Half a World Away // Vinnie Hacker

*33*

I woke up and I don't know how long I was asleep except now Vinnie wasn't next to me. I checked the time on my phone and saw it was 5:33. I got up and fixed my hair a little so I didn't look like I just woke up. I grabbed my phone and walked downstairs. I could hear people talking so I followed the voices until I saw Vinnie in the kitchen leaning up against the bench talking to his parents while they made dinner. I just admired them for a minute before I headed into the kitchen. Vinnie looked so happy to see his family which made me happy too. "Oh, look who finally woke up!" Vinnies mum said with a bright smile on her face. I smiled back at her and walked up next to Vinnie. He placed a soft kiss on my forehead and then I turned to face his parents on the other side of the bench. "How was your flight?" Vinnies dad asked. "I wouldn't know, I slept through the whole thing," I joked, earning a laugh from everyone in the room. "You must not have slept well last night then," Vinnies mum said. "Yeah, this one kept me up quite late," I laughed, nudging Vinnies side.

"What was he doing?" She asked looking amused. Vinnie looked down at me looking slightly worried, I'm guessing he didn't want me to tell his parents that he was trying to fuck me all night. "Oh, you know, playing Valorant like usual," I fibbed. Vinnie looked relieved and squeezed my hand lightly. "Yeah, that sounds like Vinnie. The number of nights we were kept up by him screaming at his computer is too many," His dad joked, causing Vinnie to role his eyes. I was feeling sort of awkward not knowing Vinnie's parents' names yet but I didn't want to seem rude and ask. "Oh! I forgot to properly introduce you guys," Vinnie started as if he could read my thoughts, "Mum, Dad, this is Madi. Madi this is my mum Maria and my dad Nate," Vinnie said, gesturing at each of his parents. "Well, Madi, I feel like I already know you quite well just from everything Vinnie has said about you," Maria laughed. "You talk about me do you?" I smirked at Vinnie. "Oh, yeah. He's been talking about you since he met you. I remember that night you two went to that first party Vinnie called us before he went to pick you up and told us about you," Nate laughed.

"Alright! Alright! We get it! New topic please," Vinnie said as he rubbed the back of his neck. I laughed lightly at his reaction. It was nice knowing that Vinnie's feelings for me seemed so real. "Actually, dinner is ready so we should go sit at the table," Maria said. I helped carry some things to the table even though Maria insisted I didn't move a muscle and Vinnie went up to get his brother. When Reggie came down we all sat down and began eating. "So, Madi, you go to college, don't you?" Nate said after a few minutes of silence. "Yeah, I do," I nodded. "What are you studying?" Maria asked curiously. "Paramedicine. I'm almost finished the second year of my degree," I replied.

"Oh, wow. So you're going to be a paramedic?" She asked. I nodded. "I'm a 911 dispatcher myself so I don't have first-hand experience at medical emergencies but some of the calls we get sound absolutely horrendous. You must be brave to do a job like that," She said sounding almost as if she was in awe of my career choice. "Yeah, it's a really hard job mentally but I think I'll be ok. I've already done some experience work and I'll be doing a lot more next year so I've already seen quite a number of things and at first, it was quite a shock to the system but the more hours I did the more used to it I got, not that I'm completely used to it yet," I explained.

"Wow, that's amazing. Good on you," She smiled. I felt my cheeks go red at her reaction. No one has ever reacted quite like that when I told them I wanted to be a paramedic. "So, you're from Sydney, right?" Reggie asked. I nodded in response. "What's it like?" he asked. "Oh, I love it. It's really warm in Summer and kinda cold in winter which sucks but you get used to it and you've got everything there. You have the beach and the bush and the outback and the mountains all in one place. And it not all city there's the suburbs and farms and all that, yeah," I explained. "Why'd you move then? Sounds like you really like it," Nate asked.

"Well, a few different reasons but the main one was to get away from my parents and that does sound like every rebellious teenager but my parents and I have quite a strained relationship and they're quite controlling so I just really needed to get out of there and live my life, ya know?" I explained. It was weird how comfortable I felt around Vinnie's family. I mean it was weird how comfortable I felt around Vinnie so quickly too. usually, it takes me months to open up the way it took me days to open up to Vinnie. "Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry," Maria hummed, with a slight frown tugging at her features. "Yeah, it's ok, I've got friends and people who are like family now so I'm doing good," I smiled lightly.

We talked about all sorts of stuff while we ate. We talked about what I'm going to do after school and if I'm going to stay another year. we talked about Vinnie and his work and we talked about Reggie and his school. This is what I imagined normal family dinners to be like.

I really liked Vinnie's family but being around so many people that I felt I needed to impress was playing with my anxiety. My leg was bouncing and I was zoning out slightly as I felt an anxiety attack coming on. I hadn't felt one of these since I first moved to LA and I don't know if I was getting one now just because of Vinnie's family or if it was also all this talk about my future. I could tell Vinnie could sense how anxious I was feeling. He put his hand on my thigh and rubbed up and down it slightly which calmed me down quite quickly.

Dinner was coming to a close and Vinnies hand was inching further and further up my thigh. I knew what he was alluding to and I wasn't mad about it either.