After we walked out, it was like a bubble had been burst. Everyone started talking at once.
"Oh my gosh! A party!" Tara said excitedly.
"What am I going to wear?" Sarah asked.
"I get to see Lance!" Melanie said. "Oh, I've really missed him."
I started laughing at them. "You guys are such dorks! Mel, you just saw Lance yesterday, Sarah, you have a full closet full of clothes, and Tara, well, yes, it is a party! But, I, on the other hand, am going to meet my brother!"
"Hey, we might be dorks, but that's why you love us!" Melanie said as I rolled my eyes at her.
"Right?" Tara asked, in a serious manner.
I finally agreed, "Right!"
We got into Sarah's car and headed back to her apartment. "Guys, I am so nervous! I mean, first I meet my dad and I finally know why he left and stuff, and then I discover I have a brother who is a huge singing star overseas!" I said to them. "This is a lot for one day. What if he's mean? What if I end up hating him? What if I've already met him I just don't know he's my brother. Wha..." I started as Melanie cut me off.
"What if you would stop being so worried and lighten up? You always told me you'd wanted a brother. Now you have one! You just need to go out and have fun tonight...don't be sad! They're might be cute guys there!" she said as I smiled, knowing she was thinking of Lance.
"You're right, I just need to lighten up. Hey, guys, how come you barely said 1 word in there?" I asked suddenly changing the subject.
"Because, you needed to talk, not us, he is your dad," Sarah said as Tara cut in.
"We didn't want to interfere."
"You guys know what?" I asked them.
"What?" they all said, repeatedly.
"You're the best friends in the whole world! Thank you!" I said with a smile.
Sarah chirped in from the drivers seat and said, "Well we already knew that!"
We turned on the radio and talked small talk the rest of the way home. We decided to make use of the warm Florida sun and go to the pool, since we still had about 4 hours before we needed to get ready.
Luckily, Sarah's apartment complex had a pool. We all grabbed our swimsuits and headed toward the pool. We were all really hungry so we also got some food to bring with us. We found some chairs and after we finished eating, Sarah, Melanie and I got in the pool while Tara worked on her tan. Even 3 and a half hours before we had to get ready to leave we were talking about what to wear.
"Well, I'm guessing it wouldn't be too fancy," I said.
"Yeah," Melanie and Sarah agreed.
"Well, I think I'm going to wear that cute blue skirt I have," I told them.
Melanie looked at me questionably at first then realized what I was talking about. "Ooh, the one that goes down to your knees with that cute design on it?"
"Yeah, that one. And I'll wear maybe just a tank top or something."
"OK, well, I have that cute white skirt. But, I just got these new pans, and they're lightweight, and it would be..." Sarah continued when me and Melanie looked up to see Tara had fallen asleep.
Lucky for us, her lounge chair happened to be right by the pool so we looked at each other and realized we had the same idea. Sarah stopped talking when she realized what we were thinking about and got an evil grin on her face. We all went to the side of the pool where she was and splashed her. She all the sudden woke up and sat straight up.
"Jessie, Sarah and Melanie, I'm going to kill you! I was asleep and you got me all wet and..." Tara kept going on and on while we just laughed at the expression she had had on her face.
We stayed a little while longer at the pool but then decided we'd better go back. Since Sarah had 2 bathrooms' in her apartment it wouldn't take us that long to get ready.
Tara and I got the bathrooms' first as Melanie was trying to help Sarah decided on what to wear. I went in and washed my hair thinking about the day. How just a couple hours ago I met my Dad, the man I've been wanting to know for 18 years. How I have a brother, and that my life has changed so drastically in this past day, but in a good way.
I took a pretty short shower and just decided I would let my hair dry naturally, because it gets so curly. I had gotten the outfit before so I put it on. It was a knee-length blue skirt and a white short sleeve V-neck shirt. I walked into Sarah's room and could tell she was discouraged.
"Mel, you can have the bathroom," I told her as she walked out. "OK, we are going to find you an outfit to wear," I said as I started to look through her closet.
15 minutes later she had decided on a white short skit and a red tank top. "Thanks Jess, I'm going to go get ready," she said and walked out.
An hour later we were finally ready, and it was now 5:30. Sarah had told us it would take about 15 minutes to get to the Harless' part of town, but we might have trouble finding the house. We got our purses and everything we thought we might need and went back out to the parking lot. We got in the car and about 20 minutes later we found the house. It was the only house on the block that had about a million cars in front of it. We parked and got ready to go up to the door when all the sudden I had that nautious feeling again.
As if Sarah knew what I was feeling she asked, "Are you OK, you seem nervous."
"Well, I am," I said.
"Don't be, go have fun, meet your brother, and party, OK?" Sarah asked as I smiled.
She always knew how I was feeling and always helped me look on the bright side of things. "OK," I said.
We walked up to the door while Tara rang the bell. A woman with curly blond hair and a friendly looking face answered the doorbell. "And you must be Jessie," she said looking at me.
"Yes, I am. Are you Mrs. Harless?" I asked.
"Yes, now girls, please come in!" she said as I already felt comfortable with. She was one of those people whose presence made to feel like you already knew her. We walked in and saw lots of people inside. "Well, let's see," she said turning to her right as she tapped two boys and they turned around. Melanie, Tara and I all noticed that the one on the left was Lance.
"Jessie, Tara...Melanie," he said as his eyes grazed over to her and looked straight into her eyes, surprised to see them there.
"Well, I see you've already met. Well, that of course is Lance, and over there is Joey," Mrs. Harless said.
Joey looked at all 4 of us but took Tara's hand since she was closest and kissed it. "How do you do?" he asked her.
Tara stood still and all the sudden her face turned a lovely shade of red. "I'm....well...I'm fine," she said, shyly.
He smiled then turned to the rest of us and asked the same question, but it didn't have quite the same effect on us as it did on Tara.
"Fine," we all answered as a guy with dreadlocks in a ponytail on top of his head walked over.
"Girls, this is Chris," Mrs. Harless said.
"Hi," he said as we all said the same thing back to him.
"Jessie, Paul is over there," she said pointing through the crowd of people to where he sat on the couch in the living room, "With JC."
"OK, I think I'll go say hi," I said slowly about to take a step toward them as Sarah mouthed to me "Don't be nervous!"
I nodded and tried to walk to them, zigzagging through all the people. Paul saw me coming and smiled and waved hi. He then motioned for me to come sit around. I noticed JC's back was to me as him and his dad must have been in a deep conversation and when he saw Paul look at something, he turned around and looked at me.
Paul stood up to give me a hug as JC rose and said, "Jessie, wow, it is so great to finally meet you!" he said. I smiled and sat down next to Paul.
"Jessie, this is JC, your brother," Paul said as I looked at JC.
I could tell we had sort of the same look, and I could instantly tell I was related to him. JC stood up and gave me a hug. A hug that I would look back on and be so thankful for in the future. Finally, I felt I had a family. I finally felt I was part of one.
