Chapter 2

"C'mon you guys. We're gonna be late!" I yell to my mom and Mark from the living room. It's the evening of my cousin Sarah's birthday dinner/surprise proposal. The invite called for semi formal wear; so we did the best we could with what we had.

I was able to pull out an all black cocktail dress which is just long enough to not expose too much of my butt. I paired it off with a nice pair of multi-colored wedges (regular heels were never my best friend).

Mom comes out of her room. The outfit she has on was chosen by yours truly. She has on a floral blouse with beige colored slacks and matching heels.

"Just have to put this necklace on." She hands me the necklace and turns around.

"What time is it?" I ask. I've always been the one in the family that tries to be on time.

It's only 6:15," Mom says.

It seems like my family is always late to something no matter how early I try to get us out of the door. We were late to my grandpa's retirement party because Mom forgot the gift. We were late for Mark's Senior football game ceremony because Mom had to go get gas. We were even late to my own graduation (well, that time it wasn't mom's fault. My mom's other sister, Lydia, was pregnant and her water broke ten minutes before we left the house).

I get the necklace on Mom.

"Okay. Is Mark ready?" I ask.

Mark is usually the last one to be ready. How? I don't know.

"Mark! We gotta go!" Mom's military voice kicks in. She hasn't used that voice since she left the reserve.

"I'm ready."

Mark looks presentable, but I wish he would have let me pick out his outfit like Mom did. He has on a dark blue Polo shirt with light colored jeans.

Mom looks disgusted, "Now why would you put jeans on?"

Mark takes a look at himself in the standing mirror in the hallway.

"I think I look pretty good."

"No, this does not look good. At least wear those khaki pants I got you."

Oh, no. Mom is not about to make him change and make us late again.

"No, Mom, it's okay. I think he looks fine. Now c'mon we gotta get going."

"No, he's going to change. Mark, you are not leaving this house like that and embarrassing me."

"Ugh, okay."

Mark shuffles his way into his room to get the khakis that Mom insists he put on.

"Sheesh, Mom. You can't just let him wear the jeans just for tonight?"

"No. He has presentable dress pants in there that he can wear."

Now I am disgusted, "Great. I guess we're gonna be late to another event yet again."

"We are gonna be fine." Mom tries her best to comfort me. She knows how much I hate being late to something.

"We'll be lucky to get there by 8 o'clock. Let's hope there's not a lot of traffic on the way."

We live an hour and a half from the restaurant in Manhattan. Traffic around this time is killer and the only way to make it somewhere on time is if you leave the house 2 hours before your scheduled appointment.

"Okay, I got on the khakis." Mark walks out of the room with the Mom approved pants.

"Those pants are so wrinkled," Mom starts to say. She turns her head to my direction, seeing the look of anguish on my face.

"But we don't have time. Let's go. We're already behind on time."

FINALLY! Someone else is worried about the time.