"Evelyn!"
I smiled as my inevitable sister-in-law came forward to give me a death grip of a hug. "Hey Vee! How are you?"
"Totally fine! I miss coming down to Earth," she gushed before peeking behind me. "Oh, who's this?"
Jay smiled behind me. He was wearing a button down shirt and jeans but he still looked way too formal for just a simple family affair in my opinion. He made a big deal about first impression when I tried to talk him out of his outfit.
"This is my roommate Jay. Jay this is my inevitable sister-in-law, Avena. She's the daughter of-"
"Minerva," Jay answered holding out his hand for her to shake. Vee gave me a very excited look before taking and shaking the hand he presented.
"We just call her Athena here," Vee answered smoothly. "She's not too much of a fan of that name."
Jay nodded understanding. He shoved his hands back into his pockets feeling obviously uncomfortable. I looked around my parents' suburban home. I had grown up here and I smiled at some of the memories that came from the familiar surroundings. We didn't need to go to Olympus or Olympia Lane for this visit since it wasn't the month 'grandparents included' visit. My parents lived in New York City just in a different part than I did. It wasn't more than a twenty minute drive. This disappointed Jay more than I thought. He was really hoping to see the godly world he had only heard of.
"Come on Jay, you've got tons of people to meet." I grabbed his arm and pulled him along. Avena followed after us with an eager expression. I could tell she was enjoying our guests discomfort as much as I was. After all, now she was no longer the new girl anymore. There was finally someone else to pick on.
I walked into my parents' living room and spotted my brother sitting on the couch. Vee trotted over to him and snuggled into his side just a moment before he stood. He glared angrily at the newcomer that I was clearly attached to.
"Who's this?" Logan asked through his teeth. I smirked at his obvious protectiveness of his younger sister. I rolled my eyes at his tone though. I removed my hand from Jay's arm much to Logan's appreciation, and placed it on his shoulder which annoyed him further.
"This is my roommate," I introduced lowly. Logan narrowed his eyes and walked closer to Jay. He was practically nose to nose with him and breathing on his face. I pushed him away more forcefully than playfully.
"Calm down Logan," I commanded. "I just brought him along for dinner tonight. We aren't getting married tomorrow."
"But we could if you're offering," Jay added making the situation worse. I gave him a glare the same time my brother did.
"So Jay," I began. "If you haven't figured it out yet, this is my older brother: Logan. Logan, you need to calm down and be polite to my roommate, Jay."
"What kind of name is that?" Logan asked distastefully.
"It's a letter," Vee pointed out coming to my rescue. "I like it."
Jay smiled at her and she returned it. Logan noticed the whole exchange and walked back over to his girlfriend. He purposely put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close as if staking his claim on his territory.
I only rolled my eyes again and leaned up to whisper, "It's okay to ignore him. I do."
Jay smiled over at me as my mother entered the room. She stopped short upon seeing the uninvited guest. I hadn't exactly mentioned that I was bringing my new roommate. My mother's hazel eyes that matched my own went wide and her face showed an expression of horror. Yet as quickly as it appeared on her face, it was gone.
"What is this?" She seemed a little nervous at the sudden change in normal events. "I thought I heard someone out here. I didn't realize that it was two someones."
I smiled at my mother and tried to ease Jay's discomfort. He tensed up when my mother entered the room and I could understand why. She wasn't exactly the least judgmental person on the planet.
"Mom, I want you to officially meet my roommate," I explained shortly. "Jay, this is my mother: Peyton and Mom this is my roommate: Jay."
"Carmen's son, correct?" My mother held out her hand in greeting pretending to be nice. I could tell she wanted to escape the room and rethink what she could do to stop this tragedy that was sure to be our weekly dinner.
Jay nodded turning on his charm without sounding cheesy. "Yes ma'am."
I smiled in approval but I could still see my mother's strained expression. "I'm just going to go check on dinner. You all can stay and mingle. I must speak with my husband."
My mother scurried out of the room quickly and I was left alone with my protective brother and his compromising girlfriend. Jay shoved his hands back into his pockets and cowered a bit behind me. My brother glared and squeezed his girlfriend closer to him. I shook my head and pulled Jay along.
