Looking For You

Chapter 67 - Us

Chapter 67 - Us

“That was a very lovely meal, Mrs. Hails.”

“Thankyou Christian. And please, call me Peyton.”

I stare wide eyed at my mother and Christian engaging in a friendly conversation. I don’t know how this dinner went, going by my parents’ weird questions to Christian like, “do you plan on staying in North Carolina for the rest of your life,” and, “what made you fall for my daughter?” Although Christian made a joke about me falling for him — the time when I got knocked down by a ball and Christian helped me up — it still made me blush when Christian told my parents why he saw me when I was invisible. I had never heard these things before and to hear them now was a perfect time. At least I know that my parents like him now; about an hour ago they were scolding me for forgiving him for the times he cheated on me. They underestimated him.

“Shall we have some dessert?” My mom offers, standing up from her chair as she collects the empty plates. I immediately grab Christian’s arm and pull him up, making our chairs screech along the floorboards. I don’t want to hear another question from my parents to Christian; he probably wants to get himself out of here.

“Uh, no, we’re just going up to my room…” Christian goes along with me, but is confused. I know we didn’t plan this beforehand, but I just need to talk to him privately. My parents look devastated that we no longer want to join them, but we can’t always dag around my parents. I just give them a sliver of hope for joining them for dessert. “Maybe later.”

Christian trails behind me, basically running up the stairs and nearly tripping over the last one. I hear Christian laugh as I haul him down the hallway and into my room, where I slam the door shut and pant, thinking what we had just done.

“Aimee? What’s wrong?” Christian laughs as he stands beside me, my back leaning against the door. I look to him with a horrendous look on my face, flicking back my hair that flew into my eyes. I start pacing my room while rubbing my temples, feeling totally embarrassed in front of my boyfriend. What kind of parents would make their daughters’ boyfriend feel so intimidated at their first meeting? I just shake my head, feeling Christian trudge to my desk.

“How can my parents do this to you? You must feel so bad after how they treated you; staring at you the minute you walked in and putting you on the spot with these… stupid questions!”

I rage, finally stopping at the side of my bed, plopping down on the edge and crossing my left leg over my right. I stare down at the floor, resting my chin in my palm, pouting my lips at the problem. Christian runs over to me, making the mattress drop lower from his weight, and puts his arm around my body. He coos with a soft voice.

“Hey, it’s okay, I know these family gatherings with your boyfriend aren’t that easy. It’s just part of life.” Rubbing my arm, his head lowers so I can get a good view of him. His eyelashes bat along my cheek, sending chills down my spine. I try not to giggle, but I end up basically snorting and spitting in my palm. Christian leans back when I remove my chin from my palm, giving me space to recover from my embarrassing moment. “But hey, your parents are cool. I like them.”

I jerk back, looking Christian straight in the eye. “What?!” My parents are so boring and are so scary to talk to. They’re always complaining and because they’re kind of old, they’re quite annoying when it comes to modern day gadgets, even doing the simplest tasks on a computer like creating a text box. It’s so frustrating.

“Yeah. I think they like me.” Christian says, placing a hand on his thigh and the other being used to express his words. His bushy eyebrows are raised and he nods. I just stare at him with narrowed eyes and think about what my parents really thought about him before. I didn’t particularly like the looks they were giving him when we first arrived; it was quite awkward.