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I sat in the center of the Square, cross legged and just staring at the finally finished mural. It had just finished drying the top coating to give it a shine look to it, and to protect the paint.
It got done a lot faster than I expected but that might have been because I wouldn't allow myself to concentrate on anything else. The whole Friday morning and afternoon, I was working non-stop on the mural---trying to get it done for the party tomorrow.
My brother was with me, sitting off to the side and letting me work. I was grateful he hadn't bothered me once. I think Wade could sense I wasn't exactly in a talking kind of mood and thankfully was smart enough to just stay quiet.
Other than interrupting to hand me a sandwich from the local shop nearby, Wade wouldn't bother me.
With the mural done though, and sitting in the center of the Square, staring at nothing, I couldn't stop thinking about how bittersweet this moment was. It was finished finally---the mural---but I wasn't able to enjoy it as much as I thought I would because Ridge wasn't here.
In the short amount of times we spent together this week, I had really grown to care about Ridge. On a deeper level than I thought I initially had.
It seemed unfair, really, that right when Ridge and I were at a good place, something had to wedge itself between us. That bitterness I felt when first finding out about Molly and Ridge's relationship started to seep into my chest again. I mustered the strength to push it back because it had been acknowledged that Ridge and Molly were not "together" again. This was just to save face for the sake of the alpha and the pack.
Seemed kind of bizarre, and according to Cece, it was selfish. The alpha shouldn't have asked me to go along with such nonsense was my sister's point of view. My family seemed to agree. But I was the odd one out; resisting to do anything that would harm the pack or the humans of Carmel.
My dad sat with me outside yesterday after the alpha left. We sat on the porch steps, looking out in the open. There was no words spoken for a good long while and I enjoyed that. Dad eventually did talk to me but he stared out at the pack site when voicing how hard it was to not be frustrated with me for being so selfless.
"It's in your nature though," Dad sighed. I knew he was referring to the Quail Wolf. Dad looked at me, grinning as I looked back to him. "I am very proud of you, though, Button. You've handled all this with such resilience and it makes me so proud to be your father."
That made this whole thing a little more bearable.
"Gigi..."
I blinked a few times, turning to look up to see my brother standing next to me. He frowned, staring at me and I raised a brow. "What?"
"I said your name a few times already. You couldn't hear me?"
My lips formed a tight line, shaking my head and muttered that I hadn't heard anything. I told him I was sorry but my brother knelt down, shaking his head and told me to not apologize. My brother placed his hand on my head, sighing that he knew I had a lot on my mind.
Wade paused, letting the silence take over other than the outside noise in town. My brother tilted his head, looking at the mural and mumbled how amazing this was. He followed from one wall to the next to the next and so on. Wade looked at me, grinning how amazing his little sister was.
I smiled, thanking him. Wade stood up, holding out a hand and nodded for us to go home. That we needed to get some rest before tomorrow morning when Mom would, for sure, have us running around to get everything ready for the party tomorrow night.
Rolling my eyes as I took his hand, I questioned, "Isn't the alpha paying for everything to be set up? Why are we going to have to run around and do stuff?"
My brother laughed, wrapping his free arm around my shoulders after placing the basket of what art mediums I had left under his arm.
"Yeah," Wade nodded. "But tell that to Mom who is a neat freak, remember?"
"Oh, yeah..." I looked upward, shaking my head.
The drive home didn't take long and as we pulled into the lot by our home section, I barely opened the door and my nose lifted into the air, taking a deep inhale of the smell wafting from our home.
"Mmm..." I smiled, shutting my eyes.
Wade grinned when I looked at him. He was getting out of the car and seemed just as happy as I was when he voiced that Dad must be cooking tonight. I grinned, teasing that Dad cooked every night.
My poor mother couldn't cook to save her life. It was something that did bother her because of being a perfectionist all her life. Luckily, she didn't instill those "perfections" onto her children but it was still something Mom struggled with on her own. Not that she'd show us because Dad was always there to remind her that Mom was perfect just the way she was.
