Zac and I were hanging out at the library on Sunday afternoon lazily doing our homework. In reality we were doing more talking than homework, but we were pretty much the only ones in the entire building and it didn’t really matter.
“You’re cute when you concentrate,” I teased as he worked his way through his reading.
“You like the look of a completely confused guy?” he laughed.
“It’s my favorite,” I said with a shrug, pausing for a moment, “Were you lying to me when you said you’d had bad luck dating here?” He just looked at me for a second before answering.
“Why? You don’t believe me?”
“I don’t believe that a guy like you could be single for over three years. It just seems pretty impossible.”
“Yeah, well… it’s true,” he laughed nervously, “Sorry… I just don’t really like talking about my social shortcomings.”
“I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to bring up a sore subject.”
“It’s okay. I still like you.”
“Well thank god for that. I’m glad that you still like me if you’re bringing me home to meet the family, which I’m slowly becoming more and more scared about, by the way.”
“Esme, my parents are going to love you, I promise!”
“It’s not your parents I’m worried about… parents love me! I’m more worried about meeting your brothers,” I replied, doodling at the top of my page of notes.
“Why are you worried about meeting them?” he laughed, “They’re harmless, I promise.”
“I know that. I’m sure that if they were horrible perverts or bastards you would have shared that with me already! It’s just that I’m sure you’ve regaled them with stories about how truly delicious I look naked and I just don’t want it to be awkward,” I teased. He rolled his eyes and tossed an eraser at me across the table.
“I have done no such thing, thank you very much. I don’t want them to know that! They might be inclined to steal you away from me if I did,” he smiled, earning some major brownie points through the cheesiness of the comment.
“Yeah fine. I just know well enough to know that sibling approval can be very important.”
“It is,” he admitted, “But if they don’t like you, then there’s going to be some fighting words spoken, and trust me… I always win fights with my brothers.”
“Oh I believe it, you strapping piece of man, you!” I said dramatically, rising from the table and promptly dropping myself down into his lap. He immediately wrapped his arms around me and kissed me. He looked like he was about to say something, but stopped himself before it came out. “Yes?”
“Nothing,” he said, brushing my hair behind my shoulder and kissing me again, “Just thinking, that’s all.”
“Thinking about what?” I asked.
“About how ridiculously crazy I am about you.” I smiled and sighed.
“You know, you keep saying stuff like that, but I don’t think you really mean it,” I joked, pretending like I was going to leave his lap, but his strong arms held me right in place.
“Oh, I mean it.”
“You do?”
“Every word.” And that was the end of our homework time.
By the time we managed to untangle ourselves, the sky outside the library had grown dark and we started to walk towards my place where his car was still parked. Since we hadn’t gotten much work done, we had agreed that it would be best if we went back to our respective places for the night to get it finished. Once we reached his car, we stood there on the sidewalk, neither of us wanting to be the first to leave.
“So when do you leave for break again?” he asked.
“Friday afternoon after class, you?”
“I only have the morning class on Friday, so probably around noon. And I’m coming to pick you up on Tuesday morning since dinner will be around five.”
“That’s our plan,” I smiled, pulling him towards me for a goodnight kiss, knowing that we wouldn’t get as much time together as we’d like before we went home for break.
“Okay, I really have to go. My reading isn’t going to do itself,” he said.
“But wouldn’t it be great if it could?” I asked. He grinned at me and kissed me one more time before finally pulling away and heading towards the other side of his car. “Goodnight, Zac.”
“Goodnight, Miss Esme.” I stood there and watched his car until it was no longer visible. The climb up the stairs seemed to take forever and I trudged down the hallway, making the trip take as long as possible so I didn’t have to finish my homework. Gwen was sitting alone at the kitchen table eating from a big cheese pizza and reading her Abnormal Psych book when I entered the apartment.
“Ooo… pizza!” I exclaimed, sitting down across from her and taking a slice without asking.
“And where have you been?” she asked, adjusting her reading glasses and turning the page.
“At the library with Zac, and now I’m here to finish my work. Mind if I join you?”
