10
ISLA
Kai
How do you figure?
Isla
My dad was snooping around the apartment and saw my underwear on the floor in the bedroom. Next to the bed.
All my clothes are in there, too. Not the spare room.
Kai
Fuck.
Do they seem upset?
Ilook over at our parents, who are walking hand in hand, like nothing is out of the ordinary. Maybe they’re ignoring the signs that their children are in arelationship?
Isla
No. If anything, it’s like they aren’t acknowledging it.
Kai
Maybe they’re waiting for us to come out with it. This could be a good thing, Princess.
I’m still waiting for everything to implode.
We wait by the car in an awkward silence until Kai comes running toward us in a pair of slacks and a dress shirt, with his helmet under his arm. His mom runs over to him and gives him a hug and kisses him on the cheek. They are a few feet away from my dad and me, and she keeps him for a second, whispering to him.
Fuck, they know.
“How long, Isla?” My dad asks, and I freeze.
“Huh? How long what?”Shit. Shit. Shit!
“We’re not stupid, sweetheart.” I turn to face him, my stomach rolling and the stadium hot dog threatening to come up. “I figured it out, oh, about a year after they moved in, that you had feelings for him. Then when the flowers started showing up after he moved out, I put two and two together that he felt the same way for you.”
I look over at Kai, and he is smiling with his mom.
“Are you disappointed in me? Please don’t hate him. He’s really good to me, Dad.” My eyes close and I turn back to my dad.Please don’t be mad.
“How long?” he asks again.
“Like I said, how long what? How long have I been in love with Malakai? How long since we started having se?—”
“Okay, pump the brakes, kid.” My dad holds up his hands. “It wasn’t going on when you were both living at home, right? You weren’t having… uh… doing… Not in the house, right?”
“No. Not until a couple of days ago.” I chuckle at my father turning red in the face. “But he wants to marry me and I’dreallylike it if you’d be okay with that.”
“Let’s eat something first and then we can talk about all this. Okay? Maybe a stiff drink, too?”
“Okay, sounds like a good plan.” I could probably do with a drink.It might be a necessity to get through the night.
Kai and his mom head towards us and they both are smiling. He catches the indifferent look on my face, and his smile drops slightly. Stopping in front of us, he pans from me over to my dad, taking a deep breath. “I love her, Gene. I always have, nothing’s gonna change that?—”
