They had planned a welcome home party for me, and yet I had no idea who any of them were. For now, of course. Once I got my memory back I would remember them.

Two young females and a young male pulled long tubes that sprayed confetti everywhere. A confetti bomb, I remembered the name. I found it odd how I remembered the names of things, and yet I didn't remember people or memories.

"We missed you so much!" a lady came and enveloped me in her arms. Feeling awkward, I glanced at Elliot, only to find him looking somewhat awkward as well, pinching the bridge of his nose as he shook his head.

"I know you probably don't remember me so I'll introduce myself," the lady continued, pulling away from me to introduce herself. "I'm Mary Fraid, Elliot's mother, and your aunt." I couldn't help but notice the honey tone of Aunt Mary's voice. She had a short afro with grey highlights in her hair, and it looked so good that I wasn't sure whether it was natural or artificial.

Beside me, Elliot let out a guttural sound, but before I could question it a man extended his hand. "Glad you're okay, Zara," he said. "I'm Harry Fraid, Elliot's father, your uncle." Uncle Harry had a bass deep voice and a fairly large build. His beard and hair were neatly trimmed and both had already started greying.

"And I'm Harley!" One of the young girls who set off the confetti bomb announced. She jumped over the couch she had been behind and gave me a long, tight hug. "I can't believe you don't remember me," she pouted, pulling away. "As I said, I'm Harley, Elliot's sister, your distant cousin." Harley looked to be about 15 years old with black, braided hair. She was fairly darker than Elliot but her eyes were a lighter shade of brown which brought out her features. "I'm your favourite distant cousin, by the way. You told me yourself, you even buy me chocolates every week and—"

Elliot suddenly placed a hand over Harley's mouth, making her next words come out as mumbles.

"You can just call her your cousin, Harley," Aunt Mary told her daughter.

Harley removed Elliot's hand from her mouth and said, "alright." With a glance at Elliot, she amended, "I'm your favourite cousin."

Just then the other young female who had pulled a confetti bomb jumped forward, "I'm Ryley, and I'm your favourite cousin." She had lighter skin, colourful hair and colourful braces. "I'm joking," she laughed at her own joke. "I've never actually met—"

Elliot suddenly broke out into a fit of coughs, cutting into Ryley's words.

"Dude, what was that?" Ryley asked.

"Choked on air," Elliot said quickly, his voice sounding perfectly normal and not as if he had just come from coughing.

"If you're going to fake cough, at least do it properly," Harley remarked.

Elliot didn't bother answering but instead said, "I'll introduce you to everyone," before grabbing me by my shoulders and leading me away and into the living room.

He introduced me to every single relative. I received handshakes and hugs from several people who were still strangers to me at the moment, at least until I regained my memory and remembered them. I knew I was probably going to forget most of their names and who was directly related to who by the end of the day.

Elliot stuck with me the entire time, not leaving my side as I made small talk with everyone. They all didn't know who I was, which I found weird.

"How come they don't know who I am?" I asked Elliot at the food table.

Elliot swallowed and blinked. "Uhh...well..." he stammered before suddenly shoving a whole samoosa into his mouth.

He avoided looking at me then, and I furrowed my brows at that, "Oi, answer my question."

"Hmm?" He asked, then pointed to his mouth to show that it was still full. I watched him, waiting for him to swallow and answer me but he was purposely chewing slowly.

"It's not a hard question," I said and he nodded, agreeing, but then pointed at his mouth again. I rolled my eyes, "fine, I'll ask Aunt Mary."

"What?" He blurted through a full mouth. "No, there's no need."

"Gross, Elliot," I grimaced, planting a hand on his face and turning his head to the side. "Can you swallow first?"

"You're the one who's rushing me," he said, chewing faster before finally swallowing. "I like to savour my food."

"Yeah, sure," I rolled my eyes again. "Usually people who like to savour food don't stuff their mouths. They take petite and reasonable bites."

"I do it differently," he shrugged.

"Well, now that you've swallowed, can you answer me?" I asked. "How come no one—?"

He suddenly grabbed another samoosa and stuffed it into my mouth this time. I only blinked at him before scowling, and he gave me a helpless shrug.

"It's really good," he said. "I didn't want you to miss out."

"I have my own hands," I glared at him, speaking through a full mouth.

This time he turned my face away, "have you never heard of swallow first, talk after?"

I rolled my eyes at that, "look who's talking."

"How are you both doing?" A familiar voice asked, and I turned to see Aunt Mary, just the woman I was looking for.

Remembering my mouth was still full, I began chewing faster and I couldn't help the way Elliot looked at his mother, then at me, and then at his mother again. Why was he acting so weird?

"Mom, I need to talk to you" he began, turning to lead his mother away. "In private. So we should—"

I managed to gulp down the samoosa, but it was still large enough that it took some time to travel down my throat. Once it was gone, I coughed and asked Aunt Mary, "how come no one here knows who I am?"

Elliot took in a breath for some reason and I couldn't help but look at him, confused. I guessed he wasn't the normal cousin.

Aunt Mary smiled softly, "I actually prepared for this."

Elliot looked at his mother, his brows creased as she took out her phone and then turned it to show me a family tree.

"A family tree, mom?" Elliot asked, almost aghast. "You made a whole family tree?"

"Of course I did," she said simply before explaining it to me.

First, she explained how we were related. So basically, we had the same great-grandparents. Elliot's grandparents and mine were siblings, which made his father and mine cousins, and that was what made him and I second cousins.

