All I Ever Wanted

“Honestly, you’re impossible!”

I hear my mom yelling from the down the hall, but I have no idea who she’s yelling at. I’m in my room getting ready for Kasey and Jake’s engagement party. It’s at some nice restaurant downtown.

“I’m not impossible; I just don’t think it’s going to fit!”

Well, that’s Max’s voice. Guess they’re fighting. Again. It’s all they’ve been doing since mom and dad came home. I think Max is doing in on purpose, though.

“It’s going to fit. I just bought it!”
“You bought it a year ago!”

I just sigh and slip on my sandals. They’re the only nice shoes I own. I don’t want to wear them, seeing as it’s pretty much -432874293832 degrees out, but my mom is forcing me. She says they make me look taller and more sophisticated. I think I’ll just take her word for it.

And, speaking of my mother, who insists that an engagement party be held the week before Christmas? She does. I told her not that many people are going to show; most people go on vacation or whatever. She didn’t listen, obviously. Only about 40 people are coming; she invited basically everyone she knows.

“ALEXIS!” my dad calls from downstairs. He’s been pissed off since this morning when Steven told him there was a small incident with his car.

I get downstairs as fast as I can and see Alex and Luke standing in the doorway. Luke waves enthusiastically and Alex just smiles; he didn’t want to come. He thought that it should only be family, which is understandable. It usually is just family. But I want him to come, and there’s plenty of extra room. And I invited Luke, because I figured he’d help Alex feel less awkward; Luke is good at that.

“Hey, guys. I’m sorry, it’s really hectic and-”
“We can wait in the kitchen,” Luke interrupts me and pushes Alex in the right direction.

I steel a kiss from Alex before he goes.

“Did your mom say it was ok for them to come?” Dad asks, straightening his tie.
“Yeah. She said she didn’t care.”
“Alright, if you say so…”

He gives me a look that says ‘don’t try to blame it on me’, and I just shrug. My mom really did say she didn’t care who I invite. Ok, so maybe I didn’t specify who I would be inviting, but she didn’t ask. I run upstairs to get my bag and on my way back down to the kitchen, I bump into Jake on the stairs.

“Why the hell do people have engagement parties?” I hear him mumble to himself. He’s never dealt with stress very well.
“We’re leaving in 5 minutes!!”

With my mom’s warning, everybody seems to move ten times faster than they were; especially my youngest brother Daniel who was sitting in front of the TV since 8:00 this morning.

“Did you RSVP for the open house at NYU?” Luke asks when we’re at the restaurant. Me him and Luke are sitting while everyone else is walking around and talking to each other.
“Yeah, when is it, again?”
“January 9th. It’s a Saturday, obviously. Well, that’s the one I signed up for, at least. They have another one the next weekend.”
“Oh yeah. Ok, we can go together.”
“January 9th is the day my band plays at ICE, Lex…” Alex tells me. He has a sad look on his face.
“Oh. Shit, yeah I forgot. I’ll have to go to the next open house.”

Luke shrugs and says that he’ll find someone else to go with. He gets up and I see him wander over to where Max is talking to some girl who could possibly be related to me. She looks familiar, but I don’t know. We don’t see our extended family very often, obviously.

“Why are you going to the NYU open house, anyway?”
“I figure I should see it. What if something happens and FIT rejects me? I’ll just go see it to see what it’s like there.”
“You don’t have to skip the open house; you should go. Don’t miss it just because of me.”
“Alex I would rather see your band play. It’s your first time at a popular club and I want to be there. Don’t try to convince me otherwise. Besides, you can just come with me to the open house the next weekend.”

Alex smiles and nods.

“Yeah, okay. Deal. But tell me this…” he leans in as close as possible and whispers “Will you introduce me to all of your family members?”
“I could. If I knew their names.”
“You don’t know your family?”
“Barely. But come on, if you want to meet them then ok. Let’s go.”

I pull him up from his seat against his protests.

No, if you don’t even know them-”
“Come on, Alex. I’ll introduce you to my grandma, first. Then we can move on to the ones I haven’t seen in a few years.”

I can’t help but laugh at his expression; it’s a mix between amused and horrified.

“Have you seen grandma?” I ask Steven as we pass him at the bar.
“She’s at the table with Aunt Mary… but she’s basically deaf, Lex. She’s not going to understand a word you say. Why do you need her?”
“I wanted to introduce her to Alex.”

He starts laughing and so does the boy he’s standing with. I think he’s my cousin’s kid. Not positive, though.

“If you say he’s your boyfriend she’s not going to know what you’re saying. Seriously, she’ll probably just think he’s a cousin or something and when she get’s the wedding invitation in 5 years, she’s going to think ‘I never knew my grandkids were into incest’.”
“Oh my God, Steve, you’re so gross!”

“No, Kevin is such a boring name.”
“I like Robert.”
“James is my favorite, personally.”

I stare at the wall across the room and tune out everyone talking about baby names. Nobody’s pregnant, that I know of, at least, so there’s really no reason for the conversation to be happening. Alex went to the bathroom about 5 minutes ago and Luke disappeared somewhere else. I’m bored out of mind and I still have to be here for another hour.

“Alexis, what would you name your kid?” someone asks me and I just shrug.
“I don’t know. I never had to think about it,” I say.
“Well, if you had to think of one right now, what would you pick?”
“Alex,” I say and get up from the table. I only said that name so they would stop bothering me. Obviously, I’m not in the best mood.

I’m going to go find Alex so we can maybe get out of here. He drove so it’ll be easy to leave. Maybe we can hang out with Jack or someone. I just need to leave.

“Alexis? What are you doing?”

I turn around and see my mom standing with Daniel at her side. She’s holding a drink and she just looks pissed.

“I’m looking for Alex and then I think we’re going to leave… if that’s ok with you…”
“Oh, ok. That’s fine. I thought you would have left earlier.”

I stare at her for a second before smiling.

“No, I wanted to spend some time with you guys first.”

I might as well suck up to her. She’s never going to be this nice again.

“Okay, well I’ll see you at home. Don’t come home after 12.”
“Gotcha. Bye, Mom.”

I turn around and walk through the restaurant until I get to the coat closet. I think the bathrooms are somewhere near it anyway, so I might as well get my jacket and wait for Alex.

I open the closet door and step inside.

“Shit!” I hear someone whisper, and when I turn to their voice, I hear myself gasp and my hand covers my mouth in shock.