“Of course not…” she said distractedly and I knew that something was wrong. Gwen didn’t like to initiate conversations about her problems and I knew that I was going to have to pry it out of her, but I knew that I needed to nonetheless.
“What’s wrong, Gwenny?” I inquired.
“Nothing,” she replied and it was obvious that she was lying.
“Gwen… come on. What’s up?” She just sighed loudly and took off her glasses.
“It’s just been kind of a shitty afternoon, that’s all.”
“What happened?” I helped myself to another piece and sat back in my chair, waiting for the explanation.
“Well first of all I got a call from my mom telling me that my dad was having bad chest pain, but not to worry about it. Apparently they went to the emergency room and they said it was just some muscle spasms or something, but that I didn’t need to come home early. They didn’t even keep him overnight at the hospital, but still. And then Braeden and I got into an argument about me coming to stay at his house over break. I said that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do if my dad wasn’t doing well, and he got all twerked off and said that I worry about things too much and he’s sure that my dad is doing fine if my mom didn’t want me to come home since she’s an alarmist… it was just bad timing and bad conversation all around,” she said, almost all in one breath. I knew that it took a lot for her to admit that anything was wrong, and was proud of her for actually doing so with minimal coercing.
“I’m sure you’re Dad is going to be fine, Gwen. He’s a tough guy. And Braeden will get over it. He’s probably just PMSing or something.” She let a little laugh slip through and nodded.
“I know, you’re right. It’s just a lot, you know?”
“Yeah… well let’s get our reading done really fast and then we’ll watch some TV, okay?”
“Sounds good. I need some kind of motivation to make it through this chapter.”
We finished our reading in a little under and hour and headed for the living room, the now reheated pizza in hand. We sat there watching TV until our eyelids were sagging horribly against our tiredness and we finally gave in and went to bed.
Somehow, however, my sleepiness left as soon as I entered my room, and I lay in bed for hours just thinking. I’d never been through a medical problem of any kind with my family. My dad wouldn’t go to the hospital unless a limb was completely severed from his body or something and my mom somehow managed to be the healthiest person I’d ever met. I knew that we were lucky and it took something like Gwen’s little scare to put it all into perspective. At least she was going to get to spend some time with her parents over break. I punched a fist into my pillow to resituate it and dug my head down into the new dent, trying not to let myself dwell on the fact that while my parents were enjoying the wonderful Mediterranean weather and fantastic ancient sites Greece had to offer, I’d be alternating between sitting at home bored and braving the new frontier of meeting the Hanson family.
That thought caused me to shift again as I tried to empty my mind. As much as Zac tried to calm my fears about going to visit his family, I couldn’t help but worry. We hadn’t been dating for all that long, and I knew from personal experience that when parents disapprove of someone you’re dating, it makes it pretty hard to continue to do so. And, I didn’t have siblings of my own, but I knew from talking to Gwen, who’s sister hated Braeden for almost a year, that the constant nagging and negative comments eventually became overwhelming and frustrating beyond belief. Just when I had given in to the knowledge that sleep wouldn’t come for quite some time, my phone started to ring on my bedside table. I knew from the ring that it was Zac. Every time he called, I was tempted to let the ring go on, listening as Bono’s voice filled the room with my favorite song, but did the good girlfriend thing and answered instead.
“I can’t sleep,” Zac stated without bothering to say hello. I smiled and rolled over, getting comfortable once again.
“Me either. My head’s too busy to let me sleep.”
“Mine, too.”
“Well, that and I miss you.”
“You miss me, but I’ll be you don’t miss my snoring,” he laughed and I joined him.
“You snore? I’d never noticed,” I teased.
“Yeah, I tend to do that a bit,” he said, “Well, I just wanted to call to say goodnight again.”
“Goodnight, Zac. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Okay, tomorrow. Goodnight,” he mumbled, and I could tell that sleepiness was finally overtaking him. The line went dead and I rested the phone beside me on the bed before drifting off to sleep, thankful that Zac had called and calmed my head.