Life Of The Party × CH

32

I checked my outfit one last time against the rearview mirror on my bike. I was wearing ripped jeans with fishnet stockings under them. A white shirt, leather jacket, and black booted heels.

Walking up the porch steps, I tried calming my nerves, seeing as though I was meeting his parents for the first time.

Just as I rang the doorbell, the door swung open, revealing Mali with a huge smile on her face. "You made it!" she exclaims, pulling me in for a hug, which was definitely something new.

"Come in," she moves aside. "Calum's upstairs, probably rethinking the fifth outfit he's changed into." Her comment made me laugh, and knowing Calum, it was probably true.

"Is she here?" I heard a woman's voice coming from the kitchen. Later, I heard footsteps walking towards where I was.

A woman appeared, with tan skin and short dark hair, undoubtedly Mali and Calum's mother. "Welcome, welcome," she said with such enthusiasm, I felt it radiate onto me as I smiled.

"Hi," I said shyly, "It's nice to meet you." Outstretching my hand, I expected a handshake from the woman, instead, I got a bone crushing hug.

She pulled away shortly after, still having the same smile on her face, she still held onto my shoulders as she talked to me. "Calum's told us so much about you!" she exclaims.

"All good things I hope?" I say bashfully, not knowing what else to say.

"Don't worry," Mali interrupted. "Calum has never brought any other girl home, it's not like we have high standards." Mali had this thing about her where she would joke a lot, but in this very situation, I was extremely stressed out. No pressure!

"Call me Joy," Calum's mom brought the attention back to her, making me temporarily forget about Mali's 'joke'. She turned her head away from me, "David!" she called out loudly, "Leave the potatoes and come greet our guest."

"She's here already?" I heard a male voice say as I heard footsteps approach us. Not long after, a blond man appeared in the hallway, walking towards us still wearing an apron and oven mitts.

"Hello," he gives me a warm smile, taking one mitt off so to shake my hand.

"Hello, sir," I smile back.

"This is David," Joy introduces him. "We never got your name, dear?"

"Oh sorry," I say, once again blushing, "I'm Devin."

"It's nice to meet you, Devin," Calum's dad says. "I would love to stay and chat, but I can only leave the chicken unattended for so long," he says as he turns back around and starts walking back to the kitchen.

"Why don't we all go to the kitchen?" Joy says, putting a hand on my back and guiding me to the kitchen. My nerves were still there, but his parents' warm welcome had loosened me up a bit.

"I'll go get Calum," Mali says as she starts walking up the stairs.

I walked to the kitchen with Joy. "Calum told me you were only here for the summer," she says as we enter the kitchen. "Where are you from?"

"Oh, I'm from here," I say. "I lived here up until I was sixteen, then moved in with my mom in California when my parents got divorced."

"Oh dear, I'm sorry," Joy gives me an apologetic look.

"It's fine," I shrug. "It's what was best." It felt weird talking to her about my divorced parents, but I was already used to the apologetic smiles and sorry glances. The divorce hadn't affected me how people would imagine, it was just something that happened between my parents and I chose to accept, rather than argue against.

"What about college?" David asks, trying to lighten up the conversation.

"I'm actually going to NYU to study art and design," I explain.

"That sounds lovely," Joy smiles at me. "Isn't that nearby?"

"Yeah, it is," I smile back.

Just then, the door to the kitchen opens, and in walked Calum followed by Mali. "Sorry," he says as he walks in, walking up to me and scooping me into a hug, not giving me any space to react. I smile against his chest up until I remembered his parents and Mali were probably watching us.

He pulled away shortly after. Once I got a good look at him, I noticed he was wearing his standard black ripped skinny jeans and sneakers, as well as a black tank top and a blue and black checkered flannel over it. His hair was still messy, which meant he had probably been running his fingers through it a hundred times because of nerves.

"Now that we're all here," Joy says as she looks at Calum and me with a smile, "Calum can you help Mali set the table?"

"Sure, mum," he says before walking over to the dining room table which Mali was already setting up.

"What can I help with?" I ask Joy, looking at her.

"You're the guest," she smiles at me, "You don't help. Sit down." She said this in such an authoritative voice yet in such a calm way.

"I don't mind, really," I say, hoping she'd give me something to do so that I could talk to Calum.

"If you really want to, you can help Calum set up the table?" she suggests.

"That's fine," I smile as I walked into the dining room.

I hear Joy call out, "Mali, could you make the salad?"

"Sure, mum," Mali says as she leaves the cutlery on the table and leaves the dining room, leaving Calum and I alone.

"Hey," I say as I take over Mali's job of distributing the cutlery.

"Hey," he says with a smile. "Sorry I wasn't downstairs when you got here, I was getting dressed."

"And you look damn fine like that," I tease, giving him a compliment.

Calum smiles wider. "Thanks," he says. "My mum seems to like you."

"I hope so," I give him a nervous smile back.

"There's nothing about you not to like," Calum says as he places a plate in front of every chair on the table, stopping right in front of me.

I turn around to face him. "We both know that's a lie," I laughed.

Calum rolls his eyes, pushing my chin up with his fingers, kissing my lips so gently yet so passionately. "In my eyes, at least," he says as we pull away, and just in time for David to enter the room and place the chicken and potatoes on the table.