Under Your Skin

Chapter 13

Party time

Lana kept on getting closer, trying to get a better look. Carlos just followed. All of a sudden, she started jumping and waving her hands in the air. He guessed that was the signal that she’d seen her parents. Following her gaze, he saw a couple in their 40s dressed for summer: in shorts, a bright shirt and a floral dress. The woman had short blonde hair, the same colour as Lana’s, which was cut to frame her face and her husband, Lana’s dad, had slightly greying dark hair and his eyes were exactly the same as his daughter’s. When they saw Lana their faces both lit up, and even he had to admit that it was a nice sight to watch. They headed over to Lana, hugging her tightly, and he just backed away, trying not to spoil the moment. Before he realised he was mixed up in the crowds and could barely see them anymore. He absentmindedly checked his phone, not even sure what he was looking for.

“There you are!” Lana exclaimed, pushing through the crowd and heading to where he was stood, her parents following. “Okay, so mum dad, this is Carlos. He’s a friend from school.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Carlos,” Lana’s mum said, smiling at him. He didn’t really know what to do or say, he hadn’t exactly had much experience with all this.

“And you too, Mrs Richards.”

“Oh please, call me Sandra.”

“Very nice to meet you young man. I’m Kevin, don’t even try to call me Mr Richards unless you want to get on my wrong side,” he reached out and shook Carlos’ hand before resuming to push the trolley. It didn’t take them all long to reach the car and Carlos packed the boot up with the suitcases.

When he finally made his way round to get in the seat, he found that Lana was in the back with her mum and Mr Richards, no wait, Kevin, was in passenger seat.

“Hope you don’t mind son, but it’ll give Lana and her mum a chance to catch up. And more importantly, it’ll give me a chance to get to know my daughter’s friend a little better,” he told him, and Carlos just nodded. He slipped into the car, taking one glance at the back seat, before getting out his phone and texting the address of the house and a time to Tom.

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“I’ve missed you so much, darling,” her mum told her as the car sped away out of the airport.

She smiled back, placing her hand on top of hers, “So have I mum, but you’re here now.”

For the next hour or so her mum grilled her on every detail of the time since she’d last seen her; on school, friends, what the people were like, Judith and her family, the area and everything else she could think of. Now and again there was a pause in the conversation and Lana looked to the front of the car. To begin with, she saw Carlos nervously sat there, his whole body obviously tensed as he drove, listening to her dad talk. As the car ride went on, when she looked there, he seemed to relax a little and by the end he seemed to be having quite a good conversation with her dad. She was pleased about that; as much as her dad liked to play the whole easy going card he was really the one who she needed to get approval from, because she knew that her mum would like him anyway.

They pulled up at the gate and pressed the button to open it then cruised into the driveway. As promised, everyone was already there, the barbecue was out, and everything was exactly as planned. Judith walked over beside Greg, leaning into him, and Lana got out of the car, followed by her parents and Carlos.

“It’s really nice to meet you, Mr and Mrs Richards. I’m Judith, and this is my husband Greg, and,” she turned around and motioned for Victoria, who obviously didn’t want to, to join them, “This is my daughter Victoria.”