chapter 8

       A few days have passed and my family hasn't tried getting in contact with me. I'm worried the peace isn't going to last forever, but it was nice to have a few days of being able to enjoy life without them again.

       To be honest, I'm surprised my family hasn't shown up at the house since Lance did that one time. Surely enough, he would have told my parents and sister where Daisuke and I live. I'm not complaining though. I want to feel comfortable in my own home and not worry about them trying to barge in my life.

       With my and Daisuke's wedding right around the corner, the last thing I want is all the stress in my life that my parents bring.

        I've still yet to finish all the decorations for the reception, so I'm working on that right now while Daisuke is at work. Ray, Sterling, and Johan are back to help me and this time, Maddox is joining in. He's not exactly a crafty person, but he said he really wanted to help so I didn't want to turn him down. After all, Ray isn't too crafty as well, but he still did an amazing job with the decorations he made already.

       And, of course, Ray has already burned himself with the glue gun a few times. "Why does this keep happening?" Ray asks as he shakes his hand to relieve himself from the pain.

       "Probably because you're not being careful enough," Sterling says. "Even Maddox hasn't burned himself with the glue gun."

       "I feel like you're insinuating that I'm dumb," Maddox says.

       "Oh, I'm not insinuation it," Sterling says. "I'm directly saying it. You're dumb. But not as dumb as Ray."

       "That's so mean," Ray says. "Here I am, being a good best friend to Mason, and you're calling me dumb just because I keep burning myself." He goes back to working with the glue gun, only to yet again burn himself.

       "Okay, Ray, I think I'm going to have to take you away from the glue gun," I say. "Why don't you take the decorations and try to organize it in a way we could actually use at the wedding? When there's an arrangement we like, we'll take a picture so we can remember it."

       "'Kay," Ray says, clearing off the coffee table in the living room so he can use that to arrange the decorations.

       "I feel like texting Archer to tell him that you burned yourself again," Sterling says.

       "Why are you always trying to stir something?" Maddox asks. "Leave me boy alone."

       "It's okay, I'll text Archie to let him know," Ray says, grabbing his cell phone and sending a text to Archer. Shortly after he sent the text, he starts to get spammed with texts, probably by Archer freaking out the his husband hurt his hand again.

       "Aren't you going to reply to him?" Maddox asks.

       "No," Ray says. "I told him it barely hurt and that he shouldn't freak out, but he's freaking out so he can deal with it." He picks up his phone just to read the text messages and says, "Oh. He said he's coming over now to make sure I don't burn myself again. Is it okay if he comes over?"

       "Yeah, of course," I say. I don't think I would be able to stop Archer from coming over anyway. And maybe him being here as well will either make Ray stop burning himself or Archer will realize hot glue gun burns aren't too severe most of the time.

        Later on when there's a knock on the door, I get up from the chair and head down to the entryway. Assuming that it's Archer, I open the door without checking who it is. And I wish I checked who it was because sure enough, it wasn't Archer, but my parents.

       I don't even let them get a word out before saying, "Leave me alone." I close the door and head back upstairs to the living room.

        I must have had a look of annoyance on my face because Ray asks, "Was that... You know who?"

       I sigh. "Daisuke texted everyone else about them trying to get back in my life, so you don't have to talk all secretly. Yes, it was my parents." The doorbell rings, but I ignore it knowing it's my parents. I sit back on the chair and get back to working on the decorations.

       Ray texts Archer and tells him to let him know when he gets here so we can let him in without thinking it was just my parents at the door because just like Lance, they were stubborn and won't stop knocking or ringing the doorbell for a while.

       The third time the doorbell rings, Maddox gets up and heads down to the door. "Maddox, please don't open the door," I say.

       "Don't worry, I won't," Maddox says. "I know how to make them leave, though." He heads to the door and just stands by it before he starts barking. I kid you not. He's just barking at the door, and not in a way that actually sounds like a dog. He fully sounds like a human barking. Not too long later, he comes back up to the living room. "They left. You're welcome."

       "Huh," I say. "I never thought I would utter these words in my life, but thank you for barking at my parents to get them to leave."

       "Give me their cell numbers and I will just randomly call them throughout the day to bark at them."

       "Yeah, I'm not going to do that. By all means, bark at them it they bother us first, but I don't want you reaching out to them."

       "Fair enough, I guess."

       Even though I still don't want to talk about exactly why I had a fallout wit my family, I'm glad that my friends know about them to a degree. I can always rely on them for pretty much everything, so if my family starts to get too much for me, my friends can handle it. I'm not too worried about my family anymore.

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maddox is 21 but will bark at people to get them to leave him and his friends alone and i love him for it.