"Let me show you where I grew up," I proposed as I raced up the stairs of my old home. I was so happy to find an excuse to leave that room. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Jay followed along inspecting all the pictures of us kids lining the walls. He spotted one of me as a baby and had to stop and stare.
"Weren't you adorable?"
I turned once I was at the top of the stairs to look back at him. I smiled as I leaned against the railing.
"Always."
Jay smirked and continued on the same path that I was on. I lead him to my old bedroom and opened the door unashamed at the bright lavender walls that were lined with flowers. Jay entered seeming amused by the decorations. There was a twin bed covered in a dark purple blanket and stuffed animals that all used to be mine.
There was a white bookshelf filled with various books and knickknacks. There were quite a few posters still hanging on all the walls of the best looking Hollywood stars.
"Wow," Jay commented. "Who knew you were such a girl?"
I sat down on the bed in the room and chucked a stuffed bear at him. He caught it easily and tossed it back over to me so I could place it back. I felt as I had proven my point though.
"I wanted a pink room when I was little," I confessed as I ran my hand along the walls.
"What stopped you from painting them pink?"
"My mom," I answered easily. Jay sent me a questioning glance and I just added quietly, "She hates that color."
Jay nodded a bit and he continued to walk around. There were a few metals from some sports I had been involved in. I had a trophy on my bookshelf from a soccer tournament and a medal and crown from a dancing competition.
"It looks like you were really involved in high school," he commented quietly as he inspected everything. I felt a little weird as he walked around the seemingly small space. I felt as if he was looking in on my life and I was afraid of what he might think of it. Would he be turned off by the girly-ness? Would he have one good laugh at it? Would he think it's cute? Did he even use the word cute?
"I know this place looks silly. I was just a teenager you know and I thought all this stuff was cool. Then I went through this phase where I didn't want to grow up and I kept all the girly things you see around. I don't know. I guess I just couldn't change my room even after I grew up."
"Don't make excuses," Jay murmured quietly as he picked up a snow globe of the Statue of Liberty. He shook it before gently setting it back down on my bookshelf. "This place is great."
I smiled and blushed before looking down in my lap.
"I mean, it's a little too well...unmanly for me but it feels homey. I never had a bedroom that was personalized like this. I was lucky to have a bed that actually had sheets on it."
I frowned not enjoying that this conversation had taken a sad turn.
"Let's go check out the rest of the house," I suggested getting up and moving passed Jay. I walked straight across the hall and pushed open the door of my brother's room.
His room was much darker with dark navy blue walls. He had some posters of some bands on his walls. He had neon lights lining the top of the ceilings that he used to always have on and his blinds closed. He also had a disco ball hanging from the center of his ceiling. He had a futon bunk bed taking up most of the room in that small space. His built-in closet stood off to the side and his computer desk remained untouched from the last time he had lived in this house.
"You both had so much freedom to do what you wanted," Jay mumbled in wonder as he took in the decorations.
I shrugged looking around at the place that I didn't used to be allowed into. My brother was strictly a 'no girls allowed' kind of guy unless, of course, he brought them home which wasn't as often as I would've thought.
"This doesn't seem like your brother at all," Jay pointed out.
I nodded. "Yeah, he's changed a bit since high school. He became much more preppy and he thought he became hip too. In high school, he just liked whatever he liked back then. He didn't care as much what everyone else thought. Not that he does now or anything but he's just changed I guess."
"Have you changed?"
"Of course," I admitted. "I'm not as girly as I was and I accepted that I had to grow up. Otherwise I would still be here sucking my thumb and getting breakfast in bed."
Jay smiled at my comment and we both moved to exit at the same time though we got caught up in the door frame. We ended up being squished side by side and when we turned our heads to meet the other's gaze, I found that our faces were less than a few inches away. I turned a bit and so did Jay so we weren't squished together yet we didn't move apart.
We never once averted our eyes from one another's gaze. I kept studying Jay's face: his perfectly light blue eyes and brown curly hair, his perfectly shaped cheekbones and jawline, and the sexy eyebrow and lip ring. My eyes drifted down to his lips; those perfectly Cupid's bow lips. Jay noticed where my gaze had gone and he seemed to be returning my curious look.
