*Matthew's POV*
"It's been a month and a half since I've last physically seen her," I sighed while sitting on my bed. "That's half of the overall amount of our relationship."
"Man, that sucks dude," Carter said to me.
"I know Carter. It's literally impossible to be with her," I said depressingly.
"Why don't you make an effort?" Carter said.
"I did! I flew all the way out to Nebraska for this girl and she can't do the same for me," I admitted.
"Hey Matt, let me be completely honest with you," Carter said. "As of right now, this is sounding like a one-sided relationship. You're doing everything to be with this girl and she can't even do one little thing for you."
I silenced. Is what Carter is saying really true? Should I listen to him?
"You guys have been dating for what, three months now?" Carter continued, "I haven't even met this girl and I'm your best friend. You told me yourself, you haven't seen her in a month and a half. That's so long!"
I remained quiet just thinking. Was Carter going to say what I really think he was going to say?
"I think you need to break up with her," Carter said.
Uh oh. He said it. At this point, I got up and paced back and forth around my room. "Carter man, you see. It's not that easy."
"Oh yes it is," Carter said harshly. "If I hadn't seen Maggie in a month and a half. That would honestly kill me and I would break it off before I get any more hurt."
I stopped pacing and stood in front of Carter. "But I can't do that. I truly like this girl. And I can't give up on her that easily. I'm not much of a relationship person and you should know that Carter," I admitted. "So if I'm in one, it really means something and I'm not playing."
Carter stopped and asked, "Wow. This really is serious."
"That is my dilemma. I like this girl, but I don't feel like this relationship is going anywhere," I sadly said. "In the past month and a half, I've moved to LA. I've finished the DigiTour. I'm starting a new project. Everything has been progressing, but I feel like my relationship hasn't."
"I honestly don't know why you're talking to me about this dude."
"Because you just happened to be here and you're in a relationship so I'm assuming you would have some words of wisdom for me," I said. But I never said his and Maggie's relationship was a good example.
"Well Maggie and I haven't been through that much," Carter admitted. "Our relationship so far has been perfect."
"Sureee," I rolled my eyes with a tone of sarcasm in my voice.
"But it has." He tried to convince me," For real."
"Nothing is perfect," I proved him wrong.
"Well nothing may be, but my relationship is pretty damn close," he replied.
I sat back down on the couch, going nowhere with this conversation. I have not learned anything new to help me with this.
"Matt look. It sucks to see you act this way," Carter said. "Have you ever thought of just talking to Jenna?"
"Jenni."
"What?"
"Her name is Jenni," I corrected him.
"Well have you ever thought of talking to Jenni?"
"No honestly, I want to talk to everyone but her at the moment," I said. "I just need to get my head cleared out before I can say anything to her."
Then Carter and I's conversation just stopped to the sound of a phone ringing. I was so caught in a daze with all this stress that I barely realized it was going off.
"Matt," Carter mentioned. "Are you going to pick that up?"
"Uh," I looked down at my phone. I saw the contact name, 'Jennnniiiii *heart-eyed emoji*." I picked up my phone and just stared at it while it rung. "Crap, I forgot that we were suppose to have a FaceTime date right now. Man, what am I going to do?"
"Dude, talk to her," Carter persuaded me.
"I can't talk to her now. I'm a mess," I said. Without thinking, I immediantly pressed the 'Decline' button.
"What did I just do?" I started to worry a lot.
"Why are you being such a girl Matt?" Carter said," I bet you Jenni isn't even thinking twice about this and you're overreacting. You guys can talk later tonight. It's no big deal."
"You're right," I relaxed. "I need to stop overreacting."
I hesitated, "It's just... I'm new to this whole relationship thing."
"I know you are bud," Carter said. "But that's okay because a relationship isn't just one person. It's two."
"Huh?"
"You're not going through this whole relationship thing alone. There's one other person who is going through this exact same thing as you," Carter just snapped some sense into me.
"And I just hung up on her..." I shortly just realized my mistake.
"The best thing to do is to talk to her and get this figured out," Carter said. "Good luck bro." We did our handshake and then Carter left my room.
