You're in my Seat ~ M. Sturniolo

Chapter twelve - dinner with dad

BUZZZZZ

I check the time and it's 5:57 pm. That should be Matt. I buzzed him in and unlocked my door.

"Hey, Matt. My dad's not here yet. Just so you know, I didn't tell him about Bobby so if he asks why we're going together, just tell him it's because we were the only two in the group who didn't have dates. Okay?"

"Got it Vivi" he says, standing awkwardly in my living room. "Matt you can sit down you know. You don't have to be all awkward" I say. "Thanks" he says. We sit and talk for a few minutes before I hear key jingling at the door. My dad walks in and we both stand. Matt walks over to him with his hand out to shake.

"Nice to meet you sir" Matt shook my dad's hand. "Nice to meet you too" my dad shook back.

My dad went into the kitchen to make dinner, leaving Matt and I alone on the couch. "How about I give you a tour?" I suggest. "Sure" Matt said. We stood up and I showed him around. "That's the kitchen, this is the hallway, bathroom, my room, my dad's room, and" I hesitated, "Peyton's room." Matt looked at me empathetically and patted my shoulder.

We walked back to the living room and sat on the couch again. We couldn't think of anything to do while we waited for dinner so we just sat on our phones instead. When dinner was ready, we walked to the table and sat down.

"So Matthew, why are you taking my daughter to prom. I heard you guys don't like each other that much so it's interesting that you're doing this all of this sudden" my dad raised one eyebrow.

I gave Matt a subtle look and he understood. "Well, we're in a friend group and everyone in it had a date to prom except for us two, so it just made sense that we go together since we didn't know anybody else to go with. And it's not that we don't like each other, it's more we bicker sometimes, but we're still friends" Matt told my dad, taking a bite of his food, "this is really good"

I was kind of impressed at how chill Matt was being. He usually wasn't good at talking to people, so it was a little bit of a shock of how naturally it seemed to come to him tonight. And friends? Wow, I never really thought of it that way but I guess we are, huh?

"Oh okay I see. So nothings going on besides a platonic friendship between you too" my dad asks. "No dad" I say, "I already told you that."

"Okay" he dragged out the last syllable. He and Matt made conversation for the rest of the night and they actually got along fine. It was weird seeing this side of Matt. Polite, calm, and actually nice to me. I could get used to him being like this from now on. Too bad it was all just an act in front of my dad.

When dinner was over, Matt stayed for another hour and then left. "Bye Vivi. Bye Mr. Moore, thank you for dinner" he said walking out the door.

When the door shut, my dad turned to me.
"Vivi?" he questioned.

"Yeah...what about it?" I ask confused.

"That's an interesting nickname for someone who's 'totally platonic' don't you think?" he raised his eyebrow.

"I don't know dad. It's just what he calls me." I defend.

"Does anyone else in your friend group call you that?" he asks.

"Uhh," I thought about it, "no. I guess not. But that doesn't mean anything. I call him Matthew and nobody else really calls him that" I try to defend but fail.

"Do you give anybody else a special name?" He looks unconvinced.

"Umm, no. But that doesn't matter!"

"Does he give anyone else in the group a nickname?" my dad laughs, knowing he's getting a reaction out of me.

"Whatever dad. It doesn't matter" I roll my eyes.

"Uh huh" he sarcastically smiles, "whatever you say Vivi."

I roll my eyes and walk to my room. My dad is great but he can be so annoying sometimes. What was he even trying to prove? That what, Matt and I were secretly dating or something? Yeah right. That's crazy. The names don't mean shit. They're just nicknames. There's nothing special about that. Right?...

I send Peyton my nightly update. I had a lot to say. I'm starting to think that there's no use anymore. I've been doing this for weeks and she hasn't opened them. I'm starting to lose hope.

I play some music to fall asleep to and wake up from a notification on my phone.

"Peyton.Dakotah_Moore has posted a story"

I jump up from my bed, rubbing my eyes to make sure I read that right. I did! I clicked on the notification and it brings me to instagram. It's a black screen with words on it and a picture of her.

I ran to my dad's room to show him the post and he jumped up. "OH MY GOSH! SHES SAFE! Why doesn't she want to be with anyone? What's going on?"

"I don't know dad. But she's safe. She's alive" I cried tears of joy in my dad's arms. We hugged for a long time before I tried to chat with her on instagram. It didn't work so I assumed that she probably changed it already. I could finally rest properly knowing my sister was alive and well. I could figure out how to contact her tomorrow.

Joemommasmells69 Messages:

Hey Yall!

This chapter made me happy

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Don't forget to eat and drink

Love ya!

-Joemommasmells69