Treading Water- tsitp fanfic

The Date

"Hey," he replied back.

We both paused again, "Oh geez, I'm sorry, please come in."

He laughed, easing the awkwardness before accepting my offer and entering the house, "be prepared to be bombarded," I whispered to him before entering the kitchen.

While Wally had somewhat of a nervous personality at times, he handled the family interrogation well. "So, Wally, tell us about yourself," Mom said.

I was about to speak up to tell her to back off a bit, afraid he felt a tad overwhelmed, when he spoke up, "Well I work at the local book store with Nat, my mom's a publisher, and she got me a job there" he paused, turning to Laurel, "I actually worked your book party, Laurel, Nat's told me great things about your writing," Laurel blushed. "My dad is the owner of a yacht company, so ya know, I'm just another privileged Cousin's kid," he said laughing, a tad uncomfortable now. Nat could tell he was afraid he came off as spoiled.

But Mom didn't bat an eye, "You don't sound too different than us in that aspect, hun," that's something Nat loved about her mom, she always knew how to put people at ease. She continued, "So, is it safe for me to assume your family are members of the country club then?"

"Uh, yeah we are."

"What did you say your last name was sweetie?" Mom asked.

"Thatcher, Wally Thatcher, Mrs. Fisher."

"Thatcher, that's right, yeah I've met your father a couple of times, nice man," she paused, "and please, call me Susannah."

He smiled in appreciation. Jeremiah decided to make his presence obnoxiously known as he loudly cleared his throat, "Hey Wally, remember me?"

"Uh, yeah, Jeremiah, right?"

"Yeah, that's right, I'm Nat's twin brother," Jere said, as if that should scare him.

"Shut up Jere," I said, annoyed.

Wally stopped me, "It's ok Nat, I get it," he said turning back to Jere, "Jeremiah I know it's your job to look out for Nat and make sure she's safe, and I want to ensure you she's safe with me and you have nothing to worry about."

Jere narrowed his eyes, "yeah, we'll see about that buddy," Jere said before dramatically walking away, followed by his sidekick, Steven.

Wally pressed his lips together at his apparent failure, making one last effort saying, "Ok, cool man, I promise I'll get her home in one piece," he nervously tried to make peace with Jere as he continued walking away, "I uh- I like your shirt," Jere stopped in his tracks.

"Really?" Jere asked sheepishly.

"Yeah, it's cool, mesh is totally in right now," he said happy to have found some common ground with Jere.

Jere pointed at me aggressively, "Ha, I told you."

I rolled my eyes and smirked, "Whatever, Wally here also listens to Wheezer, I'm not sure he gets a say on whats cool."

Wally scoffed in mock offense, "Ouch, wheezer is amazing." The tension seemed to have washed away completely as we all laughed.

I wrapped my arm around Wally's upper arm, "Alright well, I think we're gonna head out."

We get a chorus of 'ok, have fun' from everybody, except for Jere who says 'no funny business'.

We finally make our way out the door and reach his car.

"I thought we'd never make it out of there," I say, breathless. He just smirks before starting the car and pulling out the driveway. "So, you gonna tell me where we're headed?"