Chapter twelve.
Home p.2
Lark had bought me a dress. Why? You may ask. Because he made a last minute decision to make me have dinner with his family. Meeting his mom and dad. He'd commented he's like his father so I'm not very excited to meet the man who helped create the hell spawn. Lark is already dressed but he's waiting for me to put on the clothes he'd bought me. I look in the mirror in my old room. Lark is sucking on a lolly pop as he waits.
"I look ridiculous." I groan, I look at myself. He'd given me a small black dress with black heels, I left my hair curly since Lark had commented he liked it like that. Lark rolls his eyes, he chooses clothes for me that I'd never wear. In fact, he wasn't joking about taking me to La Senza. I still have the bags in my closet so my mother doesn't question why I have lingerie.
"Shut up, Kit. You look great." Lark mutters, looking at his phone. I start muttering under my breath about how annoying and stupid he is. I shrug, grabbing Lark's jacket off the bed and slipping it on. Lark sighs in relief and mutters "finally" before taking my hand and guiding me downstairs where Lucy is talking to Pogue. She's dressed up as well. Lark and I go to my car which I had to leave here. It's a '70s dodge charger. I get into the passenger seat since Lark insisted he drive. We'd all been staying at my place. One of Lark's hand is on the steering wheel whereas the other is on the clutch. When he goes to switch gears his hand accidentally brushes on my bare thigh and I look away quickly to hide the blush I know is on my face. My breathing hitches and I take a deep breath to settle myself.
He knows I'm blushing and I can practically feel his smirk. We come to a red light, the hand that was on the clutch moves to my inner thigh. I look at him with my eyes widened. When he looks back at me and winks I chew on my bottom lip nervously, my heart rate picking up. He squeezes my thigh before starting to drive away. I look back and see that Lucy didn't even see the exchange since she had been staring at her phone the whole time. I take a deep breath to calm my nerves.
"You...okay there, shortcake?" He asks wickedly, I roll my eyes at him. He's such a dick. I send him the finger before turning to the window. "shortcake" it was the first nickname he ever called me, he hasn't called me that in a while. Now, its "kitten" because of my name. We stop in front of a huge fucking house that has three cars in the long driveway. The house has a gate which Lark has to buzz into to get inside. He parks the car in the driveway before opening the door for Lucy and I. I step out, he holds his arm out and link arms with him. Lucy does the same and we walk into the house through the double doors.
"The favourite's arrived!" Lark yells through the house. He grins as he awaits an answer. A man walks in and holy Jesus he's beautiful. This has to be Lark's dad, which explains why their whole family is gorgeous.
"I've been here the entire time." He says, Lark narrows his eyes at his father.
"Are you fucked? I'm the favourite." Lark protests. His father rolls his eyes and is about to respond but his mouth clamps shut when his eyes fall on me. He raises an eyebrow.
"Who's this?" He asks, I look at Lark and he looks back at me. A small smile pulls at his lips when he sees how awkward I feel. He turns back to his father.
"This is Kitten, call her Kit. She's my girlfriend." Lark explains, I roll my eyes and resist a groan when he introduces me as "Kitten" does he have to do this?
"My names Kat, actually." I correct, Lark sighs.
"Kitten-"
"Lark. No." I say and his father glances between us with a slightly horrified look on his face. My guess is that Lark has not once brought a girl home before in his time of existence.
"Honey! Get the camera!" He calls, running away. Lark rolls his eyes and unhooks his arms with me and Lucy before wrapping his arm around me. We're practically matching. Lark is wearing black ripped jeans, a black button up shirt and a black leather jacket. His mom and dad are seated at the dinner table which is longer than my life I must add. Lark and I sit together whereas Lucy goes to sit next to her dad.
"But, really. All jokes aside, who Is she?" Larks father asks with a short chuckle. That's actually hilarious, its that hard for them to believe that I'm his girlfriend. Lark rolls his eyes.
"Yes. Kat is my girlfriend." Lark says in an irritated tone, I drink the water in front of me. This is so awkward, I don't really want to be here but Lark wanted me here. Even though I'm not even his girlfriend!
"Well, then. It's the end of the world I'm guessing." His father remarks, his mom lightly slapping his arm.
