Pretend (90 page)

             
“How about a gam
e of charades?
”
Grandma said as she winked at Aiden.

             
“Another game that I can win easily,” Aiden said before earning himself a slap around the head from Crystal.

             
“You know
,
that violence is going to get you into trouble one day?” Aiden said as he rubbed the back of his head.

             
“
Aww
, can’t you take a hit from a girl?” She asked with an evil grin on her face before standing up.

             
“Back in a minute,” she said as she walked out of the living room.

             
“Ok
, so how shall we split the teams?” Mom asked as she looked at us all.

             
“Girls against guys,” Jess said as she smirked at Anthony.

             
“Yeah at least you get a chance of winning on my team,” Aiden said as he tapped Anthony’s shoulder.

             
“Shut up dude,” he replied with a smile on his face.

             
“Wait, how many is on each team them?” Jinnie asked no one in particular.

             
“I’ll check,” I said as I scanned the room.

             
“Right, there will be Anthony, Aiden,
Taise
, Uncle Harry, Bob
and
Kyle
on the men’s team-“

             
“Wait, where’s Murphy?”Anthony asked.

             
“I don’t know but he will be on your team too, so that makes seven. Now on the girl
’
s team there will be me, Je
ss, Jinnie, Mimi,
Marissa, Mom and
Grandma. Oh and Crystal when she comes back,” I said as I scanned the room.

             
“Yeah but you guys have got an extra team member,” Anthony said as he scrunched up his nose.

             
“Yeah but I’ve got baby brain so it doesn’t count,” Jess said with a smirk on her face.

             
“Anyway you will have more
later
when everyone else arrives,” Jess said as she smirked at Anthony.

             
“Fine,” Anthony agreed, reluctantly.

* * *

             
An hour had passed by and I am proud to say that we were winning by four points
,
much to Aiden’s dismay.

             
“Right
,
let’s take a time out, I need a drink,” Aiden said as he headed towards the kitchen.

             
“That sounds like the best idea that anyone has had all night,” Mrs Staples said as her and Grandma jumped out of the chair to follow Aiden. It was nice to see Grandma smiling away like that. Gramps had passed away two years ago and since then her and Mrs Staples had grown closer. I guess that they understood each other’s pain.  It was a really hard time for us especially since he had completely forgotten who we all were by then but we really tried to stay strong for Grandma. It was
difficult
at first but we learnt that we couldn’t be sad when we had
all
been blessed enough to experience him in our li
ves
. We
had
learnt to celebrate his life
rather than mourn
his death.

             
“Looks like someone isn’t used to losing,” Mimi said as we all began laughing.

             
“No he isn’t,” I said as I chuckled to myself. I couldn’t help but smile as I looked around at all of the happy faces in the room.

             
The night was going great so far
and we were all having a nice
time. It was pretty cramped in the living room right now but the fact that I had all of the people that I loved the most in one room was great.
Everyone had arrived by now and it was noisy. Kyle’s parents had
showed up
about twenty minutes ago
,
which sparked the first argument of the night. They thought that Mimi hadn’t invited Tommy because she was embarrassed of them and since she wasn’t exactly the most patient person, you can imagine how that argument ended. Luckily Kyle was there to diffuse the
situation which is why they were all attempting to be civil right now although I can imagine that there will be a part two when they get home.

             
Unfortunately Aiden’s dad couldn’t make it since he, Kate and Caitlyn were on vacation for two weeks but they did call this morning, which was nice. Aiden’s dad had been alcohol free for four years now and their relationship was better than ever.
We didn’t see them as much as we’d like to since we lived a
good
forty minute drive away but we all tried to make as much effort as we could.

             
“Shall I get that?” Mimi asked, interrupting my thoughts.

             
“Huh?”

             
“The door, didn’t you hear it?” She asked impatiently.

             
“No I didn’t. I’ll get it,” I said as I stood up and began to walk towards the door.

             
As I opened the door the biggest smile slipped onto my face.

             
“Hey Lisa,” I whispered as I watched Dylan sleeping in her arms.

             
“Hey sweetie,” she said as she kissed me on the cheek.

             
“Do you want to put him down in my r
oom?” I asked as I smiled at my dad’s wife
.
They had been married for four years now and she was lovely.

             
“Yeah, that’ll be great,” she said as she gently passed my two year
old
brother to me.

             
“He looks so peaceful,” I said as I smiled down at him.

             
“And as long as he doesn’t wake up it will stay that way,” she said as we both laughed quietly.

