A New Form of Therapy

Embarrassing Parents, Check!

I plaster a smile on my face as Justin takes a couple steps into the house. He has his hands tucked into his pockets, the sure sign that he is a little nervous. I keep the smile on my face as I walk over to his and loop my arm through his. 

"They won't bite," I say to lighten the mood. And to hide the fact that my brain is scrambling, hoping my mom doesn't remember the name of the guy I told her about. I definitely don't want her to stand there and call Justin Marcus. That would be a lot to explain. 

"I do have a gun though," my dad states matter-of-factly. I feel Justin tense up at that. 

"Dad," I say, drawing out the word. I turn to Justin. "He's just kidding. He said that to everyone that came over when I was still living here."

"And you were never brought home after curfew so I guess my methods work." 

Justin finally relaxes and joins in on the laughing. We set our suitcases by the door and head toward the kitchen. I sit down on one of the bar stools at the island and motion for Justin to sit with me. The house hadn't changed much really since we moved into it. The kitchen was pretty big. Some appliances were updated, like the fridge and the dishwasher. The oven though... ah, the oven. 

"I can't believe you still haven't replaced the oven," I comment. My parents give me the same grin. I turn to Justin to explain. "You'll know what I mean once Mom puts something in there to cook. That oven is the original and somehow the little knobs and the timer are no longer in sync so when we turn the oven on, this constant buzzing sound will go off for about an hour or so. It does it every time. I begged them to replace it, but what do you always say?" 

I don't have to look at either of my parents for them to answer in unison. "It just adds character to the house." 

Justin smiles. "I had something similar when I was growing up. One of our fans was just loose enough to rock when you turned it on. My mom could never figure out which screw it was so it stayed like that. You always knew when someone turned it on downstairs though because you could hear it from upstairs in the living room."

"Where did you live growing up?" My mom asks as she busies herself with rolling out dough. I smile to myself when I realize that she is making her delicious buttery biscuits. In twenty minutes, the entire house would smell like them. 

"I'm actually from Canada," Justin says. "I moved to America with my mom when I was about thirteen." 

"Why the drastic move?" my dad asks, completely oblivious to who was sitting in their kitchen. Dating their daughter. 

Way to go Dad, I thought to myself with a silent laugh. 

"I got signed with a record company and my career just took off pretty quick after that." Justin didn't seem fazed by the questions. I notice that he is smiling while answering the questions too. I shot him a slightly confused look. Here lately he hasn't been doing interviews because he is tired of answering the same questions over and over. 

Hey, we do still talk about his life when we're together. It's in my nature to give advice to people- I can't help it. He leans closer to me and whispers in my ear. "It feels weird that they don't know who I am. I feel normal."

I nod my head in understanding. My parents are not the most up-to-date people in the world. Living in a small town only added to that. Justin and I are about the same age but I never really knew who he was or listened to his music. Odd fact about me that most don't know- I grew up listening to country music. Yeah, I know. We'll keep that between us. 

As I was thinking about this, my dad and Justin started talking about music. Dad brought up the fact that he had music from his garage band back in college and Justin just about jumped out of his seat when Dad offered for him to listen to a couple songs. 

That left just me and my mom in the kitchen. "Mom," I say. "I need to tell you something." 

"What, sweetie?" My mom didn't look up from the pan she was placing her biscuits on. 

I drop my voice a bit so that only my mom could hear me. "Justin is not the guy I was telling you about on the phone." This got my mom's attention and she looks up, confused. "Things got complicated with Justin for a while and I ended up meeting this other guy, Marcus, and we went out for a while. So anything that you think you know about the guy I told you about, it isn't about Justin. Just don't mention anything, okay? Justin and I are just finally back to a good place."

"Got it," she says nonchalantly. "You sure have changed since you moved out there. In a good way." She added that last part almost like an afterthought. 

"It's been an adventure, I can tell you that much. I love it though. I really feel like I'm making a difference." 

Selena's words floated through my mind along with the song Mendes played in the empty arena. His voice was haunting and full of pain but also freeing at the same time. Zendaya's kind words and Taylor promising to fight for me if it came to it- all of it was enough to bring me to tears. Which, of course, I made sure to not do in front of my mom. 

We could hear music playing in another room and I shake my head. "Dad never misses a chance to pull those old CDs out."

"It helps that the band was halfway decent," Mom says offhandedly. "So, tell me about Justin, since I don't know much about him." 

"He's great," I say. I can't help the smile that follows. "I knew about him for a while but we officially met about six months ago. He was a bit of a pain in my butt for a while, but the more time we spent with each other, the more we talked and got to know each other. We realized that we had a lot in common, despite growing up in completely different lifestyles. It was one of those things where you wake up one morning and realize you went from friends to something more." 

I didn't mean anything by that last comment but I could see the look on my mom's face. Immediately, I retracted my sentence. "No! Mom, I didn't mean it like that. No, nothing like that has happened. I just mean that there was never an official 'will you go out with me' thing. We just spent more and more time together and we both just kind of assumed we were together."

"Got it," Mom says. She gives me another look to which I just roll my eyes. 

I don't have time to respond before Dad and Justin walk back into the living room. Both laughing. "What's so funny?" I dare to ask. 

"Your dad showed me a couple of photos that he is very proud of," Justin says with a big smile. I groan and give my dad a death stare. 

"Hey, I kept it to a minimum. Give me that look again and I'll pull out the full baby album." He points his finger at me in a warning. 

"You wouldn't," I glare at him jokingly. 

"Where is that album again, Honey?" He looks over at my mom. 

"I'm not getting in the middle of this," she says, thankfully. Imagine the most embarrassing photo you can imagine of any baby you've ever seen and then multiply that by about a million and you have my baby photos. I was chunky and never seemed to want to wear pants. 

"I would love to see those some day," Justin says. 

"Okay," I say wanting to change the subject. "While dinner is cooking and you two seem to be getting along quite nicely, I'm going to go use the bathroom. Please no pictures while I'm gone." 

Justin gives my hand a light squeeze as I stand up. "I'll be right back," I say. Truthfully, I don't have to use the bathroom. I really need to text Marcus and tell him that we need to talk tomorrow once I get back.