It turns out that Chase and I were able to see each other graduate after all. My graduation was on Saturday and his was the day after on Sunday. Sunday was also going to be the day that I was going to meet Chase's parents after almost a month of him becoming my boyfriend. It was kind of hard to avoid meeting his parents if I was going to his graduation and then would be meeting up with him after where I'm sure his parents were going to be as well. Chase had told me that his parents were excited to meet me, but that only made me more nervous than I already was.
I definitely felt the pressure to make a good impression as the days went by. And you could definitely say that I was full of nerves throughout the whole ceremony as it got closer to when I was supposed to be meeting Chase's parents. I was thankful that Chase hadn't suggested that I sit with his family during the ceremony, especially since I would be sitting with them without him and wouldn't have anyone that I knew and was comfortable with that could help me out.
You're going to do fine. You've been through a lot worse. Meeting your boyfriend's parents will be a breeze. - Jordan
I had been texting her on and off during the ceremony whenever I could. She had been nothing but reassuring every time I mentioned how nervous I was about meeting Chase's parents.
Thanks, but I'm still as nervous as I was this morning. - Rhiannon
I'm pretty sure the ceremony took a couple hours, but it flew by because before I knew it everyone around me was standing up and getting up to leave. Deciding to wait until it had cleared out around me, I stayed in my seat and pulled out my phone to see if Chase had sent me anything, but there was nothing on my phone except for a good luck text from Jordan. I sent him a message though, congratulating him on graduating. There was a possibility that he was busy celebrating with his friends at the moment and couldn't check his phone, but he would eventually. And at least he would see my message the next time he did check his phone.
When enough people had cleared out, I got out of my seat and headed down along the row of seats I had been sitting in to head up the aisle towards the exit. Chase had told me where to meet him and his family, but it took me longer than I thought it would to find the place I was meeting Chase and his family. I had no idea what his family looked like so when I got there, I walked around a bit, looking around at all the faces around me hoping that Chase was among them.
I ended up walking around a couple times before I finally found Chase. And I was pretty sure that I had passed by Chase's family a couple times while looking for Chase so he must have just recently joined them. I stopped not too far away from them and watched Chase with his family for a little while. They definitely looked like a happy family. One that I had always wanted and sort of seemed to be getting now.
While I'd never have parents that loved each other and me, I still had found family members who could replace all that. I'd never have Charlotte's love, but I was glad to know that my father was nothing like her and was willing to be a parent to me. And I had my grandparents as well as the rest of Charlotte's family. So, it wasn't really that much of a lost when it came to Charlotte.
I couldn't deny though that I was feeling just a little bit jealous of how Chase's mother was smiling at him, looking so proud. Charlotte hadn't shown up to watch me graduate, but I'm sure if she had actually been invited that still would have been true. I hadn't heard from her since my birthday and I was okay with that, but it still was hard not having a mother who was proud of me.
Sighing, I decided not to stand around any longer, ready to meet Chase's parents even though I was still nervous as ever. I was going to have to meet them sooner or later and I might as well get it over now instead of waiting longer. That would probably just make me even more nervous than I was right now. I looked around me for no real reason before I started walking over to Chase and his family. It didn't take me that long to reach them. Nor did it take Chase that long to realize that I was there.
He smiled at me and immediately came over to me, kissing me in front of his family, which I wasn't too thrilled about, but it wasn't like I was going to push him away. I would just have to tell him when we were alone, not to kiss me in front of his parents until I was comfortable doing that. Chase pulled away and wrapped his arm around his waist before pulling me towards the man and the woman he had been talking to.
"Mom, Dad, this is Rhiannon, my girlfriend," he said glancing at his parents until they had looked from me to him. They soon looked back over at me though and so did Chase. I smiled at them and held out my hand as I said, "It's nice to meet the both of you."
"It is so nice to finally meet the girl that my son has been talking about so much. I feel as if we already know you," Chase's mother, Mrs. Marlowe, said to me as we shook each other's hands and smiled at each other. We let go of each other's hands a few seconds later and I looked over at Chase's father, who seemed to be waiting for his turn to greet me.
"Yes it is. And since Chase forgot to mention, I'll also add that I'm Brett and this is my wife, Paige. Please call us by our first names. We'll take none of that Mr. and Mrs. Marlowe," Chase's father said with a warm smile as he took my hand and shook it.
