family plus maybe almost everyone else wished me a happy birthday, my mom came to me.
"Oh so you're here, I thought you wouldn't make it." I said to her.
"Isn't this my daughter's birthday?" She said.
"Isn't it better if you lower your voice when saying that. I mean seriously, I've been hidden from the world for years as your daughter, I don't think you would want that."
"Do you really think I'm ashamed of you?" She said in a hurt voice.
"I didn't say that. I'm just saying, you guys never wanted the world to know I'm your daughter. Isn't that right?"
"It was to protect you Gabriella." Her eyes were already welled up with tears.
"I really don't have your energy this night." I rolled my eyes. "Why did you call me?"
"Abuela's looking for you." She said.
Yeah, my grandparents are present at the party. Everyone including Elena flew down to the US and arrived this early morning.
I was extremely excited to see them this morning that I got a bit emotional.
"Why?" I asked.
"I don't know. You can ask her yourself considering she's coming this way."
"My little Petunia is finally sixteen..." She came and the first thing she did was to drag my cheeks with her fingers...hard for that matter.
"Abuela easy, the pain of your pinching increases as you grow older every second." I teased her and she scowled at me as she let my poor cheeks go.
"Heyyy, young lady, are you trying to call me old?" She placed her hands on her hips.
"Of course not Abuela. Am I mad?" I chuckled.
"Anyways, come with me, we need to talk." She said.
"About what?" My mother quickly asked. There was a hint of worry on her face.
"You don't need to know me ha. I want to talk with my grandchild, not you. Come with me Maria."
Abuela rarely calls me by my first name. She prefers Maria Fernanda - by the way, not really a fan of that middle name.
When we reached outside, we looked up and saw the night had covered the earth. Abuela helped me down the stairs by holding my hand.
"So Abuela, what happened?" I asked as we descended down the outside stairs.
"Well...Maria, tell me, what's been going on? How have you been doing...here...in America?"
"Well, not really anything. And as for how I've been doing here, well, I'm good, I'm really good." I grinned at her and she smiled.
"You really like it here, don't you?"
We reached the cotared floor and immediately my primo - Angel Sanchez came running towards us, with my best friend Elena at his back.
"Abuela, Elena's started again." He complained.
"Started with what exactly? Huh? Angel talk!" She said as she glared at him.
I did a mental eye roll because I know whatever happened between them will be extremely petty...most of all, stupid.
"Elena is disturbing me." He said in the most frustrated tone I have ever heard.
"No I'm not! I just asked for his opinion on something and he got angry." She huffed.
"And out of everyone, it's me you chose to ask!"
They just kept on shouting and shouting at each other until Abuela had enough of it and took off one of her trusty leather slippers she used in disciplining her grandkids - both the big and small. Out of all the grandchildren, those zapatillas {Spanish to English Translation: slippers} have been used on mostly me, one word - stubbornness.
"Voy a contar del uno al cinco con los ojos cerrados y si los dos todavía están aquí, saben lo que haré con mi zapatilla." She spoke in a warning tone.
{Translation: "I am going to count from one to five with my eyes closed and if the both of you are still here you know what I'll do to with my slipper."}
"What?" They both said simultaneously.
"One!" Abuela begin the count and immediately, the two idiots took off running.
~~~~
Once we were alone, I answered the question which she asked earlier.
"Abuela here's amazing. I can't just like it, I love it. Everything and every- actually almost everyone." I chuckled as I remembered the ones that has caused great havoc in my life. "America is such an amazing place." I stated wile gazing at the stars in the sky.
"You've always loved here from when you were little."
"How can I not? It's my home...." As soon as I said it, I saw the hint of sadness in her eyes. "And so is Mexico. I love them both Abuela." I went to meet her and held her hands in mine.
"Si but you love here more. You're planning on staying here....for good, no eres tu? {Translation: aren't you?}" A little frown formed on her face.
"Yes Abuela, pero eso no significa que no dudaré en subirme a un bote o un avión y volar directamente a la Ciudad de México solo para darte un fuerte abrazo y también para probar tus dulces dulces."
{Translation: "Yes Abuela, but it doesn't mean that I won't hesitate to hop on a boat or a plane and fly down straight to Mexico City just to give you a big fat hug and also to have a taste of you sweeeet tomales."}
"I know you can do that." She chuckled.
