What Is Love?

Meeting the Parents

A/N: Luke and Chae (pronounced Ch - ay) are 17 years old and seniors in high school in this one! Those are their pictures above!

Meet the Parents used to be my favorite movie before I actually had to meet the parents.

So now that I'm meeting my boyfriend's parents for the first time, suddenly my favorite movie has become my worst nightmare.

"Yeesh, you need to calm down."

Someone gently bumped my shoulder, shaking me from my spiraling thoughts.

"You're giving me anxiety."

I blinked up at my boyfriend, who was staring straight ahead as we walked through the halls of our high school. He gave my hand a tight squeeze and shot me a quick grin before he looked back ahead, making sure we didn't run into anyone.

God, I love him.

Anyway, hi! My name is Chaeyeon Park, but I go by Chae for short. I'm a senior at TPHS (Tortoise Pebble High School), and I'm dating the captain of the swim team, Luke Jackson.

I mean figures he'd be captain of the swim team, his dad's an Olympic swimmer!

Which brings me back to why I'm so nervous.

I've been dating Luke since the beginning of senior year, and since we just passed our sixth month anniversary, now seemed like the time to meet the parents. Well, to meet his parents, since he accidentally met mine at a grocery store about a month ago.

But again! Not the point. Since Luke and I were pretty serious, his parents decided they wanted to meet me. So tonight, I was going over for dinner to meet them.

I've met Luke's sibling's before, so that took some of the pressure off, but I was crazy nervous. I mean, can you blame me? I was meeting famous people and my boyfriend's parents!

Luke's dad is Percy Jackson, the Olympic swimmer and gold medalist. And his mom, Annabeth, is a famous architect that founded her own Fortune 500 company. As if meeting the parents wasn't scary enough on its own.

I ran my free hand through my hair. "Sorry," I sighed. "But like...I'm meeting your parents and celebrities. Can you blame me for being a little on edge?"

Luke shrugged, sitting down on the bench outside the school where we usually ate lunch before pulling a sandwich out of his bag and taking a bite. He pulled me down to sit next to him and wrapped his free hand around my shoulders.

"It's just my parents."

I blinked at him. I was going to throttle this kid. Just his parents?!

I scoffed. "Luke, do you hear the words-"

He cut me off. "They'll love you," he said, while chewing through a bite of his sandwich. "Because I love you, and you make me happy. My parents loved the baby racoon I brought home and kept for three months because it made me happy. I promise they'll love you."

I stared at him for a second. Luke wasn't always outwardly affectionate, though he was fine with basic PDA like holding hands in the hallways and stuff. But rarely do I get straightforward "I love you"s or anything explicitly affectionate. Our relationship is a lot of teasing and jokes and I wouldn't have it any other way. But the times that he unintentionally says the most romantic things always throw me off.

I laughed a little at that, leaning into him.

"Thanks," I whispered.

Luke nodded, again focused on his sandwich.

"But...did you really just compare me to a trash panda?"

Time Skip

"This is crazy," I mumbled, my hand in Luke's. "That trash panda pep talk did nothing. I'm still just as nervous, if not more nervous-"