"Good luck with that. It might be a while before you get Rhiannon to call you guys by your first names," Chase said squeezing my waist. I could tell that he was looking at me so I glanced over at him and smiled. He smiled back at me
I heard Chase's mother call out to three people, who I knew were Chase's siblings, as Chase and I were still looking at each other. Chase had told me about his parents and his siblings over the many conversations that we had, but his siblings were the only ones that I knew by name. I just hadn't put their names to their faces quite yet since I had only seen pictures of them a couple times. But now that I was going to meet them, I would hopefully be able to remember what they looked like and remember to call them by the right name.
That probably wouldn't help win them over right away if I were to call them by the wrong name. Or else it would give them an excuse to tease me about how I couldn't remember their names correctly. I was usually good with names, but I knew my nerves were high at the moment and I could probably screw up their names the next time I saw them.
"These are my other kids and Chase's siblings," Chase's mother said pausing to look over at the three people who had come to join us. Chase had two older brothers and a younger sister. The oldest was Grant, who was introduced to me first. He looked like his mother with her brown hair and green eyes matching his own, but he was taller than her, which I could see that he got from his father. All of Chase's siblings, including Chase himself, were taller than their mother.
Next came Tanner who, like Chase and their father, had golden blonde hair and blue eyes. After Chase's second brother came his little sister, Jocelyn, who was another copy of her mother. My first impressions of them probably would change when I got to know them more and realized that they all had both of their parents in them. But at first glance, I was able to see who looked like who more. After shaking all of Chase's siblings' hands and smiling at each of them, I stepped back towards Chase and felt his arm around my waist again.
It made me feel a little more comfortable despite the fact that I was still nervous even though the introductions were now over, but I knew that the conversation wasn't. There was still going to be some questions to follow and Chase had told me that we'd probably be going out to lunch so I would have to sit through a whole meal with his family. It was a good thing that they were all being nice to me so far. And that they genuinely seemed to be happy to meet me.
"How are you doing?" Chase asked me after his siblings and parents have left us alone a few minutes to talk to the other family members who had come to see Chase graduate. They were all trying to figure out where we were going to eat.
"Okay. I'm still nervous though," I replied looking over at him. He smiled at me and I smiled back at him as he said, "You're doing great. And I think they like you."
"Well, we just have to wait and see what the verdict is after lunch is over. I know they probably are going to be asking me a whole bunch of questions," I said.
"I told them to go easy on you," he responded.
"That sort of makes me feel better," I said.
"So, it looks like we're coming with you to the restaurant," I heard Chase's brother, Tanner, say before his arm went around his brother's neck. Chase looked over at his brother as his other two siblings joined us and said, "Why aren't you guys going with Mom and Dad?"
"They want to take as less cars as they can," Grant said crossing his arms over his chest. All three of the Marlowe brothers were buff, but I could tell that Grant was the most buff out of all of them. He seemed to take working out more seriously than his younger brothers.
"Alright, but I call shotgun," Chase said shrugging his shoulders before looking over at me.
I smiled at him and he seemed to take that I was okay with this since next Chase told his siblings to follow us to my car. Chase had no idea where I parked, but he still started leading the way to the parking lot, which was probably a good idea since I would have gotten lost finding the parking lot. I could hear Chase's siblings behind us as we walked towards my car. They all seemed to be keeping their distance at the moment, which was nice of them.
It gave Chase and I a little more time alone until we would all be piled into my car. After we had started walking, Chase had let go of my waist and then grabbed onto my hand. We walked closely to each other as we held hands and talked about our plans for next week before the conversation moved onto a different topic, one that I was curious about.
"Did you tell your family anything about Charlotte? I don't mean anything that she did, but that we don't talk or that she's not a good mother," I said. We were almost to my car so we didn't have that much more time before our conversation wouldn't just be the two of us.
"I told them that Charlotte didn't give you a good childhood and that there were some things in the past that have happened, which have made the two of you not have a great relationship. They know not to ask too many questions about what happened between you and Charlotte, but I'm sure they'll be some general questions about her," Chase said.
"Okay," I replied.
"Don't worry. I'll change the subject if they ask you anything that I know you won't be comfortable with talking about," Chase said smiling at me as I looked at him. I smiled back at him and then said, "Thanks. So, what about my father? Did you tell them who he was?"
"No problem babe. And I told them that you hadn't known who your father was until recently, but I didn't tell them who he was. I thought it was better to leave that up to you," Chase responded. I smiled at him and then leaned in to give him a quick kiss.
