Chapter 5: Faster ♡
❝Cause I jump back, crash. I crawl, I beg, I steal. I follow you. Yeah, you own me and you make my heart beat faster.❞ - Faster by Matt Nathanson
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“My, my, my! You’re so beautiful, dear. I wish you were really married to my son. He needs a girl like you to take care of him. I swear every time I see him, he gets thinner and thinner.” Drew’s Mum was something else. She was a chirpy lady in her late 40s with short blonde hair and Drew’s big hazel eyes.
As soon as I met the lady, all my nerves had disappeared. I hadn’t met his Dad or brothers or sister yet. Drew’s Mum, Sandra had gone to go get Drew’s younger brother and sister. Before telling his parents about our ‘marriage’, Drew had made sure it was okay with me if he told his family the truth. From what I understood, they were very close.
A young boy who I had learnt was 13 came running down the stairs and Sandra ran after him. “Liam! We’ve talked about this!”
Liam secretly rolled his eyes. “I know, Mum. It won’t happen again.” He then turned to his brother and they fist pumped. Liam looked like a mini Drew. With the same curly brown hair and brown eyes.
“Liam, this is April, my friend.”
“Yeah right,” Liam scoffed. “I’m sure she’s your friend.” I blushed. Liam’s twin, Annabelle came walking down the stairs with her phone in her hand, texting away. She was stunning, with long brown hair and green eyes. She ran to her brother, hugging him and Drew kissed her forehead.
“Hey Belle! I missed you!”
“I missed you too. You don’t come over enough,” she pouted then turned to me and asked, “Who are you? Are you Drew’s girlfriend?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “No, I’m April, his friend.”
“April and I are pretending to be married for a TV show,” Drew informed his brother and sister. “So, no matter what you can’t tell anybody that we’re not really married.” The twins didn’t care too much. Soon Liam was playing PlayStation and Annabelle was on her phone. Drew was also playing PlayStation with his brother so I was sitting with his Mum.
“You two would make a cute couple,” She commented.
I laughed, nervously. “Uhm… thank you?”
“Drew never brings girls home. He’s never really been in a serious relationship well except for when he was in High School and-”
“Mum, please stop talking,” Drew hissed. By then I was too interested in who he was in a serious relationship with and what happened. It wasn’t my place to ask any questions about her and so, I didn’t. To change the subject, Drew asked, “Where’s Dad and Jacob?”
“Dad will be coming in an hour and I’m not sure where Jacob is. I think he needs to pick up Char and Peter.” Jacob, Drew’s older brother came in around fifteen minutes with his two young children and wife. He was a nice, attractive man who looked like Drew. His wife, Renee was a lady with short black hair and bright blue eyes. She was gorgeous and fascinated by the fact that Drew and I were pretending to be married.
“Have you ever been married? I mean, if you got into the show you must know what you’re doing.”
“I haven’t. Drew pretty much did everything and I just went along with it.” Carelessly, Drew threw his arm over my shoulder.
“Drew, do you want to tell us anything?” She joked.
Annabelle started laughing at her phone and Drew grabbed her phone. “Who are you texting? Who’s Phillip and why are there love hearts next to his name?” Drew was adorable when it came to his younger brother and sister. I could imagine that he was the perfect annoying and over protective older brother.
“Give me my phone back!” She yelled and started throwing pillows at Drew. “Mum! Drew’s going through my phone!”
“Tell me who this Phillip kid is and why you’re sending him ‘ILY’? What does ILY mean anyway?” I laughed and wanted to pinch Drew’s cheeks.
“It means I love you,” Liam told him. “And Phillip is this kid at school who likes Annabelle and Annabelle likes him!”
“Where does he live? I need to have a word with him. Actually you should invite him over so we can have a little chat.”
Annabelle snatched her phone off her brother. “You’re so annoying! Just leave me alone!” I started laughing at Drew’s face as he attempted to stay mad at her. Annabelle looked at me and asked, “Do you have any older brothers?” I shook my head. “You’re lucky! They’re so annoying and mean!”
“Drew’s just looking out for you,” I told her. “He loves you.”
“Don’t lie to her, April,” Drew winked.
When Drew walked out of the room to go ask Jacob something, I asked Annabelle who Phillip was. “He’s just my friend. I like him but I don’t think he likes me. He always hangs around this other girl, Sammy and it sucks.”
“Why don’t you tell him?” I asked. I knew I shouldn’t be giving Drew’s little sister relationship advice especially when I hadn’t had too many boyfriends myself. I’d probably do more bad than good.