"I call dibs on a meatball!" Wade slammed the door shut and I whined, shutting mine, that was no fair!
"You know Dad only makes three meatballs with his spaghetti, Wade! Dad always gives one to Mom and the rest of us have to fight to the death for the remaining two."
Wade lowered a brow, grinning as he looked over his shoulder at me. He was carrying my basket for me.
"That's a little dramatic, Gigi," Wade chuckled.
I narrowed my eyes at the back of his head. "We'll see about that when we all sit down for dinner!"
My brother didn't respond. He was picking up his pace to hurry into the house. I know what I said got to him because I was right. So I had to hurry after him, shouting at Cece who was sitting down at the table beside Sawyer, "He's going for the meatball!"
Sawyer, my poor soon-to-be brother-in-law, froze in his place at the table. His eyes widened, looking up at Cece whose eyes narrowed, gritting her teeth as she glared at the kitchen doorway. My sister growled, barking in the kitchen's direction that Wade better not sneak a meatball! That there was a process and Wade knew that!
The blond man sitting at the table looked lost. His brows furrowed, squinting at Cece and then at me. I raised a brow at him when Sawyer mumbled, "Did I miss something?"
"It's tradition, Sawyer." I set my jacket on the hook by the door. When I sat across from Sawyer, I explained the tradition of where my siblings and I fought over who got the remaining two meatballs Dad made on Spaghetti Night.
Sawyer's frown deepened, craning his neck forward. "A tradition?"
"Yes," I nodded. I looked at Cece who sat down, glaring still at the kitchen door like she was ready to attack whoever came out next.
My sister huffed, "Yes, a tradition. Dad cooks three large meatballs---the best tasting ones ever---and always---always---saves one for Mom."
Cece lifted a brow, glancing at her mate then back to the kitchen door. "My brothers, Gigi, and I fight over the last two."
Her mate seemed put off by this "tradition" of ours and Sawyer squinted, asking why Dad didn't just make more meatballs.
"Where's the fun in that?" Cece frowned at him, snapping her attention back to the kitchen door when Mom and Dad came out carrying the dinner dishes. Wade was right behind them, holding the plates and utensils. He gave Cece and I a cheeky look.
Cece growled at Wade while Sawyer eyed her, grinning a bit as he mumbled to my sister that he found this side to her oddly attractive. My sister grunted, nodding while her sight was zoned in on Wade sitting across from her now. My brother sneered when Cece bared her teeth at him.
"Where's Cody?" Mom wondered, breaking my attention on my riled up siblings.
"I don't know. I can go check the room?"
"Would you, please, Gigi? I haven't heard a peep out of him since this morning."
I nodded, getting up and heading up the stairs. At the top of the floor, I tilted my head trying to get a head start in whether I could hear my brother in his room. Sometimes Cody took long naps and wouldn't be seen for hours. Dad says it's because he's still growing. Explains a lot.
But as I got to the middle of the hall, I halted. I squinted at my brother's door when I heard weird noises coming from the inside of the room. I became alarmed, baring my teeth and narrowed my eyes as I approached.
Pressing an ear to the door, I could hear Cody whispering and then someone mumbled back. I lowered a brow, looking upward before raising a hand to knock on the door.
I could hear my brother's heart rate spike before he was telling whoever he was talking to to get out of his room. I frowned at the door, straightening and raised a brow with my arms crossed when my little brother finally opened the door... two minutes later.
Cody looked at me wide-eyed and weakly grinned, "H---Hey, Gigi. What's going on? Back already?"
"Yeah..." I narrowed my eyes, eyeing his attire from what I could see. He was barefooted and had his pajama bottoms on already.
When I looked at my little brother, I mentioned that dinner was ready. Cody nodded that he'd be right down and stated shutting the door. I quickly placed a hand against the door, keeping it from shutting.
"Cody...?"
"Yeah?" My brother glanced at me then lowered his gaze.
Narrowing my eyes, I eyed him and asked what was going on with him. I pointed out how very isolated he'd been. That Cody was usually running around the house causing havoc with everyone but lately he'd been so quiet and very much to himself.
