Part 5 ~ Meeting the Parents

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Michael
"I love Maddison more than anything in the world and I promise to take good care of her now and forever," I lied through my teeth to Maddison's parents. "You can trust me to take good care of your daughter and my parents are rich – I can provide her with a nice lifestyle and everything she needs."
They stared at me suspiciously and I was wondering if they would believe me. Believe me and my crazy lie. My crazy lie that I loved Maddison more than anything in the world and that I would take good care of her. And how mad they would be at me when I broke up with Maddison in a month.
They look like the kind of parents that would shoot me dead if I dared to even touch Maddison, I thought as they continued to glare at me.
How had this all happened, may a fellow human ask? Well, it was really simple. I had just finished basketball practice with the team and Coach Harvey when Leo had snickered at me, "so, how's your girlfriend? Are things going well? Or is she going to dump you?"
"Shut it," I had growled at him. "Things are going just fine."
"Okay then," James had butted in to our conversation just then. "Prove it."
"How?" I scoffed, throwing my head back to drink water from my bottle as Leo slotted a dollar coin in the vending machine in front of him.
"Go to her house," James replied as if it was the most obvious thing ever.
"And why would I know where her house is?" I asked as Leo pressed the button for a packet of chips, the machine making a mechanical sound as it dropped his packet of chips out of the chute.
"Because she's your girlfriend, duh." Leo replied, popping open his chips and beginning to wolf them down like a dog.
"So?" I snapped.
"So you know where she lives. It's not the hardest thing for your poor little pea-brain to understand, right?" James teased. "Your pathetic pea-brain probably can't handle all this thinking. How about you just be a good boy and lose the bet and give us our money?"
"No chance," I hissed. Being rich was one thing, but losing a bet was another. My pride would not let that happen – not in a million years. "Fine. I'll do it."
"Great," Leo said, chucking the last chip into his mouth before scrunching up the packet and tossing it behind him.
"Litterer," I said.
"Since when did you care?" laughed Leo. He slapped me on the back and said, "well? What are you waiting for? Go to your girlfriend's house and invite her out for dinner at Mars'."
And that's what I did. As soon as I had knocked on that door, I regretted coming, but with that stupid bouquet of roses in my hands, I wasn't going to just simply give up. When that girl opened the door, one of Maddison's many siblings, I had assumed, the smell of delicious pastries and mouth-watering beef filled my nose and I was mesmerized. The girl who opened the door had tried to flirt with me, I realised quickly as she bat her eyelashes at me.
I didn't take interest in her, and when Maddison appeared behind her, my heart jumped. What was wrong with me? I still wonder what it was – a split-second heart attack?
Anyways, here I was now stuck in this trouble and awkwardness just because I had been tempted by food.
The two younger girls, the little boy, and that older girl who had met me at the door had been quickly ushered out of the room after dinner and Maddison's parents suddenly became intimidating. The dinner – a pastry with rich, juicy beef inside – was something I would dream of eating again for weeks afterwards. The smell was like a little sample of it, but as soon as I had tasted a single bite, I realised why the two younger girls, the older girl, and the little boy were eating it so ravenously.
I swallowed as Maddison's father nodded.
"Okay," he said after a little while. "I trust you to take good care of my daughter. Just one more thing – no kissing her."
Wasn't planning on it, I thought, but to Maddison's father I replied, "of course."
"At least not until... until she is ready for it," he said slowly. "Unless she wants and she is ready for it."
"Of course, Mr Reed." I nodded.
"And since you might be our future son-in-law, please, feel free to call me Hailey," Maddison's mother added warmly. She smiled at me and I felt... strange inside. Loved. Like I really belonged in this family. Mother would never have let anyone call her by her first name, and I was certain that father wouldn't have either.
"Mum," groaned Maddison from across the table. "Please be quiet... he's not going to be your future son-in-law."
