[ CHAPTER 11 : RIDE : ❝i'm sorry i didn't see you at the show, i musta missed you. don't think i did that shit intentionally just to diss you. but what's this shit you said about you like to cut your wrists too? i say that shit just clownin', dawg, come on, how fucked up is you? you got some issues, stan, i think you need some counselin' to help your ass from bouncin' off the walls when you get down some.❞ ]
★★★★★
MAYBE PARKER SHOULD'VE STAYED silent yesterday with Sunny. Just gone on with her life, and ignored the potential health problems of a seventeen-year-old. Then again, instead of being pissed off that Cameron refuses to text her back, she could be dealing with massive guilt instead. And that's not something she deals with well. Lord knows she's already her head repeatedly for lying to Leo about Noah, and the whole thing with Victoria. It's all eating her up inside.
And Cameron isn't helping by ignoring her.
"Sweetie, where's your friend?" Parker glances up from the kitchen nook, to see her mother hovering over her, holding a bowl of rank looking oatmeal. Not far from where she sits, is Rose drinking―like always. "Are you two fighting?" Parker frowns, yes, would be her answer. But she needs to keep up appearances. As if everything is perfectly fine. Her mother will freak out otherwise.
Parker shrugs, "I'll walk―she has a family emergency."
"What about Victoria, should I call her mother?" Parker immediately shakes her head. Her fingers latching onto her mother's wrist to make sure she doesn't go off and cause needless trouble. The last thing she needs, is to get Victoria further involved than she already is. "Are you sure, sweetie? I'm sure whatever's going on between you and Victoria can be put aside for a ride to school." Her mother's smiling at her, and patting her head but Parker can only frown and wish for the woman to stop.
Rose injects herself into the conversation. "What about your friend from yesterday?" She asks, looking pointedly at Parker. Parker stares back, handing her a look that screams 'shut-the-fuck-up'. Rose doesn't, and only continues. "You know, the one who drove you home yesterday!" Parker's mother looks back at her with a puzzled expression, mirroring a similar one on her father's face who's sat in front of her reading through his files.
Rose is smirking at her, winking.
Parker's glaring at her, frowning.
"What other friend?" Her dad asks―glancing up from his papers to fix his glasses and look toward her with a raised eyebrow. "What's her name?" Both of her parents look entirely too interested. And Parker can feel herself freezing. This is not good. Her parents don't like her being involved with the opposite sex. They don't want what happened to them―or Rose―happening her. They just don't want her having sex, at all.
"His name is Leo," Her father's eyes bulge as he sputters out the coffee he was previously sipping. Her mother, too, freaks by shifting to sit in the chair beside her. "He's interesting―Cameron had a huge English paper to write yesterday, so she stayed in the library, and Leo offered to drive me home." Her father clears his throat, as he looks at her. Looks at her like he can't even fathom the fact that a guy could possibly be near her. That pisses her off.
Parker glances over at Rose, "You know what, Grandma?" The older woman glares back at her with her nails digging into the grip on her cocktail. The woman hates being referred to as a grandmother. Makes her feel old. "You're right, I'll text him now." Parker's lips taunt her with a grin, as she falls into the bar stool with a huff. Don't mess with me, Grammy!
[ PARKER ]: can you give me a ride?
"You have his contact name as, 'babe'?" Her mother bellows.
Her father nearly vomits on the table as he grips at his stomach and fixes his glasses again. Parker panics―she meant to change the contact name but forgot about it. On the other hand, Rose is completely loving this, as she cackles away in her seat. "I want to meet him, if he's taking you to school." Her father coughs out, his hand still on his chest as he tries to steady his breathes.
Parker winces.
Leo doesn't seem like the parent-meeting type. He seems like the avoid-at-all-costs when it comes to parent meetings. Whether he's a friend or not. He's too rowdy, and crazy for her parents. Not that her parents aren't crazy themselves; but, they're a whole different kind of a crazy.
[ BABE ;) ]: see you soon ;P
She shudders, why is he so grimy?
"Is he coming?" Her father asks, worriedly looking from her phone to her face with clear interest. Slowly, she nods and her father completely tenses in his seat as she gets up to follow her mother who heads out the room to the living room. She paces along the entryway in front of the red front door―over and over saying the same words. 'Hello, I'm Parker's mom, Bella.' Except she says it in fifty different variations.