I softened up a bit, lowering my voice as I asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"
Cody stared at me, swallowing hard and looked to be struggling with whether he wanted to or not. So I tried a different approach.
"Cody...?" He looked up at me.
I could see the worry in his eyes and the way he fidgeted a bit, keeping the door closed against him. Tilting my head and crossing my arms, I asked my brother why he would ask Mark to climb out the window unless there was something going on. The way Cody's eyes widened before a deep blush painted across his cheeks gave him away.
Reaching over, I placed my hand on his head and looked him in the eye. Cody's face still blushing.
"If there's anyone who understands having to hide away a part of themselves, it's me, Little Brother."
It was all that was needed for Cody's eyes to well up and his chin to tremble. He opened the door to make room for me to get closer and hug him. Cody buried his face into my shoulder and I leaned my head against his. Cody's shoulders shook and I just stood there with him, brushing the back of his hair.
After a moment, I told Cody to wait in his room and I would be back with our dinner. He looked worried and I assured him that I would make it work so no one knows anything. And I was able to head back downstairs, my family in full conversation---well, aside from Cece and Wade who were almost arm wrestling over the meatballs.
I told my parents that Cody and I were going to eat upstairs, letting them know that there was a movie Cody wanted to watch and I promised to see it with him. My parents nodded, handing me a plate of food for myself and then another for my little brother. Mom had taken one of the meatballs on her plate before grabbing another and placing it on my plate. Neither of my elder siblings realized this. So Dad scooped up the last meatball and placed it on Cody's plate. My parents winked at me and I smiled, turning away to head back upstairs.
Cody was startled when I opened the door but relaxed when it was just me. I shut the door behind me and sat with him on the floor. Cody had put a shirt on and washed his face. His nose still a little pink.
We ate, enjoying the meatballs and pasta---almost done entirely when Cody was the first to speak.
He was twisting his fork around the pasta and asked, "What gave me away?"
I wiped my mouth with a napkin and put my fork down on the plate. Raising a brow, I mentioned there was the time I snuck out of the house and saw Mark and Cody talking on the porch---Cody's eyes widened---and then there was the times of Cody being a little eager to go swimming with his friends.
"And then just now, I could hear you talking to someone and ushering them out the window."
Cody groaned, shaking his head. He obviously wasn't as stealthy as he thought he was.
I asked my brother why he thought he couldn't talk to us about how confused he was feeling, if it was confusion at all. There was no reason for Cody to feel like he couldn't talk to us. Our family was very open-minded and he knew that. Cody said he did but that even with knowing that it was still kind of hard to talk about it when he wasn't even sure if he actually felt that way.
"Well..." I picked up a noodle and tipped my head back to hang it over my mouth. As I chewed, I looked at my brother and asked him, "Have you ever liked a girl? Like, actually liked a girl where you could say you, yourself, liked her and not just because your friends said they liked a girl too."
My brother stared at me, his brows furrowed as his gaze lowered to look at our pretty much empty plates. He swallowed, glancing up at me and slowly shook his head.
"Mm," I nodded. I shrugged that was OK and no one was going to fault him for trying to fit in. I questioned if his friends knew about Cody's confusion, other than Mark.
Cody shook his head, muttering that Mark was the one who picked up on it because of the few times that they'd all gone swimming and Mark noticed Cody was eyeing one of their friends a little longer than he should have.
"Mark stopped by that night you saw us..." Cody shrugged. "Said that he didn't see me any different but wanted to make sure that I was OK."
When he got quiet, looking everywhere else but at me, I raised a brow, tilting my head and narrowed my eyes. "Cody...?" My brother winced, still not looking at me. So I pressed a little bit more. "Cody... Are you and Mark... doing stuff together?"
Very blunt, Gigi. Very nice.
