Noah & Navid

Chapter 37- Navid's Family

I watched Navid's new car pull up into the driveway and disappear into the garage below our townhouse. My heart pounded as I paced around the living room looking for a speck of dirt, a misplaced item. I'd worked all day on making sure our place looked perfect. 

I was so worried about messing this up. His parents were everything to him and this was the first time they were visiting him here in California. They came to see him graduate and I had no idea how they would react to me in person.

I cracked open the front door and heard them open the trunk amid a flurry of happy conversation in Persian. I wondered if I should go down there and help or wait here at the door and smile. 

Should I have bottles of water waiting? Maybe I should have put on music?

I definitely should have worn a nicer shirt. I had on a new pair of red shorts and a small white polo shirt. It's what Navid picked out this morning when I begged him to choose something acceptable for meeting his parents. He'd left early to get to the airport and wait on their flight.

I started to close the door so I could dash upstairs and change, but then I realized that in my pensive state they'd finished gathering items from the car and were headed up! 

I panicked and left the door ajar as I fled upstairs to the guest bedroom. We would be sleeping in there while his parents took the big room.

The guest bedroom was supposed to be my room since as far as they knew Navid was just giving me a place to stay and taking care of a wayward white boy. Navid and I had spent time decorating it to make it look like I slept in there and moving my clothes and things over to it. 

He let me pick out some posters for the walls and we gathered pictures of me with other friends and family for a big collage frame. We even got a new blanket and sheets for the bed with a stars and planets theme. I pointed out that I was too old for the look, but he liked them.

We had made a pretty convincing space and it felt like a knife to the chest to separate my life and items from his. I fought hard not to cry when I saw my drawers empty out from "his" room. 

When he had to dig through the underwear drawer to separate mine and his into two piles, he felt it too. I caught the stunned look in his eyes, but when he saw me watching he made a brave attempt at a smile. I realized this was hurting him too, so I trudged on without complaint.

He'd hidden all of the pictures he had of us in compromising positions including the big canvas print of him holding me in front of the marina that hung over our bed. 

Our relationship had been scrubbed clean so his parents would feel comfortable here. Navid had brought in the last piece this morning before he'd left, our toothbrushes would stay together, but in the guest bathroom.

Just as I heard their happy voices approach the front door, I made it into the guest bedroom. The voices stopped suddenly, and then they continued in a tone of alarm.

"Noah!" I heard Navid yell. "Noah! What the hell?" He sounded pissed off and I heard a thud as he pushed through the front door. I heard him toss the bags on the living room floor and then heavy footsteps as he ran up the stairs.

"Noah!" His panic widened, but I was still frozen in fear behind the guest bedroom door.

"Noah! Fuck!" I heard his voice inches from me and then saw his head pop into the guest bedroom. He didn't see me at first, his face was red and his eyes full of terror.

"Hi," I whispered and Navid jumped back.

He stared into me as his chest heaved with breath. We looked at each other for a moment and then he turned back towards the hallway and called down something to his parents in his language.