Something feels different.
I don’t know if Heath recognizes it or not.
The number of times I’ve been to his place, I’ve never smelled notes of vanilla scent in the air or aroma of freshly baked cupcakes from the kitchen. Kelly doesn’t bake. Also, there are fresh flowers in the vases.
“Heath, is that you?” I hear a female voice that I’ve never heard before.
Heath goes rigid. “Fuck!”
Quickly, he presses me to the nearest wall by putting a hand on my stomach. His touch permeates tingles under my skin and I let out a shaky breath.
Yes. Totally normal for a girlfriend to get this much affected by her boyfriend’s touch.
Heath keeps his hand on my stomach, unaware of the reaction he initiates in me and looks around the corner for someone.
My heart is beating too fast for me to ask him who is that.
“My parents have come back,” he tells me, still keeping an eye in the hallway.
His parents are here.
Oh my God.
The first emotion to consume me is anxiety—and it’s the only one that stays. No sign of excitement for me. I’m too busy panicking at the sudden bomb that Heath drops on me.
I didn’t expect to meet his parents because he told me they never visit. So I never prepared myself for what would happen the day they would be here and I’d have to meet them.
Subconsciously, I tame my hair the best I can. As for my face, I know the mascara and lipgloss I applied are still there so I look somewhat good. I glance down at my clothes and wince.
An old white sweater and faded jeans. They don’t look good.
Before I can dwell on my outfit, that voice speaks again.
“You’re back from school.” That woman speaks and I know it’s his mother.
Heath and I have been friends but I’ve never seen a single photo of his family. I don’t know what his sister looks like or his parents. I know his heart and his mind, but there’s still so much depth to him that I need to dive into and explore. What I know is surface level and it’s not enough. I want to know him on a deeper level like he knows me.
A muscle ticks in his jaw at her statement and he nods. Even from his side profile I can tell that he doesn’t like her. There are no strong feelings that should be there for the woman who’s his mother. A distance worth miles seems to between them by the look of blankness in his gaze.
Uncomfortable silence hangs in the air like a thick fog and makes it hard to breathe. Tension is so thick I fear it won’t be cut with a knife, saw or anything sharp.
Knowing as little as I do, I interpret that things are not good between his parents and him. From what he’s told me, he hates them for leaving him and Emery. The few times he talked to me about them there was so much hatred, pain and disappointment in his gaze and voice that it broke my heart. It felt like he had truly given up hope on his parents and considered himself alone. For him, they didn’t matter.
“I made some cupcakes?—”
Heath’s fingers gently dig into my flesh. “I don’t eat cupcakes.”
There is a long pause before his mother speaks again. “I didn’t know that.” She sounds hurt.
“Of course you didn’t,” he replies in a bitter tone that I’ve rarely heard him use.
“I can make you something else. Perhaps, we can make it together and?—”
He quickly shakes his head.
She clears her throat and when she speaks there’s hope in her voice. “Let’s eat lunch together. I’m sure?—”
“I have things to do.”