Cody's face went red and he frowned, quickly saying that they weren't and I stared at him. Narrowing my eyes I watched my brother squirm. I reminded Cody that no matter what, I was going to love my little brother. That it was OK for Cody to feel a certain way for the same sex or even the opposite. Even both if that was how he felt. But I wanted my brother to know that it was OK to explore his sexuality as long as he was being safe. That our parents would always instill that in all of us.
Cody's shoulders sagged and his brows dipped, nodding that he knew that. That he remembered.
When we got quiet again, I told Cody he didn't have to share any intimate details with me but that I would like to know whether my brother has gone past a certain point with Mark. I added that I didn't even know Mark liked boys.
"He doesn't," Cody sighed, running his fingers through his hair. He shook his head. "He doesn't like guys."
"Oh..." I lowered a brow, tilting my head. "So then... that wasn't Mark in here?"
Cody winced. Bingo.
"Cody," I sighed. "I am not going to scold you for having a guy in your room because that would be pretty hypocritical of me---" My brother frowned at me, alarmed by my meaning. I ignored him. "---but I do need you to know that whether you want to tell Mom and Dad now or later on, you will need to talk to them. They would want to know this about you and encourage you however they can."
My brother shut his eyes, scratching his head as he groaned that he knew our parents wouldn't judge him but it was still a little difficult to say anything. Cody mentioned he was still kind of... lost about the whole thing. I told him that was perfectly OK. My brother offered a small smile.
"Gigi...?"
"Yes?" I reached over to take his plate to place over my empty one. I started getting up until Cody placed his hand on mine. I looked at him.
Cody's gaze softened. "Thank you."
I smiled. "Anytime, Little Brother. But how about you stop sneaking boys through the window, hm? It's bad enough I sneak out of mine."
Cody raised a brow and I stood up, shaking my head and sighed, "Don't ask." He just laughed and I grinned at him before bidding him goodnight and shutting the door behind me.
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Saturday morning was a lot louder than normal. I say this because Mom was in an excited mood, more than Cece probably and Mom was blasting her metal music. It was only six-thirty when I rolled over to look at the time.
I groaned, burying my face into the belly of my pillow and I was drifting off back to sleep. That is until my door swung open and the muffled music came blaring in. It startled me, making me go wide-eyed at the door where Cece was walking in. She looked annoyed, still sleepy with her red hair all over the place.
My sister slammed the door shut, stomping her way over and growled low while she silently swatted at me to move over. I did and she climbed into my bed. Cece snuggled into the blanket, pulling me closer and I smiled, snuggling with my sister. We drifted off to sleep.
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At nine-fifteen, Mom had sent Cody to wake Cece and I. Unfortunately, Mom wasn't prepared for Cody to turn against her. He ended up snuggling into the other side of me, squished against the wall but my brother didn't seem to mind. We fell asleep again.
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Wade, that butthead, took any opportunity to side with our parents because it let him get away with things against us younger siblings. Exhibit A: He stormed into my room and used a bucket of water to toss onto all three of us. And not just, like, regular temp water. This water was filled with ice.
Cody squealed, jumping out of the bed and dancing around to get the ice cubes off him and out of his t-shirt.
Cece and I whined at Wade to get out of my room and our older brother smirked that our parents were ordering for us all to get up. That it was a big day and with us sleeping in, we were already behind schedule.
I narrowed my eyes at my brother who was smug about the wake up call he gave us. On his way out of the room, I reached for a book that was closest to me and wielded it across the way. Wade yelped, shutting the door just as the book whacked against it.
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We did get up after Wade's wake up call and it was best anyway since Sawyer came by to take Cece for a brunch in town. Cece couldn't get ready fast enough.
My brothers and I enjoyed some waffles (my favorite) that Dad made and had even set out small glass bowls of toppings for us to put. Wade and Cody were fighting over who could build the tallest tower much to Mom's disapproval. Dad and I used the toppings to make funny faces. His always came out better than mine.
When Cece got back from brunch with Sawyer who kissed her goodbye as he had to meet with his alpha, my sister gasped at how time flew by and she needed to get all her stuff ready for tonight. Mom jumped on that panic wagon and looked right at me to demand that I show her what I was going to wear for tonight.
