Let's Go Home

3|The parents

Chapter 3 | The parents

You know those nerves you get just before a speech infront of your class. Those nerves that just bubble up beneath the surface before you even say a word. Just knowing that everyone in the room's focus is on you and if you severely mess up, it would stay with you forever because the people listening to you won't let it go. That's exactly what Arial feels because all the focus was now on her.

     "Yes, Brian. Who is that?" His mother asks teasingly and gives him a suggestive look.

     "Mom, this is Arial Winston, Ronnie and Rhoda's daughter and Arial this is my mother, Maria, and my brother, Blaze," Brian introduces them.

Maria gets an overjoyed looked on her face and races in to hug Arial. Arial feels the air in her lungs dissipating and escaping her body leaving her completely breathless.

Did Maria and my mother learn how to hug at the same place? It sure feels like it.

     "It's so amazing to finally meet you, dear," Maria says pulling back from the hug. She holds Arial at arms length by her shoulder, "Look at you! The pictures don't do you justice."

Arial inspects herself. She's wearing a creased, knee-length, thick strapped blue sundress that she designed in her Summer line three years ago with a pair of Jimmy Choos and Raybans. She left Seattle and it was ice cold but here she knew the heat would burn her of she dressed to accommodate Seattle's weather.

Point is she looks anything but pretty at the point in time. Her hair resembles a bird's nest, she is tired which annoys her because her mother won't let her go in her room and crash yet. Though that doesn't surprise her, her mother has always been a perfectionist. She has no make-up on and she has blue circles around her eyes from the lack of sleep the past few days leading up to her trip. This lead her to the question:

What ugly pictures of me have you seen, Maria?

     "Thanks," she answers sounding less than confident.

Maria smiles and on closer inspection Arial finds that it's the same smile that Brian and Blaze share. Maria has medium length ebony hair and tanned skin. She looks like she has Mexican or Spanish descent, though her eyes are green bordering hazel. Maria and Blaze share the same eye colour.

Blaze walks up to her seemingly having watched her the whole time and sticks out his hand. Arial shakes his and politely. 

     "My name is, Blaze. How do you do?" He says sounding quite sophisticated for a seven year old.

     Arial bends a bit to get to his level, "I'm doing really well though a bit tired, thanks. And yourself?"

Blaze beams as she responds as he would have liked.

     "I'm doing well, as well. Thank you."

     "That is great to hear, Blaze."

Blaze turns back to his brother, "Brian, I'm quite fond of her."

     "You'll have to excuse him, Arial. He's recently taken interest in old British shows and decided to imitate their way of speaking," Maria explains.