“He makes me nervous.” What was I supposed to say to that?
“Well if he doesn’t like you, he’s crazy. You’re gorgeous.”
“Just like Drew’s crazy for not making you his girlfriend?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “No, not like that.” Annabelle and I spoke for a little while more until Drew’s Dad came. I didn’t know much about him except the fact that he had cancer and Drew needed money to pay for his chemotherapy. I was really nervous about meeting his Dad, I didn’t know what to expect.
Isaac O’Conner only looked a couple of years older than his wife. He had piercing green eyes, much like Annabelle’s and whilst meeting me, he had a huge smile on his face making me feel less nervous.
I ate dinner with Drew’s family. It reminded me of when my parents were still alive and how we ate dinner, usually bickering about something that had seemed so important. I didn’t say much, I answered the questions that Drew’s family would ask me as politely as I could.
“Do you have any siblings?” Isaac asked me, kindly.
“Yeah, an older sister.”
“Are you close?”
I contemplated lying so I wouldn’t have to explain why we weren’t close but I decided against it. Hopefully he wouldn’t ask why. “Not really.”
“And why’s that?”
“Dad, what is this? 20 questions?” Drew asked and put his hand on my thigh. I wasn’t sure what that meant but I tensed up, gulping nervously.
“It’s fine,” I replied, wanting to be as nice as possible. “My sister and I haven’t seen each other in a while,” I shrugged.
“Does she not live around here?” Sandra asked.
“No, she does but when my parents passed away, we were put into different foster homes and since then, we haven’t been all that close.” I hadn’t mentioned my family before and I didn’t think Drew had either because of their shocked expressions.
“Oh, I’m so sorry Hunny!”
“It’s fine, it was a long time ago.” There was an awkward pause but then one of Jacob’s kids started throwing food at the girl, who I was pretty sure, was called Charlotte.
“Peter, stop throwing food at your sister. That’s not very nice. How would you like it if she did that to you?” Peter just pouted, looking absolutely adorable. After that, Jacob started telling me what he did for a job and telling his family about his day.
After dinner, I offered to help wash the dishes and before I did, I took the wedding ring that Drew had given me off. I could see Sandra looking at it but she didn’t dare say anything to me about it. Jacob’s wife, Renee, didn’t beat around the bush and asked me, “Did Drew give you that ring?”
I nodded, “Yeah he did.”
“It’s very pretty.”
“It’s lovely,” I replied. “Whoever marries Drew is going to be a very lucky girl. You’ve raised a pretty amazing guy, Sandra.” I wasn’t even trying to get her to like me more by saying that, I meant it. Of course, at that moment, Drew had to walk into the kitchen causing me to blush.
“I guess you’re a lucky girl since you’re married to me,” he winked.
“Shut up!” Drew and I stayed at his parent’s house for around another hour until we left. “Did I do okay?” I asked, nervously as soon as we got into his car.
Drew looked at me and said, “No, they hated you.” For a second, I thought he was serious and started freaking out. Then he started laughing, hysterically. “I’m kidding! You should’ve seen your face! I thought you were going to start crying or something!”
“I thought you were serious!”
“Relax! They loved you! You were perfect.” When we got to my apartment, Drew walked me to my door. “Good night April,” he told me and kissed my cheek. My heart was beating so fast, I thought he’d be able to hear it.
“Good night Drew.” Drew walked off, leaving me alone. I opened my apartment door and was greeted with Elliot sitting on my couch, eating my food. “Why are you eating my food?” I asked. “Get your own food!”
She ignored me and continued eating the chips out of the bag. “So how’d it go?”
“Good… I think? I don’t know!” I groaned.
“I’m sure they love you! Are they nice people or is your mother-in-law a total bitch?”
“She’s not really my mother-in-law,” I frowned. “They are actually all really nice!”
“When do I get to meet him? I’m your best friend, I should’ve met him the day after you did.”
“Soon,” I told her and she pouted. “Actually, I don’t think I want you to meet him. You’ll scare him away and he’ll go to Mexico and change his name.”
“You have to let me meet him! I’ll be super nice and normal.”
“That’s the biggest joke I’ve ever heard,” I scoffed. “You being normal?”
“As normal as I can be,” Elliot smiled, cheekily.
“Which probably isn’t very normal.” Deciding, I didn’t want to talk about Drew anymore because every time I did, I remembered how it felt to kiss him, I asked for the bag of chips and started eating and joking around with Elliot.
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