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Carter: The 'Rents
I take Ryan home after the diner. When we pull in, I can see that her parents are doing some yard work.
Ryan’s eyes widen. “Shit.”
“What?” I ask.
“Look, I’m really sorry for whatever my parents are about to do or say.”
I laugh. “It can’t be that bad.” Then I look at the fear on her face. “Can it?”
By then, I’ve parked the car and her parents are walking over.
“Just remember that you said you liked me. Yo
owlonmywristHey friends! Hope that the week has gone well. Seriously guys, if this had happened to me, I would have flipped out! There is no way I would have left my boyfriend alone with my parents. Leave me some love and let me know what you think. See you soon!
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Wednesday passed pretty uneventfully considering all of the shit that went down yesterday. I walked Ryan to homeroom, sat next to her in Band, ate with her and all of our friends in the lunchroom, and kissed her before she left for her appointments. She promised to call me after her session and I had several hours to kill before I talked to her. I went home and saw Mom was already there. She was a substitute teacher, so she was often home when I got back from school. “Hey, Mom!” I called when I walked in the side door and kicked off my shoes. “Hey, Carter. In the kitchen,”
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Things settled into a routine pretty quickly after that. I drove Ryan to and from school, except for on days she had lessons or therapy. We hung out with our friends most days after school. They were getting surprisingly close. Funnily enough, once the ice melted between Patrick and Ayo, they found out they had a lot in common. It was...weird to see. And, of course, I kept my promise to Mr. and Mrs. Miller. At least once per week (though it tended to be a lot more), I stayed over and either ate dinner or watched TV with the family. It was actually fun after the initial hesitation on her parents’ part. Jake was a pretty cool kid, too. He would get along with my little brother. They even agreed to come to the cookout.
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The girls pay for their stuff and we leave the store. “Wait, where are Lucy and Jaime?” Ayo says, looking around. “Oh, with Patrick’s 50 meter dash to the bathroom, I forgot to tell you guys,” I laugh. “Jaime and Lucy said that they were going to go check out what movies were playing.” Jess and Ryan give each other a look and smile. “Looks like we’ve got two new couples in the group,” Ryan says. “Two? Wait, you mean…” I say, a little dumbfounded. I look between Ryan and Jess. Then I grin. “It’s about damn time that Jaime found someone!”
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Mom, Dad, Jake, and I walk to Carter’s back gate. Carter sees us and calls to his parents. “Mom! Dad! Ryan and her folks are here.” Carter opens the gate. “Hey guys, come on in.” He high-fives Jake, shakes Dad’s hand, takes the dish from Mom (brownies, yum!), and pulls me in for a kiss. Before pulling away, Carter whispers in my ear, “Are you wearing the bikini?” I smile. “Got it in my bag.” He closes his eyes, “*Damn*!” He grabs my hand, leading me into the backyard.
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Music continues to play as we eat, switching from modern songs to songs that are from my parents’ teenage years. Amazingly, Ryan knows them all. She sings along to Midnight Train to Georgia, Celebration, and ABC with her parents and mine. The highlight of the impromptu sing-along happens when she and my father sing the Devil Went Down to Georgia, playing air fiddle with the music. Ryan fits in seamlessly with my family and even Lucas seems to enjoy her extensive video game knowledge (he and Jake came out after a while to scavenge for food before heading back in).
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