⌜ chapter seven ⌟

"You know, that was the best weekend ever." Eric says as he sits on the couch with Letty right next to him. He wraps his arms around her, and she pulls her feet up onto the cushions as she leans into his side "We should go again sometime."

"Shut up." Jack shakes his head, annoyed because Eric keeps talking about it, and the brunette laughs as she looks at him.

The phone rings then, and Jack answers it. Eric then starts flipping through a magazine, and he's rather amused as Letty makes fun of some of the models inside. She's more making fun of the clothes that they're wearing, but it's funny to the both of them nonetheless.

"Yes, mother, I completely understand." Jack says after a few minutes, and Letty rolls her dark eyes. "Have fun on your cruise. Love to Dad. Bye."

"If I'm ever the one to answer when she calls, can I hang up?" Letty asks when he hangs up the phone, and he looks at her.

"What?"

"She threw away all the letters that I sent you, and the ones that Shawn sent." She says. "What kind of a woman doesn't let her son have contact with this younger brother?"

"You know it wasn't about you or Shawn." He argues, and she rolls her eyes again, not wanting to discuss this any further.

"Whatever."

"Anyway, it looks like I'm gonna be alone for Thanksgiving." He tells them.

"Yeah, it's kinda sad." Eric says, and Letty smacks his leg.

"Maybe I could join you and your family for Thanksgiving."

"No."

"Eric." The brunette looks at him.

"It's just, you know— I don't know if they wanna chance inviting anybody else over after last year." He says, and she raises her eyebrows. "We had Feeny over. He ate all the white meat."

"No, you didn't. You guys came to the trailer park to have dinner with me and Shawn." Letty says, and he puts his hand over her mouth.

"I guess I'll just stay here and order a pizza or something." Jack says, and Eric yells when Letty bites his hand.

"You can have Thanksgiving with us." The brunette says as she looks at Jack. "There'll be plenty of food for everyone. Hope, Jason, the girls, and Bobby will be there too." She tells him.

"Awesome!" He smiles. "I haven't seen Bobby or the Prices in forever."

"Hey, what if we have Thanksgiving here?" Eric suggests, and they both look at him.

"Eric, it's us. We could ruin Thanksgiving for a lot of people." Jack tells him, and Letty nods.

"Ah, come on. I bet we could do it." He argues. "How hard can it be?"

"Have you ever actually paid attention when your mom cooked the turkey?" The brunette asks, and her boyfriend looks at her.

"No."

"This is gonna be an absolute disaster." She nods. "But if you really wanna have Thanksgiving here..." She takes a deep breath as she looks over at Jack.

The next day, Jack makes a pumpkin pie...and then Eric gets a bone when he takes a bite. Letty shakes her head as she looks between the two of them.

"Where the hell did the bone even come from?" The brunette questions, and Jack shoots her a dirty look before saying that he's gonna call a caterer.

Eric's in the middle of telling him that Thanksgiving isn't that important to his parents when someone suddenly starts pounding on the front door. Jack walks past Letty, who's sitting sideways on the couch, and he answers the door.

"Hi, Jack. Eric, Scarlett." Mr. Matthews greets as he walks into the apartment. "Hey, I know you guys are busy, so I'm going to get right to this." He grabs Jack and makes him look at him as he speaks. "Thanksgiving is the most important day of the year to me. I'm sure Eric told you that."

"No. No, he didn't." Jack shakes his head.

"Yeah, I did, Dad." Eric argues. "He hears what he wants to hear."

"Eric's telling lies again." Letty says, and her boyfriend looks over at her.

"You're supposed to be on my side."

"He's gonna be my father-in-law someday. I start lying to him now, what will our relationship be?" She questions, and he lays on the couch with her.

"Stop saying cute things when I'm trying to be mad at you." Eric says as he positions himself sideways between her legs and rests his head on her shoulder.

"Get your elbow out of my stomach." She flicks his forehead, and he pinches her side, making her yelp.

"You two concern me." Jack says as he looks at them.

"They concern everyone." Mr. Matthews says as he then makes the younger boy turn to face him, placing his hands on his shoulders. "Thirty years ago, I sat down to Thanksgiving dinner with my grandpa Charlie. We feasted on turkey, stuffing, cranberries, yams, and pie. Then we sat down, I watched my first football game on tv sitting on my grandpa's knee. He gave me this watch." He says as he pulls the watch and chain off of his jacket to show him. "And then he went upstairs to take a little nap and died in his sleep."

"I called Lina this morning." Letty says, and he looks down at her. "She's gonna help us."

"Finding you is the best thing that my son ever did." Mr. Matthews pats the top of her head, and she smiles as he then looks at his son. "You lose her, I'll kill you."

Eric looks at his girlfriend. "Don't leave me."

"Oh, baby..." She wraps her arms around his shoulders and pats his head. "I can't get up. How can I leave?" She asks, and he grunts as he narrows his eyes at her. He then leans over and bites the side of her jaw, making her hiss, and she slaps his forehead in retaliation.

"Have they always been like this?" Jack asks as he looks back at Mr. Matthews.

"They've always bickered, but it's gotten weirder since they started dating."  He tells him. "The biting's new."