What does she mean by that? My mind began to waver with thoughts as what she really meant behind her words. Had she been planning on breaking up with me? Breaking up with me and making me lose the bet? No, I wouldn't let her do that. Not at least until a month had passed and I had multiple hundred-dollar bills in my hands. She was going to be the end of me.
"Mads got a boyfriend, Mads got a boyfriend!" my head whipped around to see the smaller of the two younger girls from earlier chanting.
"Ellie!" Maddison snapped, rushing over to shoo her away. She giggled and ran off up the stairs before Maddison could reach her and disappeared from my sight. Sighing deeply, Maddison returned to the table and just breathed for a while.
"Anyhow, Mads, you mentioned the other day that you want to make dessert today, right?" Maddison's mother inquired.
"Yeah," sighed Maddison. "I'll go." She got up from her seat and began walking towards the kitchen, but then she paused. Turning around, she hesitantly asked, "are you okay to eat souffle?"
"Yeah," I nodded before asking, "what's that, though?"
"You'll see," she winked and disappeared into the kitchen.
"If you don't know what she's making, she'll surprise you." Maddison's father told me. "She loves to do that – it's her way of surprising people. But I promise – you'll love it."
I highly doubted those words, but the beef pastry was delicious – I almost wondered what the dessert would taste like. Almost.
"So, son, tell me, have you ever been to jail?" and there began the big barrage of questions.
"No sir," I replied.
"Good, good." He murmured. "Now, what do you plan for the future?"
"I want... I want to be an IT manager," I replied honestly. He stared at me for a moment, but Maddison's voice came from the kitchen as she called, "papa! Don't ask him so many questions. It's rude and personal! We'll work things out... and figure stuff out on our own."
Maddison's father didn't move a muscle and just stared at me judgementally, his deep, green eyes that looked like Maddison's studying my face carefully. I stared back at him calmly, wondering if he didn't believe me.
If... if her father decides that he doesn't like me and that I'm not good enough for his daughter, then I'm so screwed. I thought as I imagined me giving James a hundred-dollar bill and seeing his smirking face saying something like 'told you he couldn't do it.' I clenched my fist under the table at the thought of it and forced myself to keep eye contact with Maddison's father as more questions kept being thrown at me.
The questions continued for almost an hour while Maddison prepared the dessert, and although I was almost a hundred percent sure that she was just purposely taking longer to make the desserts to torture me for some unknown reason, I had no way of telling.
Maddison... she confused me. I could never tell what she was thinking. Couldn't read her like I could read anyone else. She was different. Is that a good thing? I began wondering.
Some of Maddison's father's questions caught me off guard. Weird, unexpected questions like 'did you read 'Lord of the Rings'?' or 'how old are you willing to get married at?'. The last question, Maddison had yelled from the kitchen and stormed back into the dining room to whisper something into her father's ear (that I had to strain my ears to hear but still didn't pick up even a single word) before darting back out, frowning.
She amused me. Interested me. A feeling I had long since forgotten. And it feels all too good now that it's back, I smiled. The last time I had felt like that... the last time I had felt like that was when Sarah... and I don't talk about her anymore. Sarah had been my girlfriend in grade nine, and we had been happy for seven months. But by Valentines day, when I went to her house with a bouquet of roses and her favourite chocolates to surprise her, I caught her with another boy and I felt heartbroken.
Just like that, we were done. She had been cheating on me, and she wasn't even feeling guilty about it. In fact, she sneered at me that she was happy that I knew so that she could date the one she truly loved. A few days after, I found out through the massive gossip network at school that the boy had been Maxon, a college student that Sarah had been hopelessly in love with.
Just the thought of Sarah made my heart curl and filled me with sadness and anger. Just the thought of what she had done and how she had betrayed me and broke my heart all at the same time. Would... would Maddison do that to me? I began to wonder. Would she? But... she can't break my heart if I don't love her. But that's the question – do I love her? No, she's just a bet. I don't love her. I can't be heartbroken if I don't love someone.