"Thanks," I said as I waited and then I picked up my phone up again and called Jenni back.
"Matt!" Jenni voice happily said, "I hope I'm not interuppting anything."
"You're not," I replied. "Instead I wanted to talk to you about something."
"Absolutely!" She said in her usual cheery voice, "You can talk to me about anything."
I took a deep breath and began to tell her everything that was on my mind.
*Jenni's POV*
"Jenni, all in all, I just wanted to tell you that I care about you and it is killing me to not be able to see you," Matthew said in the cutest way ever.
My boyfriend is pretty amazing. "Matthew Lee, I'm glad you told me how you've been feeling and I want you to know that I care about you too. I get mad at myself all the time because I know I can't make the effort to visit you."
"I know it's not your fault," Matt said.
"But I feel like it is. Gosh Matt, my parents don't even know about you," I began to feel guilty.
"Jenni, don't feel bad about it," Matt said understandingly. "But I think it would make me feel a lot better to know that they approve of me, or at least know of me."
"I know," I felt even more guilty. "I'll tell my parents about you tonight. I promise." And I truly mean it.
"I know that's a big step for you Jenni so I just want to thank you for being such a great girlfriend," he said ever so sweetly.
"Don't give me the credit. I'm only as great because my boyfriend is so amazing," I smiled. He could make me smile at any time just through the sound of his voice.
"Well your boyfriend now sucks because he has to leave you to go to some stupid meeting," Matthew said sarcastically.
"That's ridiculous!" I laughed, "My boyfriend can never suck, even if he tried."
I then heard an unrecognizable voice over the phone, "Hey lover boy! Get off the phone, we have a meeting to get to!"
"Carter shut up! I'll be down there in a minute!" Matthew shouted back at Carter, which broke my ear drum as I heard his shouting through the phone.
"Jenni, I'm sorry I have to go now," Matthew said apologetically. "Call me after you tell your parents, alright?"
"You'll be the first one I'll call," I smiled.
"Okay babe, I'll talk to you later tonight I hope," he said.
"Bye Matt," I laughed. "Have fun at your stupid meeting."
We both laughed and our conversation over the phone shortly ended.
I then sighed and thought through everything I was planning to tell my parents about Matthew. I had every phrase planned out to the exact wording I will use.
I knew telling my parents' reaction wouldn't be easy so I needed someone personally with me for moral support. I asked the person who I wanted to be there with me the most. I knocked the door, "Hey I'm going to tell mom and dad."
Once I stepped in the room, I saw my brother, Brandon, sitting right up and turned his music down. I knew he knew exactly what I was talking about. "Jenni, are you sure about this?"
"I promised Matthew and I don't want my relationship being a secret anymore," I stood up for myself. "If they don't like it then that is there problem because it is my life and I can date who I want to."
"Jenni you can talk the talk all you want, but are you sure you want to walk the walk?" Brandon questioned me.
"Yes," I hesitated. "I think so. I don't know Brandon. Help me."
"Well we won't know mom and dad's response until we actually see it," he said.
"Okay," I agreed. "I'm just going to do it."
"Good for you Jenni," he said as he began to lay down again.
"Brandon, do you think you could be there?" I asked in a childish way.
"Of course little sis. I'd be the witness if anything wrong goes down," he laughed.
And to think that I thought this was going to be a sentimental moment, boy was I wrong. I laughed, "Sure, I want you to be there to make sure I don't get murdered."
"I think mom and dad are downstairs now, let's do this then," Brandon said as he led the both of us down the stairs. He continued to push me because my feet would not move.
Brandon and I slowly came downstairs to find my mother who was vaccuming the living room and my father who was trying to watch T.V.
"Mom. Dad. Can I talk to you guys about something?" I politely asked them as I led them towards the couch. I sat down alongside them and took a deep breath.
"Sure sweetie. What is it?" They looked rather concerned.
"I know it may be very controversal and you guys may go berserk so please listen until the very end and then your reaction will be needed," I said.
"We promise that we'll listen to anything you say honey. We want to be supportive," they responded.
