Chapter 88

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A/N: Just a quick one - I was going to write this one and the next as one long chapter, but I decided to split it so you wouldn't have to wait so long. C xxx
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Chris stood at the door with his beer, watching Becs talking and laughing with his family. It was amazing really, how well she'd slotted into the group, how well they'd all gelled. He'd dated people for months, years, and they hadn't fit as well as Becs did. Not that it was surprising his family were making such an effort - they knew how much Becs meant to him, but he was surprised at how comfortable she seemed.
He would blame it on the Jack Daniels - not that she was drunk or even close, but after three shots, her guard was definitely down. However she'd seemed different all day - she'd hugged him and stayed there, she'd watched the movie with her head on his shoulder, and that kiss...she'd never done that before.
He came and joined the group of them, sitting down next to Becs and gently stroking her head. She turned and smiled at him before turning back to Carly who was just finishing a story.
'And it turned out that he had a vial of blood that belonged to his last girlfriend!' She said. 'He was wearing it round his neck.'
'No!' Becs laughed. 'Seriously? That's really creepy.'
'Yeah, so I got out of there pretty quickly after that.'
'Oh I can top that.' Scotty said with a laugh. 'Do you remember Troy the believer?' He said to Chris.
'Yeah.' Chris said, laughing.
'Weirdest first date ever.' Scotty said. 'He was a friend of a friend and he'd been described to me as 'being a bit quirky', so I was prepared for him to be a little unconventional, but this guy was crazier than a bag of raccoons! Literally the first thing he said to me, before he even introduced himself, was to ask if I was a believer. I assumed he meant God, but no, he meant every weird thing under the sun.'
'Like what?' Becs asked.
'He believed that the earth was flat, he believed in ghosts and vampires and Bigfoot, he believed the government had faked the moon landings, and covered up evidence that we're regularly visited by aliens, he believed there's a secret military facility in Alaska that's being used to create and control tornados.' Scotty laughed. 'Oh, there were loads more, those are the only ones I can remember.'
'Wow.' Becs said, laughing.
'Yeah. And when he found out that I wasn't bat-shit crazy and didn't believe any of that stuff, he proceeded to show me all these videos 'proving' it. Suffice to say, there wasn't a second date.'
'At least you got a good story out of it.' Becs said.
'At least he wasn't sick all over you.' His mom said, looking at her husband and making Carly and Scotty groan good-naturedly.
'Not this story again.' Scotty moaned, laughing.
'Becs hasn't heard it.' He said to Scotty.
'It's the story of mom and dad's first date.' He explained to her, seeing that she looked confused.
'It was a blind date,' his mom began explaining to Becs, 'and I didn't really want to go because I'd just gotten out of a long relationship and I wasn't looking to date again, but my best friend kept going on about how amazing he was, so eventually I agreed, just to shut her up. I wasn't really expecting much, but the second I saw him, I just thought 'wow'.' His mom stopped and smiled over at his dad.
'We were at the fair, and having the most amazing time, but then he suddenly went kind of green on the Ferris wheel and starting being sick. Violently.'
'In my defence, I had food poisoning.' His dad said, laughing.
'He threw up all over me.' Said his mom.
Becs put her hand over her mouth, horrified. 'No! And you carried on dating him after that? I don't think I'd even be able to look at a guy again if that happened!'
Duly noted.
His mom smiled. 'Well, I had to forgive him really - I knew he was the one for me as soon as I laid eyes on him.'
'Same.' His dad said.
He saw Becs smile politely.
She thinks that's total hooey.
'Becs thinks love at first sight is a load of romantic nonsense.' He said casually.
Becs' eyes went wide and she smacked him on the shoulder. 'Christopher!'
He laughed, amused at the way she used his full name when she was cross.
'What? You do.'
'Yeah but you don't say that! Especially when someone's just told a story like that...' She said.
She turned to his mom. 'I'm really sorry.' She said. 'I don't mean to-'
His mom laughed. 'No need to apologise.' She said. 'I'm not offended in the slightest.'
'You really don't believe in love at first sight?' Scotty asked.
Becs shook her head. 'No.'
'What about soulmates?' Scotty added.
'No, I don't believe in soulmates either, or that there's someone out there who's 'the one' for you.' Becca said.
'Why not?'
'I don't believe there's just one person out there who's perfect for me, my other half, my soulmate. I believe we can love lots of different people in lots of different ways during our lives.' She explained.
'That's a nice thought.' Carly agreed. 'But what about love at first sight? Why don't you believe in that?'
He was beginning to wish that he hadn't mentioned it - he didn't want Becs to feel like they were interrogating her.
'Guys, maybe Becs doesn't want to-'
'No, it's fine.' Becs said. 'I don't mind explaining. I know a lot of people think it'll be like they'll meet someone and just know. That it'll hit them, bam, like lightning.'
Chris snorted with amusement.
She's quoting Prince Eric.
Scotty frowned at him in confusion.
'It's a quote from The Little Mermaid.' He explained.
'A misquote, but yeah.' Becs smiled. 'But I don't think it works like that, because when you first lay eyes on them, you're just looking at their outward appearance, the way they look. You don't know anything about their personality, what they're really like. And while I do believe that you can be extremely attracted to someone at first glance, I don't believe it's love, because I believe we fall in love with people's character and personality, their strengths and weaknesses, not their face.'
There was a silence and he could see a couple of them looking at him.
'Sorry, that was a bit deeper than I meant to go. Blame the Jack Daniels.' Becs said sheepishly. 'I'm going to go and get myself a glass of water.'
Chris watched his mom's eyes follow Becs as she walked out of the room.
'I love her, she's perfect.' She said.
'I know.'

A/N: This last bit gave me the feels

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