From the Wreckage We All Rise.

“I can’t believe it Mum… Really?” asked Angelina for what felt like the hundred time of the day. She was standing at the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest and she was looking at me as I was walking from the closet and back to the bed to put the clothes in the big bag.

“Yes Angelina, no I’m not joking.” I said with a small smile as I fold one of the numerous black T-shirt Billy owned.

“I can’t believe it!”

“Are you done packing yet?” I asked, going back to take clothes from the closet.

“Everything has been ready since Tuesday morning…” she explained, a big smile on her face.

I laughed.

“I don’t know why, but I had a feeling you would…” I said before putting some more clothes in the suitcase and closing it after checking he had everything.

“I don’t understand why you kept packing his stuff, Dad is a grown up…”

“Because Billy has a tendency of forgetting things every time…” I explained a small smile on my lips as I remembered the day he called me from Montreal because he had forgotten to take socks…

“Mum?”

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at my daughter.

“Aiden is wondering if we are going to meet our dad…” she said, looking down at her feet. I stopped breathing. That was typical Aiden for you…

“If he’s here, you might see him, doesn’t mean I’ll tell you who he is.” I replied, taking a suitcase from under the bed.

We fell silent. Brian was still a touchy subject. I mean, they had no idea who their father was, and Brian had no idea he had children. Angelina and Aiden just knew that their father was still living in California and that I met him when I was younger. End of story. I was with Billy and I was perfectly fine this way.

My parents were coming to visit us every two or three months.

The girls had never seen the twins or Celia, except on the few photos I had showed them at the weddings… But since the last wedding I’ve been to was Cha and Zacky’s wedding, it was like 8 years ago so I never got the chance to show them pictures of Celia.

“I’m sorry I brought that up Mum.” Whispered Angelina as she wrapped her arms around me and kissed my cheek. I snapped out of my daze and looked at her.

“It’s fine, don’t worry.” I whispered, kissing her forehead before I started packing my stuff.

“Mum?” I looked over my shoulder and saw Aiden standing in the doorway, his hands shoved in his pockets.

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting recently.” He said, his dark brown eyes looking at me.

“It’s fine Aiden.” I replied and kept folding the clothes. He looked at me for a moment before he walked out of the room and back to wherever he was coming from.

That’s Aiden for you. He hadn’t talk to me since Monday and finally apologised on Wednesday…

“Mum?” I stopped what I was doing to see Celia carrying a big suitcase behind her.

“What’s this?” I asked as I walked over to her.

“It’s my suitcase.” She explained as she dropped it to the floor and opened it.

“Sweetie, we’re going to California, not Alaska. You don’t need your scarf or gloves or boots. Just swimming suits, T-shirts and shorts.” I said with a chuckle as I looked at the clothes in her suitcase.

“But Dad always wear gloves.” She retorted.

“He wears fingerless gloves. He doesn’t wear them because he’s cold, just because he wants to look cool.” I explained the best I could.

“I wanna look cool too!” she said as she put her purple gloves on, along with her scarf.

“You can look cool in shorts and T-shirt.” I said a small smile on my lips as she took off her gloves.

“Fine…” she said with a shrug, throwing her gloves and scarf back into the suitcase and walking back to her room, dragging the open suitcase behind her.

“Next thing we’ll know, she will ask you to die her hair purple.” Said Billy with a chuckle. I jumped up a little, not expecting him to be here.

“She wants to wear gloves in summer… Any idea how she found this brilliant idea?” I asked, an eyebrow raised and looking at Billy.

“Me, no… Why should I?” he asked, trying his best not to smile as he made his way towards me. I shook my head and kept packing my stuff. If everyone keeps interrupting me, I’d never be ready to leave tonight.

Billy lay on the unmade bed, crossing his hands behind his head and watched me as I walked from the closet, back to the bed and back to the closet.

“I called Joel.” He said, his eyes still glued on me.

“Oh yeah? How is he? And Nicole?” I asked, folding more clothes.

“They’re both great. They can’t wait to see you and the kids though…” he said.

“Me neither, it’s been a while since I last saw them.” I said before walking to our bathroom.

“That’s exactly what Nicole said.” He said from his spot on the bed. “Are you going to take a shower?”

“Yeap!” I said, walking back in the room to grab some clean underwears, a T-shirt and a pair of dark jeans and socks.

“I’m gonna go make dinner then, and see if they’re all ready… And make sure my daughter is packing the right thing.” He said, sitting up on the bed.

“I’ll make sure she has everything she needs, you’ll probably just forget things, like always!” I said with a small smile as I pecked his lips and headed to the bathroom.

He chuckled.

“What do you want to eat?” he asked, as he stopped at the doorway.

“Whatever you want baby!”

“All right, I’ll ask them.” He said as he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

**

Scream! Scream, scream! The way you would if I ravaged your body!

I rolled my eyes as I walked in the living room, only to see Angelina, Aiden, Celia and Billy sitting on the couch. They all had a slice of pizza in hands and had they eyes glued to the screen.

Billy was the first one to notice my presence, he smiled at me and motioned for me to come and sit next to him. I took the sit at his right, Celia was sitting on his lap and Angelina was sitting at his left. He handed me a slice of pizza and kissed my cheek before focussing on the show.

It was funny how they kept watching the DVD live performance of Avenged Sevenfold live in the LBC when they had released an other one a few years ago…

“Why are you always watching this DVD?” I asked.

“Cause it’s awesome!” said Celia, smiling at me. I laughed.

“Mum…” whined Aiden, “How can you ask something like that? This show is the sh…”

“Bad word!” screamed Celia as she punched her brother’s arm. I bit my lip to prevent myself from laughing when Angelina high-fived Celia and they both focussed on the show once again.

Angelina and Celia had install this thing between them, every time Aiden would say a ‘bad word’ and Celia was near, she had the right to hit him, well, it wasn’t really hitting you know, and it was teaching Aiden to watch his mouth…

I had no say in this ‘game’.

“So, as I was saying before Celia interrupted me, this show is awesome! Have you seen Gates? He rules!” he added, pointing at the screen just as Brian started the solo.

“He rules in their newest DVD too…” I said.

“But they don’t play ‘A little piece of heaven’ in the other DVD.” Angelina argued. As soon as she said it, Celia started singing:

“Eat it eat it!”

You should have seen Aiden’s face. He was looking at her like she was an alien and she was grinning at him, obviously proud of herself. Angelina was cracking up on the couch and I really was trying not to. Then Aiden chuckled and reach past Angelina to ruffle his little sister’s hair.

I felt my stomach doing a back flip, moments like that were so rare…

I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad…