Monsters And Us

Chapter 5: The Plan

Elliot and I began talking while I kept an eye occasionally on where Uncle Jerry was and holding my phone in my hand in case I need to text Silas.

"So you're gonna wait till your Uncle gets close to the stairs so your brother can jump him? I'm curious what 'rematch' they are talking about."

"Well last year my brother and uncle had a fighting match in the backyard of our old house and my brother won so I guess he's looking to win this time."

He chuckled a little bit before looking down at his phone and looking at his i********:, showing me a few pictures of him back home in the UK.

"Do you miss being at home?" I asked softly

"Well yeah, I mean it might be boring as hell there but it's home, though it is nice here in the states especially since I made a few new friends, like you."

"Are you flirting with me?"

"No" he chuckled

"I know we had that awkward moment, and I'm still sorry I kissed you, but your a nice friend even if I only knew you for like a day."

"Thanks your a nice friend I've only known for a day too."

He smiles, before we hear a commotion outside, we both get up and go to see what it was. I see my aunt running to the side of the house and hear her whispering something along the lines of something about getting the window open and going inside, I walk quietly to the side of the house and begin eavesdropping on them.

"Dammit David get inside already you're killing my back. Uncle Mike's daughter is so spoiled she doesn't need anything."

"But mom isn't this ill eagle?" David said

"It's illegal i***t" Jack said

"Sweeties just hurry up before anyone comes and ruins your surprise."

A rage burned inside me, and I walked to Elliot and told him to get my parents and he runs off, I grab my phone and began taking video of what my psycho aunt and spoiled cousins were doing.

"Annabel what's wrong?" My mum asks

I motioned for her to be quiet and point her in the direction of "Karen" and her brats, I could feel the heat come off my mum in waves and her face turned beet red as she stormed over to her.

"What the hell are you doing you psycho b***h!" she screamed at Aunt Crystal

Aunt Crystal jumped up and pushed David inside before turning around and acting innocent with a smile on her face.

"Why are you yelling Juliette, I was just checking out the outside."

"Then where's your son David?"

"He was just right here right Jack."

Jack nodded his head and began looking around for his brother who was clearly in my parent's bedroom, my dad came from behind us holding David by the collar. David looked down as my dad dropped him and slowly walked back over to his mother and brother. I felt bad for David, he seemed like a genuinely nice kid just influenced to do bad things by his mother and brother and I hate how they treat him almost like if he doesn't do what they say he'd be disowned.

"David where were you." his mother screeched

He looked down at the ground and didn't say a word like he was afraid to say the wrong thing, I balled my fist in anger just thinking of the s**t my aunt would likely do to him behind the curtains. I tried hard to keep my anger under control but the fire burned inside me and that's when I felt a hand on my shoulder, I turned around and saw a tall man around my age, with tan skin and short dark brown hair and blue eyes with very broad stature but a warmth about him. Warmth radiated off him as he smiled at me, and trying to calm the situation, he was pretty tall like around 6'2 maybe taller, he looked familiar like a face from the past but I was having trouble remembering where I knew him from. He stood in front of me and my parents and tried to defuse my psycho aunt, holding his hands out and talking to her calmly and quiet.

"Why don't we all just calm down, ok? No one was harmed, no property was damaged, why don't you just leave for a little while and cool down, ok?"

"Who the hell are you to tell me what to do!" My aunt screamed

I couldn't see what was happening in front of me but I leaned over and saw she was looking at him from my view I could only assume she was looking into his eyes and suddenly she became calm it was almost instantaneous, it seemed very strange to me that one second she's screaming at us like we murdered her child and now she's calm like someone used a tranquilizer on her. The familiar face man turned around and gave a goofy smile and that's when it hit me, this was my childhood friend, I haven't seen him in what seemed like ages. I moved from here when I was around 12-13 maybe a little older due to my father's work constantly relocating him but all the memories came flooding back of us exploring the forest and our little tree house in his backyard and even the more embarrassing memories came back including a time me and him dressed up as the Jonas Brothers and lip synced to their song Year 3000.

 I come back to reality and he is talking to me asking if I'm ok and need to sit now, I shake my head and smile like the i***t I am.

"Are you Annabel?"

"Ye..."

I got interrupted by my brother tackling him and having him in a choke hold rustling his hair playfully.

"Oliver you little s**t you still live here, you grew a little bit since we lived here."

Oliver managed to get out of the choke hold pretty quickly pinning my brother down on the ground with his head on the cold wet ground and his arm pinned behind his back, I was surprised because my brother and him would always get into fighting matches playfully and usually my brother was stronger than him but I guess Oliver was beefing up for this moment and it worked in his favor until my brother but his years of yoga into the mix and stretched his leg behind him and kicked Oliver in the stomach. Both boys got up, my brother having mud on one side of his face and Oliver laughing.

"What the hell are you laughing at Olive Branch."

I grabbed my compact mirror from my bag and showed him, he grabbed it and looked at his face and wiped my mud off and flung it to the ground, laughing.

"I still look better with mud on my face than you do even on your best day."

He walked over and put his arm around his neck in a buddy kind of way and both boys began laughing, I walked back over to Elliot who was just watching the whole thing like a spectator, I felt kind of bad he became in the middle of my family's craziness but he assured me time and time again that my family wasn't as bad as his.

"Why'd your brother just tackle that guy then fight and now they're both buddy buddy?"

"It's a long story but they are friends from back when I lived here, they'd do that a lot only 'that guy' wasn't strong back in the day."

"So I'm assuming that's the special guest like you told me about, right?"

"I guess."

