Crash

Family Crash

This excerpt is fairly long LOL 'cuz it features Liz/Elizabeth from Beyond Love is in it (but according to the time frame/parallel Baked series that is concurrent with this prequel, Xander and Chip are not their teachers yet). Enjoy!

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"Hi! I'm Elizabeth," the teenager who was so eager to speak to me earlier at the hallway re-introduced herself. She was seated across me—a paper plate full of chocolate eclairs in front of her. "Everyone calls me Liz."

"Hey Liz. Uh, should I introduce myself again...?" I asked tentatively, and she laughed.

"No need for that, Ace. Wait, do I call you Uncle Ace? Since you and Uncle Blake are going to get married anyway."

I almost spat out my drink. M-m-married? No one said a thing about that, Liz!

"Oh! No no, no need for that, um," I needed some time to recollect my thoughts. "And I wasn't aware you called Blake, um...uncle. I mean, he's only a few years older than you."

"Well he is my uncle, technically," Liz pointed out. She popped an entire chocolate eclair into her mouth and offered me those on her plate. "My mom's his cousin. So following this, I suppose I'm his niece?"

"Man, I uh...I wouldn't know, actually. I don't know much about relatives since I've always been with foster families instead."

Liz appeared taken aback by my words. "Oh...wait, what? I'm so sorry. I didn't know. Ugh. I shouldn't have brought that up. Sorry."

I shook my head and told her that I was completely alright with it, considering the fact that I'd already gotten used to it.

"It's just—you know. I'm only just starting to learn about families, and I'm already twenty," I explained with difficulty. "This is the first family gathering I've ever been to, by the way. And it's not even with my family." I laughed shortly.

Liz folded her arms as though she was about to launch into some mega analysis of my statement. "What are you talking about, Ace? You are part of the family! Uncle Blake loves you. That's all that matters."

"And you probably don't know this but," she paused for a moment, biting on her lower lip. "The reason why everyone's so concerned about you 's because Uncle Blake's never brought anyone to family gatherings before. Not even that girlfriend he had last time. Or...at least claimed to have."

I blinked.

Wow. Well I'm pretty sure I hadn't come here for a pep-talk but admittedly, I was feeling a whole lot better as soon as Blake's niece announced her acknowledgement of my potato self. Aw man. How I wish this was all real. That I had truly come to this gathering as Blake's boyfriend.

Sigh.

"So," Liz went on curiously. "When's the wedding?"

Gotta be convincing gotta be convincing.

"Uhh...well, you know," I laughed awkwardly. "We've only dated for about a year and—um! Not that we haven't been talking about marriage but, well. I don't want to stress him out or anything, you get what I mean?"

Liz nodded in approval.

"True, true. I heard Uncle Blake's been kinda busy ever since he got promoted. He's the head of department, isn't he?" She paused, deep in thought. "As for what department exactly, I kinda forgot."

I was secretly moved that any niece cared/knew so much about their uncle, since my own sister didn't give a damn about what I did for a living (or whether I was alive, for the matter—but that's another story).

"Actually, I'm his secretary."

"What?" Almost at once, her eyes lit up like christmas lights and she was smiling with glee. "That's so hot!"

Okay, I guess I gotta give it to her since she's a teen with raging hormones and radical fantasies (wait, didn't I have those too?) but the next thing she said totally blew me away as unexpected and absolutely terrifying. Fortunately, she hadn't said it all-too-loudly.

"I bet you guys have sex in the office all the time."

This time, I spat out my drink. No shit, I shouldn't have been drinking anything, even if it was water. Thankfully, it went straight back into my plastic cup and not at anyone's unfortunate face.

"Whaat?"

Liz was wriggling her brows suggestively, unfazed by my violent reaction but slowly gaining the attention of her mother who was only a couple of seats away.

"You know what. Sex. In the office. Come on, I'm seventeen already—not some nine-year-old kid," the teenager rolled her eyes like an expert. "I know how two men do it."

I positively paled at that. Like, blanched the color of that white tablecloth held in place by a random vase somewhere beside us. Glancing around us, I leaned closer towards her and lowered my voice.

"What have they been teaching you in school Liz?! Just what have you been reading??" I hissed.

"Gay porn."

Elizabeth had the smirk of the devil on her lips. Does it run in the family? Lol I'd actually love to see that on Blake more often.

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