"They think we're weird." Letty says as she rests her head on Eric's, her cheek against his forehead.

"I think we're cute." Her boyfriend says as he wedges his arm between her back and the couch so that he can hug her. "Hey, Dad, did you hear? She loves me."

"I've always known that, son."

"So have I, but now she's said it." He tells him.

"I'm growing." Letty smiles.

"I'm glad you're doing well, Scarlett." Mr. Matthews tells her, and her smile widens.

"You know, you're the closest thing to a real dad that I've ever had." The brunette tells him. "You certainly have done more for me than my father ever did. Best thing he ever did was leave... I just wish he hadn't come back to do what he did." She says, her smile now gone, and Eric's arms tighten around her.

"You never talk about him...or about that day." The older man says as he sits down on the coffee table across from the two of them; Jack moves to the chair nearer the door. "I hate to think that you've been trying to deal with something so traumatic on your own."

"I had Miller and Jason with me right after it happened, and Shawn stayed with me all night that night — we stayed in the living room and watched movies until we both fell asleep." She tells him. "It was hard at first, but it got easier when I realized that I was never entirely alone. Eric and I started dating shortly after it happened, and he always made sure to keep me too busy to dwell on it. Eventually, enough time passed, and it didn't hurt as much."

"I guess I never realized how much you both grew up after that happened." He says as he looks between the two teenagers. "I always thought it was because you started dating, and it was your first real relationship. It seemed natural...the way you both matured."

"Don't get her started." Eric shakes his head, confusing his father.

"We've talked about it a lot. I tend to feel guilty because I think that the stuff in my life made him change in ways that he wouldn't have had to if he didn't have to deal with it along with me." The brunette explains. "Anyway, I was okay because I had him. And I've talked about it with Alec, which helped as well. I didn't just put it off and not deal with it, if that's what you were afraid of."

"It was a worry I'd had." Mr. Matthews nods.

"And that's why you're the best father-figure I've ever had." She says, and he smiles. "Speaking of Thanksgiving...certainly one thing I'm thankful for."

"And Amy and I are thankful that Eric has you." He tells her, and she smiles as well. "We've always meant it when we said that you're good for him."

"Best part of my life." Eric hugs her as he closes his eyes and nestles his forehead into her neck.

—

"Hey, Scarlett?" Jack gets her attention after she finishes setting the table for dinner, and she turns to him. "I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I want to learn more about all this hunting stuff. I wanna know more about everything that my dad used to do."

"Okay." She nods.

"I know that they all kept journals, but I don't know where my dad's is, and I don't really think that I should ask him." He says, to which she agrees. "You wouldn't happen to have your dad's, would you?" He asks, and she nods.

"I do, actually. It's in a locked drawer in mine and Eric's bedroom. I'll grab it for you after we have dinner." She tells him, and he nods.

"No rush. Just whenever you can."

"What is that delicious smell?" Eric asks as he walks into the room, then makes his way down the steps to where the others are.

"He does know that we had to actually make the turkey?" Lina looks at Letty, who simply shrugs in reply.

"Nice setup." He walks up behind his girlfriend and wraps his arms around her waist. "You know, this is turning out better than I thought it would."

"Eric, you haven't done anything." Letty says as she turns her head to look at him.

"I know." He laughs. "I wasn't expecting you to actually go along with my idea to have everyone come over here. I figured we'd all just end up at my parents house."

"Next year." She pats his arm, and he chuckles as he hugs her a little tighter.

"I love you." He kisses the side of her head, and she smiles as she leans into him.

There's a knock at the door then, and Jack goes to answer it. He lets everyone in, and they all file into the apartment carrying what they each promised they'd bring for dinner. Tyler pats the top of Letty's head as he passes her, quickly going to help his sister pull the turkey out of the oven.

Reggie then hugs Letty, picking her up off of her feet and spinning her around before letting her go so that she can greet her older brother, who's a bit down today. Each passing holiday gets harder and harder for him the longer that he's not able to see his son. Then he goes to talk to Bobby, who's standing with his own son. Letty dodges Faith, who bolted for Eric the instant she saw him, and makes her way over to Shawn.

"Scarlett." The younger boy smiles when he sees her. "There's someone that I want you to meet."

"Hi." The brunette smiles at the teenage girl standing beside her brother.

"This is my sister, Scarlett. Scarlett, this is Angela...my girlfriend." He introduces the two of them.

"Girlfriend, wow." Scarlett smiles. "It's nice to meet you, Angela. I can't wait to get to know the only girl special enough to ever hold his attention."

The younger girl smiles as she looks at Letty. "It's nice to finally meet you too. Shawn talks about you a lot." She tells her. "I can tell you guys are really close."

She nods. "There's nothin' more important than family."

"Alright, let's eat!" Reggie yells, and everyone turns to look at him.

"Real classy, Regg." Hope shakes her head at him, and he smiles. He's generally rather amused with himself.

"Before we sit down," Shawn gets everyone's attention. "I'd like to say thanks for all the good things that have happened to us...and to me." He smiles as he looks between Letty and Angela.

"Oh, I love you, kid." The older girl reaches out and squeezes his shoulder before going over to sit with Morgan, who has Joy in her lap at the table.