"Dinner's ready!"
That snapped me back to reality fast. I moved out of my brother's old bedroom doorway and coughed awkwardly. I shouted that we would be there in just a minute. I shyly looked back over at Jay after running a hand through my hair.
He gave me a small smile but also seemed unable to meet my eyes.
I pointed toward the staircase. "Perhaps we should...um...go?"
"Right," Jay agreed quickly going back to his nervous attitude from before. "Lead the way."
I straightened out myself and took a deep breath before joining my family downstairs in the dining room with my unexpected guest. I quickly introduced Jay and my dad to each other before we sat down at the table. It was me and Jay on one side, Vee and Logan on the other, and one of my parents on each end. My mother was closest to me and Logan while my father stayed on the end by Vee and Jay.
My father brought out the first course in dinner which was a large bowl of salad. There was a few sauce bottles lined around the table and I grabbed for the ranch after placing some lettuce on my plate. There was a lovely awkward silence as we all served ourselves and began in our first meals.
"So Jay, how did you come in contact with Carmen once again?"
Ah, my trusty old dad. I was so thankful that he knew how to fix this silence. Jay retold the story of how he came to Earth to help his father with work and looked up his mother. I gave him an encouraging grin as he talked freely with my father. My mother kept to herself eating with a blank expression as she listened to what Jay had to say.
Logan seemed to be the exact copy of my mother giving me disapproving looks. As everyone finished up their salad courses, my mother cleared the table and Logan offered to help serve the second course. Jay was still in a stable conversation as my dad continued to tell stories of Jay's mother when my dad still knew her. I followed after my mom and brother when they disappeared into the kitchen.
"You two are allowed to have someone with you at dinner but I'm not?"
My mom whirled around as she didn't expect me to be in the kitchen with her. Logan seemed bored as he leaned against the counter and looked at his nails.
"He's bad news Eves," he muttered. I gave him a glare not really caring what he had to say on the situation.
"I told you that one girl you were going after was bad news. Did you listen to me? What was her name again? Cathy? Catherine? Caitlyn?"
Logan sent me a displeasing look and scowled. "I got over that though."
"Children," our mother called out. She seemed to be stressed as she ran both of her hands through her deep red hair.
"Logan, your sister is right. She deserves the chance to bring someone along to dinner. Evelyn, a little warning would have been nice." She dropped her voice for the next part. "Especially since it's him."
"What's wrong with him?" I asked loudly narrowing my eyes at my mother.
"He's Roman," Logan pointed out.
My jaw dropped. "How do you know that?"
"It's not hard to figure out," my mother answered. "Eros has research on every being on Earth."
I remembered the story Jay told me about Roman and Greek gods. "Because Eros is both Eros and Cupid and didn't split himself when all the other gods did."
My mom and brother exchanged a look before nodding simultaneously. "So you know the story then?"
"What do you mean I know it? Was I never going to learn it?"
Mom shrugged. "If it isn't relevant to your life then you don't need to learn about it."
"Why does Logan know about it then?"
"I went to college," he answered easily. I glared at him and his smart-ass answer.
My mother walked over and my attention returned to her. "I told you about him Evelyn."
"You told me he was not good news and that I should stay away," I agreed. "You didn't tell me that he wasn't what I thought he was."
"I believe Eros did that," my mother pointed out. I scowled and took a step away from her as she neared.
"I like him, just as a friend, and you can't tell me to stay away. He's living with me if you remember correctly. I can't very well escape him so easily."
My mother sighed appearing just as stumped with the situation as I felt. I didn't understand this. What was wrong with Jay? Was he really so horrible just because he was Roman? There had to be more than that to this whole thing.
"Why is being Roman such a bad thing?" I asked finally.
My mother moved to the over and pulled out the turkey that was our dinner with oven mitts. She turned to Logan and nodded once as if signaling him.
"The Romans are more violent Eves," Logan explained. "Nothing good ever comes from a Roman."
"Is this some form of racism? It's not funny."
