Lyall's Story

Lucy

I take a deep breath as we make it to my driveway. Despite sitting in the driveway, he looks at me confused.

“Why are you confused we’re here?” It’s a nice woodsy, three-story cottage with a wrap-around porch near the front door. It always made me smile when I come home.

“Because I see nothing but an open field.” Huh? That can’t be right. The house is right in front of us.

“This is where I’ve lived my entire life.” How come he can’t see it, but I can…

“I trust you Lucy, but I’m confused.” That’s very weird… but I lead us inside and greet my mom and sister in the kitchen.

“Mom, dad I’m home, and I brought a friend with me! The others will come later.” I holler so they can hear me. I hear footsteps but couldn’t tell until I saw my mom coming my way.

“Lucy! Thank goodness you’re alright.” She gives me a big hug like she hasn’t seen me in days.

“Mom, I’m fine. My friends took good care of me. I’d like to introduce to you my friend, Lyall.” My mom smiles and gives him a light hug too. My mom is always nice to guests when we have them, which isn’t often. Most daughters always think their mom is pretty, but my mom’s pretty… at 5ft 7, dark chocolate brown wavy hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a light summer’s tan that I wish I had.

“It’s nice to meet you, Lyall. My name is Quila, but around here I’m just a mom. I can see your garment bag for your suit so let me hang that up for you in the guest room upstairs and you can change for the party there.”

“Thank you. We came early so Lucy could get ready here. I can help if you need me.”

“How thoughtful of you, but most of the work is done thanks to the rest of the family’s help. I know Lucy is the party planner in the family, but she doesn’t get it anywhere strange.” She does a little hair flip and I bury my face in my hands and laugh.

“And on that note… let’s show you the rest of the family…” I try to hide my blush as I try to find my siblings and dad. Luckily, they all happen to be in one place which was the living room. Everyone watching a TV show or reading a book.

“Hey everyone I’m back safe and sound.” My brother, Lupe who’s 24, and my younger sister, Louna/Lou who’s 16, hug me first, then my dad, Adolphe. My dad and brother were practically copies of each other, some even mistaken them for brothers than father/son. My dad and brother are also redheads with bright blue eyes like me except they have a small beard. While my sister takes after mom with her brunette and wavy hair but has dad’s blue eyes.

“Lucy! You alright!?” Dad asked me worriedly.

“Dad, I’m fine. I came early to get ready for the party tonight, and I brought a friend. The rest will come later. Dad, Lupe, Lou this is Lyall.”

“Nice to meet you.” My dad and Lupe offer handshakes, and Lyall being polite shakes back while Lou hugs him.

“It’s not often Lucy brings home a guy friend as in never…” Lou nudges me and I blush again.

“Ok… thanks Lou for embarrassing me… I’m going to go upstairs to pick out my dress for tonight…” I head towards the stairs behind me and go to my room as quickly as I can before I make a fool out of myself. I hear Lyall follow behind me but he stays outside my door to not invade my privacy. It’s a simple Snow White-esque cozy bedroom. Enough room for my full-size bed, a dresser, vanity, rocking chair, and closet. I look at the formal dresses I had which thank goodness for working in a bridal shop I get a great discount on formal wear.

It’s so hard to choose! I’ve got a variety of colors and styles of dresses and I can never decide. I’m so caught up in deciding that I didn’t hear Lyall sneak up behind me.

“Oh, goodness you startled me!” He wraps his arms around me and kisses me on top of my head.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to scare you. Just wanted to see if you needed any help.

“Oh, thank you, your kind, but I think I can handle it. Why don’t you text Lyna and tell her to come over soon?

“Sure, no problem. I’ll get into my suit soon.” He goes off to the guest room and I hear his phone dial her number. I scan my dresses to decide what to wear, but I finally settle on a knee-length black dress with sheer straps and a sweetheart top with sparkles, with a small silver belt around the waist. I pair it with some silver shoes, some snowflake studs, and a silver bracelet. Satisfied with my look for the night I go across the hall to the bathroom to get showered and put some moisturizer on. After my shower, I hear a car honking outside and realize Lyna and the rest of the pack is here and probably just as confused as Lyall was when we got here. I quickly put on some casual clothes quick to meet them outside.

“Hey, guys! Glad you can make it!”

“Yeah, thanks for inviting us, but why did you bring us to an empty field?”

“Lyall asked the same thing when we got here, but I’ll show you around.” I lead them inside where mom was slaving away in the kitchen getting ready for tonight.

“Hi, I’m Quila, Lucy’s mom, my husband Adolphe, and two other kids are in the living room. You must be her new friends she keeps telling us about.”

“Yes, I’m Lyna Clell, and this is my husband Conall.”

“Nice to meet you Lyna. Lucy’s room is upstairs if you want to finish getting ready.”

“Are you sure you don’t need any help?”

“Oh no I can take it from here and if I need some help, I can ask my other daughter, Lou, to help. Lucy is your hostess tonight and I want you to have a great time. Oh, and guys if you need to get ready ask Lyall where the guest room upstairs is.”

