Page 84 of Neat
It was the wildest, most whirlwind of a month I’d ever experienced in my life — that month I spent falling for Logan Becker. When he took my hand and led me outside to watch the fireworks, bringing the blanket with him, I curled up inside that warmth with him with the most relieving sigh finding my lungs. I’d never felt so right, so sure, so…at home.
He leaned against the storefront of the shop — the one that we’d built up together, the one now empty once again — and I rested my back against his chest, eyes cast toward the sky. We watched those bursts of light fire off in the sky, talking about the week we’d spent apart and what each of us had been through. Logan promised me his family would come around, that he would find a way for that to happen, that somehow, we’d make it work. And though it scared the absolute shit out of me, I believed him.
For hours, we sat there in the cold, talking and holding each other and watching the town of Stratford say goodbye to another year passed.
When the clock struck midnight, Logan pulled me to stand, wrapped me in his arms, and kissed me into the new year, into a new future, into that new universe we promised to make — one where it was me and him against the world.
Then, he dragged me inside, up the stairs, and we made some fireworks of our own.
Logan
“Oh, come on, Mom! It’s his graduation,” Noah pleaded, holding the shot glass filled to the brim with Scooter Whiskey. “Just one shot.”
“Absolutely not,” she said, pointing a finger at Noah in warning. “I said no, and I mean it. I’m not naïve enough to think you boys didn’t drink before you were twenty-one,” she said, waving that finger across all of us older boys. “But, I’ve managed to keep this one away from the stuff so far, and I intend to keep it that way.” She said the last part pointing at Mikey.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jordan defended. “I was an innocent, law-abiding child.”
Mom rolled her eyes, taking the shot glass from Noah and slamming it back herself. A wave of whistles and cheers rang out when she slammed the empty glass back down on the table, cringing and shaking her head against the burn.
“Atta girl, Laurelei!” Betty yelled, throwing her hand into the air for a high five.
Mom slapped it, smiling victoriously. “Now that that’s settled, who’s ready for cake?”
A unanimous show of hands went up, and she laughed, waving us off as the chatter kicked back in and she escaped to the kitchen to retrieve the massive graduation cake she’d ordered for Mikey.
My younger brother sat on the opposite side of the table from me, an easy grin on his face — and the closest thing I’d seen to his full smile since the fall. He’d changed since he and Bailey broke up. He’d grown quieter, more serious, and he preferred to be alone more now than he ever had before. Still, he seemed relaxed that day, and happy — and he was surrounded by everyone who loved him most to celebrate his accomplishment.
His best friend, Kylie, sat to his right, laughing at a story Betty was telling. Betty was a relatively new friend of the family, one Ruby Grace had brought with her when she and Noah started dating. Ruby Grace had worked down at the nursing home where Betty lived, and through that connection, she’d become one of Mom’s best friends — and like a grandmother to all of us.
Ruby Grace was there, too, sitting next to Noah, who had his arm around her and a soft smile on his face as he watched her listen to Betty’s story, too.
Jordan was on the other side of Mikey, currently holding his shoulder firmly as he bent low and whispered something meant for just the two of them. I was sure it was something similar to the advice he’d given me on my high school graduation day — advice that I still carried with me every day.
Fight for what’s right, stand up for those who can’t stand for themselves, give yourself permission to love and to lose and to be loved and lost in return, and above all else, family first — always.
And, perhaps my favorite addition to that family table at Mom’s was the woman sitting next to me.
Mallory sipped on her gin and tonic, smiling at Betty while her fingers drew circles on my knee under the table. Her hair was a neon mix of orange and pink, bright colors that set her blue eyes aflame against her pale skin, and she had a fresh tattoo healing behind her ear. It was a small lotus flower, a symbol she’d told me reminded her that, like the lotus flower born from the mud, we must embrace the darkest parts of ourselves to become our most beautiful selves.
I reached down and covered her hand with my own, giving it a squeeze. She smiled, tossing me a wink before she turned her attention back to Betty, chiming in with her own story next. And I was content to sit back and listen, to watch her fit in with my family just like I knew she always would. It seemed she’d grown on everyone — even Jordan, who was perhaps the most hesitant. Once she moved in with me, they had no choice but to accept her as part of me.
That’s what family did.
And it seemed like everyone was beginning to love her.
Well, everyone except for Mom.
She’d been quiet when I’d told my family that Mallory and I had made up, that we were in love, that she was moving in with me. She’d been quiet the first time I brought Mallory to dinner, too — but polite, of course. And though she hadn’t warmed up much over the past five months, she hadn’t disowned me, either.
I guessed that counted for something.
As for Mallory’s family, they’d kept their word of disowning her. She hadn’t spoken to any of them since that day she’d told her father off in his office, and though she tried to hide it, I knew it hurt her sometimes.
ButIwas her family, now.Wewere her family.
And unlike what she’d been used to before — we’d be a real one to her.
“Mallory, can you help me in the kitchen?” Mom called, and the table went silent for a moment.
