Candy Hearts | Watty's 2015

| 03 | Saturday, March 1

|  0 3  | Saturday, March 1

            When Arizona's mother had heard that she got a boyfriend, first she had squealed like a twelve-year-old, then she had kissed Arizona's father, which had resulted in the loss of Arizona's appetite, and then she had walked all the way around the dining table to gather Arizona to her chest, kissing the top of her head.

            "I am so proud of you, oh, my God, I can't believe this! Ben, can you believe it?" Arizona had no idea how to react to this, because a part of her had been offended, while the other had been trying to grasp the facts, itself. Her having a boyfriend was still a foreign concept.

            And when Arizona's mother had heard that she was going to meet his family, she had absolutely flipped her shits. When she had gone downstairs to get a drink of water, she had overheard her parents muttering to each other in the living room. Arizona couldn't hear exactly what they said, but some of her mother's whispers had sounded suspiciously like, might not, alone forever, and Ben! which, to be honest, hadn't been much of a surprise for Arizona.

            But after two weeks of being Jeremy's girlfriend, he had deemed it to be a perfect time for introducing her to his family. Arizona can't lie—the prospect of meeting his (big, from what he has said) family is daunting, but this is her first ever relationship and the last thing she wants to do is screw it up. So, now, here she is, on the phone with Briana, ten minutes before Jeremy is supposed to pick her up. Arizona is camped out in front of her house, on the deck, so that she can leave without her mother or—God forbid—Lara  interfering.

            "I'm terrified, Briana. What the hell do I do? What if they ask me what I want to major in? I don't know what I want to major in," she cries, pulling at the roots of her white-blond hair.

            "Jesus, you need to calm down," another voice pipes up from somewhere in Briana's background, probably. Arizona narrows her eyes.

            "Christine?"

Christine is Briana's girlfriend. She's in college, studying film, she has a slight Scottish accent even though she's Vietnamese because she had moved to Scotland when she was fourteen, she listens to "high-definition music," as she puts it, and she plays piano, which Briana says she finds quite endearing. Arizona's only met her four times in the entire year the two have been dating, but she's talked to her a whole lot over the phone.

"Yep," Christine says now from the other line. "Hey."

"Hi," Arizona blinks. "Briana, are you there?"

"Yeah. Just breathe and don't talk too much if you know that your digging yourself a grave. Be polite, answer questions with as much interest as you can—"

"And don't crack any dirty jokes," Christine juts in. "When Bri met my parents, she decided that it would be terribly appropriate to make inappropriate jokes. It wasn't. At least my parents have forgotten about that, though."

Arizona bites her lip nervously, nodding even though they can't see her. "Okay, sure, yeah. But what if I do s—" And then Jeremy's blue Toyota pulls up and she curses. "He's here."

"Okay, you just really need to breathe and think before you say anything. Keep that in mind and you'll be golden." She can hear the encouraging smile in Briana's voice.

"M'kay. Thanks, guys."

"I hope this guy's hot, for you to be worrying so much," Christine says and Arizona smiles at Jeremy when he steps out of the car.