The nervous stares from all the eyeballs at the dinner table made the waiting that more anxious. Scooping the butter that my mother calls mashed potatoes into my mouth and silently watching Snuggles chase his own tail, as everyone else was avoiding the elephant in the room. “How am I going to react? I hope I do not cry, I probably will...” I said to myself while still being mesmerized by my ADHD dog.
“Are you excited to finally see him?” asked my mother in Spanish to my sister and I. “Yeah.” We both answered simultaneously in a short manner, but on the inside I was saying “I have been counting down the days.” He has missed Christmas, Thanksgiving, important traditions that could not be done without him. He has missed everything. Why is it that you realize how much you love someone until they are gone? 
I wasn't the only one that figured out the hard way. As I was watching my brother push his cold vegetables side to side, something clicked. “How is Dylan doing it? I mean I have been pretending a smile on my face for the last ten months. Has Dylan been too?!” My six year old brother would always ask questions about him and everyone in my family would be vague and lie. But that did not stop Dylans’ heartbreak. Nor mine.
Observing my little brother be ignorant to how much happiness and joy was about to him, was even more pure than water. Just knowing that Dylans’ frown would actually turn upside down when he saw him enter, put a giant teeth filled gap across my face. “I can see you are more than just excited” said my mom to me. The whole table laughed, usually we laugh at my moms’ jokes. Either because they are actually funny or it is just an automatic response.
When dinner time finally started to feel like dinner, and we were starting to act like a normal family…there was a knock. As the door opened, it was him, it was the same brown eyes and crooked smile that I have loved and forgave completely as soon as I saw Dylan and him hug. Finally, my dad was home.