m a d e l y n
When my mom went into her senior year of high school, she promised herself she wouldn't fall for anyone because she didn't need any distractions. Like two months in, she got to know my dad, and look where they're at.
That's why I decided that was the last thing I'd promise myself. Archer basically said screw it and decided the more distractions, the better. He promised himself he wouldn't get tied down to just one girl in high school. We'll see where that gets him.
"Mimi, what are you thinking about?" Nate poked my cheek as I played with his hair.
My whole family was out doing their own things, and I thought it would be a great time to hang out with my boyfriend.
Of course, we were at his house. I was feeling a little bold putting myself in a room with just us, but I wasn't bold enough to be in my own home. I didn't know what time any of them finished up, and they could walk in on us doing who knows what. We would screw ourselves over.
At Nate's house, that wasn't much of a problem. Mr. G was at the office 'til seven, Quinn was out with my mom, and apparently they were gonna have dinner together, and Jake was at soccer for the next few hours. The only person, other than Nate and I, at the house was the maid who we knew wasn't gonna say a word. We could share all the stolen kisses we missed out on.
"You know how I told you about my mom's promise to herself in her last year of high school?" I began.
"Yeah, what about it?" he scrunched his eyebrows together.
"Nothing, just thinking about how that did not happen for her at all," I laughed.
He laughed with me, sitting up and holding me in his arms. "Do you ever regret not getting together sooner?"
I thought about it for a while.
Nate and I both liked each other way before we confessed, apparently. What would things have been like if we hadn't been such wimps and just went for it?
"I've thought about what might've been," I revealed. "But I don't regret getting together when we did. We weren't ready then, but we're ready now. Granted, I would've liked the whole Archer situation to be solved before the relationship started, but one can only hope, right?"
"I agree," Nate kissed my temple. "We'll take it day by day, Mimi. When the time is right, we'll tell Archer, and he'll be a little mad that we didn't tell him sooner, but he'll be happy for us."
He was right. I was just a little worried my brother would find out some other way and blow up at us. That or he could see through me and my lies better than I could keep the secret from him.
"Stop worrying, my love," he hugged me tighter. "I can tell you're working yourself up."
"I'm sorry," I sighed. "I can't help it. I don't usually hide stuff from Arch."
"And I do?" he laughed. "It's okay. As long as we're in this together, it'll work out."
"Pickle?"
He hummed in response.
"I love you."
"I love you too, Mimi. So much."
Yeah, I had to be frank, him saying those words always made me feel some things.
~~~
"Where were you at?" I threw my car keys at the table in the foyer.
"I could ask you the same thing," my brother eyed me as he walked by. "For all you know, I could've been home all afternoon."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, sure. You were alone at home all afternoon."
"Didn't believe it the second it came out of my mouth either," he shook his head. "I was talking to Coach about tryouts in a few weeks. We had to go over a few things."
"Oh," I nodded. "Just got home?"
He shrugged. "Yeah, like thirty minutes ago. What about you? What were you up to?"
"Just hung out at a friend's house," I played it down. There definitely was a lot more kissing than when I usually hang out at a friend's house.
"Friend?" Archer raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, a friend. Don't make it weird," I waved him off as I walked up the stairs to my room, giving myself a mental pat on the shoulder. I handled that pretty well.
For a Friday night, it was pretty boring. I was honestly surprised nobody was throwing a party or wanting to hang out somewhere.
Archer stopped outside my bedroom and spoke through the door, "Dad's home, and the pizza's here too. Come downstairs."
"Got it," I yelled, pausing my movie before shutting my laptop and getting out of bed.
My dad was still in his work clothes when I got to the dinner table. He was home later than usual, but that was because they had a little retirement party for his assistant at the office.
"Hey, Dad," I sat at my usual seat at the table and smiled at him.
He grinned back. "Hey, Ams. What were you up to today?"
He was one of the few people who called me by a nickname related to my first name, but I wasn't mad at it. It was comforting hearing my dad call me that.
"Nothing much. Just hung out at a friend's place after school," I reported the same thing I told Archer.
"And school's fine?"
I nodded. "Not failing yet. That's always a good thing."
"Speaking of failing, guess who didn't do that and aced their Math test?" my brother smirked, sitting beside me and opening the pizza box he brought to the table.
"Not even surprised at this point," my dad fist bumped him. "Great job, Arch."
"Now that Archer bragged about his grades..." I trailed, teasing my brother.
He rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Mads."
"You two should be happy your mom isn't here or she'll blame me for this," my dad commented jokingly.
"Anyway, speaking of Mom, are we still doing that surprise for her when she wakes up?" I got back on topic, taking a bite out of my pizza.
"And I already placed the order for the flowers," Dad nodded his head.
Archer's eyes widened. "I'll order the cake tomorrow."
"Aren't you glad I reminded you?" I gave my brother a knowing look. "And they have a one week waiting list too."
