Angelina's POV
"You can't out run me! I am faster than you!" I yell running even faster.
"Angel, watch out!" Drew yells after a few moments. Before I can realize what is happening, I trip over a tree branch.
"Angel!" I hear Drew's panicked voice from behind me. But the pain is too much for me to say anything. I notice that I have hurt my knee and blood is flowing out. I try to hold back my tears.
"Oh no!" Drew says the moment he reaches me. He squats down to inspect the wound.
"I will go and call our moms, stay here." He says. I see that we have come too far from our moms and they are at the opposite end of the park.
"Please don't leave me." I say scared.
"But..."
"Please" My voice cracks.
He bites his lip and makes his thinking face. He then takes out his bottle which he always keeps with him.
"This may hurt a bit." He pours some water on the wound and cleans it. Then he takes out his handkerchief, folds it in half to make a triangle and ties it around my knee.
"Can you stand up?" He asks tentatively. When I try to stand up, my left knee which is injured pains a lot. He puts an arm around me saving me from falling down the second time. He then shifts my weight on himself such that less pressure falls on my left foot.
I half walk and half drag myself while Drew helps me. It pains a bit but I didn't want to stay alone. When we reach halfway across the park, our moms see us and frantically rush towards us.
"Oh my god! Sweetie come here, how did it happen? Is it paining too much?" They take me to the nearest swings and make me sit down.
"It's paining a bit but not too much. Drew washed the wound."
"You are such a smart boy." My mom says fondly cupping his face. He smiles shyly, fidgeting with his hands. My mom first inspects the wound herself then goes to call Ash from where he is playing with his friends. Drew's mom goes to get the first-aid kit from the car. I motion for Drew to come near me. I don't know what came over me but I lean over and kiss his cheek.
"Thank you" I say as we both start blushing.
"Anything for you" He says.
When I wake up, half of the dream is gone in a blink but I could recognize it as an incident that took place in first grade. Even if the dream is gone, the ache it brought didn't.
I just wanted a nap before getting ready for the party. But little did I know that the memories that I shoved deep inside my mind, would find a way into my dreams. Over these years I have mastered one thing, clearing my head of thoughts by shoving them into the corner of my mind. So after doing the same with the memories of Drew, I look at my clock. It reads 3:59 PM, that means...
Ring...Ring...
I switch off the alarm that I set for starting to get ready for the party. Noah is going to pick me up at 7 O' clock. It seems that even if we all are going to the same destination, we have to go in different cars. But I don't mind since I have never spent quality time with any of the triplets.
My eyes fall on the dress I bought yesterday when the triplets took us girls to buy a dress. Even if we resisted, they bought them for us since I quote 'We got stuck in this because of them.' Emma already had a dress so she and Jacob didn't come with us.
I wanted to go with a hot yet sophisticated look and the dress seemed perfect for it. It is comfortable yet stylish which is a bonus as it is what I always go for. It a baby pink off shoulder dress with sleeves till my elbow. It hugs my body till the waist and then flows down freely showing my cleavage and curves but not too much. It has self lace design which gives it a shine that made me fall in love with it at the first sight.
After buying the dress yesterday, we girls had gone for waxing while the boys did whatever they wanted. So that, at least saves a lot of my time right now. After freshening up, when I do my make-up I see to it that it seems natural and I don't look like a clown. I used more makeup than what I would have used usually, so you see why it's really important.
I decide to put my hair in a loose braided bun with few curled strands framing my face. I decide to use the hairspray which I usually save for special occasions but I guess this is a special occasion. When I give myself a once over after giving myself some last minute touches, I find that I actually look beautiful.
"I am not sure if I should let you go." I hear Ash's voice from the door.
"How do I look?" I ask giving him a small twirl.
"You look so gorgeous that it's good you and Noah will never date or we would have had a problem." We both chuckle at that.
"We have a lot of time till Noah actually dates someone. He is still like a small kid. I may get over-protective over him if he decides to date someone." I point out.
"That's true; anyways the said kid is waiting downstairs. And I explained Dad that Noah will not date his precious baby girl and got him to back off. You can thank me later." He winks and goes out of the room. I just shake my head at my brother, grab my things and follow him.
When I reach the hall I see Ash, Mom and Dad laughing at something Noah said. Looks like Ash really managed to get Dad off Noah's back. As much as I love to see my family bonding with one of my friends, we need to leave so I clear my throat.
"Sweetie, you look so beautiful!" Mom exclaims reaching out to hold my hands.
"Sweetheart, you look gorgeous." Noah compliments. No he didn't...
"You look good too." I say to distract Dad as well as because it is true. He is wearing a blue rose embroidered blazer on a black dress shirt and a pink bow-tie to co-ordinate with me. His bangs are slicked back making him look dare I say, hot.
"Sweetheart?" Dad asks.
"It's kind of nickname but he doesn't mean it in that way." I try to explain when I am cut off.
"What are you talking about? We are soul mates! And I will always love you, only you." Noah says dramatically. I thought Dad was going to get angry but to my surprise he starts laughing.
"Now I know why you said they are never going to date." Dad tells Ash who is stifling a laugh.
"Why don't we just take some pictures and then leave?" I ask when Noah is about to say something else. After we take some pictures, Noah offers me his elbow.