“Thank you, that’s very kind.” Lyna hugs my mom and I lead us girls to head upstairs to my room.

“Your mom is very nice, Lucy. I’m sure catering to an extra ten people isn’t easy on her.” Lyna tells me when we reach my room.

“My mom’s always been that way. Whether it’s one friend or a party, she’s always happy to cook up a feast. So I have some makeup not much, but if you want to borrow some of mine, it’s on the vanity. The bathroom is across the hall if you need it.” I change into my little black dress and heels. Curl my hair a little and do my makeup in the bathroom. Moisturizer, shimmery silver eyeshadow, silver eyeliner, light blush, and the metro red lipstick I wore for Lyna’s party. It wasn’t long before we got all glammed up for the evening. We all come back down carefully not to trip on the stairs in our heels.

“Oh, Lucy you and your friends look beautiful!” My mom hugs me gently trying not to mess up my dress and makeup.

“Thanks, mom. Are you sure you don’t need help?”

“I got it all handled you just go entertain our guests.” We all go into the living room where my dad and siblings are and make ourselves comfortable.

“So Conall, Lyna I haven’t seen you around town much. Are you from the area?” My dad asks them.

“Yeah, we are but we live near the forests outside of town much more peaceful that way.” I’ve never seen Lyna nervous before. My dad can be intimidating sometimes, but the glaring at each other and tension in the room is weird.

“I see. What do you do Conall?”

“I’m a leader of a few territories in the forest. We exchange food, supplies, and anything that we may need.”

“Interesting. We’d love to come to visit you sometime.” I don’t understand why my dad is grilling them like this!? Usually, he’s very kind to the company the few times we have some.

“Sure, we’d be happy to have you. Lucy has been a wonderful guest when she visits us. We consider her family at this point.” Lyna smiles at me and gently squeezes my hand.

“Aww thanks, Lyna. Smells like food is ready, shall we go into the kitchen?” I try to ease up on the tension but dad is practically glaring at them like they had done something.

“We’ll talk after the party, Lucy. It’s important.” Dad pulls me aside to tell me.

“Uh… ok? Am I in trouble?” I ask him cautiously.

“No, you’re just trying to make friends. I just didn’t expect these kinds of friends.” He seemed to emphasize the word these. He glares at them again as they all sit down around the dining room table.

“They’re really friendly people dad. Don’t be mean to them.”

“I won’t be mean as long they don’t give us trouble.”

“What kind of trouble are you expecting?” I ask him worriedly.

“Hopefully none.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about. They have been nothing but kind to me since I met them in my shop.” I try to sound as confident as I can, but I’m shaking in my boots.

“That’s how you met them…”

“I thought you already knew that. Lyna, her girlfriends, and Lyall came into my shop about a month ago looking for her wedding dress, I helped plan her wedding, was in it, and had a great time. You have nothing to worry about with them. They consider me family, and they’re the closest friends I have.” I was getting angry when he kept implying that they were going to cause something.

“Alright, Lucy… I believe you. Come, let’s join the others and enjoy dinner.” Mom really cooked a feast! Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted winter vegetables, dinner rolls, and a wide variety of desserts from pies to cookies.

“Mom, when did you have time to cook this much!?”

“Most of this I was going to make for us anyway, but once I found out we were expecting guests I had to make sure there was enough for everybody.” She smiled at all of us grateful that we were here.

“This looks wonderful Quila thank you.” Conall pats her hand in kindness and she smiles at him.

“It has been a while since we’ve had people over, but I like to make people feel welcome when they do. Now please eat!” We all pile on the delicious food onto our plates and just enjoy each other’s company for the rest of dinner. Soon champagne and sparkly grape juice mostly for Lou who was under 21 was brought out for a toast.

“I’d like to make a toast. To the family and new friends may we all have a wonderful new year. Cheers!” My dad raises his glass and the rest of us do too. The sound of clinking glasses was heard for a minute then we went back to our food and some guys were eyeing dessert. The rest of the night goes well and my dad doesn’t interrogate them for the rest of the night. As it got closer to midnight, some guys went down to the basement to crash on the sofas and couches from too much champagne. Some ladies go upstairs into the extra guest rooms for the same reason. All that’s left is me, Lyall who I’m not sure is asleep or drunk, and my family.

“Well, that was a fun party. What did you want to talk about dad?” As I remembered he wanted to talk to me after the party and this was practically the end.

“Oh, that… it can wait until everyone is soberer. Think most of your friends got wasted on the champagne.”

“Probably true, they rarely have French champagne. I don’t think they’re used to the fancy stuff.” We both chuckled at that.

“No, I don’t think so. Course it’s not exactly something you can find in the forest. Lucy, there’s something that I must tell you since it’s just us.”

“What is it, dad?” I give him a confused look as I lean into him from the couch.

“I know what they are…” I’m in shock and afraid of how this conversation is going to go…