"Yeah, yeah," he waved it off.
"What about the donuts?" my dad wondered.
Good question. My mom loved these donuts ever since she was little, but the bad thing about them was that we couldn't buy them anywhere near us. The only place I knew where we could get them was at the mall in the area my parents grew up at.
"Oh, I talked to Aunt Kayley about it," Archer announced. "She said Calista's coming to LA for a school thing that Monday, and she can bring a box so we can give it to Mom on her birthday on Tuesday."
"Nice, Cali coming in clutch," I sighed in relief. "That girl is going places, I swear. I haven't seen a sixteen year old argue like her. Watch her study law then end up president one day."
"I don't doubt it," my dad shrugged. "She gets it from her mother, I'm sure. You should've seen Kayley try to convince your mom not to date me back in high school."
With the way my mom and her sister are, you'd never guess they'd had misunderstandings in the past, but I guess that just comes with age. Not calling my mom old or anything.
"Speaking of dating... would you two be upset if I told you I was seeing someone?"
It was a genuine question. I always knew I had nothing to worry about with my mom because one, she liked Nate, and two, she knew I could handle myself. My brother and my dad though... that was a different story.
They always babied me.
Archer was only twenty four minutes older, which you couldn't really tell with his personality, but seeing how protective he is of me, you'd know I was the younger one of the two of us. And my dad always saw me as the little girl he held in his arms every time so she could fall asleep without crying.
While I see that they do what they do out of love, it still scares me sometimes that they'll be mad if they found out I was with someone.
"As if you're dating someone," Archer scoffed. "I would've known by now."
You'd be surprised, Arch.
"You know nobody's ever gonna be good enough for you in my eyes," my dad reasoned. "You're never gonna date anyone!"
"I figured that's how you two would react," I laughed, although I wasn't exactly happy. "Anyway, that doesn't matter. Pizza's getting cold."
We had small talk over dinner. Archer told Dad how psyched he was to be captain of the basketball team this year, and I told him about the stuff we're doing for Student Council.
The three of us didn't get to hang out as much as we used to since Archer and I got more and more busy, but it was nice that we were still close with him. I'm sure Mom enjoyed her break from the chaos of living with us three too, even just for a night.
Archer retired to his room after dinner. We didn't really have any dishes to do since we got pizza, so we weren't gonna get him to stay downstairs for very long anyway.
I was sitting on the couch with Dad while I scrolled through my phone and he watched some golf thing on TV. We were waiting for Mom to get home because we agreed there was a big chance she was bringing home some ice cream.
He and I had this thing going where we guess which flavor ice cream she brings home, even when she comes back from the grocery store.
My guess tonight was Brownies 'n Cream because that was Archer's favorite and, secretly, her favorite too. Even if she said it was too sweet. My dad's bet was Mint Chip. Why? I had no idea, but he was pretty confident.
Maybe he begged her to get that so he could finally win. About 70 percent of the time, my guesses were either right or closer to the right answer than his was. He probably was itching for a win.
We sat in a comfortable silence for a bit until I turned my phone off and sat up a little. "Dad?"
"Hmm?" he directed his attention away from the TV. "What is it, Ams?"
"That thing you said at dinner today, did you mean it?" I was pretty sure he knew exactly what I was talking about.
His eyebrows furrowed together. "You're always gonna be my little princess. Obviously, I won't like someone taking you away from me."
"You sure?" I asked.
"Come here," he put an arm around me and pulled me in closer, allowing me to rest my head on his shoulder. "Is there something wrong?"
When he said that, I just wanted to tell him everything about me and Nate. I hadn't kept a secret as big as that from my family ever, and I wanted to spill so badly, but I knew that another person knowing wasn't going to make it any easier hiding it from Archer.
I shook my head. "No, nothing. I was just wondering."
"Let me put it this way, okay?" he began. "I'll be happy as long as you and your brother are happy. I know your mom feels the same. And I know Archer would want you to be happy too, just like how you want him to be happy."
A smile graced my face as I heard his words. "Thanks, Dad."
"If there's anything you need to tell me or anything you need help with, I'll always be here, got that?" he reminded me.
I had no idea why, but tears started welling in my eyes, and I was glad Archer wasn't in the room to see me. I held them back and looked at my dad. "I know."
He was a pretty great dad, and I was so lucky to have him. I know he didn't have a great relationship with grandpa, so he really wanted to do better with his kids.
"Good," he rubbed my shoulder. "Now let me tell you what's happening in this game and why it's driving me insane."
♢♢♢
Author's Note
sorry it's a little late. i realize i've been saying this a lot recently lmao but i just got home from something, so here it is! hope you like it! giving u all a lil bit of blake as a dad because i love that guy like he's my own child.
♡,
dani :p
The love of a father is one of life's greatest masterpieces. — Anonymous