03

« Hey ! Hey ugly, over here ! » Elijah yelled over to a pink-haired girl that had her back to them.

She instantly turned at the sound of his obnoxious yelling, lifting her black sunglasses up to rest on top of her head. Dressed in a comfy-looking matching loungewear set ; pink shorts and a cropped sweater, she hurried towards them gripping onto the pink neck pillow around her neck.

Rainy took a wild guess speculating that pink must have been the girl’s favourite colour.

She looked exactly like Elijah minus his piercings and tattoos. Same height, same face, same enticing smirk.

« Ugly ? You better watch that mouth of yours ! » The woman with brightly coloured hair bit back shoving her brother’s arm. She stuck her tongue out at him teasingly tackling him in for a big hug. Once they pulled apart, she looked over at Rainy who waited patiently for an introduction.

« This is my little sister Eliza. » With a pause, Elijah cleared his throat. « El, this is Rainy. » He already seemed more on edge then he had been introducing her to his aunt’s and uncle.

She had heard all about Eliza, she knew she had to impress his sister as he had the utmost respect for her. He spoke about her all the time so she needed to make a lasting impression.

« Little ? We’re twins, and I’m two minutes older than you dipshit. » Eliza bickered. She looked at Rainy and grinned brightly. « Rainy ! How are you ? I’ve heard so much about you that I feel like we’ve known each other for years. »

She couldn’t react in time because before she knew it she had been pulled into the tightest hug.

Rainy laughed briskly, feeling the breath being knocked out of her lungs as the welcome hug became tighter by the passing second. « Oh please, Eli speaks about you all the time… Wow, I just love your hair ! » She rambled.

They fell into a comfortable conversation gushing over one another, it wasn’t long before Elijah shouted at someone else.

« Finally, why are you always so late ? »

Calling yet another person over. Finally. Last but definitely not least.

She didn’t know how many more introductions she could take.

Eliza unexpectedly let out a boisterous chortle, having joined Elijah, both of them were busy speaking buoyantly to whom Rainy could only presume to be their favourite uncle. The only relative that was closest in age to the twins and the one that let them do whatever they wanted.

Rainy remembered Eli telling her that this was the Uncle that had given him his first cigarette and his first sip of alcohol. He clearly meant a lot to him since he saw him as the fatherly figure in his life as his relationship with his own father was unfortunate.

She wasn’t sure whether she was excited to meet his father or if she was scared. She had no idea what he meant by ‘unfortunate.’

« Babe come over here. » Elijah mentioned, motioning for Rainy to come over. « I’d like you to meet my Uncle. »

Rainy smiled radiantly as she lifted her head up to look at the last family member.

« Rainy this is my Uncle Silvester, but everyone calls him Silver. Silver, this is Rainy, my girlfriend. »

« -Did you just say Rainy ? » A deep voice asked in confusion, only now zoning into the conversation. He looked across to see the familiar face and stopped in his tracks.

Rainy’s eyes widened but she didn’t make a scene, she knew her bulging eyes did enough talking. She could barely fathom what was happening at that moment watching the way his face changed from calm to pure disbelief.

He was wearing a white t-shirt that she was surprised to see displayed defined muscles underneath. His curly dark hair had sunglasses in them and he seemed to look a lot more relaxed and at ease.

Surely this had to be a joke right ?

Professor Rivera.

That was his freaking favourite uncle ?

Opening her mouth to let out an amused laugh and elucidate the fact that she was already well acquainted with the man standing in front of her, Professor Rivera cleared his throat, beating her to it.

« Never heard of a name like that before, nice to meet you Rainy. »

He had extended his hand out, waiting for her to take it.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Rainy found herself mentally cursing the infuriating child stuck behind her and fell back against her seat harshly with the hope to get him to stop kicking the back of her chair. He had been at it for the last half hour and slowly yet surely she was losing her mind.

She had taken the window seat with Elijah in the middle and Aunt Lisa on the other side of him. Though the seat beside him was currently empty due to Lisa arguing with the flight attendant to move her to a spare window seat, of course, after her drunken self had caused up quite the commotion, they had reluctantly agreed to letting her have a window seat.

The second in-flight movie began, and as Rainy settled in to try and watch it, she felt herself being lunged forward again.

Cramped conditions. No leg room, even for her short frame she was squished. A perky hostess flitting up and down the aisle, pushing a trolley with a mandatory squeaky wheel, throwing packets of impossible to open peanuts in every direction. Babies screaming, kids running riot, parents ignoring said kids. That was it.

She desperately needed to take a well-deserved break.

« I need to use the, uh, restroom. Yeah the restroom, be right back. » She muttered getting up from her seat quickly, though she didn’t seem to get very far when she collided into a pair of sprawled out legs. « Eli ! »

Elijah let out a half snore, his blue-green eyes snapping open at the sound of his name only to see Rainy staring down at him angrily.

« Huh ? » He murmured cluelessly, the wonderful sight of stringy drool hanging from his chin.

She gave him a look of genuine repulsion, scrunching her nose up. Standing in front of him, she placed one hand on her hip and huffed. « Have you been sleeping this entire time ? »

« No. » He exclaimed in a defensive tone that made her roll her eyes.

Rainy had been talking to him the entire plane ride thus far ; she had been so busy staring out the window to even notice that he had been fast asleep. Now she understood why he hadn’t been responding, she just assumed he had been so engrossed in what she had to say that he simply didn’t have time to respond.