"Pick up, pick up.." I whisper to myself, waiting for Dani to pick up. I called her 5 times already. Is she busy? She can't be, she does nothing. Unless she has a secret boyfriend or girlfriend. Or a job. She probably got a job. But she can't be. Not now. I need desperate help. I'm desperate. "Shit." The call went to voicemail. Again. I sighed and went to my closet. A dress or pants? I want pants, but his family is gonna be there. Drista is gonna be there. Fuck. I am in a full panic.
My phone goes off and I quickly pick it up. A facetime call. "Why'd you call me so many times without leaving a voice message?" Dani's voice rang throughout my phone and I turned on the video. "Usually you leave a voice message. Is everything okay??"
"I need help, like I'm panicking. I-" I paused. "Clay invited me to dinner with his family." I say, propping the phone up against my wall on my desk.
"Like a date or-?"
"He said as a friend, but even that, I'm gonna meet his family and I-"
"Just wear pants. Jeans specifically. A t-shirt but not a graphic tee. If it has stripes or polka dots or flowers, that's fine. Wear (shoes), ankle or no show, whatever you find first." She instructs. "Take a deep breath, drink some water. His family seems cool, from what he shared online. There's no pressure."
"Yeah there is. Drista-"
"Haha, really? If you can talk to Dream normally, you can talk to Drista." She shook her head.
"You're right, you're right. It's gonna be fine. Everything's gonna be good. We're-"
"You're overthinking aren't you?" She pulls me out of my thoughts and I look at her baffled, turning the camera off to change. "I know you too well. I said it's gonna be fine, if it's just a friend thing, but he clearly trusts you to see his family."
"This early though??? That's a little weird."
"If you're uncomfortable with the idea of going to his house and talking amongst his family, just cancel." She looks at the camera, knowing I can see her. "I'm sure he'd understand."
There's a knock at my door. "One second!" I yell, brushing my hair out a few times. "I'm going. An opportunity like this, I can't pass up. But thanks. I'll be fine. And I'll call you when I'm back. I promise."
"If you need anything, text me." I said bye and she hung up. I rushed to the door with my phone and keys in a small bag that had my wallet and some (gum/mints/candies). I walked over to the door and there stood Clay. I smiled softly and he waved happily. We both kind of stood there ogling at each other accidentally. God he's so hot.
"Hey, you ready?" His smile brightened up my front door, and my cheeks. I stepped out and closed my door, locking it.
"Y-yeah." I stuttered, quietly hitting my cheeks in hopes to stop my blushing. I get in his car and buckle up. He, too, buckles up and starts the car.
"It's only been a couple hours, but how are you doing?" He asked, driving away from my place. My blush doesn't leave. In fact, I feel hotter than before.
"I'm good, doing good." I say, looking out the window to hide my heated cheeks. Why am I so nervous? Is it because I'm meeting his family so early? I've only known Clay for 4 days? 5 days? I can't be this nervous. Shit. I'm overthinking again. I need to breath, it'll be fine. It'll be just fine. I'll meet his family as friends. We're just friends. It's gonna be okay. I'm gonna be fi-
"(Y/n)? Earth to (Y/n)." His hand was on my shoulder and it brought me out of my trance. I slowly look at him. "Are you okay? You don't have to come inside." Huh? I looked out the window and saw us stopped at a house. It's nice. Wait, I was overthinking through the entire ride? Didn't even notice. "Do you need a second?"
"I'm okay, it's just.." I take a deep breath in, then let it out. "Meeting your family makes me anxious because we've only known each other for like 5 days... 6 days?"
"You're gonna be fine. They'll love you." He says softly. "I know they will." He looks at me, watching my shaky breaths. "You're gonna be okay, I'm gonna be there." His soft voice calms me down. "Come on, they're already in there, waiting. It'll be okay."
"Okay. Okay, let's go." We both hopped out of the car and headed towards the door.
+++
We both walked into the door, him waiting for me to take my shoes off. I did so and looked around, glancing over at his kitchen once or twice. The one kitchen that was in that one video he took of Patches knocking over the ice in the cup. God I'm so weird. He gives me a mini tour showing the bathroom, kitchen, a couple rooms used for nothing in particular other than guests and sleeping, leaving one room out. I'm guessing it's his recording room, but I drop it from my mind as soon as we walk over to the living room where his family is watching football.
"Hey mom, this is-"
"Oh! You must be (Y/n)! Clay has said so many nice things about you." She gets up and walks over to me, leaving me no room to talk or even process the part where she said 'Clay has said so many nice things about you'. "Since you're here, I must get started on dinner." She lightly pats my shoulders, walking over to the kitchen. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and for a split second, I saw Clay blush. Immediately after, though, he hides it with a cough.