I frowned, asking why that was so vital when it was Cece's night?
"Because, Gigi," Mom gave me a pointed look. "You tend to forget that as much as your simple attire is wonderful, I feel as this night should be more dressed up than usual."
I rolled my eyes and then yelped when Dad gave me a light pinch behind my arm. He warned me to mind my mom and I sighed.
"I have a dress," I mumbled, eyeing Dad as he was attempting to fix a watch of his that he loved so much.
With it being five-thirty or something, I hung around the house all day helping to keep everything clean. Don't know why when no on was coming over! Mdy brothers were out and about. They wanted to get away from Mom who was a mess today trying to perfect everything. My brothers were smart to get away when they did.
Mom's face frowned, narrowing her eyes and reminding me that if I was wearing tights under this dress that it was out of the question. I laughed, standing up and assuring her that it wasn't that kind of dress. It was very formal, I told her.
"Well let me see!" Mom clapped, perking up. Cece joined her in the living room, waiting for me to present my dress.
Dad, on the other hand, was sitting at the kitchen table and mumbled loud enough for us to hear, "As long as it is covering all the right places!"
Ugh. Dads.
Running upstairs, I rummaged through my closest until finding the dress that I hung up in the back to not let it get wrinkled. I took it off the hanger rail and went back down stairs with the dress cradled in my arms.
When I got to the living room, Mom and Cece looked at me just as I held out the dress. They both gasped, getting up and rushing over to admire what I planned to wear. They said how beautiful it was and Mom was admiring the stitching and the lace. Cece inquired where I got such a dress and I told her and Mom the story of my boss lady giving it to me as a gift for the dance we were going to tonight.
Mom began mumbling under her breath, her eyes calculating the length of the dress she'd have to take care of before the dance. I grinned, letting her talk away while Cece gave me a grin and touched my hair. She mentioned out loud that I was requiring a special hairdo for the dress. I agreed.
Mom did too because she ushered both Cece and I off to get ourselves ready.
"Now you two go and get freshened up!" Mom ordered, taking the dress from me. "And Gigi, I'll have this ready for you by the time you get out of the shower and are only needing to place this on. It'll be hemmed just right since I know your measurements."
Mom was already walking out of the room.
Cece and I headed upstairs and my sister said that we would need to get my other stuff ready, like my shoes and jewelry. But my sister insisted that she needed my hair somewhat dry before helping me with it. She insisted that I was to take the shower first because I take too long.
I scoffed, shoving her lightly then went into my room to grab my towel and robe. Cece shooed me, telling me to hurry up and I laughed, shutting the bathroom door behind me.
It didn't take me long to shower as much as my sister liked to believe it did. I might have taken an extra five minutes because I had to shave, but that was it!
Opening the door to the bathroom, Cece rolled her eyes playfully and muttered, "Finally! I was growing old here!"
"Ha, ha... very funny."
My sister said she thought she was then went off to shower while I walked down the hall to my parents' room where their door was open. I could see Mom on the bed, still working on the dress and she glanced up at me. She was already ready (how do Mom's do that?). Her hair in an updo and her make up done with her favorite plum eye shadow to match the plum cocktail dress she had on. Her heels were on the side of the bed.
Mom smiled before looking down at the dress again when my dad walked in tying up his tie.
"Hey, Button! Aren't you going to get dressed?"
I nodded, pointing in Mom's direction that she had my outfit and Dad whistled as he admired the dress. "That's a beautiful dress, Gigi."
I thanked him, letting him hug me to him before he placed a kiss on top of my head.
"Are your brothers ready?" He asked.
Mom didn't look up when she answered that my brothers had been ready since an hour ago and were currently playing video games in the living room. She looked up at me, laughing that Wade and Cody argued that it was impossible to live with a bunch of girls since they took too long to get ready. Mom asked if I'd go and make sure the boys hadn't taken off their ties or messed up their hair while she finished with the hemming.
I made my way down stairs, walking into the living and smiled.
