Ch.42

The next day, the morning was pretty uneventful for my family, though I am not sure about the Dunphy Cabin. During the next few hours, Alex, me along with Rome, Carlos, and the twins hang out outside doing some hiking. Then found a small lake nearby and relaxed by it until the large dual family dinner later. 

"I wish we could bring Rome with us back to Cambridge," Alex says while Rome is playing catch with her. 

Carlos is talking with Eric as both talk about the several different women they slept with over the years. While Maya is reading a book near the water and just enjoying her relative silence. 

"Yeah, maybe once we graduate we can bring him with us," I say as Rome brings back the ball Alex just threw. 

'Though he is getting pretty old now and most likely only has a few years left,' I think saddened at the thought of losing my best dog friend. 

"Yeah," Alex says smiling though I can see she has the same thoughts as me. 

"Guys we should head back, it is getting close to the time," I say as everyone stops what they are doing and we all head back to the cabin. 

Arriving there we all get changed and as a large group head over to the Dunphy cabin. Walking up to the door we hear the family arguing inside like they normally do. Alex with a sigh doesn't wait and just opens the door ushering everyone inside. At our appearance the family stops arguing, however, we see a surprise inside and it explains the arguing. 

"Well fuck," I say as my family turns to me all confused at my surprised face. All except for Alex and Carlos, though Carlos just lets out a heavy sigh. 

Inside the house, other than the Dunphys and the Prittchets, are Andy and his fiancée, Beth. Alex lets out a defeated chuckle seeing Andy is still here, but now too is his fiancée. 

"¿Podemos beber hoy?" (Can we drink today?) I say to my family as my parents look over to us, with a thoughtful look they determine my question. 

"Que beban, ya lo hacen en la universidad," (Let them drink, they already do it at university) my Mom's Dad and my Grandfather say speaking up for me, then winks at me. 

The twins have no idea what we are talking about, though Alex and Carlos knowing Spanish look over with interest waiting for the answer. 

"Bien, pero no te excedas," (Fine, but don't overdo it) Mom says with a sigh as the Dunphys and Prittchets come over to greet everyone. 

"What was that?" Eric whispers to me as everyone starts mingling. 

"I asked if we could drink tonight, my parents are cool with it, but said to not get drunk," I whisper back to Eric who nods his head excited now, as Maya sighs looking at Eric's face. Though Alex was the one who told Maya what we discussed. 

There were still a few hours before dinner was officially ready, so in the meantime, people walked around mingled, and played games that were around the dinner party. A lot of the games were more 'mature' games, like poker, cards against humanity, board games, and other older adult-themed games. Nothing like you would see at a college or high school party. 

Haley seemed to be avoiding Andy and Carlos at all costs, by staying near her mom and talking with her. Or Haley would disappear to wherever for half an hour at times. Carlos looked better mentally prepared, as it seemed he came to terms with what happened, though still didn't have anything to do with Andy. 

'I wonder if Andy's fiancée cheated on him and if he is going to admit to her he cheated too,' I think seeing them awkwardly talk with people they do not know that well. 

Eric was a social butterfly so he was practically the life of the party as he hit it off with everyone. Maya was the complete opposite avoiding people as best she could and standing in the corners of the party observing from a distance. Joe and Olivia being close in age were friends and hung out with Lily being like a mother hen and watching over them. 

"The party is going very well, I thought it would have fallen apart by now," I whisper to Alex who is playing the game of life with me and our parents. 

"Yeah, though that is because the offending parties are avoiding each other at all costs," Alex says to me as she spins the centerpiece which determines how many spaces she can move. 

"Ed, Phil, Gabe, come on outside. All the men are gonna talk while the women talk," my Dad's Dad and my other grandfather says to us interrupting the game right as it ended with Claire winning due to her extremely competitive nature. 

"Looks like I won at Life again!" Claire says rubbing it in everyones faces, while Phil, my Dad, and I get up and follow my grandfather outside to the porch. 

Walking outside we see all the guys from both families already outside and talking joking around. Funnily enough, Cam was the one to come outside while Mitch stayed inside with the women, though most of us already knew Cam was the more 'masculine' one of the two. Jay was passing around drinks, to everyone, even Luke and Manny while telling them to not tell their mothers. 

"I don't know…" Manny says as Luke takes the beer with an excited look and Manny appears hesitant. 

"Yeah, beers not that great, you'd probably like tequila or whiskey," Andy says trading his whiskey with Manny's beer. 

"Ed, Gabe, Phil what do you'll want?" Jay says seeing us come outside as my Grandfather takes a seat next to my other grandfather with both taking out cigars to smoke. 

"I'll take a whiskey," I say as Jay nods his head making me one. 

