Thomas POV:
Step one.
How to get her parents phone number.
And then work up the courage to ask her Dad....
Darn it.
This is going to be hard.
Her bedroom door opens.
"How are you feeling this morning?" I ask.
"Much better, thank you. A little excited really." Iris smiles with her lips. She usually smiles with her lips. Unless she's laughing. When she laughs the biggest smile you've ever seen plays on her features. But if she just smiles it looks innocent and shy and even a little mischevious. Especially if she's looking at you sideways.
I grin and furrow my eyebrows, "Why are you excited?"
"Because I get to eat stuff and actually be able to TASTE it today!" She yells before she runs to the kitchen.
I chuckle. That girls eats a lot. If she wasn't so althetic, hiking and doing yoga all the time, she's probably be fat. But I'd still love her anyway.
My phone buzzes next to me. I pick it up and unlock it, to reveal a text from Dylan.
D: How's she doing?
T: Fine. You can come over. She's raiding the fridge right now. Better hurry, before she eats all the good stuff.
D: Good point. Ki and I will be over in 5 minutes.
I smile and throw my phone on the couch.
"Iris! Dylan and Ki are coming over!" I call into the kitchen.
"Right now?"
"Yep." I say popping the P. My ususal habit.
She clicks her tounge, "Should probably change out of these shorts then."
She walks through the living room to get to her bedroom. She's wearing Winne the Pooh pajama shorts and a big T-shirt.
"You look fine." I wave her off.
"I'm wearing pajamas." She says furrowing her eyebrows.
"Yeah?"
"Oh, you just don't want me to change into longer pants." She says glaring at me.
I chuckle and shoot her a mischevious grin, "Let's face it, babe, you've got bloody sexy legs."
She rolls her eyes and tries to hide the smile tugging at her lips, "Shut it, Sangster."
"You love me!" I call as she walks into her room and closes the door.
I chuckle. Gosh, I love that woman.
She comes out a minute later in camo skinny jeans and a brown environmental T-shirt. She's such a nerd. I love it.
"Feel better now?" I smirk.
She nods, "Yes. Yes, I do."
"You're so cute!" I blurt out.
She pauses, not sure what to do, then she bats her eyelashes, "Thanks, Thomas!"
The door bell rings.
"Come in!" I call.
I hear the front door open and Dylan call, "The party can start now!"
Iris says loudly, "I didn't realize Kesha was coming...."
Ki snickers from the hallway.
Dylan steps in the living room, followed by Ki, glaring at Iris, "Yeah....ha....ha....vvvvery funny."
Iris shrugs, "I was born with natural wit. What can I say?"
Ki speaks up, "You can say you have chocolate powder, so I can make hot chocolate."
Iris gestures to the kitchen, "Go crazy."
Ki walks into the kitchen.
Aha.
Golden opportunity.
I snatch my phone up quickly as Dylan messes around with Iris.
T: Call Iris into the kitchen with you. Claim you can't find something.
A minute later-
K: Why????
T: Just do it! Please!
K: Fine. But I'm not going to be happy about it. In fact, I'm going to be stupid about it!
T: You have loads of fun with that.
Really bad thing to say to Mr. Sassy Pants.
A minute later I hear Ki call to Iris, "Hey, Iris! I can't find the spoons!"
Now there have been very few moments in my life where I wish I had one of those whipped cream pies - meant specifically for faces- but this definitely just made one of those moments.
I squeeze my eyes shut and refrain from facepalming.
Iris furrows her eyebrows and shoots a confused look towards the kitchen door.
"Seriously?" She calls, "You've been showing up at my house at random times for almost a year now! I'd think you'd know where the stupid spoons were!"
"You'd think...." I hear Ki mutter.
I snatch my phone up again as Iris starts to walk out of the room.
T: Ki, you bloody idiot! The SPOONS?
K: You said SOMETHING. I said SPOONS.
T: Idiot.
I can't waste my opportunity though.
"Dylan," I whisper, "Help me find Iris' contact book!"
Dylan frowns, but begins searching, "Why do you need her contact book?"
"I need her parents phone number...." I say opening a drawer under the TV.
"Dude, it's probably in her bedroom." Dylan mutters.
I look up at him, pausing, "I can't go in her room!"
"Sure you can!" He grabs my sleeve and pushes me along, "Go!"
"What if she catches us?" I say nervously.
Dylan thinks for a moment, "Then I'll tell her I'm secretly a woman and that I just hit my 'lady days', so I need a tampon."
If I wasn't so terrified of being caught I would've laughed, "Be serious!"
"I was being serious. She'll think we're either retarded or funny and she'll let it go."
Dylan opens her bedroom door. I don't go in here much, but every time I do it's fairly clean. With the exception of a couple of pairs of shoes thrown outside the closet door and a couple purses hanging on the doorknob.
"We ARE retarded." I mumble.
Dylan says, with his usual amount of sass, "Well, that'll just make it more beiliveable then, won't it?"
"I'll hit her desk. You get her bedside table and we'll work from there till we find it." I instruct.
"Yes, sir!" Dylan says, with a salute.
I rush over to her desk and search the cubby holes first.
Sticky notes, calligraphy markers, color pencils, erasers, pencil sharpener.... No contact book.
Second cubby hole....binder, Spanish book, agenda, drawings of me, index- wait....
I snatch up the folder of drawings again.
There are drawings of me in here! And they're actually really good! I grin like an idiot. She's been drawing me! I grab one of them and quickly fold it up, shoving it in my pocket. It's too sweet to pass by.
I move onto the drawers. Luckily, it's the first one i check.
