A Step to Love

No one wants to be woken up by a girl’s shriek beaming next to the ear. But, of course, that had to happen to me on a cold Christmas morning and that, my friends, made me be all—

“Grumpy, much?” Jake asked me while we were eating pancakes at the table.

Guess he must’ve heard me mutter.

I glared at Brit. “Don’t wake me up like that again.”

Her eyes widened and an innocent voice came out. “Blame mama. She’s the one that gave us the tradition.”

“Of waking up at 4:00am to looks for presents under the tree, she means,” Alex explained. “Some people find it weird that we still do that.”

I turned to my plate and nibbled my food.

I heard Brit sigh. “When are you two going to give it up?” I looked up and stared in confusion. “We all know you two kissed already, so, why still try and pretend like nothing happened?”

I opened my mouth to say that nothing really had happened, but Alex beat me to it. “Shut up, Brittany.”

“Annie, come on.”

“I have nothing to say.” I grabbed my plate and went to wash my plate.

Behind me, I heard Pat say “see what you guys did? I told you to keep your thoughts about it to yourselves.” And then, a wave of arguments came, but I didn’t hear George get in, though. Thankfully, the door bell rang making everyone shut up. We were expecting (yes, "we". Because I was excited about the event also) company—Pat’s ex-husband and his family to come. I thought it was fantastic that Pat and Marc were friends after the way he had hurt her.

Now I know where Alex got the lying part from.

I heard somebody open the door and then another wave came, but this time of congratulations and compliments.

“My God, Patricia, you look lovely,” a woman said and Pat, ‘course being polite, said the same in a different way. “Are those you’re kids?" She must've been referring to Alex and Brit; she had seen Jake because he used to live there. "I haven’t seen you guys in years,” she yelled. “So beautiful.”

Man, I was going to feel so out of place. I finished cleaning my plate, but I was embarrassed to even come out of the kitchen. I felt like such an intruder.

But, no worries, I’m sure they’re lovely and won’t judge my situation.

With one deep breath, I stepped into the dinning table.

The eyes of the ten people in the room (Nana had the day off with her family) were on me and I got even more nervous once I captured the gorgeousness I was facing.

The man of the family was like a model right out of a magazine. He had beautiful and incredibly bright blue eyes. He was not as old as I had expected him to be. In fact, he seemed like he was in his thirties...But I forgot how old Pat was because then I would’ve gotten the total—I did remember she told me he was four years older than she was. His chin was perfectly oval-shaped and his hair was jet black—even darker than Alex’s.

And his body...Wow. Even under his navy suit you could define every line and curve. No wonder Pat had fallen in love with him. I was mentally drooling from the hotness.

Now...the woman next to him seemed more from the 80’s or the 90’s...I never get the difference. But she dressed just like the ladies from the movie “Stepford Wives” which was really creepy because the movie was creepy itself.

Her big blonde curls reached to her breasts and...I’m not even going to mention those.

But between her arms there was a gorgeous little girl with black curls and her mom’s black eyes. She wore a red and green dress.

The two adolescents behind them did not go unnoticed by me. They seemed too alike and not just because I thought they were siblings, but both the girl and the guy had dirty blonde hair and black eyes and they had the same incredible bone structure and both of their bodies looked very athletic.

The girl wore a simple white dress along with some Gucci bag or whatever his name is while the guy wore a navy suit just like his father only he wore a red tie unlike his father who wore none.

If I would’ve known better, they actually looked like the “ideal family” from the commercials.

What seemed to be Marc cleared his throat. “You must be Lillian, right?” And he extended a hand towards me.

“Lilly,” I corrected him, but did not make the slightest movement.

Thankfully, Pat came to my rescue when Marc cleared his throat again and retrieved his hand. “Lilly, um, this is Marc...I mentioned him earlier, right?” I nodded. “Good,” she continued. “She...”—Pat pointed towards the Stepford wife—“is Katherine, Marc’s wife and one of her lovely daughters”—she pointed towards the baby—“Janet. Those two”—now she pointed towards the blondes—“are the twins, Alyson and Reese.” Then she smiled like telling me to say “hi”, but it seemed more like “See what this bastard brought to my house; dolled-up robots!”

Hm, I knew the blondes looked too alike. “Nice to meet you,” I said to all of them. Why do all of them have to be gorgeous?

I stared at Marc’s family and then I stared at Pat’s.

Woah. Pat and Katherine were so damn alike it was unreal! They could be sisters...

Pat laughed. I could see she was a bit nervous and it didn’t take long to know why.

“Is she also your daughter?” Reese asked in an innocent tone and everyone stared at me once again.

I opened my mouth.

“No, of course she’s not!” Stepfor—Katherine laughed an uncomfortable sound. “I mean, how could she be?” She looked at George. “She’s not, right?”

George shook his head. He was still silent.

I closed my mouth. What the...

Pat nodded. “But she is part of the family in a way.”

I knew this would be uncomfortable. “I could...em—”

“Well, anyway,” Katherine interrupted me.

“”Kay,” I whispered to myself.