"I agree," my mother said. "Grab the bowl of green beans, potatoes, and gravy and bring them out with you. Put on your smiles and know this conversation never happened."
My mother didn't glance back at us as she left the kitchen and went into the dining room with the turkey. There was one unanimous cheer as she entered (mostly from my dad praising her for not burning the thing). Logan grabbed the mashed potatoes and vegetables leaving me in the kitchen alone with the gravy. I sighed before grabbing the gravy boat and plastering the award winning smile and joining the rest of my family and guest in the dining room.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
"The food was wonderful Peyton," Jay said trying to be polite.
My mother gave him a nice attempt at a smile. "Thank you but my husband is the cook in the family."
"Oh yes of course," Jay said thoughtfully. "It certainly is true what they say about fire angels."
"That they're hot?" my dad guessed hopefully. We all took a few moments to laugh. Even my mother couldn't help but smirk a bit at the joke.
"I meant the cooking but you can take it any way you want to," Jay replied.
I was pleased with how things had turned out with the night. Dinner was resumed with a light chat of small talk and everyone was civil. The glares were dropped probably more for my sake than for Jay's but I was thankful. Before the evening ended, my father emerged from the kitchen with his signature cheesecake. My mother practically devoured her piece before the rest of us even got one.
I hurriedly made an excuse for me to leave. I would've normally loved to stay and chat longer with my family but knowing that two of them secretly despised my guest because of his origin made me uncomfortable. I said goodbye to them all giving them hugs. My dad offered a handshake in goodbye to Jay and Vee actually hugged him causing my brother to go wild again with jealousy. My mother gave him a stiff handshake and my brother was too caught up in protecting his girlfriend to notice us leave.
I walked out to the curb of the house and proceeded to wait for our cab. Since we were in the suburbs, we had to call a cab in advance to meet us but I couldn't stand being in the house much longer with my family. I had to get out of there and I had Jay following closely behind.
"That was um...interesting."
"I'm sorry," I blurted out as I slumped down onto the curb. It was probably disgusting and coated in food and bugs but I didn't care. I felt too exhausted with my family to worry about it. This was the first time that I had ever been truly embarrassed by my mother and brother.
"I'm glad I came," Jay said taking a seat next to me on the dirty curb. "I agreed to come and I made things awkward. It's my fault."
"It's not your fault," I assured quickly. "Trust me. I'm going to have a good talking to with my mom and brother. They are assuming the worst about you before even getting to know you. It's entirely wrong and rude and-"
"Exactly what you did?" Jay finished for me. I turned to face him sharply and gave him a confused look. Jay only shrugged. "It's true isn't it? You said so yourself. You thought I was a jerk at first and with my outer appearance it's not hard to judge me. I'm used to it though. Your family was surprisingly civil compared to some people."
"My brother was a jerk," I argued.
"He had a right to be," Jay defended easily. "I'm with his beautiful sister so he has to worry."
He sent me a wink and I gave him a small smile but it fell quickly.
"You're defending the people we're not on your side."
Jay shrugged once again and bumped me lightly with his shoulder. "Don't worry about me. I'm really glad you let me meet them. That's a pretty big step."
"What do you mean?"
Jay faltered for a moment. "Well I mean...how many other boys have you brought home?"
I frowned a moment as I faced the empty street. "None," I whispered quietly.
"Really? Jay asked as his smile grew wider. "That's even better news!"
I gave him a small smile before dashing his hopes. "But we're just friends of course. So there are no steps between."
Jay looked me up and down before nodding vigorously. "Right, right," he agreed quickly. "Just friends."
________________________________________________________________________________
A/N: This is being posted somewhat early because I don't know if I can get a post out any other time.
Oh this a longer than average one too!. It's almost 1,000 words more! Woot woot!
So most people called it that Peyton would not be happy and well...I don't think she is. Eros and Psyche weren't here because (as mentioned early) Evie only goes to their house once a month and visits her parent's house once a week.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the little event between the family and the tension between Roman and Greek. That will be addressed more as well.
Next chapter will include: ...ah well, I don't want to tell. It's nothing too major just a little grandfather-mother-daughter chat. We'll see how it goes! :P
I hope you enjoyed!