This chapter is dedicated to everyone that had spent time to read and support this book.

I appreciate all of you, those that had been mentioned earlier and those that I wasn't able to mention (I'm also sorry about that😭)

Thank y'all❤❤

Also unedited :/

*

"Pass the vegetables," my mom hurriedly said and I picked up the tray filled with chopped vegetables from the top of the kitchen counter and handed it to her.

Today is my dad's birthday, we haven't been able to celebrate it with him for a number of years now and we had so much plans for it but when we reminded him, he'd suggested that he didn't want a big party or anything like that, just dinner with family.

Dinner together might be a normal thing for other families but not really for mine because we rarely ate together or on the dining table even.

Mom and Dad comes home sometimes after dinner, Ivy usually eats in her room while streaming Netflix or doing whatsoever with her phone, Kelly eats in the sitting room, right infront of the TV or with her headphones over her ears.

As for me, I'm either out with friends but when I'm home, I tend to eat on the dining table....alone.

So yeah, it was kinda a big deal.

Timothy and I have been officially together for a while now. He asked me out like a week back over icecream.

Like, I heard two of my favorite things in front of me!

I informed my family and my close friends about it a few days later, Mom claimed that they've met a few times and he had brought me home once when I was drunk.

That made me blush out of embarrassment though.

My sisters were glad that I'd moved on from my stupid past, I also do wish Ivy would too.

And well Roxie,

Let's just say she'd been teasing me and trying to make me go deaf by her repeatitive statements of 'I told you so,' or 'I knew you two had a thing,' or 'I seriously dreamt about this, I think I should become a prophetess.'

So because of the reason listed above, Timothy and his family were also invited and so was Roxie and Rielle because according to my parents, they'll like to know more about our 'new' friends.

It was a little more of mom's but idea because she was clearly still uncomfortable about Roxie, finding out about her background and all, she claims that she's either dangerous or a bad influence.

But yeah, there's more to her than it meets the eye and besides, I perfectly know how to handle her already.

Kelly and Ivy were setting up the table while I helped my mom in the kitchen.

I'd never really acknowledged the need for a rectangle shaped dining table with twelve chairs till today.

It was around four in the afternoon and the dinner was scheduled for six in the evening so we needed to make everything ready before time.

"Okay girls, go hit the shower and get dressed while I finish uo here and find a way to drag your dad back home through the phone," my mom ordered.

My dad was stubborn enough to still leave for work today and my mom wasn't taking it. There could be World War III if he doesn't come back home on time.

The door opened just in time and my dad walked in.

"I'm here...I'm here, I'm also early. I can bet that you ladies are already planning my execution," he stated, grinning from ear to ear to ease the surrounding air.

"Thank your stars you came home on time, it might be your birthday but you still have no right to be late," my mom scolded.

"Okay...easy, okay. I'm here and I'm early," my dad persuaded, walking closer to her.

"No, I won't take it easy, I've worked so hard for this," she complained.

He got to her and embraced her calmly.

"Don't overstress yourself, okay? I can handle the rest if you want," he said, stroking through her hair, still in the same cuddly position.

"It's not that...I just want everything to be perfect."

"It already is," he replied, glancing at three of us through her shoulders.

And we took that as our cue to quickly get to our rooms and get ready before our mom spots us still standing....and staring.

*

"Stella, go get the door, I think it's your boyfriend and his family!" My mom said, a bit louder than she's supposed to if I may add.

I swiftly adjusted my floral kneel lenght gown and quickly combed through my hair.

I opened the door and it was just Roxie and her sister at the door.

"It seems like you were expecting someone else, huh?" Roxie stated.

"Whatever, just get in...Rielle, it's very nice to see you, please come in."

Rielle slightly hit Roxie on the head before walking in.

"Respect yourself," she shout-whispered at her.

Roxie had a very annoyed look on her face but I doubt she could do anything about it.

Just as I walked them to the dining room, Kelly screeched and ran over to meet Roxie.

I'm glad that at least, the both of them are getting along, so is Ivy and Rielle.