"Got it!" I exclaim to Dylan, "Quick! Find me some paper while I find her parents number!"
"Awesome!" Dylan says, jogging over to her desk and searching the drawers, frantically. I flip through her contacts. What are her parents names? Finally, I find - Mom and Dad (Douglas & Darla) - sprawled out across one of the pages.
"Have you got the paper?" I say quickly. I feel the time pinching us. It doesn't take long to get a spoon and I'm honestly surprised she hasn't found us yet.
"No....gosh dang it! How many places are there to keep paper? She couldn't put it in the first drawer where it was easy and accessible? Tommy, you need to have a talk with your girlfriend about space saving. Seriously, this is-"
"Dude, just shut up and find the paper." I cut him off.
He grumbles profanities, until he finds the paper, "Here it is!"
"Great!"
"Thomas? Dylan?"
Dylan and I look at each other, with wide eyes. Dylan curses as I grab a pen, "Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!"
"No dip, Sherlock!" I say sarcastically, quickly writing. I messily write their number down on the paper as we begin to hear footsteps heading our direction.
I shove the contact book in Dylan's arms, "Put it back! Quick!"
He yanks open the drawer and tosses the book in, slamming the door shut. At the last possible second I stick the piece of paper in my pocket and begin to look around nonchalantly.
Iris peeks in, "What are you guys doing in my room?"
Dylan looks at me, mischief in his eyes, "I'm secretly a woman and I've hit my-"
I elbow him in the ribs.
"Ow!" Dylan groans, glaring at me. He takes a step away, "I mean....Thomas was going to try to seduce you. You know with the whole rose petal thing. Like in movies. And then I found out and I was going to try and stop him but-"
I shoot him a glare and take a threatening step forward. He stops talking.
"You know what? I'm going to let Thomas tell you what we're doing." Dylan says, backing away.
I make a mental note to thank God later for the fact that my brain worked quick, "I thought I heard a noise. I came to check it out. Apple-john over here, followed me."
Iris furrows her eyebrows and steps in, "What kind of noise?"
"Just a crashing sound." I shrug, "It could've come from out side, or I could've imagined it."
Iris looks around. She opens her closet door, "Oh, look at this. You probably just heard this shoe box fall down. No big deal." She picks up the box and slides it onto one of the shelves, "Thanks for coming to make sure it wasn't a buglar or anything."
She steps over and plants a quick kiss on my lips, "Come on. We're going to watch Doctor Who. The episodes you're in!"
"Okay." I smile at her.
"Oh! We get to see Thomas act!" Dylan says, clapping and he skips it of the room.
I feel kind of bad lying to her like that. Hopefully, it's one of those lies that's okay to tell.
Because it would suck if it wasn't.
- - - -
I sit in my car in the parking lot of Kroger's. The number sits in my lap and the phone is in my hand. I've been sitting here for a while. Working up the courage to call her father. What if he says no? I've never even met him before.
Calling the number is like taking medicine. You want to get better but you don't want to go through the nasty part of it. Sadly, this is the nasty part.
Finally I force myself, "It's not going to be any more terrifying now than it will be two minutes from now. Man up and call."
I dial the number.
It rings.
Oh crap.
Second ring.
I can't do this.
Third ring.
He's going to say no.
Fourth ring.
I've got to do this! I can't live without her.
He picks up.
"Hello?" A gruff voice answers. He voice is old and deep.
I take a deep breath and push myself to speak, "Hello, is this Iris' father?"
"....Yes, it is. How may I help you?"
"Well, sir, I'm Thomas Sangster. I'm....Iris' boyfriend."
Her father is silent for a long time. He doesn't say anything, but I can still hear him breathing on the other line. Finally, he quietly says, "Oh? And why would you be calling me?"
I have the feeling he knows why I'm calling. He just didn't want to voice that I'm about to ask if I can have his little girl for my own. That I'm ready to take on the responsibility of a family.
I take another deep breath. The world around me seems to stop. I pray that if there's a God in heaven that he'll answer my prayer and let this man say yes.
"Well, Mr. Walters I've called to tell you that I'm in love with your daughter. We've been dating almost a year now. She always speaks very highly of you and she respects you. So....well....I'm going to ask her to marry me. And I would like your blessing. And I know we've never met or anything, but I can tell you with all honesty, that I am in love with your daughter. I would do anything for her. I would never hurt her. I would die for her. If she wanted a star out of the night sky I would find a way to get it for her. If she wanted me to quit my career I would do it for her. I am in love with your daughter. And there isn't one person in the world that I want more than her."
Her Dad is quiet for another long while. Then I hear him sigh, "This is madness. Son, you have my blessing. If my daughter was ever in love it would be with you. She talks about you all the time and only thinks about you when she's breathing. I would tell you to promise me that you'd take care of her, but i have a feeling you're going to do that anyway. I just....it's madness that my little girl has grown up and found someone she loves who loves her in return."
Overwhelming happiness over takes me. And I can't help myself - I laugh, "Thank you, sir! Thank you so much. I can't tell you....you've just made my life!"
"Yeah, yeah." Her dad grumbles. But I have a feeling he's smiling, "Now go ask my daughter to marry you. I want grandkids."
I laugh again, "Yes, sir! Thank you, sir! Goodbye!"
"Goodbye."
We both hang up. I laugh even more. I bury my face in my hands as I laugh. I laugh until I can't laugh anymore. Then I just smile. And I smile until my smile hurts.
I squeeze my eyes shut, barely containing my excitment.
Now -
Time for step two.
Author:
I REALLY love this chapter! <3
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