“Well, we do have the rest of the day off,” she adds, laughing a little. “We can finally go shopping for your festival outfit.”
I can’t help but crack a small smile. “I guess we can.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“I think she’s here,” Dad says, poking his head into my room.
“What, were you watching the window or something?” I ask, getting up from my desk and following him down the hall.
“I’m surprised you weren’t. Yourgirlfriendis coming over.”
“Dad,”I moan, looking out the living room window to see Hannah parked on the street.
“She’s here!” he shouts to wherever Mom is. “Clarity’sgirlfriendis here!”
“Dad! She’s going to hear you through the walls,” I snap, tugging his arm and pulling him away from the living room window so that Hannah won’t see him stalking her.
“This is exciting,” Mom says, coming into the living room. “You’ve never dated before.”
“You guys are going to embarrass me,” I whine. There’s a good chance this is a terrible idea, just for new reasons.
While we were at the mall, Hannah texted. Turns out her parents had very similar sentiments about us getting sent to the principal’s office instead of whoever it was that put the pictureson our lockers, so she wasn’t in trouble either. We both just got to have a day off from school.
She asked if she could come pick me up later so that we could get coffee or something and talk about what happened. In the interest of being open and honest, I asked Mom if that would be okay, and she loved the idea.
Both my parents latched on to the idea, because even though they’ve seen Hannah, and Mom even spent an afternoon with her in our house, neither of them has met Hannah My Girlfriend.
A knock. It’s soft, but I guess that doesn’t matter since we are all hovering around the front door anyway.
“Iwill get the door,” I say, crossing the entryway when I catch Mom taking a step in that direction.
I pause with my hand on the doorknob, thankful that we don’t have one of those doors with a big glass window—which are actually common in Colony Grove. We have a window toward the top, but it’s more for art than function. So Hannah doesn’t see me standing on the other side, which I realize is the only thing standing between us becoming theuswe’ve been fighting for for so long. She doesn’t see me take a deep breath, hyperaware of the fact that my parents are watching me do this and thankful that they don’t ask, that they don’t get confused or try to rush me. I’m pretty sure I hear Dad take a breath beside me, or maybe that’s my imagination.
Either way, here I am. Here we are. Similar to how I collected the details of our first kiss, I collect the details now: the smell of Pledge in the air because Mom went on a cleaning spree whenwe got home from the mall to make sure the house would be perfect; the feeling of the cold metal doorknob, warming in the confines of my clammy hands; the sound of coffee brewing in the kitchen because Mom likes decaf in the evenings, and I do too sometimes; the taste of my pomegranate Burt’s Bees lip balm as I bite my lip, feeling that excited kind of nervous.
The sight of Hannah, smiling at me when I pull the door open. I unlatch the storm door and suddenly flowers are in my hand, bright pink chrysanthemums, soft petals, crinkly plastic wrapping, an earthy, sweet smell.
“Hannah, nice to finally meet you.”
Dad steps forward, shaking her hand. Mom goes in for the kill, wrapping her in an embrace and rocking back and forth a little.
“So good to see you,” she says.
“Good to see and meet you too,” Hannah says, her shoulders shrugging nervously.
“I still can’t believe your principal. That whole mess today,” Mom says.
I note how she takes a step back, fading into her post next to Dad. Similarly, Hannah takes a step back, a relaxed, absent-minded step that places her next to me so that we are standing squarely across from them.
“That was so stupid,” Hannah says, some of the stiffness leaving when she turns her gaze my way.
“Did they find out who did that? Who put the pictures on your lockers?” Dad asks, a protective edge underlining his voice.
“Not that I know of,” Hannah says.
“I haven’t heard anything either,” I say.
“A couple of our friends have their ears to the ground though,” she says, helping Dad relax a little.