“I brought imported cheese—all the way from Switzerland,” she kept on going and going about her being wealthy.

~*~*~*~*~

“I mean, don’t you feel weird?”

Pat groaned. “Of course I do! I mean, that woman just doesn’t shut her yap when it comes to her family being all perfect.” She sighed and handed me a mini box that inside held a beautiful silver necklace. “Look at that. How am I supposed to compete?”

“You don’t have to compete and she’s a bitch.”

She rolled her eyes and stood up from the stairs. “Just look, Lilly.” She pointed towards Marc and Katherine all cuddled up outside in the garden. “They are so perfect for each other. And me? What do I get?”

I sighed. “Pat?” I took her hand and sat her down next to me again. “You have George ...remember?”

“Are my feelings that noticeable?”

“No, but your jealousy is and I don’t think I am the right person to say this because I am just a teen, but George deserves his share.” I shook my head. “Forget about them. Think of the things you do have and make the best out of them.”

“Yes.”

I stood up. “I’m going to check on Jake and Brit. They’re probably suffocating up there.”

I turned at the sound of Pat’s laughter and climbed up the stairs. I first knocked on Brit’s door, but there was no answer, so instead of entering, I decided to ignore it and head for Jake’s.

“Come in!” I heard Jake’s voice yell from inside.

I walked in with all of the teens reunited on the floor. I sat on a spot next to Jake and immediately the blonde chick glared at me.

“So, what’s your deal?” she asked.

“Hmm?”

“Why are you here?” Reese asked.

Jake chuckled beside me. “Bit blunt, aren’t we? Chill, guys. She doesn’t need to explain the fact of her existence in this house.”

Alyson scoffed. “Whatever, goof.” Then she turned to me. “I do like your hair, though.”

I must’ve looked uncomfortable because Jake grabbed my hand in a way the others couldn’t see and squeezed it softly. And it helped, in a way, to regain the confidence to at least speak. “Oh, the color is fake; I’m a natural brunette.”

But that didn’t really help. Alyson just stared disgustedly at me. “In that case, ew. I just don’t like fake hair, sorry.”

“Okay,” I muttered.

“Okay!” Jake stood up. "Let’s play some games, eh?”

“Sure,” Reese said.

Brit stayed silent while Alex and Alyson threw a “whatever.”

The day passed really slowly for me. Ever since I told the girl my hair color was not real, she threw negative comments every now and then just to make me feel inferior and all we ever did was play some common games like Hangman and such.

Minutes later, there was another ring at the door and thankfully, it was Brody. At least he was going to keep me entertained for what was left of the day.

“Are you sure we can be here?” he asked me as I dragged him by the hand into Brit’s room.

“Of course, I already asked her before the psychos got here.”

He chuckled. “Okay,” he whispered before taking his lips to mine.

I loved the fact that his lips moved slowly yet so full of desire and need. It made me feel...sort of special. Like someone for the first time in my life wanted me.

He started moving forward carefully, bringing his hands onto my back every now and then so I wouldn’t fall. I brought my arms around his neck and deepened the kiss when we reached the bed and carefully, he placed himself on top of me.

Suddenly he started kissing me in every part of my face and neck making me erupt into giggles.”What are you doing?”

He smiled to me. “I want to give you something.”

I waited. He reached for the front pocket of his red shirt, pulled a tiny box and gave it to me.

I grabbed it with both of my hands and opened it slowly revealing a gold charm bracelet with lots of kitties playing around. Each kitty had something whether it was a collar or a one of those knit balls and it just looked too adorable, so I couldn’t stop myself from saying “aww”.

“Thanks, Brody.” Then I remembered. “Darn! Brody...I don’t have anything for you—I totally forgot, I’m sorry.”

He kissed my lips. “Don’t worry; I know something you can give me.” Then he went for my neck and rubbed his nose against it before kissing it.

I giggled again. “What?” I didn’t quite get what I could give him with him nearly making out with my neck, but then..."Oh...Oh! Br—Brody.” I sat down on the bed making him sit down in front of me. “I’m sorry, but I can’t give you my virginity as a gift!”

He raised both of his eyebrows. “You’re a virgin?”

Great.

“I’m sorry if what you expect out of me is more, but I just can’t do it. I’m not ready,” I admitted.

He sighed. “Babe—”

“Lilly,” I corrected him.

“Lilly...next year our relationship is going to be illegal.” He shook his head. “We should at least enjoy the things we won’t be able to do in that time.”

“And then what? When you’re eighteen, we break up?”

“No, but I won’t take the risk of having sex with you if you are ready by that time.”

I laughed sarcastically and stood up from the bed. “Brody? I don’t think I will be ready to have sex with you next year...or the year after!”

“Is it because you don’t want it to be with—”

“I don’t believe in sex before marriage!” I exhaled. “You can consider it some type of celibacy.”

He sat there in silence, but after seconds of what looked like thinking, he finally spoke. “I, uh—I respect your decision, I guess.”

I climbed onto his lap and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you.”

“I love you.”