"Shall we, mi amor (my love in Spanish)?" Noah asks grinning cheekily. I just roll my eyes but take his elbow and we leave after telling my family bye.
"Who would have thought you could act like a gentleman." I say when reach out of ear shot.
"I am really hurt mi amor, I am a gentleman." He says holding a hand to his heart. I just raise an eyebrow showing that I don't believe him.
"Fine, I had to take etiquette classes when I was younger. Whenever there is a party or a diner I have to act accordingly." He says and then mutters something lowly which I couldn't comprehend. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but when I saw that he got a chauffeur as well, I didn't know what to say. When we were seated inside properly in the backseat, I turned to Noah to ask more about the classes.
"Your family is really awesome." He says suddenly.
"More like crazy, but thanks anyway." I shrug.
"Craziness is good, trust me normal is over-rated." He is acting a bit differently but I don't press. Then a fact hit me like thousand bricks.
"Oh my god, how didn't I think of this before?" I exclaim.
"Think of what?" Noah asks confused.
"I am going to meet your parents for the first time! Even if we are not dating, we are friends and what if they don't like me? What if I embarrass you all?" Just like that I am a bundle of nerves.
"Sweetheart, if anything I may embarrass you. And trust me my parents don't care. They will only care about the person we will marry, which won't happen anytime soon." He says shrugging after rolling the privacy window up.
"What?" I ask incredulously.
"They will just check if they are 'worthy' of marrying us and what benefits it will bring to the company." He scoffs.
"Surely it can't be that bad, right?" I ask tentatively.
"According to Abuela and Abuelo (Grandmother and Grandfather), when Dad introduced Mom to his parents they called her unworthy for their son and a gold digger. And this was just because she is Spanish. The words hit Mom hard and she always tried to be the perfect trophy wife. Eventually Mom lost her free spirited nature in chasing that perfection and became a splitting image of our grandmother. When that happened, there was no one stopping Dad from being obsessed with work.
Now Dad is either on a business trip or in his office, holed up and doing work. As for Mom she sometimes goes to business trips with Dad or trips with her friends. And when she is home she doesn't leave a moment to remind us on how we need to perfect. It's not like we don't see our parents and they are not in our lives. They are, but at least I would prefer them not being there because all they talk about is business and perfection." It's like all the emotions he has bottled up till now burst. I just entwine our fingers in silent support. I think he just needs to let it all out.
"When we were small kids, it used to be awesome. We would go to different places or even if we were at home, we would laugh and play together. Dad used to take out even more time for us than he does now and would be actually interested in our lives. And Mom used to be the solution of all our problems. We used to share even the tiniest of our problems with her. But eventually when she started craving perfection in everything, and our problems were a reminder for her that we are not perfect. So instead of helping us, she started feigning indifference and just asked us fix them. Now she straight out taunts us for our flaws which made us finally stop informing her anything. Dad was really upset when he saw that Mom changed and drowned himself with work." I side hug him thinking it may provide him at least a bit of comfort. And sure enough I get a small dimpled smile.
"Justin has always been mature for his age and he is the oldest amongst us. So he saw it as his responsibility to take care of us. Whenever Drake or I needed something, he was there. When we grew a bit older he realized that he wants to be a businessman. This helped him get close to Mom and Dad but he didn't abandon us, instead he used it to inform us about anything we should know. As we grew, our problems grew as well. I think Drake entered his rebellious phase and something happened with Justin as well but they never told me anything. I was the baby brother they needed to protect. If Justin couldn't handle something, he would ask Drake but nothing ever reached me. I think that maybe because I got Mom's free-spirited nature and they thought if they don't tell me about the problems they are facing, I wouldn't lose it. So I just do them a favor and always show them I am happy even when I am not. Not that I am one of those kids hide their pain behind the jokes. I am happy, but sometimes when I am not I don't show it and try to make them smile. They really need it."
"I think seeing your free-spirited nature, your Mom will get hers back eventually. And I think you three turned out awesome and now you have got us. You all can come to us for anything." I say softly.
"Thanks" He says giving me a genuine smile and then rolls down the privacy window.
This is why I never speak out my thoughts about people out loud. Because you don't know what they go through but even if you don't want to judge someone, you can't help it. It's like our second nature just like I judged Noah twice. First I thought he is just a goofy boy and second, when he was telling about himself. I thought he hides behind his jokes but actually he jokes to see his family smile and to try to win his Mother back. Even now I only know what he told me, so that's why to not hurt anyone's feelings, I don't say my judgments out loud.
"Sir, miss, we are here." The chauffeur informs us.
"Are you ready to rock this party mi amor?"
"Si, mi amado (yes, my beloved)" I answer in Spanish grinning. This as expected makes Noah give me a huge grin.
*****
Author's Note
Hello everyone 😄! How are you all?
If you missed the announcement then I just want to inform you that I changed Noah's appearance, resulting in change of cast as well. Now Noah has honey brown eyes and darker skin than his brothers.
I also changed Rose's last name to Brown from Blyton. I will tell you why I did that in the next chapter.
Meanwhile, this chapter gave a huge insight about the Jhonsons. What do you think of this revelation?
Have a nice day/night ahead 🙃!