It felt strange hearing how unconvincing and unsure my own thoughts were. I'm amazing and putting on a 'Mr Tough Guy' act and being fifty miles beyond confident, but why did I sound so unconvinced even to myself?
"Alright, last question – do you love her?" the last question took me a back – I didn't know how to answer. And that question made me wonder – did I love her? Or did I just tell myself that to make me feel better?
But of course, I would definitely lose the bet if I said no, so I replied, "yes, of course I do, sir. I do and will forever. I love her more than anything in the world." The lie made my skin tingle for some reason. Normally, I could lie and brush it off easy as a confident smirk or smile, but the lie I just told made me feel different inside. I shook off the feeling as my stomach's desire for more of Maddison's amazing food (as if, but I'll tell myself that) and smiled as convincingly as I could at Maddison's father, which was a pretty convincing one after being honed from years of lying.
"Dessert's ready!" called Maddison as she entered the kitchen wearing a white apron with some cooking stains of brown and grey that had an adorable bear face on it. I stared at that bear face as Maddison called down her siblings as she laid the desserts on the table.
The dessert looked creamy and delicious and I couldn't wait to try it, but my eyes and attention were drawn to that stupid little bear on her apron. Eventually, she sat down beside me and began to eat more calmly than her ravenous family who were wolfing it down as if they hadn't eaten in days, and quickly noticed me staring.
"What?" she looked at me. Tracing my gaze, she looked to her apron. Her cheeks reddened slightly as she quickly undid the bow knot at the back and threw the apron off into the kitchen somewhere. "It's—It's just a stupid little apron I got for my birthday three years ago."
"That's fine," I grinned. "It suits you." Her eyes shifted as she looked at me suspiciously, and honestly, I would have looked at me in the same way – complimenting people wasn't really my strong point. I didn't compliment anyone except to flirt with girls.
"You- What are you trying to do?" she whispered to me as she ate a spoonful of the dessert.
"Nothing," I grinned as I dragged my gaze off the bear and began eating the dessert. It was creamy and delicious and nothing like all the other expensive desserts I'd ever tasted from famous bakeries – it was better. Better than anything I'd ever tasted. As soon as I tasted one spoonful, I couldn't stop. I kept eating and eating even though my stomach protested that I was long-since full until all of it was finished. Even after I finished it, I still wanted more.
My stomach told me I was full, but my head told me to ask for more. But that would be rude, but did I care? Normally, no. But when Maddison's parents were around, yes, I did care. Very, very, very much. Why? I don't know.
"Well, Addison, it's your turn to clear the table and do the dishes today," Maddison said. I looked up to find that everyone had finished eating already and that I had probably been the last.
"Seriously? Wasn't it your turn?" accused the older girl that I assumed was Addison. Funny how their names rhymed. Cute, even.
"No, it wasn't. I did it yesterday," Maddison replied levelly as she got up from the table. "Well, I've got to drop off Danielle at her sleepover or whatever. I already spent way too long making that dessert, and Danielle would blame me for some reason if she was late to her precious sleepover." She emphasized her unenthusiasm by rolling her eyes as Danielle too jumped up from the table.
"I've already packed," she said as she dashed upstairs. "I'll go get it and I'll be dressed and ready in five minutes. Promise."
And she did keep her promise. She came down in exactly four minutes and seven seconds – Maddison timed it on her phone.
"Impressive," she murmured as she snatched her car keys off the basket in the middle of the table. Turning behind her as Danielle skipped off towards the car, she said, "I'll be back in a little while. Don't have too much fun without me, alright?"
"We won't," her father answered. Though Maddison had been directing her words at all of us, her eyes seemed to point to me. It sent shivers down my spine, and I... liked it?
She dragged her eyes all over the dining room holding her parents' gaze as if to tell them to not kill me while she's gone or take me for some sort of demonic ritual. With that, she left and silence filled the air. Awkward silence.
Just then, I was saved by the Bing of my phone. I used this as a wordless excuse to whip out my phone and avoid whatever awkward situation I would be in with Maddison's parents.

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