Chapter 54

As Lexi had mentioned, her father invited my family to Thanksgiving dinner, and that was how the Eaton household ended up sitting around the dinning table at the Grayson's house.

It was a little weird for me, because even though I'd eaten many times at this house, we'd never actually used the dinning room. Honestly, I hadn't even known they had one.

Well. I knew they had one. I had just never seen it.

It was a nice room, with a large table and matching buffet. It could fit twelve people when the table was stretched to its max, but right now it was just set up for eight.

It made me think about the past, if their family used to host many dinner parties before their mother left.

I was pretty sure Annabelle used to use that table to play beer pong.

One thing I was pretty sure though, was that the Graysons used to always eat dinner in their dinning room, the whole family together.

So, it made sense then, for them to now just stick to the kitchen island. They didn't want the memories everyday. They wanted new memories.

I hoped it wasn't too hard on them. This was their first Thanksgiving without their whole family. Mother and eldest daughter were no show. Obviously it would have been weird if their mother would have just showed up, and Lexi's sister was too busy with college.

I knew Tyler and Lexi joked a lot about being annoyed with Annabelle, but I also knew that deep down, they actually missed her.

Or at least, they missed the way their family used to be. United. Together. Whole.

I could understand that. I could understand missing the way my family used to be.

I was a little worried too, if I was being a hundred percent honest with myself. I didn't think my parents were bad people or anything, but I had no idea how they would act around the Graysons.

And I wanted this dinner to be a good memory, not an awkward one.

My parents had brought a salad and dessert made by Anita, because we were all useless cook, and anyway Lexi's dad had said we didn't need to bring anything special. Anita was off with her family for Thanksgiving, so it really was a good thing that the Graysons were hosting, otherwise our dinner would have been a mess. Or reheated.

Everyone was sitting around, me beside Lexi, my mother beside my father on the other side, and Tyler was sitting at one end, already stock pilling food around him like he needed to make provisions.

Michael walked back into the room, and dropped the carved turkey at the center of the table. "Alright everyone, dig in," he said, and sat at the other end of the table.

"Thank you so much for inviting us again, we're really happy to be here," my father said, looking at Michael.

"You're welcome. I figured it was about time we me each other, with the kids dating now."

"You're right. It was definitely time to meet. We've really enjoyed having Lexi around in the last few weeks," my mother said with a smile.

"Same thing here, you've got a good kid," Lexi's father replied.

He gave me a wicked smile at that and I could almost hear him say something like "when he's not climbing up my gutter."

Fortunately for me, he didn't say anything like that in front of my parents.

"He's a good football player. With his shape, he should have been a receiver, so I know a lot of people who didn't expect him to be any good, but he did a great job," Lexi's dad continued.

"It was surprising for us, that he started to play football. He never really had any interest in sports when he was younger," Mom said.

"More of an artist, right?" Michael said. He'd heard about this already.

"Yes," my father agreed.

Lexi passed me the bowl of mashed potatoes as our parents kept talking, and I could see she was slightly freaking out. Trust my overthinking girlfriend to be worried about a situation like this.

Honestly, I couldn't judge though. I was also not sure how things were going to go.

"Must run in the family," the Grayson patriarch replied with a grin, "Nothing runs in this family, aside from being a lil out of it sometimes, but what we lack in concentration, we make up in enthusiasm."

I heard Lexi mumble, "Jesus," under her breath and I had to press my lips together firmly to keep from laughing.

"No artistic inclinations?" my dad inquired.

Lexi's dad replied, "Well, Lexi draws and I do too. But anything I draw usually ends up with wheels and a motor. And Tyler never really drew. Ate a crayon when he was a kid, that's about as interested in art as he's ever gotten."

"Yes, that is how I am known in the underground scene, Tyler, the crayon eater," the youngest Grayson said with a shit eating grin.

My father chuckled. "You joke, but I'm pretty sure some performance artists would have a field day with that."

"I never really got that whole performance art thing. I get plays, and I get art. I don't get that though," Michael Grayson pitched in.

"Me neither. It's essentially all about shock value though," my father agreed.

And then our parents started to get into a heated conversation about their aversion of performance art.

I slip my hand in Lexi's under the table, giving it a small squeeze, before going back to my food.

Lexi turned her head and smiled at me. I smiled back.

I had definitely not guessed this was where the conversation would go.

After dinner, we all went into the living room, to watch a football game,

It was quite the hilarious sight to me.

Lexi and Tyler sat in front of the television, and at first, I could tell they were trying to reign in their usual enthusiastic outbursts, but eventually, they kind of forgot about it and started to give directions to the players.

At the same time, Michael was trying to explain the rules to my parents. I guessed they hadn't really understood everything when Lexi had explained it to them at my last game.