"That was (whatever his mother's name is)" He looks down at me, smiling softly. That smile let me know that meeting his family isn't that big of a deal. "Anyways, that's my dad (whatever his father's name is)-" He points to an older man. "-that's my younger brother (whatever his brother's name is)-" He points to a younger boy, not by much though. "-and that's my younger sister (whatever Drista's name is)-" He points to the girl that notices him pointing. She looks at who is beside him, me, and waves with a small smile, turning back towards the TV. "I have another sister, but she couldn't hang out tonight, so it's just this much of the family." He shrugged, "Make yourself comfortable." He smiles, going to sit down next to his dad where his mom was sitting.
I awkwardly stood there for a second, looking at his brother on the ground watching the sports game and his sister playing on her phone or scrolling through it. The only open spot was next to his sister so I made my way over and sat next to her, bringing my legs up on the couch with me. I pull my phone out and text Dani. On second thought, maybe I'll just text her afterwards.
Clay patted me on the shoulder shortly after and said he was going to go check on his mom and Drista watched him leave, then she looked at me. "Are you and him dating?"
"No. We're just friends. We met a few days ago. I made the birthday cake you ate on your birthday and he picked it up at the bakery I work at." I say. I wasn't completely truthful, the owners made the cake of course, but either way the bakery made the cake and that's all that matters.
"Oh? That cake was good." She smiled, pausing for a second, then saying, "Between me and you, is my brother cute to you?" She looks past me, waiting for my answer eagerly while also seeing if Clay has gotten back yet.
"Yeah." I whisper. "Promise you won't tell him?"
She whipped out her pinky and mumbled, "I promise," waiting for me to take it. I do so and Clay walks back in.
"What did the two of you pinky promise for?" He noticed before sitting down.
"-I-"
"-She promised to treat me to ice cream sometime." She smiled innocently, earning a nod from Clay. I nodded, trying to not look so nervous.
"She rarely makes pinky promises with me, that's why I wondered and the both of you met today so it weirded me out." He pauses. "Oh wait! My cat." He gets up into the room that was closed and told I was not supposed to go and comes out, closing the door with his foot, with a cat in his arms. "This is Patches. She's my pride and joy." He smiles much brighter than at the door when he picked me up.
+++
"Do you like it? It's homemade." Clay's mom speaks up, looking in Clay's direction, but asking me.
"Yeah, it's really good. I haven't had homemade food in years." I said, continuing to eat.
"Years?" Drista spoke up. "That's unfortunate- I mean we-"
"(Drista's name), shut your mouth." Clay elbowed her and looked over at me, embarrassed or something. I couldn't tell. We ate in silence the rest of the way. Clay's family couldn't stay much longer since tomorrow was school, for Drista and his brother. We talked for a bit, me and his mom, while cleaning dishes. I offered to help her.
I can't forget the small conversation we had though.
"Clay says you guys are just friends?" She asked, I was shocked for some reason, keeping the face to myself. "You guys are so close to each other, I wouldn't even see you both as just friends."
"I do admit, he's shown me a lot more not-friend-stuff in the 5 or 6 days I've known him than an average human. Not-friend-stuff meaning like, he took me to the beach the other day, and gave me his number, and trusted me a lot quicker than a lot of people would've." I said, drying the dishes as she handed them to me.
"I mean, he is very odd. His online presence is a lot more than his real life so I assume that he tries to trust people a lot easier." She looked over at Clay, talking amongst his dad and siblings, laughing at the movie playing. "If you're wondering what I think, I want to say that maybe he likes you. He talked quite highly of you a couple times last night and earlier today when he said he was going to pick up a friend of his." She paused, looking over at me before continuing to wash the dishes. "It's just a mother's instinct of course, and you don't have to listen to me about this, but you guys would look cute together. Even though it's been 6 days. You both have so much time to get to know each other so don't rush into anything."
"Aha.. yeah.." My face is red, like my blush went to the extreme. My eyes were glued to the plates I was drying with this towel. "He's- he's nice and stuff. But I'm sure you know that, you're his mother." I forced a chuckle to get me out of the blazing feelings I'm getting.
"Awe, you're too cute, blushing and all." She said, finishing up the last dish, drying it herself.
"Hey mom, hey (Y/n)." Clay's voice rings in my head. "So I'm thinking of driving (Y/n) back to her place so she doesn't miss work, just wondering if the two of you are done chatting and cleaning?"
"Yeah, we're done." She smiled sweetly, putting the rag next to the sink and going around to give Clay a smooch on the cheek. "It was nice meeting you (Y/n)." She looked at me, heading into the living room where the rest of the family was.
+++
The ride to my place was silent. "So..." Clay started.
"So..." I repeated. "Uhm." I watch outside the window, buildings passing and the trees blurred.
"They seemed to like you." His grip with tight, knuckles white from what I could see, even in the dark.
"That's good. I was worried.." I got quiet, not sure what to say.
"My mom and my sister were ecstatic about you. They seemed to like you the most." He let out a breath.
I think this conversation is going nowhere.