"Okay, it's a long story, but I'm just going to jump to the part where it matters most," I took a deep breath and waited. "I'm dating someone."
My mom's face lit up, "Oh my gosh sweetie! That's amazing!"
My dad's face on the other hand was rather stern, "Who is this young man?"
"Well," I hesitated. "That's the part that I'm going to have trouble explaining."
"Well honey whoever he is. I'm just glad you've started dating. You know, when I was in high school, I've had so many dates that I lost count," my mom continued to go on and on.
"Honey please. There is no need to exaggerate your high school days-" my dad said.
My mom interuppted, "So how long have you guys been dating for?"
"Three months," I smiled.
"That's so long for a high school relationship," my mom continued. "My longest relationship was one month long until I met your father."
"So why haven't we met him yet?" My dad added.
"Well," I explained. "He may not live around here..."
"Jennifer Waters!" My mom was shocked. "Are you in one of those online dating relationship thingys? Those seem extremely dangerous!"
"Have you seen this boy in real life? For all we know, he could be some forty year old man. This is by far not safe at all," my father said.
"Mom. Dad. Calm down. This is why I didn't want your response till after I'm done explaining," I said.
"Okay sweetie, we're just a bit worried. Just explain it all and it may calm us down," my dad said.
"Well his name is Matthew Espinosa. And he isn't some forty year old man. We actually met at Magcon, the event I went to with Katherine. But long story short, we've been keeping in touch and we may have been dating for about three months now. He currently lives in LA, but he took me to Prom. And I just really like him," I explained calmly.
My parents' faces were just in utter shock.
My mom asked, "Jenni, is this 'Matthew Espinosa' the famous one?"
"Perhaps mom," I disappointingly said.
Here the lecturing begins. I'm ready. My mom and dad started to tag-teamingly lecture me, "Jenni. How could you not tell us about this? You've been keeping your relationship for a secret for three months? Especially with this guy we barely know that has like a thousand followers on the facebook?"
"Well when you say it like that, it sounds all bad," I admitted. "But I swear it isn't. He's really a sweet guy. Sure, I may have been head-over-heels for him before we even met, but since we've met, I got to see him as a regular guy. Plus he likes me too, which was super surprising to me too."
"Jenni, I'm not sure how I feel about this," my mom said as she was killing my argument.
"Mom and dad please. I really like this guy," I pleaded.
"Jenni, you can like many guys, and you can most likely like guys around here. I just don't like the idea of you hanging around a guy who is famous," my parents explained. "Because Jenni, you're obviously not famous. I'm still astonished at how this came to be. I just don't see this going well at all. Therefore we have to put our foot down."
"But mom," I stood up for myself. "You don't know anything about him, and obviously nothing about me either. Matthew was all I talked about for the last year, but did you guys seem to care at all? Of course not. Please, just rethink this and perhaps be the loving parents that I knew. I know you guys are still in there somewhere."
"Jenni," my dad started to speak. "We can't let you go galavanting around the country just to be with this gu-" My dad was then cut off by the sound of my mom's voice.
"Jennifer Anne Waters," she raised her voice. "You cannot simply try to guilt us into getting what you want, or in this case, being with who you want. But unfortunately, I'm a firm believer for love and if you feel so passionate about this situation, I want to give it a chance."
My eyes widened and I tried to speak, but nothing came out of my mouth. I was shocked. To be completely honest, I had no faith of them approving.
"But we will have to put some ground-rules down," my parents said.
"Anything!" I desperately said.
"First off, we must meet this boy. No matter if he lives in Alaska or New Zealand. We have to see his intentions, but if he turns out to be one of the snobby, rich, and famous Justin Beavers then we are putting our foot down," they strictly informed me.
Matt is definitely not a 'snobby, rich, and famous Justin Beavers' so I'm not at all worried about that. But the thing I am worried about is how my parents are going to meet him. I really doubt they are willing to just fly out to LA tomorrow and I bet Matt is tired of always flying out to me.
"Before we add the second thing, do you mind explaining to us how you two are planning to make this relationship work?"
