Hello, my name is.....

I feel like I've forgotten my name, I can't keep up with all the names I've given throughout the years. It happened a long, long time ago when I gave my first fake name and everything went downhill from there.

You see, we live in a very small town. So small that we had nicknames for every family. And my family was the crazy family, the family people laughed at when we showed up in public. And I was tired of it, I was tired of my mom yelling at my 9 siblings and my dad doing crazy things to feel young again. I was tired of walking down the hall and being called Hazy Crazy (thanks a lot for naming me Hazel mom!) I just wanted one time where I wasn’t known as the kookoo lady. 

And it was like all my praying and hoping and dreaming finally came true one day. I got my wish! A new family had moved down the block and they had a cute boy my age. I was determined to get there first before anyone told him or his family all about my family. 

I sprinted from the end of my driveway to their house. When I knocked and heard rustling, I felt a sudden panic, like a hand squeezing my lungs. What was I going to tell this family? If I told them my last name they’d surely hear about me and distance themselves from me. What was the point of coming when it still wouldn’t work? 

I turned around and was about to leave when the door opened behind me. I couldn’t look even crazier, so I turned around and waved. It was the cute boy, and oh my god he had dimples. When he smiled at me I lost the words I was about to say. 

“Hey,” he said, in a deep baritone voice. “I am Evan. You?”

“Oh umm…” I said, knowing this was make-it or break-it time “My name is Basilia, Basil for short.” 

Ugh, I’d used a name from one of the novels I was reading at the moment, let’s hope he didn’t read that book. I don’t even know why I gave him a fake name, he just flashed those dimples at me and it’s like I couldn’t speak. 

“I like your name, it’s pretty,” he said and flashed those damned dimples at me again. 

“You’re pretty.” I said, and then backtracked, FAST “I meant, your house is pretty. I love pink paint.” 

He laughed deeply at my mess up and said: “Your house is pretty too.”

Was he flirting with me? I couldn’t tell, it only happened in the pages of my romance novels. I’d never had someone actually flirt with me. And then he… he… winked. 

He looked straight at me with his startling blue eyes and winked. I knew I needed to get out of there or I’d pass out. Right on this porch, in front of this cute stranger. 

“Oh.. umm thanks.” I stuttered and awkwardly turned around. “Guess I’ll see you around, bye.” 

He laughed at that and I awkwardly giggled then ran away. 

And that was the day it all started, the day that brought my life down, the day I started having multiple aliases. I couldn’t even remember all the names I’d gone by over the years, I could just remember the friendships it had ruined and the way it strained my relationship with my parents. 

I’d gone by Basilia for a while, then Susan, then Avery, then Gingy, then Larissa, and it just went on and on. Everywhere new I went to had a different name, and I was tired of it. I always had to create a whole new life for someone to figure out my secret to bring it all crashing down. Like dominos or a house of cards, it all collapsed in one fell swoop. 

And so, I’d decided to change that, and make my life something I wanted to live, not a life where I was always worried someone would find out my secret.

First things first, I needed to fix things with my family, they had been upset ever since finding out I used fake names, they never understood why I wasn’t proud of my family. The relationship I had with them was tenuous, to say the least. 

And that was why I was standing outside my old house and staring at the door, frozen. I didn’t know what to do or say. I wanted to go in but what if they didn’t forgive me? What if they chose to kick me out? 

“Hazel?” A deep, melodic voice said behind me, making me jump. 

“Umm… yes?” I said to the towering man standing in front of me. He looked familiar, I probably had gone to high school with him but I hadn’t been home in a long time and everyone has definitely grown. 

“It’s Evan,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye. “Sorry, should I have called you Basil?” 

I awkwardly giggled then realized it wasn’t funny at all, I’d really messed up with him. “About that, I’m so sorry. I truly didn’t know what I was doing and I regretted it the moment it came out of my mouth. I get it if you hate me, just know I hadn’t played a prank on you, I was just slightly embarrassed by my family being so crazy.” 

“I know,” he said and stepped closer.

“I get it, you hate m…. wait did you just say I know?” I ask, incredulously. “How in the world do you know? I never explained myself.”

“I know because you’re mom told me, I’ve gotten pretty close to your family since our parents practically live at each other's houses,” he said, grinning wide and flashing those dimples. “And I understand because my family is crazy, if your family hadn’t already been called crazy family, my family would have.”

“Oh, so you understand why I was embarrassed?” I asked, feeling dizzy from his nearness

“No, not at all. I love my family for all their craziness. It’s what makes them unique. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” he says this with such strong emotion, I believe him. “And I thought you’d never get that and would never be back but seeing as you are back, you probably get it now. Now let’s go apologize.”

“Ok. Thank you.” I just feel this amazing sense of gratitude towards him, knowing he had my back right at this moment, despite everything. 

“Well, actually, first, I’ve wanted to do this since the first time I saw you,” he says, the twinkle stronger now than ever. He pulls me in and kisses me. KISSES ME. 

WHOA, I don’t think I’d ever felt like this before. He made me feel drunk (which I don’t recommend) but without the hangover. 

He releases me and says “I hope you stay in town so we can do that more, like for the rest of our lives.” And then winks at me.

I think I’m going to pass out. Woo, I need to stay away from that boy for my mental health, but lord knows I won’t. Ok, time to head in and make things right, not just for me to feel better about it, but for me to have a future life, maybe even with Evan. 

A couple months later, Evan and I get married and I’m pregnant. My family is there at the wedding and my dad walked me down the aisle while my mom is crying in the front row. I know that I’ll never ever use a fake name again. Why would I? My life is perfect right now.