The Good Life

Jack

"Alexander please get up!" I begged Alex. It was eight am and today was Thanksgiving which meant we had five hours to cook everything and straighten up the house before everyone got here.
"My eyes can't stay open." He mumbled.

"Too bad! I told you to go to bed last night but noooooo you and Izzy wanted to stay up watching Netflix." I complained.

"I promise next time I'll listen." He promised, like he always did when this happened. "Can I just have ten more minutes?"

"No Baby! We have to clean up and cook and you and Izzy promised you'd both help. Maybe if you had of cleaned up while you were up last night I would have let you sleep a little longer." I said. I wanted to straighten up yesterday but I was at work until ten and when I came home I went to sleep so I could get up early today.

"Okay I'm getting up." He said as he made no attempt to move.

"It doesn't look like you're getting up." I said.

He moved one leg out of bed and began to pull the cover off of him which was good enough for me. I left our room to go upstairs and repeat this whole process with Izzy. When I made it to her room she was laying in her bed asleep. I went to open her curtains and let the little bit of sunlight we had into her room. She frowned as the rays of light hit her eyes.

"Good morning Princess!" I sang to her. She pulled her blanket over her head and tried to go back to sleep.

"Izzy it's time to get up." I said.

"No." She whined.

"Yes. We have a lot to do!"

She pulled the cover off of her head messing her hair up more. Then she looked down at her alarm clock next to her bed.

"You are not serious." She said.

"Yeah it's time to get up. I want you to go pick up the cakes and cookies from the bakery while your father and I start on the food." I told her. She sat up rubbing at her eyes trying to wake up some more.

"Why do we always eat 'dinner' so early on Thanksgiving?" She sighed.

"I'm not sure but we eat at one so we need to be done with everything by noon."

"We don't need five hours!"

"We obviously do if you and your father take fifteen minutes to do something as simple as waking up."

She grumbled under her breath but got up and went to her bathroom. I went down to the kitchen to start on the two turkeys and two hams because those were going to take the longest to cook. I seasoned them before I went in to work yesterday so that they could marinated in the fridge all night. All I needed to do now was throw it all in the oven.

I started to peel the potatoes when Alex walked in. He looked so sleepy but if he would have listened to me he wouldn't have been.

"Can you-"

"-Coffee first." He said, cutting me off. He walked over to the Keurig and began to make his beloved coffee. I peeled away until I saw him finish making his coffee and take his first sip.

"Can you make the cornbread for the stuffing?" I asked.

"I'm on it." He said, already starting to come alive from one sip.

I cut up the potatoes, once I finished peeling them, and placed them into a pot of boiling water. I love homemade mashed potatoes. Actually I loved all Thanksgiving food and the atmosphere it bought, I just hated the preparation phase.

I reached down into one of our cabinets to get a pot when I felt Alex's hand slap down on my butt. He was definitely wide awake now.

"Could you not?" I laughed.

"I could but I won't." He said slyly and placed his hands on my hips.

"We don't have time for this." I said and I lightly tried to push him away. I didn't really want him to stop though.

"We can spear two minutes. It's not like everyone is going to be here on time." That was true.
I stopped 'fighting' back and let him kiss me. I leaned back against the island in the middle of the kitchen and wrapped my hands around his neck. I could feel him trying to deepen the kiss with his tongue but I wouldn't let him. This was just a rewarding kiss for him actually getting up to help me and because he looked so sexy with messy sleep hair.

I tried to pull away but he grabbed my face and forced me to continue to kiss him. I chuckled into the kiss pulled his hands and my face away. It was a good thing I did because Izzy walked in seconds later.

"Papa, am I going to the bakery that we always go to?" She asked as she grabbed her car keys.

"Yeah the one off of the highway. There should be three cakes: one carrot, one chocolate, and one red velvet. Also there should be a hundred count pack of a variety of cookies." I told her. I know I told everyone to buy dessert but I loved cake from this bakery so I went ahead and bought them. Most of the desserts everyone else bought were going to be pies anyways.

"Okay." She said and left.

"Do you think we could do that...thing again tonight since I enjoyed it so much?" Alex asked once Izzy was gone.

"Hmm sooner or later you're going to be asking me to fuck you." I joked.

"Ha no thank you, fingers are good enough."

"How about we get you a toy?" I already knew his answer but thought I should try anyways.

"Fingers are good enough." He repeated making me laugh. "That's the only thing I'm comfortable with right now." He added.

"Okay we can try it again tonight just the way you like." I said.

"I feel really weird for liking that. I mean it felt amazing. I guess it's the idea of...something being up my ass that's making this all weird for me." He said.

"I'm sure it's because you've probably went your whole life hearing-slash-thinking that liking anal stimulation or sex meant that you were gay or whatever and that's confusing you. But that's not the case. I think you're just bi which is okay." I kissed him on the cheek and he smiled.

"I love you." He said.

"I love you too, but I'd love you more if you started chopping the celery!"

***

I finished the potatoes and macaroni by the time Izzy came back. There was still so much food and cleaning to do I don't think we'll finish in time. I grabbed my phone to text May to see if she was awake and could help us. It didn't take long for her to reply telling me she would be here in a few minutes. I sat my phone down and looked for the potato peeler so I could start peeling sweet potatoes.

