Chapter 60

My Pumpkin and I were going on our first trip together.

At least, that was how I decided to see our visit to my grandparents.

We were flying together! It was trip!

Our flight was after lunch. I had purposely taken it later because I didn't want Lexi to have to wake up early and be more stressed than she already was.

Meeting my grandparents seemed to worry her quite a bit.

I wasn't sure why she was worrying this much. My grandparents were pretty nice. And if they didn't like her, it wasn't like it was that big of a deal. I didn't see them that often anyway. If they didn't like her, they would just have to learn to.

This wasn't a deal breaker for me.

But apparently it was enough to make Lexi stress eat.

I liked that she cared, but I would have preferred she didn't almost make herself sick over it.

We'd also gotten to the airport like three hours in advance because Lexi didn't want us to miss our flight. I wondered if she always this overly punctual to the airport. I wondered if this was how it would be every time we travelled.

I wondered which places we would see together, and where we would travel to later in our lives.

There were many places I'd visited growing up, places I would love to share with my Pumpkin.

Our future was indeed bright.

But my present was a little bothersome, because I was sitting on an old chair in the waiting area of the airport waiting for our flight beside my worried girlfriend.

The last time I had been at the airport was one week ago when I had dropped off Josh before his getaway trip.

He was supposed to be in India right now, but with Josh, nothing was ever sure. He could have befriended some stranger and be on his way to the top of mount Everest for all I knew.

I was a bit worried. He hadn't been in the best of moods when he had left. Maybe I should have pressed more, to go with him. But he had been adamant about going alone, so there was nothing I could have done really. It was hard to change Josh's mind.

Lexi was texting beside me, so I took this opportunity, and leaned down, putting my head on her lap.

My Pumpkin automatically hit my head. "No, no, don't nap! We need to be alert!"

I sat up again, and looked at my girlfriend, amused. "Pumpkin, I love you, but you really need to stop worrying."

She looked at me like I was crazy for even thinking that. "How am I supposed not to worry, when we're about to be trapped in a metal deathbox thousand of feet up in the sky?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Wait? Are you scared of flying?"

In the midst of everything, I had never actually asked her that. I was pretty sure she wasn't though.

"I'm not! But anything could happen!"

I shook my head, and laid it down on her lap again.

"What if they take one look at me, and they hate me because I made you sad?" she asked in a little voice.

I didn't even open my eyes and said, "you never made me sad. I made me sad."

"But they could hate me!"

I shook slightly with silent laughter. "They'll be too busy cooking dinner to have time to hate you. We'll get there right around the time where they can only give their attention to the food. It'll be perfect."

She poked my cheek. "I still think you should be more concerned."

"Oh, I am. I'm very concerned," I replied, taking her hand in mine, and kissing her palm. "Wake me when it's our time to board."

A few hours later, I was sitting beside my girlfriend in the plane on my way to my grandparent.

Lexi had said she wasn't scared of flying, but she still grabbed my hand and squeezed it when we went through slight turbulence.

I just kind of smiled at her and squeezed back. It was nice that holding my hand apparently gave her comfort. It warmed my heart and made me think that maybe I wasn't that bad of a boyfriend.

Once we landed at the airport, it was pretty simple.

We only had carry-ons so we got out quickly, and my grandparents had expressed shipped me keys to one of their cars, so they wouldn't have to coordinate picking me up.

I liked it better like this. I didn't have to worry about them waiting in the parking lot for me if there were delays.

We headed to the direction where my grandfather had told me the car should be parked.

Lexi's level of stress just seemed to increase as she walked beside me.

I could almost hear her worrying.

"What if they don't like me?" Lexi asked again

I fought against rolling my eyes, because I should not take her worries lightly, even if they were unnecessary. "Don't worry Pumpkin, they'll love you."

Lexi did not seem convinced, and fiddled with the strap of her bag. "You're just saying that..."

"Pumpkin, please, will you stop overthinking? Everything's going to be fine. They will love you," I tried to reassure her once again.

"How can you be sure?" Lexi whined.

Suddenly, I wondered where her overthinking had taken her before we started dating. Was she constantly asking herself if I actually liked her, and over analysing every little thing I had done or said?

It felt kind of strange to think that maybe for Lexi, back then, it hadn't been obvious, how in love with her she was.

So, clearly, if she had doubted my love for her before, it was only natural for her to not know what to expect when meeting my family.

I could keep reassuring her. It was really the least I could do.

"Because I know them, and I know you," I told her with a smile, trying to convince her that there was actually nothing to worry about. "And if they don't like you, well it's their problem," I added, giving her a little shrug.

This answer did not seem to satisfy my Pumpkin.

She was giving me an unimpressed look, as she ran a hand through her hair. "I've never done anything like this before, I don't know what to say, how to act..."

She had never had to meet her boyfriend's family. But I never had to introduced a girlfriend to my family. So, we were both flying blind here.

Still, with the way my grandparents had sounded absolutely stoked to meet her, I wasn't too worried.

Things would be fine.

I wrapped an arm around her waist, hugging her to me side to comfort her. "Just be yourself, Pumpkin. At the risk of repeating myself, stop worrying. Everything's going to go well and they'll love you. They would be fool if they didn't."

She poked me under the ribs. "Your confidence in me might be misplaced. You're biased you know."

I couldn't help the little smirk that formed on my lips. "Please, I'm not biased at all."

"Of course, you are," my girlfriend laughed.

I shook my head ever so slightly, a grin on my face, spotting our car in front, so I unlocked the doors.

"Alright, I might be a little biased," I admitted, as we sat down in the car.