I let myself stopped stressing out about everyone getting along, my parents were adults after all, they could take care of themselves, and went to sit beside my girlfriend, joining in in the ridiculous advice giving to players who absolutely could not hear us.

Finally, when the game was over, and it was getting pretty late, my parents said it was time to go.

We all sort of gathered by the front door, putting our shoes on.

"Thank you so much for dinner again," my mother said, "Next time we'll be the ones to host. We won't be making the food though, we're all terrible cooks in the family."

"And thank you for the football crash course. I think I understand it now," my dad continued.

"It's fine if you don't understand either way. Look at the kids, they clearly have no idea what they were yelling at the television, but they still do it. It's not about knowing the rules. It's about believing you know them," Lexi's dad told them.

He said this with such confidence, but clearly with a grin that showed he was messing around, that my parents laughed while Lexi mumbled, "pretty sure that's not how it works."

"Thanks for spending your Thanksgiving with us. It was really nice getting to know you," Michael said.

"The pleasure was ours," my father replied, shaking Lexi's father outstretched hand.

My mother went for a goodbye hug, taking Lexi's father slightly by surprise, making me chuckled, and then my parents hugged Lexi and Tyler goodbye we all waved at each other all the way to my parents' car.

"Thanks for agreeing to come," I told my parents while we drove away.

"No need to thank us, Blake. It was fun," Dad said.

"They're definitely amusing. I get why you would enjoy hanging out with them," my mother mentioned.

"You seem to be getting along well with the rest of the family," my mother said.

"Yeah, they're good people," I agreed.

"We'll have to find a good time to invite them over too," Dad said, and then he and Mon started to throw dates around where both of them would be free.

I smiled in the backseat enjoying this.

When we got home, we all headed to our respective rooms and once I was clean and lying in bed, I called my girlfriend.

"So? Did we pass the shark test?" I asked her.

"Yes, the shark approves," Lexi said, and chuckled. "I was worried, you know, your parents are a lot fancier than my father. I love my Dad, but he does say a lot of inappropriate stuff. This is something my mom used to complain about. She always used to say she couldn't take him out anywhere because he would embarrass her."

"Your father is hilarious and my parents had fun," I assured her.

"They didn't complain about our weirdness?"

"They loved your weirdness."

"Thanks," she replied, and I could feel so much in that simple word. Lexi had a lot more underlying insecurities than she let on.

I took a breath and told my Pumpkin, "You really don't have to feel like you need to apologize for how you are, you know? Whatever your mom made you feel like. You're amazing, and your family is awesome, and I love spending time with you guys, and so did my parents."

"Thank you."

"I love you."

"Me too," Lexi said, and then let out a little whine and said, "I would love you a lot more if you had stayed over though."

I laughed. "And sleep in a bed with you in a house with a no-fornication rule? Unconceivable."

Lexi let out a little whine again. "This teasing is unacceptable Blake Ralph Eaton."

I laughed more. "Blake Ralph Eaton? The whole name? Really?"

"Yes. This is serious."

Grinning in the dark, I told her, "You're adorable."

"I should have gone home with you," she said this time, and I could hear the pout.

"It's better like this. You need to pine for me a bit."

Lexi gasped in faux horror. "Is this revenge because it took me so long to realize you liked me?"

"Ah yes, of course, let's make my girlfriend suffer because she didn't read my mind when I was being a cryptic creep."

"Cryptic creep, should I make that your nickname?" she asked teasingly.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm hanging up now."

"Good nigh! I love you!" she said in a rush, chuckling softly.

"I love you too Pumpkin," I told her with a smile, "Sweet dreams."

I hung up my phone and closed my eyes, feeling truly happy. 

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Happy Monday my little Pumpkin! <3

Apparently, late posting is becoming the norm. XD It's the FEQ right now, and I went to a show last night and came back late and basically just passed out till way too late. I think I'm getting too old for the FEQ. :') My aging body is taking longer to recuperate. XD

Anyway! I hope you enjoyed the Eatons and Graysons together. We getting some Josh next week!! :D

In other banal news, on Saturday I went to run some errands with my friend and we ended up stopping at all the bookstores we came across, and I finally bought the first volume of Heartstopper, and I read it in like 30 minutes and now I need the rest of the series, but I realized that I can actually order them from one of our new distributors at my job, but I also don't want to wait to have them shipped, so I'm going through this very ridiculous crisis of, "do I go buy a copy of the second volume from a bookstore close by right now, or do I order it from my work, but wait?" It would be nice if I was a patient person. I am not. 8D So yeah. First world problem. 

Alright. Gonna go do some more writing, while convincing myself I can be patient. Love you guys! See you all next week! <3