"So that's the relation," Aunt Mary finished. "Now the reason why no one knows you here is because this is the maternal side of the family, my siblings. So you aren't related to them, but it just makes life easier if we say you are and you call them Aunt and Uncle and whatnot."

"Oh," I nodded in understanding. That made sense. No one ever really knew the paternal side of the family, most of the time. "So I'm guessing I didn't grow up with you guys?"

"Uh, no," Aunt Mary glanced at Elliot before continuing. "Your parents... they um, they passed away recently, yes, that's what happened. They passed away and... well..."

"A lot happened and my father decided to take you in since you're his cousin's daughter and all," Elliot took over. "You didn't stay with us long because you got a job in another city so we mostly talked over the phone. That's it, isn't that so, mother?"

Aunt Mary smiled and nodded.

Before I could ask any more questions, Elliot took my shoulder and led me away, forcing me to speak to more people who I didn't know and who didn't know me either. For most of the things I didn't remember about myself, Elliot filled in for me, and because of that, I knew that I must have been close to him. He seemed to know almost everything about me.

"Would you like some coffee?" one of the aunts offered.

"Uh, sure," I accepted.

"How do you like it?"

"Umm, well..."

"No sugar," Elliot chimed in for me, though his attention was on his phone. "Lots of milk, she doesn't like it too hot."

"Right," I agreed, trusting Elliot knew how I liked it. "I want it like that."

I couldn't believe how much I had forgotten about myself. Elliot had told me that I only ate two types of chocolate, and that wasn't something that one forgot, yet I had.

I took the coffee and was surprisingly satisfied with the taste even though there was no sugar inside. I thanked the aunt and then nudged Elliot with my elbow, "who are you texting?"

"My fiancé, Jess," he told me before taking my shoulders and leading me into the house with him."Come on."

"Wait, you never told me you were married!" I exclaimed.

"I'm not, I'm engaged."

"Same difference."

Elliot planted us in front of the door but before I could ask what we were doing, the front door opened and what looked to be a literal model stepped inside.

"Ellie!" she squealed.

Ellie?

Before I could ask who 'Ellie' was, she ran and jumped into the arms of Elliot.

Oh, Elliot was Ellie.

"I've missed you so much, Ellie" she cried.

"I've missed you too," Elliot told her, though not as enthusiastic.

She pulled back to hold his face in her hands. "I never want to be parted with you for that long ever again."

Elliot smiled and lowered her hands from his face, keeping a hold of her hands, "Jess, this is Zara, the distant cousin I was telling you about. And Zara, this is Jess, my fiancé."

Jess looked at me and smiled a magazine smile, "Hey Zara, nice to meet you."

She was definitely a model. She had to be one. There was no way she wasn't. She had beautiful clear skin, a radiant smile, and glowing hazel eyes. She wore a short dress that brought out her slim, long figure. She was taller than me but shorter than Elliot, and her makeup and hair looked like they had been done by a professional.

"Hi, Jess," I greeted then considered her words. "Wait, have we never met before?"

"Hmm," Jess cocked her head to the side in thought, tendrils of her dark brown falling into her face. "No, I don't recognise you."

I glanced at Elliot then, "you hadn't introduced me to your fiancé?!"

"I... you lived in another city remember?" he reminded me. "I had told you about her on the phone, but I just hadn't told her about you yet."

I nodded but Jess frowned. "How could you not tell me about your cousin?!"

"It just never came up," Elliot told her.

Jess narrowed her eyes at him but finally said, "Okay, fine."

Jess's parents came in shortly after and I understood why Jess looked the way she did, it made sense when she was the product of parents who looked like that. Her dad, Mr Green, looked like some Hollywood actor, and her mom, Mrs Green, looked like a model too. Elliot introduced me to them and then they went to the living room to greet the others. When they were gone, Jess suddenly pulled a cap out from her purse and put it on Elliot's head.

"I got you something," she chirped.

Elliot removed the cap from his head, analysed it and then frowned, "Jess..."

"I know you said you didn't want me to buy you any gifts but—"

"I said don't buy me any unnecessary expensive gifts," Elliot amended. "How much was this?"

"Not much," Jess told him, and when he raised a brow she sighed and confessed, "It was just about $395."

"$395?!" I couldn't stop myself from exclaiming. That could buy me an endless store of...everything. "How is a simple baseball cap so expensive."

"It's not a simple baseball cap," Jess said, and I noted the judgement in her voice. "It's Balenciaga. And it's glow in the dark," she added with a sweet smile to Elliot.

"Jess, I've got enough caps that cost less than $5 each," Elliot sighed. "And I don't need a glow-in-the-dark cap."

"I can have it then," I offered, and Elliot shot me a look. "What? Did I never tell you that getting a Balenciaga glow-in-the-dark cap has been my dream for the longest time?"

Elliot's jaw twitched, but not because he was irritated, it looked like he was trying to hold back a smile.

"I just wanted to get you something,", Jess continued, lowering her eyes. "I wanted you to value me more."

"Spending a lot on me won't make me value you any more than I already do." Jess nodded and then stepped forward before wrapping her arms around him. "Thanks for the cap though," Elliot continued. "I'll make sure to wear it as often as I can."

"I mean, it would be a waste if you didn't," I remarked, still shocked at the price. "I'm going to grab a samoosa since I didn't get to enjoy my last one because of a certain someone," I said with a pointed look at Elliot before I turned to leave. "I could probably start a whole samoosa business with all that cap money."

Jess scoffed behind me. Elliot snickered.