It takes one single moment to define your life.
Cassie learned it the hard way. She's seventeen and felt like she has the world on her shoulders. Trying to survive and keep going despite the sadness and fear, Cassie finds out that opening your hear...
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Asking Nate to come over for dinner hadn't been that hard. But waiting for dinner time to arrive had been torture. Literally.
First, as I walked out of class, I freaked out thinking if Dad would invite Marie for dinner as well, because that was bound to be truly awkward, not for Nathan, but for me.
I was nervous as it was, there was no point in adding more problems to the whole equation.
Then, I thought about dinner itself. Dad was an amazing father and a respected lecturer at Harvard. But he had no cooking skills. He could make great sandwiches. Nothing more.
What if it had all been some kind of sick joke? What if he didn't actually want to meet Nathan? What if I was making a fool of myself?
"Calm down," Farah squeezed my arm reassuringly. "I'm sure you'll have a great evening, I mean Nathan is not" she gestured with her hands, "you know, Scary or anything like that" her blue eyes gazed at me sympathetically since I was sure that was exactly what she was thinking.
"And Chris is not?" I mocked her.
She shrugged. "He was the absolute definition of politeness with my parents. You know, he tried to make conversation with both of them and he even made a few cheesy remarks to my Mom. She was giggling like a little girl." She rolled her eyes.
Thinking it through, I didn't particularly see Nathan as the talkative one.
And Dad was, well, Dad.
I grimaced as I pictured all three of us eating pizza in awkward silence.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
This was such a bad idea.
Farah rolled her eyes after slapping my arm. "It will be all right!" She pulled up her glasses while narrowing her eyes, "did you actually hear anything I said?"
Eyes wide, I blinked at her completely clueless. "I just don't see Nathan making conversation."
"Look" she added gravely, "he's the one that has to make a good impression, doesn't he? Let him sweat a little, then!" she shook her head, "I'm sure he'll try his best, stop worrying so much!"
I nodded for her sake. But to be honest, he seemed pretty unfazed when I told him, so I was sure that he wasn't even thinking about it.
I couldn't help but think about Mom. She would have been thrilled and pulling out all the embarrassing photos after making something scrumptious and delicious. I bit my lip as I wished Mom was there. I could see her making jokes to ease up all the tension. A sad smile formed in my lips as we walked out of school.
Farah had been continuing to talk and I felt bad for not paying attention to her. At some point, she noticed because she grabbed my arm stopping me. "I'm sure everything will be all right, Cass." Her eyes were sincere and reassuring. "But make sure to take in every detail because I want to know everything, ok?"
