The only thing I hate more than waking up, is being woken up by someone telling me to get up.
"Manda. Come on, everyone else just went upstairs to start eating" Marcus says trying to shake me awake.
"Mmmmhmm" I groan as I stretch, my back arching up as I do. I rub my eyes and look up at him. He clearly woke up a few minutes ago. His hair is messy and he still has a sleepy look in his eyes. Of course he still looks great, something I'll always envy about guys.
"You're beautiful" he whispers, moving a crazy strand of hair out of my face. I try and suppress the heat I feel creeping up my neck to my cheeks. I've been called beautiful before by guys, but no boy has ever seen me just out of bed. Then something dawned on me. Oh my God this is embarrassing.
"Did I fall asleep on you? I'm so sorry, you should have woken me up to tell me!" I say, jerking up from his lap. He doesn't let me though, wrapping his arms around me.
"No, don't worry about that. I, um, I don't mind at all. If I did I would've woken you up," he assures me and I feel a churn deep in my stomach. God he says all the right things, things I had no idea teenage boys said.
"Let's go upstairs" he says. He stands and holds his hand out for me. I take it and rise as gracefully as I can from the saggy bean bag.
He walks behind me up the stairs, as well as when we enter the dining room where everyone is helping themselves to what the Kane's housekeeper, Willow, had made. The spread looks endless, as it always has been at every event at this house I've ever been to. I have always been curious how she does it all, I mean, she's only one woman.
"Oh this looks awesome!" Marcus whoops from behind me. He walks around me and over to Aaron to steal a bite of bacon off of his plate, to which Aaron smacks him hand telling him to get his own.
"So you and Marcus got pretty cozy last night, didn't you?" Lauren whispers from next to me. I can practically hear the triumphant smirk on her face.
"I didn't mean to" I counter.
"Ah ah, but you didn't care if you did. If you wanted away you would have."
I roll my eyes and don't respond. I'm usually good at arguing, but recently I've been at a loss as for defending myself.
"Was this the first time you two have slept together?" she asks, but I ignore her while plating my food. I need to have something in my stomach in order to deal with this.
"Come on Amanda, I'm not going to let up until you say something" she nags, but I know it's a lost cause for her. I grew up with two nosey younger siblings, I have enough patience for almost anything.
"Amanda-" she begins to whine again, but thank God my phone starts ringing. Emma. I accept the call and walk out of the room with the phone to my ear.
"Yeah?"
"Mom just wanted me to remind you about our brunch with Grandma" she says. I look at the large gold clock in the center of the fireplace mantle. Shit, I have an hour.
"I'll be home in a few" I tell her and hang up the phone.
I walk back to the dining room and start to approach Marcus, but he's standing in a circle with a bunch of his friends. I can't get in the middle of their conversation, I don't know them well enough to push my way through the circle.
I turn away and go to Georgia. "I'm leaving. Tell Lexi for me, 'kay?"
"Yeah, sure. Aren't you going to tell Marcus?" she asks.
I shake my head. "No. He's talking to people, he'll figure it out." I'm surprised when she doesn't repremand me for not telling him, but I am relieved. I don't need that shit when I'm running late.
***********************
Back at my house I am scrambling to get ready. Our grandma always wants to go to this fancy tea place, and as good as the place is, it's almost a twenty minute drive from out home.
"Amanda are you almost ready? We have to leave in two minutes!" Emma calls into my bedroom.
"I'm coming!" I yell back as I lace up my shoes.
"You'd better be! She's already texted me that she left her house!" I run down the stairs, fumbling in my purse for my keys so we could beat grandma to the cafe. Whenever we aren't there to greet her, she makes a big deal even if we enter ten seconds after 11:00 because she's Miss Punctual. Always on time to the second. Sometimes it's scary even.
The first thing Emma asks when we get into the car is, "How's Marcus?" I give her a side glare as I put the car into reverse.
"What? I've never got to ask how your boyfriend is. Now spill" she demands and leans in for the gossip. Not that there really is any to be said.
"He's good. We talked a bit last night. That's kind of it" I tell her and she leans back with a frown on her face.
"That's it?" she asks, clearly not believing how little I have to say.
"That's it" I repeat with a straight face, concentrating on getting there as fast as I can.
"No date? No hug? No cuddle? No kiss?" She spits out the questions so fast I would say it's close to what my mom would call word vomit.
"Um, we fell asleep together last night, so I guess that's a cuddle and a hug. But no kiss and no date" I answer honestly.
"How long have you two been dating now?" she questions.
I shrug, trying to recall when he asked me to be his girlfriend. "Um, I don't know, maybe two, three weeks?" I guess, still not positive.
"How has he not kissed you yet?" she shouts. "I swear most couples who are together for only two weeks and they waste no time in kissing each other."
"I don't know. He just hasn't made any move yet."
"Why don't you just kiss him?"
"Because I want him to kiss me. It's too nerve racking to make the first move. He may not want to yet. He hasn't done anything but hug me" I confess, a little embarrassed that I'm basically spilling all of my insecurities onto my little sister.
"Trust me, all guys want to be kissed" she drawls as we pull up to the parking lot at 10:58. Perfect timing.
"Conversation over. We need to get a table set for Grandma" I urge her out of the car as fast as she can move.
"Conversation not over. We're talking about this on the way home" she argues, but this time I don't answer, knowing I have all the control over what I do and don't tell her.
"Oh, hello girls. Table for three, right?" We come here so often, pretty much everyone knows who we are.
"Yes, please" I say, and the woman leads us to a round table near a window, and a waiter already has tea and a tier tray of sweets ready for when she arrives.
I look down at my phone, and right as it hits 11:00, our Grandma Sarah walks through the door and greets the hostess who sat us down. She scurries over to our table and the two of us stand up out of habit.
"How are you?" she asks sweetly. She leans in for her hug that we willingly give her.
"Good" we say at the same time.
"Oh Amanda, how's that boy of yours doing?" she asks, going straight for the kill. I swear it's almost like everyone in my family is more interested in Marcus than they are about me.
"He's fine. I was just with him this morning." I tell her, pouring myself a cup of tea into the dainty china cup.
"Oh really? Why?" she leans in closer, just like Emma in the car.
"We slept over someone's house last night" I response, and she leans back in the chair quickly.
"You slept over a boy's house?" she questions roughly.
"No no no. There were a bunch of people there and we all slept in the basement" I reassure her. "It wasn't just me and him. We didn't do anything."
"Oh. Well, that's good. So when's he coming over for Sunday dinner?" she asks and I almost, almost, facepalm myself. I love my Grandma, but here's the thing. She has no bounderies. I know my mom met most of my dad's family before they even started dating, but that doesn't mean I have to force him into that uncomfortable situation so soon.
"I don't know Grandma, but I woulnd't count on it being in the near future" I reply honestly. Leading her on would only make her questioning worse, so I hope my answer will push her from stop asking.
"Don't keep me waiting too long. I want to meet him as soon as I can" she insists.
"Don't worry. You'll see him as soon as he's ready" I say and take a bite out of the sweet dessert, hoping the sugar will take away some of the stress I am feeling at the moment.