             
“Where’s Dad?” I asked as I looked past her shoulder.

             
“He went back to the car to grab something,” she said as she closed the door behind us.

             
“Ok, take the key and let him in when he knocks,” I said as I handed her the key in my hand.

             
“Ok.”

             
I smiled to myself as I looked down at Dylan’s cute, little face.

             
“
Sssh
,” I said as I passed Anthony and Aiden talking loudly in the hallway.

             
“Sorry,” Anthony whispered as he smiled at me.

             
I gently placed Dy
lan
down
on the bed as I pulled out the fold up crib that we used to use for Tammy when she stayed. Once I had set it up, I lay him down in there and left the room.

             
As I walked back into the living room everyone’s faces looked a little shocked like I had missed something. As I scanned the room I realised
that Aiden, Anthony, Murphy,
Crystal
and Jess
were
all
missing. I quickly walked out of the living room and headed into the kitchen.

             
“So, when were you planning on telling me?” Aiden asked a very nervous looking Murphy.

             
“Look, Aiden you really need to chill out, we’re not kids you know,” Crystal said in a frustrated tone.

             
“What’s going on?” I asked as I watched the scene before me.

             
“You don’t want to know,” Anthony said with a smirk on his face.

             
“When?”
Aiden repeated as he locked eyes with Murphy.

             
“Look, it wasn’t as if it was planned or anything.
”

             
“Oh
my gosh
, why are you making such a big deal out of it?” Crystal said as she looked at Aiden.

             
“Because you lied to me,” Aiden said, simply.

             
“Isn’t this the same thing that you did with April?” She asked as she folded her arms across her chest.

             
“Yes and you said that we should have told you but you didn’t tell us.”

             
“No, I said that April should have told me not you,” she replied in an angry tone.

             
“Aiden, why don’t we just discuss this in the morning when everybody has gone,” I said
,
calmly as I touched his shoulder.

             
“No, I want to discuss it now. I want to know how long this has been going on
for?
” He asked.

             
“Aiden, it is none of your business, we are not kids!” Crystal shouted in frustration.

             
“When things happen under my roof it makes it my business.”

             
“Oh come on dude you just saw us making out, that’s it,” Murphy said as he rolled his eyes.

             
“Just making out!
Just making out!”
Aiden shouted as he took a step closer to Murphy.

             
“And cut,” Anthony suddenly said as him, Aiden and Crystal all burst out laughing leaving me and Murphy stood in shock.

             
“You should have seen your face!” Anthony said as he tried to contain his laughter.

             
“You mean, you knew?” Murphy said as he looked at
a very amused looking
Aiden
.

             
“Yeah but I had to do it man, it was so funny,” Aiden said as he continued to laugh.

             
“You set me up?” Murphy said as he turned to face Crystal.

             
“
Aww
sorry
cutey
but I had to, it was so funny. I only wished that we had recorded that moment, the fear on your face,” she said as she tried not to laugh.

             
“I was not scared,” he said as he tried to cover the embarrassment.

             
“Dude, you were scared,” Anthony said as he continued to laugh.

             
“So, you’re ok with me and Crystal?” Murphy asked in a serious tone.

             
“Of course I am but if you break her heart then I have to break something of yours,” Aiden said with a smirk on his face.

             
“Deal,” Murphy said as he shook Aiden’s hand.

             
“
Ahhhhh
!”
Jess screamed.

             
“Ok baby it wasn’t that funny,” Anthony said as he turned to look at her.

             
“She’s not laughing you moron,” Crystal said as we both ran over to Jess.

             
“I think the baby is coming,” she said as she bent over the counter and clutched her stomach.

             
“Oh
my gosh
, how long have you been getting pain?” I asked.

             
“I don’t know, maybe about an hour, I just thought that it would pass but they’ve been getting
even
more painful,” she said as she let out another cry of pain.

             
“Ok, I need someone to time how far apart the contractions are,” I said as Crystal nodded her head.

             
“T
ime
t
he what
’
s
? Wait, doesn’t that mean-“

             
“Yes, you moron, it means that I’m having this big headed kid right now so come here and hold my hand and shut your mouth,” Jess screamed as Anthony quickly obeyed her orders.

             
“We need to get her to the hospital,” Aiden said as we all shook our heads in agreement.

             
As we all tried to clear the way and get Jess outside, we bumped into my dad.

             
“Is she?” He said as he looked down at Jess with a shocked look on his face.