The Wrong Number

23.

Italics: Aspen
Bold: Kenneth

"So why am I at your house again?" Kenneth asked as he looked at the two storey house in front of him.

Aspen smiled guiltily and turned towards him. "You didn't seem to mind coming to my house so I just invited you."

Kenneth looked at the girl beside him in suspicion. She looked gorgeous as ever and today she had kind of dressed up in a navy blue dress, which was kind of odd. He looked at what he was wearing and bit his lip as he looked at his dark blue hoodie and jeans. Was he underdressed? He didn't know why though.

"Aspen." Kenneth warned, turning towards her fully. She was definitely hiding something.

Aspen let out a cry of frustration to which Kenneth was taken aback. What was this girl up to?

"Don't be mad." She started and Kenneth just raised his eyebrows. "Actually dad had invited you over for dinner."

"What? And you're telling me this now?" Kenneth asked shocked. This was too sudden for him.

"I know. I'm sorry. I didn't know how to tell you." She almost cried in guilt.

Kenneth sighed. "You could have just told me. I would have dressed a little more decently."

"So you aren't mad?"

"Of course I'm not. I can't get mad at you even if I tried to, you dork." Kenneth said, a smile playing on his lips. He then looked forward and took a deep breath. "I just have to charm your dad now."

Aspen watched as Kenneth walked towards the front door. She thought he would be upset that she didn't tell him at all. After all, meeting parents were supposed to be a big deal. At least that's what she thought. But he took it quite well.

"Aren't you coming?" Kenneth asked when he realised Aspen was not anywhere near him.

Aspen rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm coming. It's my house."

Aspen walked towards him as he mused at her embarrassed face. She opened the door for him and ushered him to walk in.

"Wait. Is your dad scary?" Kenneth asked as he entered and then suddenly turned towards her, making her collide to his chest.

She tried to push herself away from him but he was quick enough to wrap his hands around his waist and bring her closer. Aspen let out an inaudible gasp.

"Hmm. What do we have here? Making your move already?" Kenneth teased her.

She blushed a deep shade of red and scowled at him. "What are you doing? Let go!" She whisper-hissed at him, afraid that her dad might pop out of anywhere and find them in a compromising and beyond-unexplainable position.

"Nah. I quite like this position. And this is fine. At least I'm restraining myself from kissing you right now."

Aspen's heart skyrocketed. How he could be so direct and casual at the same time was unknown to her.

"Let go for now. Da-"

Before she could finish her sentence, the clearing of a throat caught their attention. Aspen's eyes went wide as saucers when he looked at her dad behind Kenneth. Kenneth on the other hand froze. Aspen wanted to laugh at his expression but couldn't do so out of embarrassment.

"As much as you like holding my daughter, you can let go off of her now." Her dad said, a him of amusement in his stern tone.

Kenneth, who failed to detect the amusement, cursed inaudibly, and reluctantly let go of Aspen who was burning up.

He turned around, a lazy grin on his face yet nervousness obviously clear.

"Hello Mr. Harrington. Thanks for inviting me over for dinner." Kenneth shyly said, adding a nervous laugh at the end. He was scared. No. Terrified. He knew parents liked him because of how he could charm them but meeting Aspen's dad seemed like a really big deal to him. He feared that he would be left speechless and would make fun of himself by not having the right thing to say

He had girlfriends before and he met their parents before but that now was really scary for him. He then realised just how much Aspen meant to him and how much he didn't want to screw this up for them.

"Likewise. Let's get to dinner, shall we?" Mr. Harrington said curtly.

"Sure. I'd love that." Kenneth grinned again and walked towards the door where Mr. Harrington was ushering him to. He wanted to make this work between them so badly.

Aspen rushed towards her dad when Kenneth was out of view and lowly scowled.

"Dad! Are you trying to scare him?" She asked, whispering.

Her dad grinned and ruffled her hair lovingly. "That's the perk of being a dad. You get to scare your daughter's boyfriend for the fun of it."

"He's not my boyfriend." Aspen pouted and hit his arm playfully.

"Yet." Her dad winked. "It's not nice to keep the guest waiting. Let's go join him." Kissing her forhead lovingly, her dad walked inside the kitchen leaving Aspen out in the hallway by herself.

She smiled softly thinking how weird her dad was but she didn't mind. She loved him anyways.

Dinner surprisingly turned out comfortable for both Aspen and Kenneth. Her dad didn't act scary anymore. Instead, he asked him normal questions about school and football to which Kenneth answered quite confidently. Aspen thought he was quite the charmer.

"So, what are your plans for the future?" Aspen's dad asked.

Kenneth gave him a tight-lipped smile. "I don't want you to judge me for it but I haven't thought about it yet. Things haven't been...that...well right now."

Aspen stopped eating and looked at the suddenly tired looking guy in front of him. What did he mean by that, she didn't know. She then realised that Kenneth was the one trying to know about her alone. She never thought what could he possibly be going through. She didn't even know the number of members in his family.

She felt guilt.

"Don't worry there kid. I was a lost cause in my teenage days. You will pull through it. If you have any problems, come ask me. We are here for you." Aspen's dad answered, surprising them both.

Aspen did know her father suffered a lot, being a single father and what not. But he never gave up. That's what made him who he was right now.

Kenneth just stared at the food for a moment. Nobody ever told him that before. He may be popular and look like he didn't have any care in the world and that he had everything he wanted but the world could be so wrong. He never had the attention from someone he wanted. He never got the support nor encouragement. He felt glad and happy and emotional hearing those words from someone he just met today. It made him believe that there were good people in the world. And Aspen's father was one of them.

He finally looked up, a contended smile on his face. "Thank you."

Aspen watched the little exchange and smiled a little. She was happy when she saw the remote quickly leave his face when he looked up. This made her note down that she will try more harder to know about him. Maybe he won't be open as much in the beginning but she would try hard and eventually get him to open up.

She so badly wanted to dive into deep waters, in her case, known as Kenneth Jones.

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A fun fact: while writing this chapter, the church next to our building has been having a rehearsal for quite sometime now and someone is playing the piano. I don't know what that person is playing but it helped me calm down while writing this. Music really does wonders. :)