A Missed Opportunity

62

✧𝙽𝚘𝚊𝚑✧

I've never been that classic family guy. I mean, I love my family, but I usually would prefer not going to those Sunday dinners or whatever trip they're taking. I only go if I know my sister will be expecting me there, but even then, sometimes I just let her fly solo since she doesn't actually need me there anyway.

Over the years, I've settled for those family dinners my mom hosts instead of the trips to the lake and shit. I mean, it's just been me, so I haven't really been inclined to go to those on my own. Especially since everyone else has their spouses and kids around them the whole time. I always feel a bit out of place even though it's supposed to be a family thing.

But now I'm not alone. And for some reason, since I'm not alone I don't get asked personally anymore. I thought it was a good thing when I didn't get a text a week before the weekend I knew some family was going to the lake from my mom, but as it turns out, I wasn't safe.

She went over my head to my girlfriend. Who, mind you, she hated five fucking seconds ago. Apparently, she doesn't dislike Kiara as much as I figured. At some point, she got Kiara's number and has used it to get a positive answer.

Basically, she knew I'd say no immediately, so she decided to go to the person who she knew couldn't say no. Kiara's really trying to get along with my family, and it's obvious. My parents, luckily, have relaxed a lot more for me to be comfortable bringing them to those dinners when I have to, so my mom must've noticed she was making that effort too.

"She knew you wouldn't say no to her, Kiara."

Kiara doesn't even look at me, ignoring me as she folds one of Cameron's green shirts and tucks it into a little bag. She's already packing us up. "Go pack your bag, Noah. I'm not packing it for you." She dismisses.

I huff weakly. "Kiara," I plead, following her across the room when she wanders away from Cameron's bed towards his dresser where she grabs more clothes of his to refold and pack. We're at my house today, and she's taking the opportunity to pack us up a few days early since most of their clothes are here already. "We really don't have to go. They like you enough already." I reason desperately. Lately we've been at mine instead of hers, and I don't think we're switching back anytime soon.

She scoffs at that, looking over at me to smile. "Weren't you just complaining about how your family is only civil with me and not polite ten seconds ago?"

"What about Gus?" I question, following her back over to the bed. "Who's gonna watch him?"

"He's coming with us."

I stare, heartbroken my excuse went down so quickly. "But..."

"He needs to be outside more." Kiara hums, shrugging me off. "Your mom said the cabin is big enough for us to bring him anyway. And Aaliyah's bringing her dog too."

I sigh deeply. "I don't wanna go." I admit on a mumble, my last ditch effort.

She pauses at that and looks at me. "It's a pretty cabin. Aaliyah sent me pictures of the trip last year." She reasons. My shoulders sink when I realize she's not letting up. She reaches out to rest a hand on my arm. "It'll be good for us to be out, Noah. And your family...they're not bad. Angela's been nicer than civil lately, and Jenny's coming too. So are your grandparents. Cameron's excited to see them and his cousins."

I weigh her reasons out. After a moment, I realize where she's coming from. Cameron really likes hanging out with Katie and Elaina. Besides, my grandparents are getting older and forgetful. I should really stop skipping the ones I know they're at just because I don't feel like seeing the others.

Her smile softens. "It'll be fun." She insists. "And Cameron needs more practice swimming. He hasn't had a lot."

I blink. "Hang on, Cameron doesn't know how to swim?"

She scrunches her nose. "He knows the basics, but he can't keep himself above water for long." She clarifies. "He could use more practice."

"He's eight."

Her eyes narrow. "We're going." She decides finally and looks away to refold a shirt she just finished a minute ago. I huff at that and glance over at the open drawer on the dresser. "Tomorrow morning." She adds on a grumble.

I blink again. "Tomorrow?"

"Jenny called. We're going tomorrow to grab all the good rooms."

I frown now. "You mean the big room before the eighty-something-year-olds can get to it?"

"No." She frowns too. "That's what she means, but that's not what I mean." She shrugs me off and tucks that shirt in her hands into the bag. "Now, go pack." She waves me away as she steps away again towards the dresser.

I groan loudly and dramatically on my way to the door. Just so she knows how much I don't want to. I mean, I'm going to do it anyway because she told me to, but I want her to know how sad I am to have to do it.

"Go." She hums simply in response to my groaning. Again, I do as she says, but I'm sure to make it clear I'm not happy about it. I hear her laughing at me quietly in the other room which only adds salt to the wound.

Going to the lake with family won't be so bad, in reality. Family time has become a lot more bearable lately, especially with my own little family with me the entire time.

Like I said, I don't hate my parents. They annoy the hell out of me ninety percent of the time, but that seems relatively normal to me. At least by everyone else's standards. Alex hardly talks to his parents too. Aaliyah talks to ours because she feels bad that I don't do it very much, but they annoy her too. Kiara's easily annoyed by her mom too. Though, she has been less annoyed lately because Margret has been pretty nice with me since she talked to her about being mean. I mean—she's still mean to me, but in the way that she had been before. Playfully mean.

Back to my point—even my own parents are annoyed by their parents. Now, obviously since I introduced Cameron and Kiara to them, they became especially annoying. That's dwindling down as more time passes though.

And that's a good thing, right? That means my excuse for not wanting to be around them kinda goes away now. I'm actually kind of happy about it. I mean, my son still doesn't call them Grandma and Grandpa like they want him to, but they're nice to him and his mom anyway. That's what I wanted. And now I get to be the normal kind of annoyed with them.

"Pack, Noah!" Kiara calls knowingly.

I sigh deeply and loudly. She laughs to herself and I finally walk over to the closet to grab a duffle bag to stuff some clothes into.

It's really going to piss her off if she gets a peek into my bag when we get there. She hates that I don't always fold it all—even if it was already folded—before I put it in my bag. Not sure why, but it never fails to make her give this sour expression at my bag. By the end of the day, all of my clothes in there are magically folded and organized.

I doubt she does it for me, of course. More so for her own peace of mind. I've told her before that she didn't need to clean my mess. Especially if it's in my own separate bag. She always dismisses me though and tells me she wanted to do me a favor. Really though, it's for her. I could zip the bag up and hide it from her, but the fact that she knows it's unorganized in there is enough for her to snap.

It's mean, I know. But to be fair, the other day she took my whole Capri-Sun pack out of the fridge after putting dinner away to make room, then proceeded to leave them out so I couldn't have a cold one when I wanted it. I had to have a warm one.

I'm ninety-five perfect sure she did that out of spite because I forgot it was my turn to make dinner when I got home. Which meant she had to wait an agonizing twenty minutes for food.

Crime of the century that I'm still paying the price for.