The Things We Hide

Seven

Ten minutes.

Dinner was going to start in ten minutes. Well, sort of. Dinner starts off with a little pre-dinner chat, my parents use this time to get to know people, and embarrass their children.

After that, if my parents approve, we'll move along to dinner. My mom and dad test people's etiquette at the table. If they don't like how someone eats, sits, or presents themselves, they'll call them out on it. They did that to Sasha the first time they met her. We were younger then, so they weren't too hard on her, but the memory still haunts her. "I hope he doesn't have to have the talk." I told Sasha as I got ready.

The talk.

In this talk, I explain what he has to do in order to impress my parents. I tell him to say yes sir, no sir, yes ma'am, no ma'am. I also tell him how to sit at the table, and to make sure that he looks my dad in the eyes. My dad says if a guy can't look him in the eyes, he's not trustworthy, or a punk that won't be able to protect me. Kory had to have the talk with his girlfriend not that she listened to a word he said. Hence, my parents' dislike towards her.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." She said flipping through channels. Just then, I realized something. "You haven't brought up Chad not once this whole day." I told her stopping what I was doing, "Is something wrong?"

"No, we've been texting the whole day. You're just too worried about your man to know what's going on between me and mine." She shrugged. There was emotion in her voice, I could tell.

"Sasha, what's wrong?" I asked, getting serious. She shook her head, "Tonight is not about me, it's about you and Eli. I'll tell you what's what when all this is over."

"You sure?" I asked. She nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry."

I gave her a weird look before I went back to getting ready. "Silver hoops or black?" I asked her. I held the two pairs close to my face to give her a visual. "Silver." She said.

I put them on without having to look in the mirror. Just as I put the last one in, the doorbell rang. My heart picked up pace without warning.

"He's here." I said looking at Sasha. "Well what are you waiting for? Go!" She said excitedly. We rushed out the room, and down the stairs. Just as we were about to hit the bottom, we slowed our pace, and took a breath. We laughed at ourselves, mine mostly out of nervousness, when we hit the bottom.

"Girls," I heard my dad's voice, "we were just about to call you down."

I looked around the living room. My dad was sitting in his recliner chair, mom was sitting on the arm of it. Kory and his girlfriend were sitting on the couch, whispering to each other, and Eli was standing a few feet from the stairs.

Waiting on me

He had a rose in his hand, "This is for you."

"Thank you." I smiled sweetly, taking it. I made the wonderful mistake of looking into his eyes. There it was that trance-like state again. It felt like a wave, washing over me. A not so subtle cough pulled me begrudgingly into the presence.

"Sorry," I smiled, reluctantly taking my eyes away from Eli. "Eli, this is Sasha, my best friend. Sasha, this is Eli you met on his first day, remember? "

"Yeah, I remember." She shrugged sizing him up.

"Nice to meet you again." Eli stuck his hand out. Sasha looked at me, smiled, then shook his hand.

"Now that that's taken care of, Eli, this is my family." I introduced them. So far so good, Eli looked my dad right in the eyes as he shook his hand, and even planted a kiss on my mom's hand. "You're right," I whispered to Sasha as we sat down, "he really is a charmer."