Everything Happens At 2:04 AM

Chapter Forty-Five: Take The Wheel.

Dedicated to becca, becca487, for the pretty cover above! Thank you <3

Chapter Forty-Five: "Take The Wheel."

MY SIBLINGS AND I all resembled our mother rather than our father. I don't know how but her genes were the strongest when it came down to who we all collectively looked like. Daniel got her nose. I got the shape of her eyes. Naomi got her mouth.

But on a level under physical traits, I was the one who acted the most like her yet, my attitude alone was a chip off hers. Just a chip.

"I didn't know we were playing a game of let's meet the family," Caleb whispered the night before despite urging me to meet his family hours beforehand.

"My dad wanted to meet you," I told him. "Why do you think I asked if you wanted to come here?"

"I thought you'd want a break from Los Angeles or something and you wanted me to come with."

"That too, but it was only a matter of time." I pointed out.

He was all for me meeting his aunt. In fact, I had met her first and she was a little fireball of a person. Tia or aunty is what I ended up calling her because I was raised to do so, was quick to accept me into her home, the loft Caleb and his brother had grown up in while they lived here.

Considering I loved meeting and connecting with people, meeting one of the most important people in Caleb's life was easy.

But meeting my family? I was convinced Caleb was going to sprint off into a run. I've been to a gym with Caleb. Cardio was most definitely not his favorite thing.

He tried shaking off his nerves, and I took his hand, squeezing slightly. It was kind of cute to see him so rattled. "But do you want me to meet them?"

I nodded, knowing that that chip of attitude I had gotten from my mom was something he was going to experience full force. "I do."

"Okay, then. Let's get straight to it."

It wasn't going well.

My mom was hardheaded. Extremely.

This was mentioned straight from the beginning when Caleb told me he wanted to meet my family that he and my mom weren't going to get along. My original thoughts were because of their clashing personalities.

I thought wrong.

My mom didn't like Caleb and I already had a feeling of why the second she looked at him.

Dad was better.

He and Caleb hit it off the second Caleb shook his hand. As my father was a bank investor, he also liked shouting at soccer games, sitting on the porch of the house and watching people or reading- he loved reading.

It only made sense that a reader like my father was going to like a writer like Caleb.

He asked him any and every question that had to do with his novels, with the business surrounding writing, leading to where he had gone for book tours, how he had started getting into screenwriting-

I was convinced my father liked my boyfriend way more than I did. Caleb wasn't meant to stay for dinner since he had an outing with his Tia later, but my dad would have made him stay for dinner and watch a soccer game with him.

Caleb seemed to like my dad just as much. Glancing over at my mom who retreated to the kitchen to answer a phone call, I sighed. She didn't say much, something that was unlike her and had given Caleb the cold shoulder most of the time besides giving him a polite hello.