One Way Bridge

Chapter 47

"Emma you've been so nervous the last few days," Justin comments on our way home Friday. "Seriously, what's the worst that could happen?"

I sighed. "I don't know"

"Relax," he placed his hand over one of mine which gripped the steering wheel. I hadn't noticed how tightly I held it, but he had noticed my white knuckles. I released the wheel with the hand closer to Justin and let him hold it in his.

"What are we going to say?" The thought of finally telling Grandma, Kate, and Jeff about us had me rattled.

"We'll just wait for the right moment and tell them. It's not that big of a deal, Emma. Nana and my mom will probably be all excited and my Dad will tell me to treat you right. Emma, my family loves you."

"You're right," my voice wasn't very convincing.

"I'll do all the talking"

"Thank you"

Justin and I didn't hang out. I may have fibbed and said I had to help grandma make potato salad for dinner. In reality, grandma had already made the side dish, but I really needed to do my homework. I'd be spending all of Saturday with my friends and then Sunday I was going to Rochester. I had yet to tell Justin of my plans to take a trip. I didn't know how to tell him. I could have just told him I couldn't say, but that always bothered him. I could've used the same excuse I gave grandma, but it was getting really hard to lie to Justin. I had to choke out my excuse for not hanging out with him that night.

"Emma, are you ready to go to the Petersons?" Grandma called down the stairs freeing me from my thoughts.

"Yeah, one minute," I packed up my books and ran upstairs to drop my bag in my room before following Grandma out the front door. With the snow we were forced to walk around by the street, but it only took a minute longer to get there.

We didn't bother ringing the doorbell or knocking. I was so used to this by now, that I opened the door and walked in like I owned the place. I could hear a rather loud conversation coming from the kitchen and I remembered what Justin told me about his parents fighting a lot. "Hello?" I called hoping they would think I just walked in and hadn't heard any of their talking.

The voices stopped and Jeff walked into the living room while I took of my shoes. "Hi Emma," a smile was etched on his face. "Hi Lorane," grandma had just walked in behind me. I moved off the rug to make room for her and hung my coat on the stairs' banister. "I think Justin's in his room, why don't you go get him?" Jeff asked me. It seemed rather odd considering he was standing next to Justin's door, but I did as was asked of me. I knocked on the door as Jeff and Grandma walked past into the kitchen.

I heard a muffled "come in," so I walked in to find Justin on his bed with a laptop in his lap. "Hey," he smiled at me.

I shut the door figuring the adults wanted a moment to talk and that's why I was given this task. "Hey"

"What's up?" he closed the laptop and gave me his full attention.

"I think your parents are fighting again." I sat down next to him.

"Oh," Justin's face fell.

"What were you doing?" I tried to change the subject.

"Oh um," he opened his laptop to let me see. He was changing his online status from single to in a relationship. "I figured if we're going to tell Nana and my parents, we might as well let everyone know."

"Oh God," I thought about how a lot of my family was on social media and how they would never shut up about me having a boyfriend.

"I can change it back if you want, we don't need to let the internet know." Obviously he was not expecting my reaction.

"No it's fine. I was just thinking about how my aunts and cousins are going to give me crap for finding out that I have a boyfriend from the internet." Justin smiled at my lame excuse. "I guess we're 'online official' now."

"Yeah, all that's left is to tell our parents." I groaned and Justin chuckled. "Come on, let's go get this over with." He pulled my hand and dragged me to the door. Of course, there he let it go so we wouldn't get any raised eyebrows.

"Mmm, it smells good in here," I made sure to announce our entrance into to the kitchen. I didn't want to overhear another argument. "What's cooking?"

"Ham," Kate stood up from where she was sitting at the table.

"Ham and grandma's potato salad? It must be Christmas."

"Sure it is," Grandma laughed and stood up. "Why don't you help me set the table?"

"Sure," I went to the cupboard where the plates were kept. I was starting to remember where everything was stored.

"Justin, Honey, will you go get the potato salad from the fridge in the garage?" Grandma asked.

"Yeah," he started walking towards the garage. "Anyone else want anything?" No one answered so he left while grandma and I finished setting the table.

When Justin came back we all sat down and ate. "So what's the plan for you guys for tomorrow?" Jeff asked me from where he sat beside me.

"Um, I don't really know. What are we doing tomorrow, Justin?" I turned to the boy sitting on my other side. All I knew was the game was Saturday and that the girls probably had something planned.

"Ally and Charlotte are bringing Vince's truck and we're going to tailgate until game time. I think we're meeting at ten at the dome." Vince turned from me to his dad.

"Are you going to see your brother, Emma? He goes to school there, doesn't he?" Jeff asked me another question.

"Uh yeah, he goes there, but I haven't talked to him all week." I shrugged. "I'll probably text him tonight." The talk changed from our plans to whether or not we had a chance at winning to how nervous Vince was. The conversation kind of came to a halt when we moved on to dessert.

Justin seemed to notice this too, because he took that time to bring up our relationship. "So um," and he said I was nervous, "Emma and I are dating."

Justin was right, there was nothing to be nervous about. Kate smiled. "Oh honey, we already knew."

"What?" Justin was not expecting that.

"Well Lorane figured it out first and then told us." Kate explained.

"Now Justin, you take good care of Emma," Jeff said in a want-to-be stern voice. I turned to Justin and we both laughed, much to our company's amusement. It was exactly what he predicted would his father would say. Luckily the topic changed before I had to say anything and soon it was time to go home.