19
Aunt Lori And The Three Minions
My aunt Lori is my dad’s twin sister. Balayaged brown hair with green eyes and smaller. And she’s what you can call the cool aunt. She’s widowed, almost like dad, so they really only have each other left. But instead of two girls, she was blessed with twin boys and a little girl, and somehow, in spite of that, she hasa lotof energy. Too much sometimes, if I’m being honest. Probably to hide how she feels and to overcompensate for her children so that they don’t remember they don’t have a father, and she doesn’t have the love of her life… Butanyways, you might be wondering… Why is Emily more present in my life than my dad’s twin? For a simple reason. The Wests live a block away from us, where the rich neighborhood meets the poorer one, a road separating them, and since Uncle Josh loved Seattle so much, Aunt Lori has never gotten the courage to leave, even ifit means she has to do everything alone, since my grandparents live in Austin.
Why the random backstory drop? She’s standing in the kitchen talking to my dad.
“Aunt Lori!” I almost squeak and go to her for a hug.
“Maddie! Where have you been?”
“Where haveIbeen? Girl, where haveyoubeen?” I pat her arm, and she turns dead serious. “I’m so sorry, I mean Aunt Lori, ma’am-”
“How was dinner?” Alana walks in, Lindsey behind her, and I feel like a deer in the headlights. “Oh, did mom and dad tell you their story again? I swear to god, old people just keep telling the same stories over and over-”
“I’m sorry, why were Joey and Emily telling you about their story at a dinner in which Alana was not in?” Aunt Lori runs her fingers through her caramel hair, the other hand resting on her hip.
“Because I am da- In a rela-I can’t even bring myself to say this.” I take the deepest breath in. “I’m sort of, kind of,pretty muchdating Jake West.” I wince, bracing myself for impact.
“Well, it was about damn time!” She claps excitedly, and I slowly open my eyes. Then she starts playing the actual songCelebration by Kool & The Gangon full blast on her phone while dancing around and shaking my dad.So weird…
“What?” I thought she was gonna tackle me, excited I got my first boyfriend or something, instead of being- Well,prancingaround.
“You owe me 20 bucks, Johnny.” She extends her hand out, and he passes her the dollar bills like it’s nothing.
“You’ve been betting on my love life?”
Now this is sad.
“Not your love life. Your imminent relationship with Jake.”
I’m kind of speechless, but honestly, I’ve heard that from so many people, I’m not going to pretend I’m surprised anymore.
“Whatever.” I cross my arms, knowing that at the end of the day, my dad is going to recover his 20 bucks because guess what? It’s all fake suckers… So yeah,take that.
“They’re also singing at the annual fair. What was the song again, honey?” Dad questions me with the biggest smile, and before I can even attempt to respond, Alana beats me to it.
“Oh, I know, Jake has been singing it in the shower for over a week now, and it’s becoming unbearable. It’s Don’t Go Breaking My Heart or something like that.”
He’s been practicing?
Without even noticing, my teeth hold on to my lower lip, and my cheeks rise.
“Maddie!” My youngest cousin, Paige, runs to me and almost tumbles me over with impact. “Wanna watch a movie?”
“Of course!” Because this means I can get away from the Inquisition. “What are we in the mood for today?”
“Princess!”
“Urgh, I bet it’s gonna be Rapunzel.” Brandon appears, groaning as if that movie personally attacked him.
“At this point, throw me into the nearest river.” Blake counters, and Aunt Lori teleports to his side in no time.
“Blake Holt, don’t say that!” And she slaps the back of his head.
“Sorry…”
They disappear as quickly as they came in, and Paige shrugs and then drags me to the living room.