"Well," I hesitated. "We're planning to call or facetime each other almost everyday. And we hope to be able to fly out to each other every month or so. That's why I asked you if I could fly out to Virginia a couple months ago because I wanted to go see Matt."
"Jenni that seems nice and all, but have you ever thought about how you are going to pay for all these plane tickets?"
"Um." I actually had no idea.
"Your father and I are nice enough to let you date this boy for the time being, but we are not going to pay everytime you want to see this Matthew," my mom said.
"I'll do all the chores and I'll get a job," I was desperate. "I'll find a way to make money to make it happen."
"If you are that willing to make this work then we will be willing too," my parents approved. "We'll allow all this as long as you keep your school work up. We don't want you to be slacking all to see some boy."
"Yes ma'am," I couldn't stop smiling.
"Jenni but we just want you to know to be careful." Oh boy, here comes the cautious parents. "We know these famous people and they're not as great as you think. They may like you one minute, but once they win a Grammy or are surrounded by thousands of gorgeous fans, you may not even come to mind. We're just don't want to see you have a broken heart and we can feel one coming in the future."
"Mom. Dad. I understand your concern, but I am a big girl now. I can handle a little heartbreak, but I promise you, there won't be one," I smile. "I just know it."
"I really hope so honey."
"Can I go call Matt now?" I excitedly jump up from my seat.
"Of course," my parents agreed. "And tell him that we're looking forward to meeting him."
I showered my parents with hugs and kisses, repeatedly thanking them over and over. Then I went to my room and closed the door.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Matt's number.
*Matthew's POV*
"They want to do what?" I said through the phone.
Jenni's muffled voice continued to speak through the phone, "They were totally on board with the whole thing. But the only major issue is that they want to meet you. Like pronto."
"Like how pronto?" I questioned.
"Pronto," she quickly responded.
I needed time to think. The parents? Already? What if I make a fool of myself? What if they hate me? "Jenni what if they don't like me?"
"C'mon. What is not to like? You're smart, funny, and not to mention, overall amazing. They'll love you because I know I do," she reassured me.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why she is my girlfriend. "Fine," I laughed. "So are you guys planning to fly out to LA?"
"Welll," her voice shortly became high-pitched. "I was hoping if you could maybe come down to sweet old'e Nebraska because I'm not sure my parents are big fans of flying."
"Jenni..." I thought. "I have meetings all this week and Carter and I were planning to just go around the city this weekend. But I guess Carter and I could do that some other time."
"So what are you saying?" She confusingly asked.
"What I'm saying is to put in a good word for your parents all this week so they'll have a positive vibe about me for when I come down there this Sunday," I smiled. I couldn't believed I am going to meet her parents. I'm not ready.
Jenni spoke no words, but instead continued to scream and cheer for the next ten minutes. "Matthew Lee Espinosa. You truly are amazing. I think I owe you a lot."
"Babe, we're not keeping count of how many awesome stuff we each do in this relationship, but if we are, I'm winning," I laughed.
"Sure you are Matt. Well I'm going to bed now. Night loser," she laughed, which was contagious through the phone.
"Goodnight Jenni," I smiled as I hung up.
I plopped myself onto my bed. I laid there, just thinking. I feel so myself when I talk to her. I can't thank God enough for putting this amazing girl in my life because I know he did for a reason and I'm beginning to see why. At this moment, I feel my happiest.
I then grabbed my laptop and put it in front of me on my bed. I began searching the internet for a flight to Nebraska. After finding one that perfectly worked with the time, I booked my flight. And then I shut my eyes, drifting away to an abyss of dreams.
--
Author's Note.
Please don't kill me. I don't know how long it's been and I'm so so so so so sorry. My last update was like months and months ago. I know you guys keep bombarding me with messages to update and I finally got to. I hope you guys don't hate me. I'm trying my best to update as much as I could. I tried to make this chapter longer than usual to make up for the lack of updates.
I hope you guys continue to read!
And leave suggestions of what you guys want to happen between Jenni and Matt.
How do you think the 'sit-down with the parents dinner' is going to go?
Do you think Jenni and Matt's relationship will last long or are Jenni's parents right?
Stay tuned for more.
Love you guys,
Jenni :)