She looked at me with raised eyebrows. "A little?"

"Okay, a lot," I agreed, my grin growing bigger.

"So, we can't based our judgement on your opinion. I don't think I'm a particularly lovable person, you know. I think I'm a bit of a bad person at times honestly. I have a lot to work on," Lexi rambled on in a soft voice.

I kind of did a double take. Where did that come from? "You're not a bad person."

"I am. A little bit. I've been... very bitter in these last months."

I brushed a hand through her hair, keeping the other on the steering wheel. "But there's a reason for it. And just don't do the things you know are wrong again. We're teenagers. As I've been told many times in the last few months, we're not supposed to have it all figured out. But also, what the fuck do you mean not a lovable person?"

She shrugged, suddenly looking very small. I wanted to hug her across the console. "I don't know."

"There's some unpacking to do here."

"I don't think I'm particularly easy to love," she continued, looking at her hands.

I narrowed my eyes at here. "I'm going to shake you."

She looked back at me with a cheeky smile. "I'd rather you kiss me, actually."

I rolled my eyes. "I'll kiss you when you say, and actually think that you're someone that's easy to love, and that deserves love."

"I'll get back to you later then."

I took a deep breath, and looked at her from the corner of my eye. I took her hand in mine. "Just stop freaking out. You're making things worst in your head, and bringing yourself down now, and that's not good."

"Alright."

I kissed her hand and let it go. "They'll love you. Everyone will love you."

"Okay," she agreed, letting out a long breath, and then turned to look out the window, a smile slowly growing on her face.

Hopefully what I had said was comforting her now.

We stayed silent, music from the radio playing low in the background.

It was nice to drive on the familiar road, with my girlfriend beside me, especially now that she seemed to be freaking out a bit less.

At least, if she was, she was hiding it a little better.

I wondered what our future would look like. Would we keep coming to see my grandparents for Christmas? Would we do it with the Graysons? Would Lexi ever patch things up with her mother, and would we have to spend Christmas with her too.

I could imagine it, a future where we would be running from one place to another during the holidays in order to see all our families.

I glanced at Lexi again, and she was staring at the road, a content little smile on her lips. I wondered what she was thinking about. "Deep in thoughts Pumpkin?"

She turned and looked at me, with that smile still on her lips. "Just thoroughly happy actually."

I leaned over the central module, and pressed a quick kiss to her temple. "Glad to hear that, considering you were almost having a panic attack back at the airport."

My Pumpkin gave me a nasty look before slapping my arm. "Meanie."

I gasped. "Hey! How many times have I told you not to hit the driver?"

"Not enough times, obviously," she replied, and stuck her tongue out at me.

I shook my head, amused. "Obviously. We're almost there by the way."

Lexi looked around at the house, curious.

And suddenly, because we were so close, it was my turn to start slowly worrying.

Maybe I hadn't prepared her properly. I was sure my family would love her. But my family was also... a little weird.

I turned into the familiar driveway, knowing we didn't have a lot of time before we parked in front of the big white house.

I was thinking that I'd put it off as much as I could, because Lexi was already worried enough, and it wasn't like I wanted to worry her about silly things.

But she should also be prepared.

So I turned my head, looking at my girlfriend and said in a rush, "Alright so just a heads up before we get in, my family's roots are all over the place. We have Italian ancestor and Ukrainian and Hungarian and it's all over the place. But one thing is for sure, you'll be served strudel. Every day. Most probably twice a day. If you don't like it, don't say it. They're only going to make you eat more because they think that the more you eat the more you'll get accustomed to it. Plus, you're really thin so be prepared, my grandma's going to stuff you like a turkey on Thanksgiving."

Yeah, maybe I should have said this earlier, because now Lexi was telling me, "I suddenly feel like hyperventilating again."

Gave her a forced grin. "Don't worry, just remember, eat the strudel with a smile and whatever you do, don't touch the sauce when they're cooking it. Alright?"

That did not sound reassuring enough. "I'm scared..."

"You'll be perfect," I told her. The problem wasn't her in that equation. It was my family.

Anyway, there wasn't time to do, or say anything else, because I was parking the car in the driveway.

Lexi looked like she was getting ready to step into a battlefield, a determined expression on her face.

This Christmas was definitely going to be entertaining.

_______________________

Happy Monday my little Pumpkins! <3 

Sorry, late again. I've been struggling with these next few chapters, and that's because when I first wrote them, I was basically writing my own grandparents. And now that my grandfather is dead, writing him saying babe to my grandma is... surprisingly harder than I had anticipated. So yeah, here's to having feelings, apparently. :')

Also, I'm pretty sure I gave myself a mild concoction about two weeks ago when I was repairing my washing machine. Slow clap for Kay who CONSTANTLY forgets that there's more of her head than eye level. 

Next weekend I'm going to Plattsburg so I'll make sure to schedule the next post.

But also. Next week is going to be my Wattpad birthday. And I have plans. So keep your eyes open for them. I'll be doing something special on all my platforms, so check them out (instagram.com/kaygiard and patreon.com/kariannegiard and here, of course)

OH! While I think about it! My best friend Ève (who saved Blake's life) reads like a maniac, so we've decided to open an instagram account together just for reading so she can put all her recs and I can also try to push myself to read more because I've sucked at it lately. (it's instagram.com/DownTheBookHaul) Anyway. Yeah. If you want to see what I'm reading, and potently hear me complain about what I'm reading, that's the spot. XD

Okay. Going now. More writing to do. LOTS more. 

See you all next week! <3 LOVE YOU GUYS!