𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐓 || ꜱʟɪᴍᴇᴄɪᴄʟᴇ

28

MESSAGES

Mr. Extra Lettuce🥬
Hey im outside
Come out when youre ready

IRL

It was Saturday, which meant one thing. Well, technically it meant a few things, but it meant one important thing.

Charlie was meeting Connie's parents today. And despite how absolutely terrified Connie was of the situation she was in, it felt very natural to think about. Like this was going to happen one way or another, which was weird, right?

She gave her cat a bowl of food before she left, grabbing her purse on the way out. Connie closed and locked the door behind her, looking to make sure that Charlie's car was in her drive way.

She approached the car, sliding into the passengers seat, "Hey, Char. Are you ready for the night of all nights?"

"I'm not sure if you meant to quote High School Musical there, but just so you know you did do so," Charlie chuckles, "and no. I am not ready. This is terrifying."

Connie laughs, "I am feeling the same. By the way," she says, "my cousin is going to be there as well. Came up last moment. She's our age, and she's very funny. Though she's not really into the whole 'gamer' scene."

"So who's all gonna be there..?"

Connie hums, "As far as I'm aware, my parents, my younger sister Maddie, and my cousin," she pauses, "I should warn you before you enter thst house. My sister is a fan of yours, she was who made me listen to your podcasts in the first place. I think she's been watching you since like 2020..? So if she's weird just ignore that."

Charlie smiles, "Okay then. That doesn't make me nervous at all. Is it this house coming up?" he asks, pointing towards a nice house down the street.

The drive from her house to her parents wasn't long, as she wanted to stay close to her family, something her teen self would've never expected. She nods, and unbuckles her seat belt as Charlie pulls into the driveway.

Her and Charlie get out of the car, and once they get standing side by side Connie squeezes his shoulder reassuringly, "You'll be fine," she says, "the only way you could mess up is if you were like a generally bad person, which I can assure you that you are not."

Charlie nods a little, and then knocks on the door.

Connie can hear her mom yelling through the door, and smiles at the familiarity of it, "Madeline!! Go get the door for your sister."

The sound of quick, heaving footsteps approaches the door, and it flings open, "Hey Nel, how are-" she looks over at Charlie, her eyes widen and she shuts the door in shock.

It opens again quickly afterwards, "Sorry-" Maddie says, "I just didn't know we were having a guest over, it's nice to meet you," she holds a hand out, trying to hide the grin of awe spreading across her face.

Charlie takes her hand, shaking it, "It's nice to meet you too, I'm Charlie, Connie's friend. You must be Maddie?"

Maddie nods, suddenly at a loss for words. She lets the two in silently, going to set the table.

"Connie! Lucy's in the living room if you want to say hi," her mom calls from the kitchen.

The pair make their way over to the living room, seeing Lucy lounging on the couch, looking at her phone.

She looks up at the two, and grins, "Hey, Connie. Connie's friend."

Charlie gapes, "What the fuck," he shakes his head a little, in disbelief, "You're the girl I went on a date with. You gave me the wrong number."

Connie blinks, "That was you??"

Lucy nods, smirking, "Right. I 'accidentally' gave you my cousin's number, and I definitely didn't give it to you on purpose to set you two up," she looked at the two of them, "and it also definitely didn't work out, did it?"

"You-" Connie laughs a little, "you set us up??"

"It seems I did," Lucy shrugs, "are you two dating yet?"

Charlie shakes his head, "No- No we aren't. You went on a date with me to set me up with your cousin??"

"That wasn't the original plan," Lucy amends, "but the whole time I kept thinking that you two would be a cute couple. Plus, you can't tell me you felt anything romantic coming from that date, did you?"

"No, I was actually going to message you to say that we should be friends and stuff," he mumbles, "oh my god. This is so weird."

"You get used to it in this house," Lucy says, standing up, "I'm going to go help set the table, you two have fun," she left the room.

Connie sat down in her spot, "That just happened."

"Yeah it did," Charlie agrees, sitting beside her.

"You do have to admit, we are pretty stellar together," Connie says, taking his hand.

Charlie frowns, but doesn't protest as their fingers lock together, "As long as you never say stellar again, stick to words like 'goopy' and 'skrunkly.'"

She laughs, "We both know I am never going to say goopy or skrunkly. But nice try."

Connie's dad peeked his head into the living room, "Dinner's ready," he wiggled his eyebrows, "we made tacos."

Connie stands up, walking to the kitchen with Charlie. They took seats across from each other, as those were the only ones left at the table.

They dug into the food, filling their tacos with toppings and consuming them at a steady pace.

"So," Connie's mom says between bites, "tell me about yourself, Charlie."

Charlie looked at Connie nervously, before turning to her mom, "Well, I do content creation like Connie. Uh-" he rubbed the back of his neck, "I like games, and Dungeons and Dragons-"

"Dungeons and Dragons?" Connie's dad asks, suddenly very interested in the conversation, "I used to play DND. Long time ago though, my buddies that played moved away a while ago."

"Oh," Charlie says, "really? That's so cool," he pauses, considering something, "maybe one day we could play together..?"

"Of course!" her father says, grinning, "I'll get to break out my old dice!"

Connie laughs at the enthusiasm, excusing herself to use the washroom. The dinner had been going to well, she was so happy with the turnout. Her family loved Charlie, at least she thought they did.

She enters back into the dining room, looking at the people at the table. Charlie was smiling, his face looked kind of red. Her dad looked proud, he was grinning wider than before. Her mom was smiling softly. Her sister was vibrating in her chair, and her cousin looked incredibly smug.

"Is everything.. alright?" Connie asks, trying to figure out what had happened.

Charlie nods, looking at Connie, "Everything is great."

----
(a/n: this is the point in time where i should start planning my ted nivison book, but like im so invested in this but i want a chapter out by the time this is all wrapped up in a nice bow ykwim. OH im making a ted nivison book after btw.)