As I looked around I saw Alex and Izzy, suspiciously, standing by one of the counters with their backs towards me. I knew they were eating something but their bodies were blocking whatever it was.
"What are you two eating?" I questioned.

"Nothing!" They both said, with their mouths full, sounding completely guilty.

"Okay that's a lie." I said and looked around. I saw the box with cookies in it had be opened. "Are you guys eating the cookies?!" I raised one eyebrow at them.

"What? No! How could you even accuse us of doing something like that?" Alex dramatically said with cookie crumbs on his mouth.

"Sooo if I were to count them I wouldn't get ninety-eight?"

"I can promise you won't count ninety-eight cookies." Izzy giggled and Alex began to laugh along with her. I didn't bother asking them what was so funny, I just began counting two at a time while ignoring them yelling out random numbers trying to mess me up. Of course I came up short.

"I counted ninety-six!!" I yelled at them.

"The lady shorted us!" Izzy said and I rolled my eyes at her.

"Stop it! I know it was you two."

"We had toooooo....check them for poison." Alex lied.

"Un huh of course." I laughed. "You go straighten up the living room." I told Izzy. "And you get over here and finish this stuffing." I told Alex.

"Yes sir." The both mumbled.

"I like it when you get all bossy." Alex jokingly whispered in my ear making me smile.
"You have a serious problem." I chuckled.

I found the peeler and had the sweet potatoes boiling by the time May came over with Evan. They were both in their pajamas like we were.

"Hey what can we help with?" May asked as she stepped into the kitchen.

"Can you make the Oven-Roasted Asparagus please? Just use the black pepper, garlic, and olive oil over there on the counter." I told her.

"You got it." She said.

"Can I help with something?" Evan asked.

"Do you wanna help me clean up?" Izzy asked her cousin.

"Yeah!" He exclaimed running to grab the vacuum from her
.
"Dinner starts at one right?" May asked.

"Yeah well that's what time we told everyone to be here." Alex told her.

"Okay we'll probably leave at eleven-thirty to go get ready." She said. It was just about ten now.

"We should be finished by then with your help." I assured her.

***

We did finish everything by the time May and Evan left. Now we were all getting dressed before our guest got here. Izzy was in our bathroom doing her makeup while Alex and I were fixing our hair. I just can't wait to get this day over with, I'm so exhausted. Alex and Izzy were both sleepy and beginning to become cranky.

“Papa tell Daddy to let me use his straightener for a second. I just need to fix a few parts of my hair.” Izzy complained.

“No I let you use it a few minutes ago. Just use your own.” Alex told her.

“Mine is upstairs and I would have to wait for it to heat up!”

“That’s not my problem.”

I wasn’t going to step in at first, but the door bell rung signaling that our first guest were here. “Hey I know we’re all tired, but you both better put on your happy faces for the next two to three hours!” I yelled at them and left to open the door. It was the Fuentes family holding two pumpkin pies.

"Hi everyone!" I said happily and let them in. They all greeted me and followed me into the living room so we could wait for everyone else.

"Jack thank you again for inviting us to dinner. I've been so busy trying to get everything in order here, I don't think I would have been able to make Thanksgiving dinner for us." Vicki said.

"Oh it was no problem at all. The more the merrier!" I exclaimed. We all kind of just ignored the Vic and Izzy situation to make things easier for us.

One by one everyone else came over. It was one-twenty when everyone finally got here. Surprisingly Cass and Rian were the latest instead of Oli and Hannah. It didn't really matter though, I had the food still on warm in the kitchen so it's not like we had to rush. Well I kind of did want us to rush the faster we ate the faster I could get in my bed and fall asleep. If I was tired, even getting eight hours of sleep, I knew Alex and Izzy were dying of exhaust by now. I'll be sure to let someone else host it next year.

"Okay everything is done so you can eat whenever you're ready." I announced. We didn't say grace or anything before we ate because there were too many different religions/non-religious people here.
Everyone got their food and sat at the new table to eat. It was so much better with us all sitting together like this instead of split up. It was louder with everyone talking over each other but it was still worth it.

***

"Bye!" Alex, Izzy, and I waved to May, Danny, and Evan as they left. They were the last to leave after dinner. It went well despite Oli telling false story's trying to discreetly scare Vic. I was glad to see Austin here because I didn't want him to spend this day by himself. He did seem bummed out without his family which was totally understandable. Everyone enjoyed their food and wine and we decided next year Thanksgiving would be held at Rian and Cass's house, thank God.

It was only five pm but it felt like five am because I was so tired.

"Can we clean up after we rest?" Alex yawned.

"Yeah let's go take a nap." I grabbed his hand leading him to our bed room. I first stopped to place a blanket on Izzy, who was passed out on the couch. Then Alex and I went to lay in our bed.
"Did you enjoy yourself today?" I asked Alex.

"Yeah but I was counting down the minutes for it to end so we could come cuddle and fall asleep." He chuckled.

"You and I both. I think we're going to hold off on hosting holidays for a while."

Notes

Can you tell I wrote this at 2am? That's why everyone is exhausted in this chapter and why I didn't write for the actual dinner part. Next chapter will be better if you don't really like this one!