Boys Don't Cry

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-Two

The huge dining table is set, dinner is cooking away and the cheesecake is in the fridge. I'm quite nervous, what if they don't like me? What if they think I'm just some care kid that's crawling in to their family? Foster families have thought that before. Won't be long before they send me back too. Luckily I brought a long sleeved grey checked shirt, it's casual, and I've worn it to a couple of Jacobs parties. I put it on, along with my beige chinos and I slip on my clean grey trainers. I walk in to the kitchen and see my dad standing at the kitchen worktop stirring a pot of gravy. He looks at me and smiles.

"Nervous?" He says with a chuckle.

"No, why would I be? Do I show it? Is it obvious?" I stammer. He turns serious.

"Try not to be nervous, it will be fine. Trust me. Our families are just like us. They won't ask any personal questions." I look at him and nod. Amelia steps in to the kitchen, and we both turn to look at her. She's wearing a short white dress with a thin black belt wrapped round it, with black high heels. She looked pretty good.

"You look beautiful, Amy." My dad stutters out, mesmerised by her. He walks up to her and takes her face in his hands, kissing her lips softly. My Dad disappears from the kitchen and Amelia walks over to the fridge, taking out three bottles of wine and placing them on the work top. I immediately go to a high cupboard and take out ten wine glasses. A lot of people were coming tonight. Maybe that's why I'm nervous. I turn to Amelia.

"Sure is a lot of people coming tonight." I say, placing the glasses on the worktop beside the unopened bottles. "What if they don't like me?"

Amelia turns to me, almost horrified.

"Don't you ever say something like that. Of course they will like you. They'll love you, just like we do." She smiles and puts her arm around my shoulder. My dad appears in the doorway of the kitchen. I'm unsure whether he heard the conversation or not.

"How can they not like you. You're family." He says, confirming that he had heard. Before anyone else could say anything there was a ringing noise. The door bell. My dad walked off to get it and I hear him greet people.

"I think I'm going to be sick." I say out loud, not really aiming it at anyone. Amelia puts her arm back round my shoulder and looks at me.

"You'll be fine." She says smiling at me. "I promise."

The chattering gets louder and I begin to hear footsteps. Two men, one around fifty or sixty and another around the same age as my Dad, appear at the door, behind them two women appear - again, one aged fifty or sixty and one maybe slightly younger than my dad. Amelia grips my shoulder tighter.

"Hey guys, this is Michael." She says, smiling. "Michael, these are your grandparents, your Uncle Peter and your Aunt Kate." The young woman, my Aunt, walks up to me.

"Hi, Michael. Can I just say it is amazing to meet you." She looks at me with friendly, brown eyes. I smile back.

"It's great to meet you too." I can see I'm taller than her, only by a couple of inches, but I still have some growing to do.

"You're the double of your father." Comments the older woman, stepping forward slightly. "Very good looking young man." She says, eyeing me from head to toe.

"Um, thank you." I blush. My Father steps forward and places a hand on my shoulder.

"As you can probably tell, Michael is a bit nervous." He says. My grandfather steps forward and holds out his hand.

"We're all quite friendly." He jokes. I take his hand and shake it.

"I hope so." I joke back, letting out a smile. My Uncle Peter steps forward last. I shake his hand too and he smiles, but doesn't say anything. They all grab a glass of wine and start speaking, I have water - obviously. Amelia's family come soon. They're all just as friendly. Her sister, I guess I could call her my Aunt, is pretty, she has long blonde hair and green eyes, her name is Olivia. Her parents are really friendly, they're both quite slim and have brown, graying hair. They're all chatting about all the relationships they've had, when my Aunt Kate turns to me.

"So, You got a girlfriend, i bet they're flocking to you like a bee does with honey." She says, acting serious.

"Not quite. But yes, I have a girlfriend." I say, trying to brush off the compliment.

"You guys serious?" She asks casually.

"Kind of." I say back, smiling when I think of Hayley.

"Look at you blushing. What a lucky girl." She says with a smile. "Maybe we'll get to meet her one day." I smile and nod. At 19:30 we sit down to eat. The food, as always was delicious. Through all the chatting and the reminiscing, it seems like they all had a happy childhood, all the hilarious memories with my dad and his brother and sister made me wonder what it would be like to have a sibling close to my age. Bit late for that to happen now, but my dad and Amelia are still young. They might have more kids. The drinking and chatting let's the night go by fast and before any of us are aware it's nine-thirty and they're all in the living room, still reminiscing. Amelia gets up and goes through to the kitchen to get a refill, I take my glass of water and follow her. She's starts to open a bottle of wine and I walk up beside her.

"Not as bad as you thought, huh?" She says pouring her wine. "They're a friendly bunch."

"I guess." I say. "They still might not like me." Amelia puts the bottle down and immediately wraps me in a hug.

"Of course they like you. They're laughing at everything you say, and are involving you in to the conversation. Stop thinking like that." Before going back in to the living room, I walk in to one of the downstairs bathrooms. On my way out I walk in to my dad.

"Where you been, man? I've been looking for you."

"Bathroom." I reply, pointing to where I have obviously come from.

"It's late, Dude. Bedtime." He says motioning me upstairs. "Everyone's about to leave anyway." We're walking up stairs when he turns to me and asks, "You had fun? Was it as bad as you thought it would be?" I let out a small laugh.

"Yeah, it's been fun. It definitely wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." I say taking off my clothes and heading in to my bathroom. I brush my teeth and run my hand through my hair twice. Walking out and back in to my room, I pick up my clothes off of the floor and fold them up and put them back in my bag. I jump in to bed and Oscar climbs on beside me, my dad switches off the light. "Goodnight." I say first.

"Night." He says before closing the door.