Pictures Of You

Chapter 16

Amy was pacing up and down her room. She'd gotten dressed an hour ago. And even though she and Karma had decided on the red knee length dress she was wearing, days ago, she still wasn't sure about it. Amy wanted to impress her father's family for some reason, as if she had something to prove. Regan was suppose to show up fifteen minutes ago and Amy was starting to get worried that she wasn't going to show.

As Amy paced the room, she heard the door open.

"Hey." Karma said, walking into the room.

"Hey." Amy said, turning to look at Karma.

"You look beautiful, stop worrying." Karma said, walking toward Amy.

"How did you know, I was worrying." Amy asked.

"I could tell you were worrying, before I even walked into the room. Just breathe, you'll be fine." Karma said.

"I'm trying but Regan hasn't come yet, I don't want us to be late." Amy said.

"She'll be here and plus you have a ton of time." Karma said.

"I don't even know who all I'm going to meet." Amy said.

"What do you mean?" Karma asked, taking a seat on Amy's bed.

"My dad never told me much about his family. I know he has a kid, but that's pretty much it." Amy said.

"You can ask him, when you call him for directions." Karma said.

"That's a good idea, I'm going to call him." Amy said.

Amy picked up her phone from her bedside and dialed her father's number.

"Hello?" Jack said, answering the phone.

"Hey dad? It's me, Amy." Amy said.

"Oh hey Amy, where are you?" Jack asked.

"I'm just about to leave. I wanted to ask you some directions but before that, I just wanted to know who all I'll be meeting." Amy said, awkwardly.

"Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that. You'll be meeting my wife, Susan and your brother, Brian." Jack said.

"Oh." Amy said, taking a deep breath.

"You'll be fine Amy, it's just dinner." Jack said, trying to reassure his daughter.

"Yeah, I guess so. I'll see you at dinner then. Bye." Amy said, hanging up.

"You forgot to ask for directions." Karma said.

"Oh yeah, it's okay I wasn't going to understand any of them anyway." Amy said.

Amy and Karma continued to talk for a couple of minutes, until Regan walked in.

"I am so sorry. There was just a ton of traffic. Oh hey Karma." Regan said, walking toward Amy and giving her a hug.

"Hey." Karma said, getting off Amy's bed.

Amy turned to Karma to say bye.

"You'll be fine, I promise." Karma said, hugging Amy.

Regan never liked how close Karma and Amy were but she never said anything about it, she didn't want to do anything to upset Amy.

After Amy had said bye to Karma and her mother, she and Regan were off. They reached Jack's house without too many problems and were just on time.

Amy stood at the door, motionless. She just wanted to steady herself. She didn't get why this was such a big deal, she was just meeting Jack's family, but for reasons even she didn't understand, it seemed like the most important thing in the whole world and she knew Jack felt the same way. Regan put an arm around Amy to steady her.

"You'll be fine." Regan said, with a smile as she rang the doorbell.

"Hey." Jack said opening the door and giving Amy a hug.

"Hey." Amy said, with a smile on her face.

Jack led Amy and Regan to his living room where Susan and Brian were sitting with their back toward the three of them. Susan was the first of the two to stand up; she was a short woman with brunette hair. She seemed to be in her mid forties with a sweet looking face.

"Amy, Regan, this is my wife, Susan." Jack said, gesturing toward the woman standing in front of him.

"Nice to meet you." Susan said, with a smile on her face, as she shook Amy's hand.

The boy, who'd been sitting on the couch up until now, got up and turned to meet Amy and Regan. He was a tall, well build boy, who was nineteen years of age and with brunette hair, similar to those of his mother's.

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Amy, this is my girlfriend.." Amy began as she took Susan's hand.

"Regan?" The brunette boy spoke up, interrupting Amy.

"Brian?" Regan said.

"You two know each other?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, we used to date in high school. I didn't know you were gay." Brian said, looking at Regan.

Amy looked at Regan with a flabbergasted look on her face. The room was filled with an awkward silence that no one knew how to deal with. Amy had thought of a lot of scenarios in which tonight could have gotten ruined, but this was not one them. It was safe to say that everyone from that point on was just trying to find a way to get through the night. Dinner was awkward to say the least and no one really said anything.

Jack walked Amy and Regan to the door. He and Amy stood alone outside after Regan had offered to get the car around so Jack and Amy could have a few moments to talk.

"That really wasn't how I wanted you to meet my family." Jack said.

"I know, but it's okay." Amy said. She was surprised by how calm she was, seen as how much she was panicking about the dinner in the first place.

"Yeah but I just don't want you to feel bad, I know how much this night was worrying you." Jack said.

"It's okay dad, it wasn't that bad." Amy said.

"I've been meaning to ask you. Why were you so tensed about tonight?" Jack asked.

Amy took a deep breath. "To be honest, I just felt like I need your family to like me because if they didn't, if they didn't approve.. Then maybe you'd leave again." Amy didn't look at her father; she stared at her hands, not wanting him to see the tears forming in her eyes.

"Oh Amy. I'm sorry you felt that way but I'm not going anywhere, I promise." Jack said, giving Amy a hug. Jack smiled at Amy as the pulled away.

Amy smiled back at Jack and then moved to get into her car.

"Goodnight." Amy said, with a smile on her face.

"Goodnight Amy, I love you." Jack said.

"I love you too." Amy said, as she got into the car.

There was a silence between Amy and Regan for a few moments.

"I am so so sorry, Amy." Regan said.

"It's okay." Amy said.

"It's not. I just, I had no idea, he would be your dad's son." Regan said.

"I know, there's no way you could've known. We haven't really had a conversation about who all we've dated and that's okay." Amy said.

"Are you sure?" Regan asked.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll have this conversation whenever we're ready." Amy said, smiling as she looked over at Regan.

Regan and Amy held each other's gaze for a few seconds until a light flashed on Amy 's face.

"Look out Regan!" Amy screamed.