Stay With You (Anthony Rizzo)

5

Maliyah

"Alright, where is he" my mom asks as she bursts into my room. It had been about three weeks since she's been here and a little bit less time since Anthony had come into my life. But my family decided to come say hi and harass me for not introducing my boyfriend to them earlier.

"He's a busy man, you know. Playing baseball, running a cancer foundation, saving the world" I tease.

"Ugh... whatever. But I want to meet him soon. Like today" she demands.

"I don't want him to spend all his rare free time in the hospital. That's not fair to him" insist.

"Hey Mal, Anthony is here to see you" Tamara says sticking her head in the door and my eyes go big. My mom smirks at me as she slowly nods her head.

"He's here" I ask.

"He's here" my mom cheers as I roll my eyes.

"He's here, do you want me to send him in" Tamara asks.

"Sure. And if you see the rest of my family out there can you tell them to stop corrupting the kids into thinking Godzilla was based off real life and ask them to get their butts in here" I ask as she just shakes her head.

"Will do" she smiles. She disappears into the hallway and my mom heads to the door and stands there like a dog waiting for it's owner to come home.

"Please don't embarrass me" I beg.

"I won't" she defends.

"You will" I sigh.

"Oh he's coming! How do I look" she asks and I roll my eyes.

"Embarrassing" I mumble.

"Perfect" she smiles.

I wait a few seconds before the door opens. Anthony lets himself in and closes the door behind him. His eyes meet mine and he smiles big.

"Hey you" he starts.

"Hey you. I didn't know you were coming by already" I admit.

"Well I knew you wanted to introduce me to your family so I figured I would come in and hang out with you guys until the game" he says.

"Sounds good to me" I admit. "And I guess I can introduce you to my mom since she's already here begging to meet you" I laugh.

"Guilty" she smiles.

"Mom this is my boyfriend Anthony. Anthony, this is mother Tanya" I say.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you" my mom says as she pulls him into a hug. She gives me a thumbs up behind his back and I just shake my head. How is it that in a family of 9 we're the only two girls and she still gives me crap?

"The pleasure is all mine" Anthony claims.

A second later I hear a bunch of ruckus in the hallways and knew that those were my people. Suddenly a bunch of guys pile into my room and I immediately get a headache.

There's something everyone needs to know about my family. We are insane. My dad, Randal, he's a big name around here. He coached football at the University of Northwestern for a long long time. That's half the reason that out of my 20 offers to play college volleyball I went there instead o someplace like Nebraska or Stanford. That and it was close to home. But before coaching college football he met my mom when he played at Northwestern. My mom was a cheerleader and they had one of those cute college relationships. They ended up getting married and my mom got a job as a doctor. They started a life together over in Evansville and made my wonderful family.

The oldest kid was Randal Junior or RJ. I guess my parents weren't planning to have 6 boys or maybe they wanted the whole "junior" thing to be over with. Regardless, he is the oldest and he knows it. He always helped our parents keep everything in line and he was the most responsible. He has a wife and two kids and fortunately no Randall the third. The second oldest is Johnathan. He's the trouble kid for sure. I thought for sure my dad was going to kill him a few times growing up, but he's still alive. He doesn't have a family because he doesn't like staying in places too long, but he always finds his way back home. Next up is Timothy. He was the wonder kid. Dad got him straight with his athletics, and he did it all. But naturally he stayed with football, he played at Northwestern then got drafted by the Saints. Even won the super bowl with them. He was very very good at what he does and he made me so proud. He had a wife but no kids yet, I was keeping my fingers crossed though. Then it was Kevin who was the comedian. He's the only one of us kids who didn't do a sport, he was the class clown. But he held this family together, through every fight he kept things light hearted and was forever the peacemaker. Next is my favorite, Adam. He's the soft one even though he played hockey. But he wouldn't intentionally hurt a soul, unless they were on skates. But he's been my rock through this all, I can't imagine going through this without him. He's been my best friend. And last and certainly not least was Peter. He was 10 months older than me but we ended up in the same grade. All us kids went to Northwestern so he was the one bailing my ass out of trouble every so often.

So that was my family. A lot of times dysfunctional but always loving. The first time I've ever seen them all come together and agree on something was for them to do anything to help me out of this place with a clean bill of health.

After I introduce Anthony to everyone they start talking his ear off. They all have a hundred questions and being the nice guy that he is he answered them. I assure him he can tell them to cut it out and they'll back off but he insisted he was okay. At one point Adam sneaks away and sits on the bed next to me.

"So he seems pretty great" he admits.

"He's amazing. It hasn't been all that long, but it isn't about the amount of time we have, but what that time means to us" I insist.

"He's really into you" he claims. 

"I know. It's weird" I admit.

"What in the hell are you talking about? Everyone adores you" he accuses.

"Used to. But besides you guys and a few old friends it's not like I'm swimming in bitches" I claim and he laughs.

"Never say that again" he insists.

"Alright. I'll admit that was a bit of a stretch" I smile.

"Well I like him. And the fact that he's nothing like Ryan-" he starts.

"You can't be mad at him" I insist.

"I can and I am. He should have been there for you. When you got sick he should have been the first person here holding you. You guys dated for two years, he was supposed to take care of you and help you. Not walk away because he was scared" he argues.

"He didn't want to see me like this, it was hard for him" I defend.

"And it's not hard for you, for Anthony, for your family" he asks.

"Of course it is" I say.

"But we're still here. Because anyone can love when it's easy, few can love when it's hard. He doesn't deserve to know you. He doesn't deserve how kind you've been to him. I hope he feels like shit for what he did to you" he claims.

"Awww. I love it when you're all defensive" I smile as I pinch his cheek. He smacks my head away as we laugh about it.

"You're lucky I love you" he claims.

"I am pretty lucky" I admit.

After about three hours of my family hounding Anthony I get them out. Anthony got them tickets for the Cubs game tonight so they all went out to go get a change of clothes and some food before the game.

"You didn't have to do that" I insist as he joins me on my bed.

"I wanted to. I know you said your family was a big sports family, and trust me, theres always open seats" he chuckles.

"Still. That was really sweet" I insist.

"You're really sweet" he says and I smile. He softly presses his lips to mine and for a second I feel like maybe this can all work out.