We reached my car after that and I unlocked it as Chase let go of my hand to head over to the passenger side. I think he wanted to get there before any of his siblings did. He probably not only wanted to make sure he was the one sitting beside me, but also to make sure that he wasn't squished in the backseat of my car. Chase's siblings had all groaned after Chase had called shotgun since they knew that meant that they would be the ones to be squished in the backseat of my car and one of them was going to be in the middle.
I headed over to the driver's side as I unlocked my car. Chase was already in my car by the time I got into it. His siblings followed not too long after that. And after everyone had their seatbelts on, I backed out of the parking space and then headed towards the exit. Chase directed me towards the restaurant after that since I had no idea where we were going.
"So, Chase told us that you've lived in many places?" I heard someone say from the backseat. It was one of Chase's brothers, but without looking, which I couldn't do at the moment, I wasn't sure who was the one who had asked me the question.
"Yeah, Charlotte moved me around a lot," I replied as I slowed down to stop since the light had turned yellow. Chase turned around in his seat to look back at his siblings and then said, "That's her mom. You remember I told you guys they don't have a good relationship?"
"Oh yeah, I remember you saying that. Does she live here?" one of Chase's brothers asked. I think it might be Tanner. It was the same voice that had asked the first question.
"Yeah, but Rhiannon doesn't live with her. She lives with her grandparents," Chase replied. He had turned back around in his seat just as the light turned green.
I moved the car forward after making sure that the intersection was clear. It was quiet after that for a bit except for the occasional direction that came from Chase. I had expected more questions about Charlotte, but they must have remembered Chase telling them not to ask too many questions about her or they weren't sure what to ask. They could have wanted to make sure that they weren't going to ask the wrong question and then upset me. Or they could have been just waiting until I wasn't so occupied with driving and they could have my full attention.
I wasn't sure and I couldn't be sure until they actually did ask me questions about Charlotte. They had to be curious as to why I didn't get along with my own mother. It was a hard concept to grasp when you actually got along with your mom, but someone else didn't. And until they knew why, they wouldn't really understand. That was going to be some time before they found that out though. I wasn't exactly going to reveal that to them myself. Maybe one day I would give Chase permission to say something to them.
"Do you have a good relationship with your dad?" I heard Chase's little sister, Jocelyn, ask.
"Yeah. It's a work in progress since I met him recently. Charlotte wouldn't tell me who my father was for a long time. I had to find out who he was on my own," I replied glancing in my rearview mirror to look at Jocelyn. She was already looking at me. We smiled at each other before I looked back at the road.
I think she was about two years younger than me and Chase if I was remembering correctly. And if I was remembering Jocelyn's age correctly, then I remembered that Tanner was two years older than us and Grant was three years older.
"That must have sucked. Not just for you, but for your dad as well. He missed out on you growing up. At least you were able to find him though," one of Chase's brothers said. It was a different voice this time so I figured that it might be Grant speaking this time.
"It did suck. And I did wonder if I was ever going to find him. I didn't think that I was going to find him this soon though," I responded.
A few minutes later I was pulling into the parking lot for the restaurant that we were having lunch at. I found a parking space and then turned off my car once I had parked my car in that spot. We all got out of the car after unbuckling our seatbelts. Chase and I walked over to each other and headed over to the restaurant following behind his siblings. I locked my car before we got too far away from it now that everyone was out of it.
Chase squeezed my hand as we walked like he was trying to comfort me about the impending lunch that we were going to be having with his family in a few minutes, but I wasn't as nervous anymore like I had been before I had met Chase's family. I don't know what had changed, but I felt a little bit better about having lunch with Chase's family. Things were going to be alright.
***
A couple days later after I had lunch with Chase and his family, Chase and I had lunch with my dad and his family. We hadn't had lunch with my dad and his family yet since Chase and I had become a couple so it was still on our list to do. Now that Chase and I didn't have school at the moment, our schedules were a little more flexible unlike my father's schedule so every time that we tried to set up a date, my father wouldn't be able to have lunch that day.
I didn't think that an actor could be so busy, but maybe that was just my dad. He worked hard at what he did and it showed through his work. It wasn't hard to see that either compared to other actors in the business who didn't work as hard. I could definitely say that I was proud of my dad for working so hard and I knew that my work ethic came from him, not Charlotte.