"So, What's so special about this one?"
God, this is gonna be a long night.
~*~
That dinner was torture. Lark and his dad spent the night arguing and I just sat there chewing on my steak. Lucy was on her phone the whole night and their mom was just sitting there sipping wine and listening to Lark and his dad. I learned his dads name is Christopher and his moms name is Lyla. I look in the driveway of my house and see my dads car, my head tilts to the side. What the hell? I walk inside and see some broken glass on the floor. Lucy and Lark follow behind me. I'm about to take another step forward but Lark gets in front of me and Lucy.
"You're drunk, Leo!" I hear my mom yell. My dads name is Leonardo, so he is here. Why would he come here? He didn't even want to pick us up front the airport so What right does he think he has to come here? I furrow my eyebrows and then Lark walks a little faster into the den. I'm practically shaking.
"No, I'm not! I made a mistake, Ainsley! Forgive me!" He yells, my moms name is Ainsley. I look and see them, my dad looks like a mess whereas my mom is crying and has a few cuts on her arms and knees. What the hell did he do to her? I'll kill him. My fathers eyes drift to us and they settle on me.
"Kat!" He exclaims, coming over to me. Lark steps in front of me completely when he comes too close.
"You're drunk. Get out of here before you do something you regret." Lark says in a low tone, almost a growl. My dad drinks out of a bottle of scotch before scoffing.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Let me see my daughter!" My dad snaps. Lark looks back at me before looking at my father. He throws a punch at my father and my dad drops to the floor. He's unconscious. My eyes widen and my mom screams when it happens. Lark sighs and grabs my dads leg, he drags him outside and doesn't come in for a few minutes. Sirens are heard outside and twenty minutes pass before the noise is gone and Lark is inside. He comes over to me and I stare at him wide eyed. What am I supposed to say to him? He just punched my dad. He tried to protect me. My mom looks at us.
"G-go to sleep. I'll Uh take care of this. Jordan and the other boys went out, we don't tell Jordan about this Okay?" My mom instructs numbly, I nod with equal numbness. Lark takes my hand and gently guides me up the stairs to my room whereas Lucy goes outside. She said she wanted to smoke because she was shaken up. If there was any time to try to smoke, it'd be now. I shake my head of those thoughts and let Lark set me on my bed.
"Are you okay, Kat?" He asks, I nod slightly. I get up and change into the new pyjamas Lark bought me, they're borderline lingerie but I couldn't care less. I just want to sleep, to forget this. Lark and I brush our teeth without a word. We walk to the bed and lay down.
"Lark?" I say, he hums in response "how do you know how to hurt people?" I whisper and he doesn't respond for what seems like an eternity.
"I used to fight a lot." He replies. Does he generally not know what I mean?
"No...how do you know exactly what to say to make someone fall for you? How is it so easy to break someone's heart." I whisper and he sighs shakily.
"Kitten, I don't want to talk about that." His voice is hardly a whisper. What the hell happened to him that he finds it so hard to tell me.
"Why?" I ask and even in the dark room I can see him shake his head.
"Just-please, don't ask about that right now. Let's talk about something else." He whispers, his voice sounded filled with pain when he told me he didn't want to talk about it. I guess I can slightly understand, I shouldn't pry.
"But-"
"Are you in love with me yet?" He asks, cutting me off to try and change the subject. I don't respond for a moment. Mainly because my cheeks are red as a fire truck and I don't want to sound nervous when I lie through my teeth.
"No. You?" I ask, pulling it off.
"Goodnight, Kitten." He says. I'm too tired to argue with him about this, I want to sleep. I don't want to continue to get my hopes up and think he's into me. So, instead, I take a fistful of his shirt and pull him closer. I wrap my arms around him and let him rest his head in the crook of my neck, I want to return the favour of protection or the illusion of safety in any way I can.
"Thank you, Lark. For keeping me safe tonight." I mutter, he wraps his arms around my waist and nods.
"No problem, kit." He whispers. I lay awake, thinking about Lark and about my dad. Lark starts to snore softly and I guess I should go to sleep too.
I guess my questions will have to wait for tomorrow.