Wade was seated on the edge of the couch, a controller in his hands, with his tongue sticking out to the side as his brows furrowed in concentration. He kept staring at the screen that Cody was shouting out when he jumped up and bent forward. Both of my brother's ties were undone, dangling around their necks and their jackets sprawled on the back of the couch.
My older brother had the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows.
"Mom sent me down here to make sure you two hadn't done this to yourselves," I laughed, gesturing with a hand at them.
Wade glanced at me, looking back at the screen with the controller buttons being pushed on aggressively. "Yeah? Well maybe if you and Cece wouldn't take forever and a day to get the hell ready, we wouldn't have to---GOD DAMNIT!---wouldn't have to strip down. Those shit jackets are sweaty as fuck!"
Cody gave a manic laugh when Wade cursed again, calling him a little shit cheater. My younger brother threw down the controller on his vacated seat and grinned, "You're just mad because I whooped your ass again!"
Mom walked in at that moment, catching my younger brother's vulgar insult. She frowned, "Cody! I don't care for your choice of words!"
My younger brother's eyes widened, tugging the corners of his mouth downward from getting caught cursing. He then picked up his controller and suggested another game to Wade who growled out, "You're on, pin head!"
Mom rolled her eyes, turning to me and handed me my dress that it was finished and for me to hurry and change. She called after me as I ran up the stairs that Cece was ready to do my hair and make up too. I shouted my thanks and ran to my room, barely missing knocking over my dad who chuckled for me to be careful.
After getting into the dress, I admired myself in the full body mirror that Cece brought into my room from hers. The smile on my face couldn't be described as anything but genuine since a long time. I twirled around as Cece looked on from behind me in my reflection. She motioned me to sit down so she could do my hair and I played with the white ribbon she found in one of her drawers while she began brushing out my hair.
"I think we should do a half up, half down look," Cece suggested, "What do you think?"
I smiled, looking up at her that whatever she thought would look perfect with this dress. While Cece was working away, taking lots of bobby pins to place into my hair, my sister talked to me about what she and Sawyer were talking about today at brunch.
My sister's face softened, her eyes dimmed a bit as she softly told me, "He wants me to move with him to the neighboring pack, Gigi."
My smiled wilted at her words. I stared at our reflections and when Cece stopped, looking back at me, I turned in my chair to stare at her. She looked sad but still wore a small smile.
I wanted to tell her how heartbroken I'd be for her to leave when we just got used to getting along with one another, but that'd be very selfish to make her feel bad. So instead, I raised a brow and asked if there were limitations on when I could visit.
Cece broke out into a grin and laughed, "Oh, thank you, Gigi! You have no idea how much it means to me that you are so supportive! I know we just started rekindling our sisterly relationship, but... but Sawyer and I..."
"Are mates," I finished, shrugging a shoulder that it was expected for them to live happily ever after.
When I said this, Cece frowned and I knew what she was going to say. I shook my head that she didn't have to worry about me. That I was going to be just fine on my own. At least for a bit until this other pack goes back home and then the alpha would be able to straighten things out with my and Ridge's situation.
My sister caressed the back of her fingers on my cheek and nodded, "I'm very proud of how well you are handling all of this, Gigi. It takes someone special like yourself to so strong at such a young age."
I smiled, glancing at the door when Dad shouted if we were ready yet. Cece called back that she was finishing my hair and that we'd be down soon. I faced forward, playing with the ribbon again while my sister's fingers were messing with my curls.
"Aaaaaand done!" Cece cried, presenting me in the mirror.
I rose and stood in front of the mirror to admire the prettied-up version of me. The two mini braids that started at the front center of my hair had a little white flowers braided into them. Those two braids were pulled towards the back of my head and pinned with the bobby pins. The rest of my hair hung over my shoulder with more small white flowers pinned into various parts of it.
Spinning around, I hugged my sister, whispering how beautiful I felt and thanked her. Cece took my hand and we went down the stairs to where my impatient brothers cried, "Finally!" and were the first out the door.
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Xoxo Always,
SAMiAMiz