Cash’s POV
“Cash! It’s nearly time to go! Your Aunt, Uncle, and cousins are already on their way! Go get Royal!” My mom was always over dramatic about this stuff.
“I can just text him to meet us there!”
“Don’t you dare young man! He is not driving 3 hours on his own! Drag him here if you have to!”
With that I walked to the next door and banged on the door until someone answered.
“What, what, what!” Royal flung the door open and stared at me, “what?”
“It’s time to go and my mom told me to come get you.”
“You could’ve texted me the address.”
“That’s what I said. Now grab a shirt and a bag with swim trunks and a towel and come on.”
In a couple of minutes I was actually dragging Royal along with me as to not give him enough time to worry about his hair or makeup. In my experience with this particular Hawkson child is that he is extremely insecure when he isn’t up to perfection. Probably from being in the spotlight since birth. If you give him enough time he will look like a completely different person. And I don’t know why, but I found him attractive… both ways….
“I dragged him for you Ma!” I said walking over to the car where everyone was already loaded.
“Good, now get in.”
With that I got in and pulled Royal behind me not letting him back out last minute. This was going to be a long ride.
At the park
During the drive Royal had successfully made himself as small as possible gaining little attention from the rest of the occupants of the car. Of course me and Royal were on our phones 99% of the time. Samuel and Fern were arguing the entire time about who got what and where and whatever else. Mom and dad were either dealing with the bickering or talking so no one really got a good look at anyone or the situation until everyone was piling out.
Aunt Irene and Uncle Luke, along with their five munchkins, had gotten here about 5 minutes before us and had set up the things they brought. So they were really just waiting for us to arrive and the look on their face when Royal got out was something else.
Sure he wasn’t wearing makeup this time around, not that they’d be able to tell from that distance, but he was wearing shorts and a tank top exposing more tattoos than before along with still having all his piercings in and this time around his hair just fell around his face. Now that I think of it maybe I should’ve let him change and do his hair. Luckily Irene and Luke just shrugged it off and walked away. Dad was holding in his displeasure as to not have a repeat of yesterday, as mom dragged him to the picnic table. And the younger kids ran to either play at the park or walked to the park and pretended to be too old for it.
“Wow, umm… hi, I’m Jo. Just in case my pronouns are They/Them,” yes, my baby cousin flirting with any hot person they see.
“Royal… he/him,” he was most likely oblivious to those eyes that just screamed ‘Marry Me’.
“That’s a cool name and I bet it would sound even prettier if it were screamed.”
“Thanks… I think?”
“Ok, then hotshot,” I pulled Jo away from Royal, “calm your rockers. That’s a Hawkson.”
“As in the Hawkson family.”
“Yep.”
“Then why is he here?”
“Cause dad was an asshole yesterday, mom forced me to invite him, and I forced him to come.”
“Aww, if I knew you were into the guy I wouldn’t of flirted with him,” I blushed hard for some reason, “chill, dude, I was joking.”
“I’m not into him. I just don’t think he’s too bad of a person,” They rolled their eyes and turned back to Royal.
“So, Royal?”
“Yes?”
“What made you decide to get all those tattoos. They look cool on you and do you want to go get another together sometime.”
“One, I want to live, so, no thank you. Two, a shit ton of bad decisions and influences.”
“Do you not like them?”
“I like them now. Most of them I got because I liked them, but my first 5 or so I got because other people told me t0,” I’ve never heard this story before. Both Jo and I waited for him to continue, but it didn’t look like he was going to.
“So,” we had finally joined the picnic table with the rest, “which tattoo hurt the worst,” I looked around the table the parents had stopped their conversation when they heard Jo talk so passionately about tattoos.
“Depends, long or short term,” of course Royal was oblivious. Royal was either great or terrible in social areas, there was no in between.
“Both.”
“The honeycomb pattern on around my knee or the lightning running down my side are some of my bigger tattoos in very sensitive areas so they hurt like a mother…,” I smacked him lightly, “very badly when they were being done, but they also healed quickly. Then the moon pattern I have running down my spine hurt the most during the healing process. And I just recently got a new tattoo and it’s still in the healing phase,” she looked at the tattoo he pointed at.
“That’s so cool. Which piercing hurt the worst?”
“In the moment probably any of my 3 helix piercings. Long term it’s my nose piercing. Although none of the piercings that I have actually hurt that much.”
“Cool!” They were getting an idea in their head and Royal was fueling it.
“Whatever it is no. I swear if you come home with a tattoo or piercing I will kill you Jo Jackson,” Irene shut it down quickly, but I knew they were still thinking about it.
“What’s your favorite tattoo?”
“I don’t know? They all have a meaning to them in different ways. What’s your favorite tattoo?”
“Well, I can’t see them all.”
Royal just took off his shirt he obviously didn’t care, “you can see all, but one full tattoo on my foot and the lightning on my side goes down further,” no one was really paying attention to his tattoos anymore. Instead we were looking at the scar’s running all across his chest.
“You don’t have that many chest tattoos.”
“I’m waiting to find ones to put on there. Plus it’s a sensitive area.”
“I like this one a lot,” they ran their hand against a tattoo on his collarbone that was Fuck You and Love You mashed together, “what does it mean?”
“I was in love with someone I shouldn’t have been in love with. Got it right after my heart was broken.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine…. Now what are we doing sitting around let’s go have some fun,” he grabbed Jo’s hand and walked to the playground with the little kids avoiding any questions.
“I’m starting to think that he’s not such a bad guy. Just one who doesn’t necessarily know what’s right and what’s wrong,” I started the conversation up again.
“Maybe, I was wrong about him a little. He seemed hurt?”
“I told you two boys you can’t hate someone for being a certain way without showing them any other option.”
Loud laughs and giggles was coming from the playground. When I turned my head a saw that somehow Royal had convinced the older kids to start playing with the younger ones while having fun himself. He was smiling and swinging Milo around.
“That boy is a miracle worker. Are you sure he’s a Hawkson?” Aunt Irene questioned, “Isaac and Jo both didn’t want to come saying they were too old for the park and he’s successfully making them both have fun.”
“I’ve gotten to know him a lot recently and he’s a good guy when he wants to be. But that’s making me question why does he not want to be that way all the time?”
“I don’t know why, however, it’s obvious he’s got a soft spot for kids,” Uncle Luke chipped in.
“He’s got 7 sisters. Pretty good with them too.”
Both Uncle Luke and Aunt Irene looked at me like a was crazy, “who the hell has or wants that many kids?” Luke was questioning existence right now.
“I can barely handle these 5 how does their mother handle all of them?”
“Simple, they’re rich. Royal and the rest of them grew up being taken care of by nannies or even just each other.”
“Poor kids.”
“They’re turning out alright at least. Royal seems like a nice young man despite all of that,” Luke moved his hand gesturing to the appearance everyone is so fixated on.
That’s when Royal’s phone, which was still on the table rang, “Royal! Your phone is ringing!”
“What! Who is it?!”
I looked at the caller I.D. “Someone named Max!” He put Milo down walked to me and grabbed his phone, harshly.
He answered and walked a few feet away. After a couple of seconds, Royal was fuming, “WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU WANT! YOU BITCH!”
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