I Love You to Death(42)

Oh. His sister. Right.
"Ha, baby sister, how about younger sister thank you." Mia responds playfully punching Luke in the stomach. He laughs and wraps his other arm around her, pulling her into another hug.
I feel strangely jealous now. I can’t help it. I don’t know if it’s because he and his sister are so close just like Seth and I once were, or because she’s allowed to touch him like that. Maybe it’s both, a stupid voice inside my head tells me.
"You are a baby sometimes Mia. Anyway, this is Ash." Luke says, gesturing to me smiling.
"Ah, Ash," Mia says cryptically, looking up at Luke before extending her hand to me. "Nice to finally meet you Ash."
"You too," I reply shaking her hand, confused at what she means by finally. "Are you visiting from somewhere?" I ask, trying to be nice.
"Yeah, Chicago, just for the weekend though."
"She’s finally coming to watch us play," Luke explains, rolling his eyes at his sister playfully.
"You’ve never seen them?" I ask her, genuinely surprised.
"Unfortunately no, not properly anyway," Mia responds, sticking her tongue out at Luke in response. "But tonight definitely. You’re coming right? You can keep me company while they’re on."
I glance at Luke but he doesn’t say anything, just looks at me now. I don’t know if I am. I’ve been to their shows before and it’s not that I don’t want to go, but as usual I wonder if I should. Both of them are watching me and I can see the resemblance now, they definitely look alike. They both wear identical faces; expectant, almost hopeful expressions. I notice she has the same blue eyes as him.
Finally Luke speaks, his voice sounding a little different to normal. "You’re always welcome to come along Ash; and I’d really like you to."
I take a deep breath. "Okay sure, I’ll come along." I smile, I can’t help it, and I do want to go. He wants me to go, even Mia wants me to go.
"Fantastic!" Mia says as she moves out of Luke’s arms and pulls me into a hug now. I don’t know why she does this, but I feel my own arms go cautiously around her. Okay, I don’t hate her anymore. I’m looking at Luke over her shoulder as we hug and he has a strange look on his face although he’s smiling at me. I wonder what he’s thinking as I look back at him and I’m about to ask, when he mouths thank you to me.
Now I really don’t know what to think.
∞

Sam’s sister never liked me. I don’t know why, maybe it was a protective older sister thing, maybe she never thought I was good enough for him, but from the minute we met, we never got along. Of course by the time he died, she truly hated me, and by then I couldn’t really blame her.
The rest of his family still lived in Seattle, Sam was the only one to have gone away to school and stayed away when he finished. He always told me, "I spent my whole life in Seattle Ash, by the time I got to school, I needed to stay away."
In some ways I could understand that, I’d never even left Providence until I met Sam. Of course when I did, I didn’t really go back, but I hadn’t exactly ventured far. Boston’s only an hour away by train, so in the grand scheme of things, it was hardly a big adventure. But I’m glad I did it, even if it did destroy so many parts of my life, me living in Boston. I understood what Sam meant when he said he needed to get away.
Sometimes I think I should do it again.
When Sam finished at BU and graduated, his whole family came over. I’d never met his parents before, nor his sister or brother. Sam was the youngest and I guess being the baby of the family, he was also the favourite. I remember how protective Seth always was of me, and I felt like I would understand how Ethan and Kate would be protective of Sam. They were, just not in the way I imagined.
When we met them at the airport the day before graduation I remember watching as Sam half-ran towards his family, all of them embracing at once. I remember feeling surprisingly left out as they all stood there chatting, hugging and kissing each other hello, none of them, Sam included, seemingly noticing I was even there.
But then he turned, smiling at me and said, "Guys, this is my girlfriend, Ash." Holding out his hand and gesturing for me to join them.
As I walked over I saw his Mom smile at me, his Dad smiled with raised eyebrows as though he was surprised Sam even had a girlfriend. Ethan just looked blankly at me, whereas Kate outright glared at me. Only Sam was genuinely smiling. Only Sam seemed happy to have me there.
"Nice to meet you all," I said nervously, walking straight towards Sam.
We all went out for dinner that night and to be fair, they did welcome me, they were all nice to me, all except for Kate. At one point during the meal when Sam put his arm around me, she actually scowled at me, as though it was my fault he’d done it and more to the point, it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Later, when we were back at home I said to Sam, "I don’t think Kate likes me very much."
He smiled and said, "She’s just a protective older sister Ash, she likes you, don’t worry. She’s always like this at first."
"So she’s been like this with your other girlfriends?" I asked, not explaining exactly what this was.
"All of them," he smiled. "Every time."
"How many have you had?" I asked.
Sam laughed now. "Yeah there have been a few."
"And she’s like this with all of them?"
Sam hugged me as he said, "She is babe, I promise. Don’t worry she’ll grow on you."