"Mom, it isn't that big of a deal." Parker states.
Her mother turns toward her, "You call him 'babe'."
"No, mom, he calls himself 'babe'. I didn't put that in, he did. I told you, there's nothing there, he's just someone who helped me out the other day. Nothing more." Her words don't seem to affect her mother who keeps pacing, and saying the words as if that'll help her impress the boy. And all she can do is huff as she falls onto the beige couch, and cover her face with her hands.
Rose walks into the room, "This is going to be gold."
"You suck, Grandma." Parker mutters.
Rose glares at her, "Don't call me that. Call me your Aunt." Parker rolls her eyes, as if she'd ever. She'll stick to Grandma, and Rose. Those are the only names that fit the woman. No matter how young she thinks she is, she's still a grandmother. A horrible grandmother, but one nonetheless.
Parker knows exactly how things are going to go down. Her mother is going to overexert herself trying to be the picture-perfect-cliché mother, while her father tries his best to intimidate Leo which will only backfire on him since Leo has about five feet on him (and her father is so damn nerdy), and Rose will simply do everything in her power to cause Parker discomfort. It'll be horrible.
It doesn't take Leo long to get to her house.
He parks his blue jeep in her driveway, and her parents instantly ready themselves at the door while Parker stays at her spot on the couch, and Rose leans on the armrest (cocktail still in hand). "Does he know to come up?" Her father asks but Parker only shrugs. She didn't tell him to, and―in all honesty―she isn't expecting him to. And when he sits in his car for a beat or, two, Parker's thinking she may just get away with leaving out the door and no confrontation with her parents.
Until, Leo is pulling himself out of his truck to stand in front of it. Fixing his school sweatshirt―the gray one with the eagle that costs 75 dollars from the school shop―and his jeans, even slicking back his mop of messy hair, before making his way up the pathway to her front door.
Parker pouts, why is he doing this?
Her mother opens the door before Leo can even think about knocking. And she pulls him inside, by gripping at the fabric covering his arm, and stops pulling until he's standing in front of her parents, and Rose. Parker is shoved to the back, no time to give Leo a warning. No time for anything but just equal looks of panic.
"And who might you be?" Rose questions, leaning toward the boy.
He shies away a little as he scratches the back of his neck, "Leo, ma'am." Rose frowns at the formality. Maybe she was expecting something more rude or strange. Maybe she was expecting Leo to ruin everything. Parker can't blame her. Because it's the same thing she's expecting as she stands in front of them trying to hold back her anger.
"Well, I'm Parker's Aunt Rose." The woman continues, as she throws her flimsy arm in his direction, to offer up her hand to shake. Leo, with a slow nod, and takes it and shakes it. Only to drop it a few seconds after and take a step back. The girl shakes her head at her grandmother, you wish you were my aunt.
Leo, awkwardly, smiles.
Parker's mother comes into his view, "It's very nice to meet you, Leo. I'm Parker's mom, Bella―I would like to thank you for taking my daughter to school today, and for driving her home yesterday afternoon. If she could face-palm right now, she would. Her mother sounds stiff, like a robot, and she's faking a smile to the point her cheeks are shaking. Ridiculous. Why is her family so embarrassing?
"My pleasure, Misses Henderson." He replies.
Her mother doesn't tell him to call her Bella, but just nods, and moves around so that her husband is now standing in front of Leo. And Parker finds it funny. Her dad's relatively short, at 5 foot 7 (her mom only being 5 foot 4) and Leo stands somewhere along six foot. So, an eighteen-year-old boy is towering over her thirty-five-year-old father. And the whole time her father is trying to muster up an intimidating look but it only turns into the most odd-looking wince.
"The name is Greg."
Parker blanches, he sounds like a dunce. The way his eyes narrow in on the boy and his voice is just a little too slow. And he forgets to say that he's her father, even if it's implied. It's just ridiculous to Parker. It makes her want to run for the hills.
"Nice to meet you, sir." Leo responds.
Finally, Parker manages to push her parents out of the way to stand in front of Leo. He looks down at her, momentarily terrified, she grips at his wrist. Before she's turning back towards her parent's and plastering a smile on her face. "We have to get to school, love you both," She pulls him back toward the door, opening it, and shoving him out. Before she exits, she twists her view of her shoulder and smirks at Rose. "Love you too, Grandma." The woman scowls at her, and she does the same back.