I shrugged my shoulders wondering if Oliver was the special guest my dad was talking about but you never know with my dad ...Wait unless he meant the special guest was Oliver's dad and my dad's friend Josiah. Josiah Arden, My dad's closest friend, a guy who was like a second father to me and I assume I was like a 2nd daughter to him. We went back inside and I see more people than there were before, most likely they just arrived, one of the new guests was a two boys around the same height as Oliver maybe taller one had dirty blonde short swept to the side hair with blue eyes and was wearing a white cable knit sweater with dark blue faded jeans and black Adidas, while the other had dark brown short curly hair with grey intense eyes and was wearing a black cotton sweater, black jeans with the knees worn and open and black converse sneakers. I couldn't remember who they were but their presence gave me a strong feeling of my childhood, then I heard a bellowing laugh that I immediately knew who it was, it was Oliver's dad Josiah. I sat on the couch with Elliot and we talked and began getting to know each other more and more. It began getting later into the day and a few more guests arrived, my grandparents, cousins, a full house basically practically full to the brim, full enough to just barely get the attention of the fire Marshall. I look at my watch as it reads 7:46pm it's getting late even by my families standards we would've ate dinner around 5-6pm. My mother came out of the kitchen and grabbed me and quietly pushed me into the kitchen, and sat me down at a chair she decorated for me "the birthday girl" and put a bright pink birthday hat on me that she had used for all my birthdays since I could remember and a bright pink birthday sash that says the same thing.

"But mom I'm turning 17 not 5, plus I don't really like pink but I'll wear it for you I guess."

She smiled at me and got more things set up, and began looking at a piece of paper with which I could only think was a seating chart which likely wouldn't work for aunt "Karen" and her devil spawn cause they'd try to get the best seats and always have the attention on them. My mom looked satisfied with the seating chart and began putting name tags on the tables and even made one for Elliot which sat to the left of me because he was a guest in the house, and I looked over and saw the name to my left in plain cursive read "Oliver" then next to him was his mom, dad, then on the other end of the table, my dad then Silas and in between Silas and Elliot was my mom. At the other table sat my dad's parents both sitting together on the same side I was. On their left it went as follows; Aunt Shirley, Uncle Kip and Uncle Jerry(which I think was deliberate by him to sit right behind my brother) then my mom's parents sat opposite of my dad's parents and to their left went as follows; Uncle Walt, Aunt Hilda then Aunt "Karen" who as my dad had told me was spoiled rotten by his parents. Then there was the Kids table, which sat my younger cousins and some of the older ones who got pushed to the kids' table due to there not being any more room. And there sat the spoiled sons of aunt "Karen" Jack, David, Ronny, Ariel, Esme, Dani(who was 17 at the time and the cousin I was closest with and like an older sister to me), Christine then the last of the cousins was Brandt. My mom and Uncle Walt had to get tray tables and one of those collapsible cheap tables from the basement for the rest of my family to sit at. It felt like Thanksgiving with all my family here and Oliver's family here as well, Elliot came up to me and asked very quietly(I assume because he was too shy to talk to any of my family)

"So what's the seating arrangement like?"

"Your sitting to my left, don't worry you won't sit alone with people you don't know." I chuckled to myself.

He quickly sat down next to me in his seat and eagerly awaited for everyone to flock in as did I, my brother quietly came into the kitchen looking around for I assume mom and sighed before looking through the name tags and noticing Uncle Jerry would be seated right behind him. He then picked up the name tag and grabbed a random one(who I came to find out minutes later was Dani's) and placed it where Uncle Jerry had sat. He sat down and leaned back in his chair and awaited the domino effect he had just put in place, and I was a little intrigued at what reaction both of them would have, so I too sat back and watched with close eyes. Everyone began shuffling into the kitchen looking at where they'd be seated and everyone was pretty comfortable sitting where they were assigned except for aunt "Karen's" devil spawn Jack, he was throwing a fit saying he's too old to sit at the baby table(he was about 9-10) and that he wanted to sit at the adult table, she smiled at him and asked where he wanted to sit, he looked around a moment and spotted me.

"That one mom"

He said while pointing in my direction, his mom then stood up and walked till she was next to me and put on her "I'm the most innocent and nice person in the world" smile and got down to my eye level and said softly,

"Sweetie, your cousin wants to sit there would you mind getting up and moving somewhere else, it would make your cousin sooooo happy."

"Umm no, sorry but my mom made this seat special just for me, plus she worked really hard on the seating arrangement and this party."

Her smile quickly faded after I said no and her left eye began to twitch as if something in her brain just snapped and she went from sweet and innocent to a total massive "Karen."

"Listen here you little ungrateful b***h, you haven't done anything to make your family proud while my boy Jack has been making us proud with his grades, his football and soccer trophies, and his behavior overall, so get the help up from that chair and let my son sit there."

I sat there totally frozen and unable to respond to such a ridiculous demand from my own aunt, did she really just degrade me on my f*****g birthday, she stood there waiting for a response hands on her hips and her foot tapping loudly waiting for me to get up.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well are you going to move or should I just tell your father how unruly and rude you are."

Just before I could respond to what she said, my brother interjected and said,

"How about I tell your father how much of a biotch you are." he said while laughed

Both of our eyes went from each other to my brother who was casually still leaned back in his chair, her anger strayed from me to him as soon as he said that and she stomped over to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt which even I knew not to do that because that's like waving a red flag in front of a bull. He smirked before looking at me and the look in his eyes said he was ready to go off on her, he stood up and was towering over her and her spawn, who hid behind her in fear. Once he saw them quickly go back to their seats in fear he smirked and sat back down feeling victorious as he went back to leaning back in his chair and looking at his phone.