Everything Changed

Ronnie's PoV

I never would have pictured myself at dinner with my boyfriend's family. But here I was. Wearing a dress. In some random fancy restaurant in England.

Who would have thought.

"So Ronnie, your family is okay with you spending the holidays over here?" Sarah asked me. I tensed a little at the question, but tried to keep calm and not break down. I was not even close to how drunk I have to be to talk about this subject. Ben squeezed my hand before we made eye contact. I gave him a small smile.

"I don't have parents. I grew up in foster care. My brother doesn't have much to do with me, he actually just and back into my life. And the friend I live with was a little disappointed, but will be fine." I explained.

"Besides. She has a new family now, she has 4 brothers and me. Not to mention all of the crew. Even the bus driver loves her, not in like a creepy way or anything though." Ben added before his mom, step dad, or sister could respond.

"How long were you in foster care?" His mom asked me.

"From age 6. My brother is 3 years older than me. So when I was 15 he was 18 and kind of left me behind. From there I guess you could say my life went downhill. Once I turned 18 I moved in with my friend and he's taken care of me pretty much ever since." I hated talking about this, it was just going to make Ben's family feel bad for me, or hate me even more.

"I think we know enough about Ronnie. You haven't even told me how everyone has been." Ben thankfully got the attention off of me, meaning that I could just sit back and not worry about anything for the rest of the dinner.

I didn't think the dinner would drag on as long as it did. I thought that we would get there, order and eat our food then leave. But apparently not. We had appetizers, the main course, and dessert.

When it was over, I couldn't have been more happy.

"Ben?" I started. We had just gotten back and were cuddling in his bed.

"Yes love?"

"Can I go to Danny's? I might sleepover if it's too late." I said.

"Is everything alright?" He asked concerned.

"I'm fine. Just need some Ronnie and Danny time." I assured him. He nodded.

"You want to change out of that before you go? I'll text Danny and tell him you're going over there." He threw me one of his shirts and a pair of my jeans before taking his phone and texting Danny.

"Thanks Ben." I said when I finished changing. I grabbed my phone and kissed him quickly.

"No problem babe. I'm here if you need anything. I'll pick you up early tomorrow morning for Christmas here." He hugged me for a long time before I left the house and made my way to Danny's.

He was waiting for me outside smoking a cigarette.

"Took you long enough. My ass is going to freeze off." He joked. I rolled my eyes and took the cigarette from him. "Uh oh. You're smoking. You only smoke when you're stressed." He lit another one and gave it to me taking his back. "What happened?"

"Ben's family. They hate me. But feel bad for me. They're nice people and everything. But I don't know how long I'm going to be able to put up with them. I can't say anything to Ben because I know how much his family means to him." I ranted.

"Let's go inside." He sighed before we both put out our cigarettes. "You know for someone as easy to put up with as you, you sure do have a lot of problems." We made our way down to the basement and Danny got out the Jack Daniels. "But you came to the right person. I have a friend here who can fix anything." He smirked and poured some of the whiskey into a large glass for me and he was just going to drink out of the bottle.

"Cheers." I smiled.

"Cheers." He smiled back before we each downed the drinks not caring about the consequences.

-The Next Morning.-

"Come on Ronnie. Wake the fuck up!" Ben yelled annoyed. My eyes fluttered open. My head felt like it was about it explode. I can't remember the last time I had gotten this hungover

"Hey Ben." I whispered before closing my eyes again.

"Fucking hell Danny. How drunk did she get last night?" Danny mumbled something along the lines of 'shut up my head'. I heard Ben sigh. "On Christmas too. I really hope you'll make it through today." He picked me up and onto his back. I wrapped my arms around his neck so I would fall before falling back asleep on his shoulder.

-later-

"You are so lucky that my mom and sister don't wake up until the afternoon on Christmas." Ben told me. I had just woken up and Ben had gotten me a bunch of things to help my hangover.

"Why do you keep yelling?" I complained burying my head in the pillow.

"Do you remember what you did last night? I've never seen you this hungover." He chuckled.

"Ben." I glared.

"Sorry love." He pecked my lips and pulled a small box out of nowhere. "Merry Christmas." He whispered opening the box and holding up a charm bracelet. On it were already a few charms, a cell phone, bus, and a guitar. "Moments of our relationship. Rebekah helped me get all of it together. Since you left your phone on the bus we got to know each other. We have had a lot of memories in the bus. And the guitar represents me."

"This is probably the cheesiest thing ever. But its meaningful. Thanks." I said as he clasped it on my wrist. "I got you something but it's in my bag and I can't move." I laughed.

"You can give it to me later." He promised. "But you have to get dressed. Mum wants to start opening presents."

"But I'm hungover." I complained.

"And who's fault is that?"

"Danny's. Now get me clothes." I demanded. He looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Please." I added. He smiled and got up before going and grabbing me a sweatshirt. I was already wearing jeans so I just put on the sweatshirt.

"You can shower later. Put your hair up and you'll look fine." I did as he said, getting dizzy from moving so much.

"Do you think that if I were to wear sunglasses all day people would suspect anything?" I asked.

"We've all done it before." He chuckled throwing me a pair of aviators that I didn't catch.

"I'm hungover. Did you really think I would catch that?" I laughed.

"No. But it was funny seeing you try." He smirked and picked them up for me placing them on my face. "Now let's go."

The rest of the day consisted of jokes about me being hungover, food, meeting Ben's dad, and a bunch of Christmas songs.

I hadn't really celebrated many Christmas's with people who actually mean something to me.
Jackson and I had our little gift exchange. But I would always end up at a bar somewhere celebrating with a bunch of drunk strangers. So in a way this was really nice.

Rebekah and I had surprisingly become close, and I don't think his parents hated me as much. His step dad I'm not so sure of, but I didn't really mind I guess.

I was having fun, that was something I couldn't have said as much before I met Ben, Danny, Sam, James, and Cameron.

They changed my life, and have me a family something I never thought would ever happen.

I couldn't have been more happy.