"Your family is interesting." Leo comments as the two make their way to his jeep.
She climbs inside the passenger seat, as he runs around to the driver's side. Her focus switches to the front door of her house, where's sure her family is still standing. If she could bury herself underneath a rock like a snake wanting to protect itself, Lord knows she would. She's beginning to realize why Sunny is having such a hard time with her dares. It's so easy to get embarrassed, even in front of someone as insignificant as Leo. "Are they always like that?"
"Unfortunately."
"Your dad seems cool," He comments, as he starts up the car and pulls it out into the road again. Parker rolls her eyes―that's all he gets from the conversation with her family? That her dad's cool. Not even close. Her dad is the definition of embarrassing. When she used to play softball―when she was very young and pushed into sports―he'd sit at the top of the bleachers and insult the other kids out loud, oftentimes in front of their parents. Things including "She'd be a good first baseman if she didn't suck tits." and so and so forth. It's actually where his nickname for her, Champ, came from. Even though she never actually won anything. And, needless to say, her father was kicked out of many games for being offensive―he just really gets into things.
Not to mention he's an overprotective father of an only child. When Parker was in 7th grade, her dad was driving her and her friends to the big mall a town over. One of the three girls―a bully that clung onto Parker because she was weird and easy to make fun of―spent the whole ride talking about some guy and how he definitely liked her because he ignored her all the time. As they pulled up the to the mall, her dad turns around to give Parker cash, then looks the girl right in the face and said, "That boy definitely doesn't like you. I'm not even sure why my daughter does." In her father's defense, the girl was a bully, and she was especially cruel to Parker.
He's always had a very dry, no bullshit sense of humor, and pair that with his love for his only child, Parker's surprised he didn't mouth off earlier. At the time, she was mortified. The girl called her mother crying, and then her mother called Parker's father who basically said, "Well, someone has to tell your shitty kid the truth." And that was the end of their friendship. Looking back at is, she knows it was his way of trying to protect his daughter.
Leo glances at her pursed face, and chuckles. "I only say that because I don't have a dad―it's cool to see dads who are a part of their kids' lives, and try their best to protect them." Parker stops frowning, to peer at Leo. He's firmly staring ahead, focusing on the road and the cars ahead of them. It didn't come to her mind that he doesn't have a family like hers. Where her parents are constantly lovey-dovey, and her father is twenty-four-seven embarrassing. It's odd to think that Leo doesn't have a father like hers. But if he was raised just by his mother, why is he so aggressive towards females? Shouldn't his mother have controlled that and taught him better?
"I like your family," He hums, as his fingers twist to turn up the radio. "They're different, like you." Parker rolls her eyes, laughing just a twinge. And he smiles back at her. It's the first real thing he's ever said to her, that doesn't make her want to puke. Because her family is different, just like her. That's something she can't deny.
"They're embarrassing." She mumbles.
She can still remember the time in junior high, where she won second place in the school science fair, and the award presentation was after school. There was an hour period before the ceremony where the parents and other students, could walk around and see what the other students had done. Walking to the gym, her mother hit her head on some kid's makeshift rocket, and split her forehead open. As an RN, she managed to MacGyver a 'band-aid' using floss, and a huge Kotex pad. She wore that bloody mess the entire time they were there. And although her intentions were good, and she was trying to be supportive, that was very traumatizing for Parker. Just imagine a woman walking around with a giant bloody pad strapped to her head with floss, and think how terrifying that is for a bunch of twelve-year old's.
The conversation drops for a mere minute, as the two sit in silence. Only the gentle tune on the radio playing along with the background noise from the outside of the jeep. And then they reach a red light, and Leo's looking at her from the corner of his eye. Parker can feel it, "I know I can be an asshole."
Parker side glances him, "Okay?" Leo sighs.
"Well, yesterday, you said I'm like Nico―but there's one difference," Coming to a red light, he stares directly at her and briefly smiles before putting his gaze elsewhere. Parker frowns, what's he getting at? "I know I'm an asshole, and can admit it. And I'm trying my best to get past that―Nico, on the other hand, he'll never change. He thinks he's perfect, like an immortal god. He won't admit he has flaws."
Leo huffs, as his grip on the steering wheel tightens. "I just wanted you to know that." All Parker can do is nod. Not sure whether she should say something or not―she chooses to stay quiet and sit still as they continue driving towards their school.