The phone vibrates for some time now. Hen, Chim, and Ravi watch it slowly vibrate off the edge and hit the floor with a good smack.
Ravi winced as his eyes flickered to Eddie, who sat there rubbing his forehead and sighing.
"You, uh, gonna get that?" Ravi asks.
"Nope," Eddie says, relaxing further in the chair and kicking his feet up. "Where the hell is Buck? Thought he'd be here by now," the man says. They were at a small get-together at Maddie's and Chim's.
"So, who are you exactly ignoring?" Hen asks.
Hen huffs. "Right, and I'm a straight woman."
The phone then starts a series of singular brr-brr.
"That, my friend, is a group chat," Chim says, waltzing in the living area with drinks. "What other group chat are you also in, Diaz? Are you cheating on us?"
Eddie laughs. "No, no it's just-" another single vibration. "My cousins, and sisters. They're trying to get me to come over."
"Oh?" Hen asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Are you not on good terms with them?" Ravi asks, curious about the man's family.
"I am," Eddie sighs. "They all caught wind of me coming out, you know? And by wind, I mean my mom calling every single family member and telling them what I told them,"
"Ooo, damn," Hen winces. "Do you think they wouldn't...?"
"No, no, they wouldn't care. My cousin Alysia has a wife. Still, I'm a little nervous. I didn't get the chance to tell them, and so I'm avoiding them. And I don't want the date set-ups to start again," Eddie groans.
"Well, it doesn't seem to be working," Maddie says with a sigh. "Baby Nash is down for a nap. "Thanks again for the white noise machine, Hen. I was freaking out when our old one stopped working so suddenly."
"Hey, not a problem. We have a few in the closet, so it's no bother."
Another vibration, but this time it was a different pattern. Eddie perks up, reaching over for his phone. "That's Buck."
"I'm not going to even comment on the fact that he set a different pattern just for Buck," Chim says, amused.
Eddie quickly sits up, alert. "What the fuck--" he says, panicking. Everyone whips their heads over to Eddie, all concerned.
"Did something happen to Buck?" Maddie says, worried. She pulls her phone out."
"He just messaged me help sos, but left a crying emoji," Eddie says, confused. "Jesus Christ my cousins and sister left so many messages," the man mutters. Eddie notices a voicemail left by his cousin.
He sighs, ignoring it and clicking on the voicemail Buck left.
"I have been taken against my WILL," the voicemail Buck left says.
Maddie tilts her head at her brother's tone of voice. Not panicking enough.
A woman laughs, "You came willingly!"
"I-I did not--" the voicemail ends.
Eddie glares at the screen.
"That was my fucking sister," Eddie hisses. He scrolls back to his voicemail logs, clicking on the previous one he had ignored from his cousin.
"Ahhhh!!!!! Baby Primo!!! Come on, don't ignore us!! We just wanna hang out. It's been forever, and I feel like we haven't done that in a while--hang you know? We got a party going on, ama making some food, managed to get your sister here too, but she said you wouldn't come unless we had something to get you to come over. Usually, abuela works, pero you know she's in Texas right now for a small trip," his cousin, Fernando, says.
"I don't like where this is going~" Chim says, looking at Eddie amused.
"Oh no," Eddie mutters in horror.
"So we got your gringo here!" Fernando cheers. "It was easy, man."
Another voice chimes in. "Yeah, all Sophia had to do was show up at his place and wave baby pictures of you, you know, the one where you were all cute and chunky--" Alysia, his cousin, says.
Eddie's face turns red. He glares at Hen and the others, who were all too amused by the events unfolding. Hen looks like she really wants to see those photos.
She was going to probably get those photos one way or another.
Alysia continues. "He was confused about who we were until he spotted Adriana and Sophia, probably from family photos you have in your house. Soon as he saw your baby photo, he was all happy, smiling away. Swear his eyes lit up and everything."
"They manhandled me into the car!" Buck's voice says in the background.
"He's kinda right. Sophia actually manhandled him into the car. Said something about it being chilly and that we should all sit in the car." That. That was his sister, Adriana. "He was like, 'okay.'"
"They're lying!" Buck cries out.
"You keep that up, and I'm not showing the videos," Adriana threatens.
"Anyways, you know where mi mama is, we're all at her place. We'll wait for you. Don't worry, I think ama is going to keep him busy in the kitchen. We'll feed him, too. He looks like he needs a few tacos," Fernando mutters.
And a headache starts forming for Eddie.
"Did-Did your family just kidnap my brother?" Maddie asks.
"Is it kidnapping if he went willingly?" Chim says. "I mean, leave a trail of Eddie's baby photos, and Buck will go anywhere."
"I don't blame him. I kinda want to see those photos too," Hen says.
Eddie sighs, getting up. "I gotta go,"
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