Butterfly Years

Chapter 17

“Fine, I’ll call the lovebirds now!” Cathy’s voice echoed from outside Ryan’s bedroom door.

I looked at Ryan; he had a ghost of a smile on his face, his eyes alight with sparks of energy. I beamed back at him. How was I supposed to hide my smile? I had just told him something I had on my chest for a long time.

Phew.

Cathy burst into his room, a huge smile on her face, making her look a bit like a maniac. I briefly wondered if that was how I looked too.

“Ryan, your mom wants to meet Syaz,” she raised an eyebrow at the both of us, “And I’m glad to know you guys are together.”

“We’re not!”

“Are we?”

Both mine and Ryan’s voices rang through the silence that followed.

“Are we?” Ryan repeated, stepping back and raising an eyebrow at me. I was about to answer truthfully when I saw the playful smirk on his face.

“Ryan, you jerk!” I hit his arm, “Get away from me!”

I walked away from him and stood beside Cathy, turning my eyes to her. “You were saying?”

She stared agog at me and Ryan. “You two are adorable,” she stated, shaking her head as if to bring herself out of a dream, “And yeah, Ryan’s mom wants to meet Syaz.”

She paused. “And Ryan,” she added as an afterthought.

I rolled my eyes playfully at her. “Firstly, no, we two aren’t adorable. Secondly, am I supposed to be scared?”

Cathy laughed, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of Ryan’s bedroom. “Why don’t you decide for yourself?”

I followed Cathy down the stairs and into the living room, where we found Jen watching Dora the Explorer on television.

“I thought I told you to go home,” Ryan muttered behind us.

Cathy turned around and ruffled his hair. “I was going to leave, but then your mom came home with the groceries and asked me to help her in the kitchen, and I just sort of blurted out that Syaz was here and...”

Ryan glared at her. “One of these days,” he vowed, “I’m getting back at you.”

“Yeah, about that,” Cathy smirked, “Don’t use your toothbrush tonight.”

“Why not?” Ryan quirked an eyebrow, fear clearly shown in his eyes.

“Just don’t,” Cathy winked at me before turning around and heading into what I took to be the kitchen.

I would have laughed at her implication if I hadn’t been for the butterflies that were now fluttering around my tummy.

This was officially the whole Meet The Parents thing, right?

Wow, stuff in stories and movies definitely weren’t overrated: this was definitely scary. My mind flashed to a certain point in the future when I’d have to inevitably introduce Ryan to mom and dad as my… as whatever he is to me now. I knew exactly how they’d react, and couldn’t help but smirk at the idea.

They weren’t kidding when they said revenge is sweet.

Ryan placed his hands gently on my shoulder and guided me to the kitchen. “She won’t bite,” he whispered in my ear, “I swear.”

I looked over my shoulder and caught his eye with mine. He smiled reassuringly. Immediately I felt warm and fuzzy inside. Maybe if Ryan was here… it would be alright.