reckless | mgc

twenty three

Michael stared into his bathroom mirror, letting out an extremely heavy sigh as he attempted to straighten out his leather jacket and fix his hair. He took one last look at his outfit, consisting of ripped black jeans, worn black converse, a Weezer tee shirt and a jacket. He grabbed his phone from the countertop, unlocking it and opening his messages. Sending a quick text to Addy, he walked into the lounge and out the front door. He was about to go meet Addy's parents.

Meanwhile, over at Addy's house, the feeling was extremely tense between her and her parents. She was wearing a nice dress, (which her mother just had to comment was too short) and she was confident in her plans to change their minds about her sort-of-boyfriend.

"You have to be nice tonight," Addy begged her mom, following her around the kitchen to make sure she would be on her best behavior when Michael got there.

"Addy, you know how we feel about him. We'll try."

"That's it?" Addy asked. "You'll try?" She couldn't believe how childish her own mother was acting. All Michael did was look a little rough around the edges and suddenly she was acting like he'd killed someone. "You have to do better than try. He's a person, mom! He didn't even do anything to you."

"Lower your voice, Addy," her mom snapped, turning around and pointing a finger at her. Addy threw her hands up in disbelief, thinking that this was already going to be an enormous mess. "I told you that we will be nice to him. If you want more than that, you're looking in the wrong place."

Addy huffed a sigh, rolling her eyes and going into the bathroom to check if she still looked acceptable. She was about to walk out when her phone started buzzing - Michael was calling.

"Hey Ellis!" Michael cheered, laughing a little bit.

"Michael!" she cheered back, smiling. "You sound happy."

"I am," he replied. "I'm about to meet your lovely parents."

"Yeah, they're really lovely," Addy said sarcastically, rolling her eyes again.

"I just called to say that I'm almost at your place. And I'm scared. Do I knock? Or should I text you when I get there? What if I don't look good enough? Addy," he whined. "I'm nervous." Addy laughed a little on the other end, already easing his nerves.

"Just knock. I'll come open the door and let you in. I won't leave you in the room alone with the pterodactyls." Michael agreed, saying his goodbye and hanging up. Addy smoothed out her dress and left, sitting in the chair right next to the door so she could be the first one to open it.

On the other side Michael smoothed out his tee shirt with shaking hands, reaching up and hesitating slightly before knocking twice. The door handle turned and he felt his heart in his throat, standing there as it opened.

"Michael, hi!" Addy said, reaching out to hug him. She took his hand and pulled him inside, closing the door behind him. He felt sick.

To make things even better, Addy's parents walked around the corner no more than two seconds later. Her mom was a short, angry looking woman and her dad was a tall, business type guy. He was more scared of her mom than he was of her dad, to be honest. She did a once over of Michael, raising her eyebrow in disapproval. Michael wanted to roll his eyes.

"Hello," her mom said sternly, reaching out to shake hands. He took it gently, not wanting to mess this up. "I'm Linda. This is my husband Jim. Nice to meet you." He shook her dad's hand as well, glancing over at Addy, who was smiling.

"Nice to meet you too," Michael said, clenching his fists nervously. He wasn't exactly as presentable as he would've liked to be, but he'd done everything Addy had said. Now he just needed to be himself and see where that took him. They walked into the kitchen, where a large dining table was set up with nice silverware and dishes. There were beautiful flowers set in the middle, surrounded by tiny tea light candles. It was much more than Michael had ever experienced.

"You can sit," Addy said, gesturing to the seat next to her. Michael nodded once, making sure to pull out the chair for her before sitting down in his own. Her parents disappeared around the corner, most likely to talk about Michael. He totally knew what they were doing, but at this point he didn't even care. He was just so happy to have even a second alone with Addy to be himself.

"They scare me so much," he breathed, wiping his hands nervously on his napkin. She turned to him and smiled.

"Yeah, they scare me too," she said, smoothing down her dress and pulling at her bracelet. "My dad's less scary than my mom. If you don't want to talk to my mom I'll keep her busy. She might, like, start trying to interrogate you but just ignore her. She's setting you up to make yourself look bad. Maybe tell my dad you play the electric guitar, he loves music. That'll keep you both busy for a while." She was about to take his hand, but her parents walked around the corner before she could.

"Hungry?" Her dad asked, smiling at them both. He was strict, but Addy knew that underneath it all he was excited to meet Michael. They both nodded, returning the smile and glancing nervously over at each other.

Twenty minutes later, after about ten awkward silences and painful stares from her mother, Michael decided it was time to put a stop to the awkwardness.

"Mister Ellis," he said, drawing the attention of the other two as well. "I heard you used to play electric guitar, right?" Addy smiled a little, watching as her mom put her fork down to watch.

"Yes!" he smiled, ignoring the burning looks from his wife. "When I was around your age I had an electric guitar that my dad bought me and I was quite the player. Did Addy tell you?" Michael nodded.

"That's so cool," Michael said. "I have a Fender; my parents got it for me for Christmas a few years back and I've been playing ever since. Yeah, Addy mentioned it one time and I wanted to ask you about it."

"Great," Addy's mom muttered. "A rockstar. So, Michael, how many girls do you use like this? There must be tons, musicians get a lot of attention." Addy had to hold in everything in order to keep herself from kicking her mom under the table. "And your tattoos; they must be hard to show off in public, right? I can't imagine anyone would enjoy seeing them. That's probably why you've decided to color your hair that way. So maybe it will draw a kind of freak attention away from everything else, yes?"

"Mom!" Addy scolded, taking Michael's hand. She couldn't believe how childish her mother was being. "You can't talk to him like that!"

"No," Michael stopped Addy. He wanted to show her mom that he wasn't what she thought he was. Yes, he had tattoos and piercings and his hair was a little different but no one ever said he was bad. "It's okay." He turned to Addy's mom, taking a deep breath and feeling like his whole body was on fire. "Misses Ellis, I know that I'm not really a perfect guy, but I want you to know that I care about your daughter more than anything. She's really, really important to me and the last thing I want to do is disappoint her or you. With all due respect, I think we got off on a bit of the wrong foot and I'm sorry about that. I'm not Luke Hemmings, and I'm not a rich, super intelligent and proper person, but I do love Addy. I hope that's enough." Addy's face was extremely red and he was squeezing her hand so hard she thought he might break her fingers by accident, but what he'd said was the sweetest thing she'd ever heard. Her mom stared at Michael, silent and expressionless. The silence was almost too much to bear as she kept her eyes locked on Michael.

"Well," her mother cleared her throat, shattering the silence. "Um, thank you Michael. Yes, I apologize for my behavior, and I do hope that you and Adeline are happy." Addy cringed again at the use of her full name, but she was too happy to care. Her mother had just accepted him. She squeezed his hand once and he squeezed back, shooting her a huge smile before nodding once toward her mom.

"Thank you," he said. The rest of dinner was pretty quiet, but not the kind that made everyone want to literally rip their hair out because of how awkward they all felt. It was a silence Michael felt like he could spend his whole life getting used to.