"So, Chase, do you have any ideas on what you want to do with the rest of your life?" my father asked my boyfriend as he sat back in his chair. We had all just finished eating but hadn't quite moved from the kitchen table to the living room couches just yet.
"No clue. My dad says I'll probably figure that out while I'm in college," Chase replied. I saw my father nod his head and then said, "You definitely will."
"Did you go to college?" I asked my father. I don't think that I had ever heard him say that he had gone to college. If he had then it must have been later after he had become an actor.
"Yeah I did. A little later than most kids, but after I could afford once I got my first big break, I thought why not? It would be nice to have a back up just in case the whole acting thing didn't last forever," my father said shrugging his shoulders.
"What did you major in?" Chase asked.
"Criminal justice. I always thought it'd be cool to be a detective and help bring closure to families who are looking for answers," he replied.
"That's definitely different from the job you have now," Chase said. We all laughed.
A few minutes later, we all stood up and headed off to the living room once the table was cleared off. Chase and I were the first ones to leave the kitchen since my dad and Hannah wouldn't let us clean up too much. We went over to sit down on the large couch and wait for everyone to join us. My two little siblings had disappeared off somewhere, but they were supposed to be coming back to the living room eventually. We would just have to wait and see how long that was going to take.
For my little sister, it didn't take too much longer. Alyssa came back into the room and came over to sit next to me. She and my brother, Lucas, were definitely a lot more comfortable around me, but I think that Alyssa liked me more than Luke did at the moment. I took her shopping a lot and I knew that she liked doing that. We would also get our nails done once in awhile as well. Or just do each other's nails ourselves.
"When can we go shopping again?" she asked smiling up at me.
"I'm not sure yet, but I'll figure out a date and let you know okay?" I said smiling at her.
"Okay! I can't wait!" she said excitedly.
"You can't wait for what Alyssa?" our father asked her.
"Rhiannon is going to take me shopping!" she said just as excited as she had been when I told her that we could go shopping again.
"Don't you want to do something else with your sister besides shopping?" our father asked as he sat down on the couch next to Alyssa.
"We go get our nails done sometimes," I said.
Alyssa looked excited at the mention of getting our nails done, but I would have to make sure that was okay with her both of her parents before I took her to get her nails done again even though I had taken her to do that plenty of times before. I still wanted to make sure that it was okay with both of her parents before I did anything. And I'm sure as Alyssa got older, we would end up doing other things besides going shopping and getting our nails done. I did watch movies with her sometimes or do something else that she was interested in doing.
It was fun hanging out with my little sister no matter what she wanted to do. And I could only hope that our relationship between the two of us was going to grow and bring us closer as we both got older. Hopefully that would be the same for my little brother. He was a little harder to persuade to hang out with me, but maybe when he was older, he wouldn't be so reluctant to hang out with me.
"And she watches movies with me. Or we do each other's nails," Alyssa said.
"Okay, I guess I shouldn't complain. At least you're hanging out with her now," he replied laughing and smiling at the same time.
"Well, she is my sister," Alyssa said smiling back.
"That she is. So where is your brother?" our father asked us.
"Probably hiding out for as long as he can. I don't think I've quite won him over yet," I replied.
"You will eventually. He likes you though," he said.
"I know Dad," I responded smiling at him.
I didn't think the smile on his face could get any bigger, but it definitely did when I finally called him Dad. It wasn't intentional. I sort of just let it slip out, but I was okay with it because I finally felt like the idea that I had a dad in my life wasn't so foreign anymore and I knew that he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. It probably helped that I had been spending as much time as I could with my father and having him as a constant person in my life was definitely taking the idea of having a father go from a foreign idea to a normal everyday idea.
I had all I needed now and I wouldn't trade what I did have for anything else. My grandparents had given me a new home and an opportunity to find my father, which I would be forever thankful for since they had also gotten me out of a bad situation and into a better one. I don't think I would have found my father without the help of either of my grandparents since they had some answers that I certainly wasn't getting from Charlotte.
And now that the ambition of wanting to find my father was gone, it was time to find a new ambition. And maybe it would be just as wild as the ambition I had to find my father. I just knew that whatever came next wasn't going to be as bad as the things that had happened to me in the past. With better people to support me, I knew that anything was possible.
I had found my father after all when I didn't know his name. When I didn't even know what he looked liked. And when he didn't even know that I existed. Despite Charlotte's best efforts, I was going to have a happy life and she was going to be forever alone.