Payton's Life

The Reveal

My mom comes in the next morning when Dane and I are talking about high school.

"Oh. Hi Dane!" My mom says with a surprised expression. "I wasn't expecting you here." She gives us me a questioning look.

"Hi Mrs. Sandford. I wasn't expecting you here either," I get another look from him.

"Oh please call me Tanya. Payton, would you like to explain?"

I wince, I was hoping she wouldn't question me. "Well... Um... So, it started a year ago - " I tell her the whole story about how Dane and I got together and then broke apart. " - We made up the other night and we're dating again..." I stop waiting for a moment to see the reaction.

"Well, I wish you'd told me sooner, I'm glad your dad isn't here. He is going to be quite angry. I - on the other hand - am quite happy for you."

Both Dane and I look at her with shocked expressions. "Really?" I ask.

"Yeah, I don't care what relationships you have as long as you tell me where you are and what you are doing when you are with that person."

"Okay. Thanks Mrs. Sand - I mean Tanya." Dane says in shock.

"Thanks so much mom!" I say as I hug her.

"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot why I came here in the first place. The doctor said you are healing from the concussion very quickly and there will be no permanent damage. He also said... You can go back to school!"

"What! No way!!!" Dane and I yell in sync.

"You guys are so adorable. Anyway, you'll have to wait a few weeks but you can leave the hospital today."

"Thanks so much mom!"

"Don't thank me, thank the doctor." She says right as the doctor comes in.

"Thank you Mr..." I trail off as I realise that I never knew his name.

"Nathan. And you're welcome." He says as I get up from my chair and hug him.

My mom brought clothes so I went and changed in the bathroom. When I came out Dane was waiting in my room holding all of my stuff.

"Dane is coming over to our house for dinner. We're going to eat pizza and watch Mockingjay Part 2, he hasn't seen it yet." Mom explains. I had almost forgotten that in the week Dane and I had been apart, the second Mockingjay had come out and Ellie and I saw it without Dane.

"I forgot that we didn't see it together this year. Let's go!" I yelled over my shoulder as I skip out of the hospital.

My dad came home that night right as mom was dishing up dinner.

"Why is Dane here?" Dad questioned right after he walked in.

"Mom would you like to explain that one?" I said slyly.

She retold the whole story of earlier that day, "so, I invited him to dinner so he could get to know our family more." She finished.

"I don't know what to say. I'm going between being happy for you and angry that you didn't tell me for an entire year!" He almost yells.

"I knew you would be mad and that's why I didn't tell you!" I almost yell back.

"You know what. I'm going to decide to be happy for you and call it at that."

"Thank you so much Mr. Sandford." Dane says with a relieved sigh.

The rest of the night went amazingly great. The movie was even better the second time and Dane comforted me at the end when the saddest part happened. (I won't spoil it.) The pizza was deep dish from Little Caesar's and it was really good. Dane loved it too. Dad seemed to like Dane a fair bit due to the fact that he had known him for two years now.

"Time for you to go home. You want to walk or get a ride?" I ask at the end of the night.

"I'll walk if you will accompany me." He says. I glance at mom to see if I can and she gives me a slight nod.

"Alright let's go; mom I'll see you in 10 minutes or so."

"Bye! Love you!"

I walked out of the house with Dane. We started off towards his house which is only three blocks away from mine.

"This is not enough time for us to be alone." He said with a sigh.

"Yeah, I know. I'll just say that I got caught up talking to your mom or something and we can walk really slow."

"Alright." He said with a wink and started walking in slow motion.

"Not that slow." I said with an eye roll and a friendly shove. I picked up a snowball and gave it a lob towards him. It hit him in the ear and I laughed.

"Hey!" He yelled. Then he picked up a snowball and threw it at me. I dodged it.

"Missed me missed me! Now you gotta kiss me!" I said jokingly.

"Alright." He ran up to me and picked me up. Then we kissed and it started snowing. It was amazing and so romantic! "We should actually head to my house before we get stuck in this blizzard." He said grudgingly with fake pout.

"I guess." I said with a fake frown. He burst into laughter. "What!?" I exclaimed.

"It's just when you pretend to pout and frown you're so adorable and hilarious." He elaborated.

"Hey!" I shouted with another fake pout. We both burst into loud laughter.

We finally started walking towards Dane's house again. As we walked it started snowing harder. By the time we got to his house I was panting from the effort of walking through a foot of snow. And it was still coming down hard and fast. I looked at the time on my watch. It was 9:40, we had left at 9:15. I pulled out my phone to call my mom.

"Payton! Where are you!?" My mom yelled in panic as soon as she picked up.

"Mom, it's fine. We just made it to Dane's house."

"Oh thank God! We were so worried."

"Yeah, it's fine. I don't think I should walk back though..."

"Don't worry, I'll come pick you up."

"No, I don't think you can. I can barely see three feet in front of me, there's already a foot of the snow on the ground and I'm sure your car's already buried."

"Okay. Are Dane's parents there? Can you stay there and we will pick you up in the morning?"

"I'll ask." I held the phone down away from my mouth. "Hey Dane, are your parents home?

"Yeah why?" he answered.

"I don't have a way home. Do you think they'd be okay with me staying?"

"I'm sure they would. Our guest bedroom is unoccupied at the moment so you could sleep there." He said as I put the phone back up by my mouth.

"Mom, he said his parents are home and good with me staying in the guest room."

"Okay sweetie. Be safe, I'll see you in the morning!"

"Bye mom, love you!"

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Hey everyone! Thanks for reading this far! I will keep updating (hopefully) often. Thanks to Griers_are_Bae for helping inspire me and sticking with me as I'm writing this!