The Art of Survival

Chapter 4 | Part 2

A/N: So.... I'm trash and forgot to post the rest of chapter 4 so here it is! -Sherr

“So how’d you guys meet?” I asked as we all sat down at the dinner table a couple hours later, both Lauren and I were wearing our lockets and I kept playing with mine as I ate, I still couldn’t fathom the idea of someone spending so much money on me, stealing for me? Maybe I could understand but not actually spending money. My fingers kept coming across the locket to make sure it was still there even though I could feel the soft weight of it on my chest.

My question to the fathers caused the sisters to groan and throw their heads back and I turned and looked at them with raised eyebrows and confusion in my eyes but both men smiled and laughed with the two different reactions I didn’t know what to expect.

“Here we go,” Normani says and her father Chris throws his napkin at her and he sits up beginning to explain.

 “So as you know Tony was on Broadway for most of his twenties,” he began and I nodded in agreement, Lauren told me about before he retired that he was always on stage. “Well I also worked on Broadway but I was more of the behind the scenes type.”  

 “He was the janitor!” Lauren says with a laugh, and this time Tony throws his napkin at her and it makes me laugh while Lauren sticks out her tongue at her parents.

 “Yeah well what happened was,” Tony snaps but is still smiling as he takes over the story “I was having a very bad day, full of self-doubt and fearing that I wasn’t good enough, I was so nervous for that night’s show. I was staring in Applause that night.”

 “And he was crying like a baby,” Normani adds

 “And while Papa was up above cleaning the lights, he heard him crying.” Lauren said

“So of course with Papa being the amazing man he is…”, Normani picked up.

“He came down from the ladder to see why the beautiful man with the even more beautiful voice was crying,”Lauren continued.

“No man that beautiful should ever cry,”

The girls were reciting the story as if it was their own and they were smiling and rolling their eyes but I could tell they both loved hearing it, no matter how many times they already have.

“And so I came down from my ladder and put my hand on his shoulder – scared the living crap out of him if I may add,” Chris continues where his girls left off “and I asked him what was wrong, which was a huge mistake because he ended up crying harder,”

 I look over at Tony who nodding his head in agreement with laughter slightly falling from his open mouth.

 “And of course I have no idea what to do you so I’m just patting his shoulder, and it’s so awkward he seriously won’t stop sobbing so after like an hour I finally say, how am I supposed to ask you out on a date if you're crying?”

 “Oh my gosh,” I say covering my mouth in awe.

 “And that gets me to stop crying,” Tony says and I’m just completely heart eyes over the story.

 “That’s so sweet,” I say finally clapping my hands together I look over and see my girlfriend and her sister still making fun of her parents so I must have been my turn to throw a napkin, which I do making sure to knock Lauren just a little bit. She scoffs at me and says something in Spanish under breath and it makes Normani’s eyes go wide and she smacks her sister’s arm.

“Language!” Chris snaps but he laughs and I’m left feeling insanely clueless.

“What?”