"Same," Dad says with Jay quickly making two whiskeys on the rocks. 

"Why not, might as well take the same," Phil says with Jay just rolling his eyes and making another for his 'favorite' son-in-law. 

"So, Gabe, I didn't get to ask you yet, but how is Harvard?" Cam says walking over to me with a glint of excitement in his eyes at the gossip about my time at Harvard. 

"It was… ok, I guess," I say since I really couldn't care less about the things that happened this semester. 

"Jesus, Gabe, come on tell him about the parties and other crazy things the club made us do!" Eric says taking over the conversation and telling Cam everything that we did. Cam listened with full attention taking mental notes of all the details. 

I just walked away leaving the two, walking over to Andy, Phil, my Dad, my Uncle, my two grandfathers, Jay, Carlos, Manny, and Luke. Everyone had a cigar with one quickly passed to me. Lighting it up, I see Manny has a disgusted face pretending to smoke the cigar along with drinking the whiskey. While Luke is trying his best to be like everyone else. 

"How's high school?" I ask Luke and Manny breaking the silence between everyone who was just enjoying the drinks and cigars. 

"Same bullsh– crap," Luke says then glances at his Dad before quickly changing his words. Manny just nods his head agreeing with Luke's statement. 

"Any idea what you want to do after you graduate?" I say to them. 

"Nope, haven't really thought about it," Luke says as he still has another year to determine what he wants to do. Manny looks to be lost in thought about what he wants to do. 

"I'd want to maybe try being a director or something similar in the entertainment business," Manny says after thinking about it, Jay rolls his eyes hearing Manny but says nothing. 

"You could join me in being a relator," Phil says to Luke who laughs shaking his head. Now Phil looks offended that his son laughed at his profession. 

"No offense Dad, but that sounds boring as hell," Luke says as we all just look back to Manny who shakes his head at Luke's dismissal. 

"What made you want to go into the 'show business' so to speak," I say to Manny before Phil or Luke can begin arguing. 

"I always liked films and the more I watched, the more I wanted to make my own. To tell a story," Manny says with a very excited and hopeful look on his face thinking about the future. 

"Manny, maybe try something… something more lucrative," Jay says having heard enough of Manny's seemingly farfetched dreams. 

"And what? Become a corporate drone like everyone else?!" Manny says with an annoyed face before getting up and walking inside to join the women. Leaving his drink and cigar behind. 

"Cool, more for me," Luke says before Phil grabs Manny's untouched drink and cigar. 

"No, you've had enough," Phil says as Luke grumbles. 

"What about you Gabe? Still passing everything with flying colors?" my Mom's Dad asks me refocusing the topic. 

"Yeah, still sleeping and getting perfect scores," I say with a smirk to him as Carlos grunts in annoyance. 

"Fucking cheater," Carlos says as everyone laughs knowing my perfect memory. 

"What about you and Alex?" Carlos then says with a smirk on his face trying to embarrass me since Phil and Luke are right here. 

"We are good," I say to him with narrowed eyes telling him to drop it. 

"You guys still enjoy living together? Using protection?" Carlos says with an evil smirk at the end. Phil now looking at me with a very intent look, as Luke looks grossed out. 

"Shut the fuck up Carlos," I say as he laughs it off. 

"Though in all seriousness, you two have only gotten closer… Do you think about the future of that?" Dad says breaking the laughter from everyone as now he and Phil have the most curious faces, along with everyone else. 

"Are you asking if I am thinking about popping the question?" I say to my Dad with an annoyed look. 

"Wait you and Alex aren't already engaged?! The way you two live your lives makes it seem you guys already are!" Eric says as he and Cam rejoin the group conversation after healing everyone laughs. Though I know Eric is now trying to mess with me like Carlos. 

"Gabe, you have my full blessing!" Phil says excitedly while Jay nods his head fully approving of Alex and me. 

"Ok, first, Eric is just an ass. Second, I do love Alex and I've heavily considered that topic… However, I want to wait until after we graduate or maybe our last year before my medical school or her graduate school to ask her," I say to everyone who nods their heads understanding my reasons. 

"See so they basically are married already, it's just not made official is all," Eric says with a shrug and everyone nods their heads. 

Then the next couple of hours everyone talks about everything and anything as laughter breaks out once in a while. Then once we all finished our drinks and cigars we headed back inside. There we saw the women all talking, with Manny having fun too. Then dinner finally came as everyone found a seat to eat. 

Right after everyone was done eating their fill, we all made our back to the living room and family room. There more people talked, then drama finally broke out. Here I thought we'd finally have a normal night and leave without any drama. However, it appears Andy and his fiancée had different plans. Plus it was something even I was not expecting.