Playing the Game

Chapter 28: Again?

Chapter 28

"Hey Charlie." Mrs. Von Batton smiled as she opened the door. "Come on in."

I gave her a polite smile as I stepped inside, shocked to see Mr. Von Batton sitting at the kitchen table with a woman I didn't recognize.

"This is Dawn from our adoption agency. I'm sure Elizabeth has told you we're considering adopting again." Mrs. Von Batton told me, looking more perky and happy than I'd ever seen her.

"Yeah, yeah she mentioned. Nice to meet you." I said happily, giving Dawn a little wave.

Little did she know, I'd been here at the same time as her before...

"Uh, is Elizabeth here?" I asked quietly, glancing at the stairs.

"Yeah she's upstairs doing some homework." Mrs. Von Batton told me. "This is Elizabeth's boyfriend, Charlie. He's the quarterback on the football team, quite talented."

Boyfriend.

What.

"Mom what are you doing?" Elizabeth said suddenly, bursting into the room as she stomped down the stairs.

She nearly ran into my with the force of her entrance and then put a massive smile on her face.

"Not my boyfriend, mom." Elizabeth gave her mother a forceful look. "And he's just over here to go over some plays for tonight. I'm ridiculously behind on the way that this team works and if I want to get any playing time..." Elizabeth trailed off.

"Oh, alright." Mrs. Von Batton gave me an apologetic smile.

I didn't know what to do.

What if this brought up the question.

The question of 'what are we'?

Elizabeth grabbed my hand and yanked me towards the stairs.

I didn't even have time to form a 'goodbye' or 'nice to meet you' before I was whisked away into Elizabeth's fast paced life.

She pulled me up into her room and quickly shut the door, leaning against it as she took a deep breath.

"I swear to God my mother is determined to ruin me." Elizabeth whispered, walking over to her dresser.

"Uh." I laughed, taking a seat on the edge of her bed.

Elizabeth just shook her head, pulling her sweatshirt over her head. "It is a million fucking degrees in this house and everyone is hella stressed which only adds to the heat."

"I mean why put a shirt back on?" I laughed, leaning back on my elbows as I watched Elizabeth reach for a tank top from the top drawer.

"Because I look like a mushroom today." She replied, pulling the tank top over her head and covering up the masterpiece that was her body.

"Never." I whispered, shaking my head as she walked over to me.

Elizabeth let out a laugh, climbing up to straddle my lap without a second thought.

"Sorry about my mom dropping the 'boyfriend' word." Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "She totally doesn't understand that two people can be hanging out without dating." She laughed.

"Ah." I mumbled, my mind still unable to form coherent thoughts over what I even wanted us to be. "Yeah."

"But I mean whatever. She was probably just saying that to make it seem like they're chill with this or whatever." Elizabeth rolled her eyes again, shifting her hips against mine. "I mean they're all hyped up on trying to impress Dawn, it's driving me nuts. Tommy's lucky that he's out of all of this drama."