Love Is Love

Dinner

Parker's POV

When I get home from the park, my mom is the only one up.

" Hey bud, how was it?" she asks me, setting down her book.

" It was good. He's coming over tomorrow to meet you guys, if that works," I say.

" Of course it works sweetie. We really want to meet him," she says.

" Yeah, he's amazing."

" Well, I'm happy for you. I am heading to bed, so don't stay up too late," she says. She comes over and gives me a kiss on the head before heading up to her room. I follow her up a couple minutes later, going to my room. I lay on my bed, thinking about tomorrow night, before falling fast asleep.

*****

When I wake up, it's 11:30. I smell breakfast downstairs, so I get up and put some sweatpants and a college shirt on. I head downstairs and see my sister and mom making pancakes and bacon.

" Morning sleeping beauty," Riley says.

" Morning. What's all this?" I ask, looking at all the food.

" It's your special night," she says. Right, I forgot about that. Now I can panic more.

" Thanks," I say, before sitting down at the counter and shoveling food into my mouth. When I'm done, I go upstairs and jump into the shower before changing into a clean pair of jeans and keep the same college shirt on. I go into my room and clean it up a little bit when my mom walks in.

" Hey, what does Jackson like food wise? We were thinking of ordering some Chinese, but we wanna make sure he likes it," she says.

" I can ask him," I say.

" Sure, just let us know." She leaves and I go over to my phone.

P: Hey, my parents wanna know if you like Chinese for tonight

I set it down and continued to clean up. About 2 minutes later, he responded.

J: Perfect.

I smiled, knowing that this was going to be a good night. My mom was able to keep me busy so I wouldn't stress out too much about tonight, but when there were only 10 minutes left, I couldn't help but pace around.

" For Heaven's sake, sit down," my mom says, laughing.

" Easy for you to say."

" It's gonna be fine sweetie, just be yourself." I nod and sit, but the second I do, the doorbell rings. I jump up and run to the door.

" Parker," my dad says laughing. I take a deep breath before opening the door.

" Hey," he says. My heart is beating so fast, I'm afraid he can see it beating out of my shirt.

" Hey. Come on in," I say, moving out of the way to let him in.

" You must be Jackson. I'm Linda and this is John and Riley," my mom says. He shakes their hands and smiles.

" Thank you for having me," he says. I can tell he's nervous.

" I'm hungry, so..."

" Right, we'll get the food ready. Come on Riley," my dad says. They go into the kitchen, leaving me and Jackson.

" It's okay, they like you, I can tell," I tell him, trying to calm him and myself down. He nods, before walking into the kitchen, and I'm right behind him.

" Help yourself to anything," my mom says, already starting. I motion him to go ahead of me, so he grabs a plate and puts food on. I do the same and follow him to the table.

" So Jackson, do you have any siblings?" my dad asks, taking a bite of his noodles.

" No, I'm an only child," he says.

" I was too,'' my mom chimes in, making him smile.

" What about your parents? What do they do?" my mom asks. I can tell he wasn't ready for that by the facial expression he tried to hide.

" Um... my mom is a nurse," he says hesitantly.

" And your dad?"

" He's a- um... pilot."

" Wow, that's very cool," my dad says. I could tell that Jackson was getting uncomfortable, so I changed the subject.

" So, Jackson plays soccer, and he's on a club team. We should totally go watch him play sometime," I say.

" Really? Well, I was a soccer player, too," my dad says. He tells the story of how he won the championships, and I know that Jackson was really engaged and less nervous.

At the end of dinner, we bring our dishes to the sink.

" I just realized that I never gave you a tour. Want one?" I say. He nods and then follows me. My parents stay downstairs with Riley, while we go up.

" This my the bathroom and parents room and my room," I say as we get to mine. I open the door and go inside, him behind me.

" You read a lot," he says, chuckling. I close the door, before turning to him.

" Yeah, I get that from my mom," I say. I sit on the bed, him sitting next to me.

"Your parents are cool, I like them," he says.

" Yeah, they're all right. I still want to meet yours, they sound cool too." He doesn't answer me, just leans over and kisses me.