The door bell rang again, I didn't need a prophetess to tell me that the Stones are here.

I walked as fast as I could and opened the door to behold my boyfriend's family.

It sounded so weird...but yeah, I gotta get used to it.

Timothy stood in front, must have been the one that rang the bell, clad in a red shirt and black plain trouser.

Oh wait.

It was Tristan.

Don't ask me how I knew. I just...did.

He walked in, so as their mom and Olive and I noticed that Timothy wasn't with them.

Their mom smiled at me and I smiled back before Olive embraced me, it took me by suprise though but I hugged back.

When they both passed by, I looked foward and Tristan was still standing in front, staring at me with a cocky grin plastered on his face.

Even if he was more built and looked a bit taller than Timothy, he still doesn't have those dimples.

Yeah...dimples.

"You've not changed, huh?" I asked.

"Oh...c'mon, I won't try to flirt with you, you're like the first girl and probably the last that my brother happens to be interested in...so yeah...I'll respect that," he replied before flashing his teeth at me and walking in.

I looked towards the door and I could already see Timothy coming from a distance, wasn't overdressed as usual, just a blue shirt and black jean.

But ofcourse, it was the simplest of him that captured my heart in the first place.

When he got to where I was, he hugged me tightly before whispering into my ear, "My baby's looking good tonight."

"Stop it," I blushed profusely, making a little space between the two of us.

"And you smell good too," he said, walking closer to me.

"Let's just go to the dining, every one might be waiting for us," I said, walking towards it and dragging him along with me.

*

My dad blew the candles on the cake and there was a round of applause round the table.

"What did you wish for?" Kelly asked.

"C'mon, isn't it meant to be a secret?" I replied.

"Oh yeah...right," she replied.

"Nevermind...it's simple, I wished for one happy family, you'know, I won't die early if I get to see all these happy faces everyday," my dad answered.

"Oh...Tony, who talks about death on their birthday?" My mom scolded.

"Oops...sorry, my bad," he playfully replied, putting his hands up in surrender to avoid my mom's further troubles.

After that, food was served and everyone has already started diving in before dad spoke up.

"Timothy."

Timothy who was seated just beside his brother on the opposite side of the table shot his head up and looked towards my dad who was surprisingly looking fiercer than usual.

"A little birdie told me that you're in a relationship with one of my daughters," he started.

Does he really have to do this? Like right here? Right now? My cheeks were already burning out of embarrassment.

"Yes sir, the little birdie was right," he replied, looking towards me and it made me blush even harder.

My dad smiled at him.

"Maybe we could talk better some other time, you'know...man to man," my dad finally said and I silently prayed nothing was going to go wrong.

Later on, the table was filled with chattering, laughing, arguments about random things and a few bonding moments between the parents and kids.

So far. So good.

My phone beeped loudly, indicating that a notification or message just popped in but I know that it wasn't a good habit using your phone during a family dinner so I ignored it.

It beeped loudly again and that caused a few stares to land on me.

As I was just about to take a sip out of my wine, it beeped again.

What the hell?

I brought out my phone to at least mute it but then I noticed that I had three unread messages from....

Timothy?

I looked up at him and he seemed interested in whatever he was talking about with Tristan.

I opened the message out of curiosity and the first one read;

'This place is kinda noisy, how about we go somewhere more...quiet :)'

What?

The second one read;

'Just wanted your phone to beep twice to get your attention.'

That made me smile subconsciously.

The third one read;

'You're probably gonna check it out after the third beep.'

I looked up at him and this time he was looking at me too.

'You've been a bad boy lately,' I typed back and almost immediately, he replied back.

'And you've been a good one too.'

I looked at him again, grinning from ear to ear and he smiled back at me.

I seriously feel like I could look at that smile for the rest of my life.

'And those dimples.'

Yeah. Those dimples.

~T.H.E.          E.N.D.~

•••••••
Thank y'all for getting to this point with me❤

This is the end but not technically the end, we've still got a short epilogue and a very important note after that.

:)