I arrived back home past 1 AM. My dad was still awake, waiting on the sofa downstairs. As soon as I walked in, he stood up with a smile.
"How'd it go?"
I smiled with a nod.
He hugged me, sighing. "I'm proud of you. Your mother would be proud of you."
"I thought you'd be mad." I laughed. "For coming home late."
"Well," he shrugged. "You gotta do what you gotta do."
After he'd made sure that I was okay, he started to walk back to his room, preparing to finally sleep.
"Wait," I said. "Nick wants us to go to his house for lunch tomorrow. Would you be willing to go?"
He hesitated. "Uh, yeah. Sure. Why not."
I smiled before letting him go.
The next day, we woke up earlier than usual. It's the first time that I'd seen my dad be willing to do something. He showered, did his hair, wore proper clothes. By 11:00 AM, we were sitting in the car, on our way to Nick's house.
When we arrived, he hesitated before getting out. He seemed nervous. I held his hand and smiled. He smiled back, reassured. Nick's house was blooming with happiness; his mom was preparing food in the kitchen, his dad was outside on the barbecue, Nick's brothers were setting the table, and Nick was standing by his mom, handing her plates for whatever she was cooking.
The door was left open, so we walked in. As soon as they saw us, they dropped what they were doing to come and say hi. They greeted us with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Nick held me in a long embrace, giving me a quick kiss when his parents weren't looking.
"Damn," he smiled. "I didn't know you were gonna wear a dress."
He backed away for a moment, looking at the blue dress, flowing in the gentle breeze that blew through the open door. I laughed and pulled him towards me again.
They treated us as if nothing was wrong. Of course they knew that my mom was gone, but they never brought it up, or asked how we were doing, because they knew we wouldn't want to talk about it. Instead, they asked about California, and my dad's job, and other things that didn't remind us that mom wasn't here. We passed around the food as we talked.
"Hey," Nick whispered from beside me. "Come with me."
We picked up our plates, put them in the sink and excused ourselves. As soon as we reached the hallway, he began to laugh in excitement, running towards the backyard. He took off his shirt, tossed it to the side, and jumped into the pool.
"Oh my god." I laughed, standing on the side.
He waved his hands at me, telling me to come in. I shook my head, pointing at my clothes.
"You should've told me to wear my swimsuit or something." I shrugged.
"Okay fine," he said. "Help me out then."
I reached down to pull him up, but he grabbed my arm with both hands and pulled me into the pool. I screamed as I crashed into the water. Nick laughed, slowly backing away as I reached for him.
"Nicholas." I groaned. "It's not funny."
But I couldn't stop laughing. "I don't have any clothes."
"You can wear one of my shirts or something later."
He grabbed my waist, pulling me towards him. My legs wrapped around his waist, and my arms around his neck. He looked at me with a smile. I turned around to check that nobody was there. Briefly letting go of Nick, I took off the dress and threw it onto one of the seats by the door.
"Woah ma'am." He smirked with his eyebrows raised.
"Oh shut up." I smiled, swimming towards him again in my underwear.
"Well I mean," he shrugged, running his hands through the water. "If you're hinting a little something something, maybe you should just tell me straight out."
"Um no," I laughed. "I took it off so it dry by the time we get out of the pool."
"Hmm," he joked, lifting me up with a laugh.