"Abuela. I don't like this, today is my birthday and you're sad, its not good and also not right." I shook my head in disapproval.
"I'm okay me ha."
"If you are acting like this then I probably shouldn't introduce you to a very special someone." I folded my arms as I frowned.
"Huh?¿quién es ese?" She asked.
{Translation: "Who is that?"}
"Don't bother." I dismissed.
"I'm already bothered, tell me." She urged.
I hesitated for a moment but then sighed. "Fine. Abuela.."
"Mmm?" She encouraged me to talk.
"I have a...ummm....boyfriend." I said and immediately her jaw was a second away from meeting the floor.
Fifteen seconds passed and Abuela was still in a state of shock and her skin was pale. I was a bit scared but then again, it's Abuela, she's very dramatic.
"Do you wanna see him?" I asked after waving my hand closely in front of her face.
Another fifteen seconds passed with Abuela still in shock. She then finally spoke.
"Does your mamá know about this?" She asked.
"Yeah, she does, why are you asking?"
"It doesn't matter. Right now what matters is you introducing him to nuestra familia. {Translation: "our family."} But before everyone meets him, I want to meet him first."
"I don't think that will be a problem." I smiled.
****
"Pleasure meeting you Mrs. Sanchez." André said with a smile. "Gabriella has told me a lot about you. And of course they were all good things."
"Let's hope so. I know how much of a chatter box my nietas {Translation: "granddaughters"} are." She chuckled.
We found André inside the extremely big and luxurious hall.
"I'm not a chatterbox Abuela." I frowned. "Adela and my other cousins are but I'm not." I folded my arms as I huffed. She always loved to say that I'm a chatterbox.
"Brie you kinda are." André said as he faced me.
"André, are you serious? I'm not a-"
"André?" Abuela interrupted me.
"Yeah sorry, I'm such a bad introducer, I forgot to mention his name. He's André." I locked my arm with his.
"As in André, like André-"
"Lombardi." At the back of my Abuela arrived my very strict but loving uncle - Tio Antonio alongside my Abuelo.
I suddenly had a bad vibe flowing through my veins.
"You're André... Lombardi." Abuela said in a shaky yet somehow angry voice.
"Umm, Tio Antonio, Abuelo, this is my boyfriend André - André Lombardi."
Their faces went from confused to a great amount of shock, fear, and anger.
"The both of you are dating?" My uncle came to us.
"Uncle I'm old enough to have a boyfriend, I'm sixteen years old."
"And you're young. That's not even main issue right now, the problem is that you are dating André Lombardi. How the hell is this even possible?" I saw my uncle was trying to conceal his anger.
"It's nice to meet you sir." André went for a shake but my uncle shot a glare of disdain to him.
André awkwardly brought back his hand.
"Uncle that's rude." I defended my boyfriend.
"I don't care." He fired at me.
"Maria, what rubbish is this?" Abuelo said to me.
"Abuelo you guys have to stop being protective of me. I can take care of myself. I'm not little anymore."
"This is not about you dating at sixteen it's about you dating him." Abuela quietly said.
"Please believe me, I would never do anything to hurt Gabriella. I love-"
"Keep quiet." Uncle snapped at him.
"Uncle!" I was suddenly losing control of my temper.
"So you really don't remember anything." Abuelo sadly said to me.
"What are you talking about?" I asked confused.
"Of course she can't remember dad." Uncle said to Abuelo then turned back to me. "Where is your mother Maria?"
"I don't know. Why are you-?"
He ignored me and stormed off.
"This is unbelievable." For the first time, I saw fear in Abuela's eyes. They both left us.
I turned immediately to André as saw how sad he was.
"Dré I'm so sorry. For their behavior." I apologized.
"It's okay Brie." He kissed my forehead. "By the way Anna's asking for you. Let's go meet her."
"You really want to follow me and meet her?" I looked at him surprised that he wants to see his mother.
"Don't get it twisted." He rolled his eyes. "The reason I'm following you is to not let you off my sight."
"I didn't say anything." I smiled teasingly and he gave me another eye roll.
I'm happy that he wants to spend time with his family, especially his mom, recently they've been getting closer than before. As for his father, there's a slight change. At least that's good.
But what's good is the fact that my family was so rude to André. Especially Uncle.
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Superrrrr sorry for the late update 😩😩😩😩❤️❤️❤️❤️