Bringing Back Hallie

Bringing Back Hallie: Chapter Seven

"You can never be too sure," she says, and then after lightly spraying me with some of her expensive perfume, she says, "Ok, now you need to go. Get your dad and Ethan, figure out wherever they are and then just drag their asses out, alright? Y'all need to be there at six thirty and it's almost five." 

"Okay," I tell her begrudgingly, just the thought of this whole thing putting nerves in the pit of my stomach. 

And with that, she basically pushes me out of my own bedroom. When I get to the staircase I have to grasp at my dress and pull the bottom up, knowing that a long dress and my coordination skills will probably not mesh well.  

Luckily, I find my dad and Ethan already standing near the front door, looking more ready to go than I am. My dad looks like he normally does when he goes out to these things, his usual curly hair slicked back and looking stylish, while a nice and fitted suit makes him much classier than he actually is.  

Ethan, though, looks absolutely delectable and I have this horrible feeling in my stomach that I'm going to be quite territorial of him the whole evening. I know how industry girls get-I've seen them around my dad enough-and I don't really want my first nice friend to be tainted by one. I'd honestly be pretty upset if he brought some wannabe blonde country singing bimbo home with him.  

When they hear me come in they both look up, and I'm too self-conscience to even look over at Ethan. But my dad, thankfully, has an almost proud look on his face as I walk up to him. He says, "You look beautiful, honey. Thank God you got my genes and not your mothers." 

"Heard that!" my mom's voice says in the background, and when I turn around I see her and Darla descending the staircase, a camera painfully unmistakable in her hand. "But I do need to take pictures. Hallie never dresses up so I need to document the occasion." 

"You really don't," I grimace, knowing how utterly plain and boring I'll look standing next to my superstar of a dad and the godly looking Ethan.  

My dad chuckles and before I even know what's happening, he's wrapped an arm around my waist and is turning us around so that we're facing my mom. I give her a quick smile for the picture, just to humor her, and I can just feel my cheeks turning pink at all of the unwelcomed attention. Everyone's eyes are on my father and I and it's killing me. 

"Alright," my mom says, "Now one with all three of you." 

I groan underneath my breath as Ethan walks in front of us so that he's standing on my other side, and even though I thought I would be the only one to hear, I hear him chuckle in response. I don't have time to stick my tongue out at him in response though, because he's already threading his arm across my waist as well, and his touch on me, even through fabric, has once again rendered me speechless. 

I honestly don't know what it is with this kid, but it's weird and it's freaking me out. His touching me should not affect me as much as it does. I'm not even this affected when Jesse randomly hugs me. I don't know how to handle it. 

We all three smile for that picture, and just when I think I'm done, my mom says, "Babe, get out the pic. We need one with just the two young ones." 

I roll my eyes and go to say something in retort, but I hear Ethan say jokingly underneath his breath, "Oh suck it up," just to where the two of us can hear it. 

Forgetting about the picture and the fact that we're in front of my family, I turn to face him and say, "Shut up, ass wipe." 

He immediately barks out in laughter, and it's not too long before my dad joins right on in. My mom and Darla, though, are appalled that I'd even use such language around a guy. That's just because they don't know me all that well. They should know that I rarely ever use manners around people, that's just not who I am.