pretend ; graser10

chapter thirty ; bonding

For Em, because she's grounded.

Olivia

He’s actually here. On the front porch of my house.

When I opened the door, Zach was standing there, two boxes of pizza on hand. Why the heck did he bring so much? He smiled widely. “So? Are you going to let me in?”

I chuckled at him but figured it would be funny to pull a Graser. “Nope, bye!” I exclaimed, slamming the door right on his face.

“Hey!” He yelled, then let out a laugh afterwards. “Rude!”

For the second time today, I opened the door for him. “You goof, why do you have two boxes? We don’t eat that much, do we?”

“Weirdo, this is for us,” Zach explained, holding on box up. “And this is for your swag of a family.”

“Is that Hawaiian? You know they only eat Ha-“

“Shush, love. Of course it is. I know them too well… Maybe even more than I know you.” He winked and proceeded to follow me inside. I now just realized how much time Zach spends at my house while my whole family is here. Too much time. Once, my extended family went to visit us and Zach amused them all with his ‘swag.’ God, he also needs to stop saying that word too much, it’s influencing both my dad and Lance. Jeez.

I called out to them. “Mom, Dad, Lance! Zach’s downstairs with some Hawaiian!” I yelled up the stairs, and heard a bunch of voices telling me to wait and hold on. I turned to my boyf – that still sounds really weird to call him that, I won’t even continue. “You’re lucky, dad just got home from work.” I told him as we sat down on the couch.

“I know his schedule, Ivy.” He joked, or at least I hope it was a joke.

“You act like a creepy stalker sometimes.”

He scoffed. “Says the fangirl!”

I fake gasped. “Take that back! We’re not creepy stalkers!”

“Didn’t say you were!”

“But you were hinting it!”

“No, I wasn’t!”

Our stupid banter continued, and then he started tickling me. Ew, so couple-y and gross.

Dad came down to eat first. “Children! Keep it PG!”

My eyes widened and I looked at our current position. It wasn’t that inappropriate… I decided not to worry about it. Dad jokes about those things a lot anyway.

Zach laughed it off and greeted my dad with a hug. What the hell? They’re like bros. “Are you two like, tight? Like best friends for life, or something?” I cringed at the scene. Boyfriends and fathers aren’t supposed to mix…

“Would you rather I don’t allow you to date because I hate him so much?” Dad raised an eyebrow at me.

“Nope!” I disagreed right away. “Continue with your cool, swaggy talks, father and boyfriend.” I turned my back on them and rolled my eyes. Boys…

Mom, along with Lance, got down a few minutes later and then we all ate our pizza, satisfied. There were some crazy video game talk going on between Zach and Lance, and an even crazier wedding talk with my parents. Needless to say, the whole bonding was fun. I love how Zach and my whole family get along so well.

“What are you smiling about?” Zach whispered, a huge grin on his face.

I smiled back genuinely at him and looked into his eyes. “It’s just nice to have everyone you love all in one room.”