this chapter is dedicated to robin twist, may he rest easy.
"Um," I turned around looking at Calum apologetically.
Thankfully he played it off cool, and got up walking over to my parents and I. "I'm Calum," He said, shaking their hands.
"Nice to meet you," My mom said, smiling at him.
On the other hand, my dad eyed him suspiciously before shaking his hand.
"We were thinking maybe we could all go out for dinner tonight? If you're not busy, we wanted to surprise you." My father said.
"Yeah, I'd love too, if you guys give me some time I can meet you at your hotel and we could go shopping or something?"
"I think that's my cue to leave," Calum spoke, walking back to my desk to gather his things.
"Nonsense! You can come with us." My mom clapped her hands together.
A horrified look covered my face. He was just a friend, not even a very close one. We'd only been hanging out outside of class for a couple of weeks, it seemed odd to have him join us.
Calum looked at me as if he was asking for permission, and I nodded. It seemed like he was willing to come and if he didn't, I'd never hear the end of it.
"I'd love to." He smiled.
Soon enough we decided that Calum and I would work for a few more hours, then meet my parents at the restaurant they chose.
That leads us to now, Calum and I were in my car driving to the italian restaurant that my parents had to eat at every time they came to California.
"I want to apologize in advance for my family's behaviour, I love them but they'll probably ask you every question under the sun. Thanks for doing this though, they wouldn't have let it go if you didn't come."
"I know how parents can be so it's no worries. I just hope like you don't feel like I'm intruding on your family time." He said, letting out a sigh.
I half smiled as I pulled into the parking lot. "Not at all."
We got out and headed inside, looking around I spotted my parents and Ashley sitting at a table.
"Hey Ash," I smiled, giving her a hug before sitting down.
"Hi Bella," She patted my head.
I shook my head before Calum took a seat next to me. Almost instantly he was being asked questions by my lovely family members, who might I add can be quite annoying when meeting new people.
"How long have you known Bella?"
"What are you majoring in?"
"How old are you?"
"What are your intentions with my daughter?"
My eyes widened and I choked on my water when hearing my dad ask the last question. I turned to Calum, eyeing him nervously.
He laughed, brushing the question off. "We're just friends, nothing more. We've only known each other for maybe a month? I'm twenty-four, majoring in sociology."
And just like that my nerves were settled. I was almost surprised at how well he handled every question they threw at him, even I felt nervous when they interrogated me... and they were my parents.
My dad nodded, approval written all over his face as Calum and my mom struck up a conversation about sociology, I tuned out as the topic wasn't of much interest to me.
Thankfully, the rest of dinner went by quickly with my parents easing up on the questions they were asking Calum, and might I add he answered every single thing they asked without stuttering. To say I was just a bit impressed would be an understatement.
As we waited outside the restaurant for Calums Uber, because he insisted that he didn't want to be a bother to me to drive him to his apartment, it hit me that throughout the dinner, I hadn't brought up the fact that my parents hid what happened to Robin from me, so I decided that once Calum was gone I would have to ask them about it.
I didn't want to put a damper on their time here, but I think I deserved to know why they kept such a big thing from me.
"It was really nice meeting you guys, thanks for letting me join you," Calum smiled, shaking both my parents hands before he walked over to me. "Thanks for letting me tag along Bella, I actually had a really good night." He smiled.
I pulled Calum in for a hug, "No, thank you. I appreciate you took time out of your day to come... saved me from getting a lecture later on." I laughed.
"I'll see you on Monday, Isabella." He said, stepping into the car.
"For the billionth time, just Bella!" I laughed as the Uber drove off.
Turning to my parents I pursed my lips, suddenly having a bad taste in my mouth due to the conversation that was about to happen. I leaned against my car before speaking.
"So when were you guys planning on telling me about Robin?"
My mom's mouth opened slightly while my dad frowned. Ashley looked between us, her expression matching mine.
"You didn't tell her?" Ash grumbled.
"We were waiting for the right time Bella. How'd you find out? We didn't want to tell you until we knew you would be able to take it without relapsing... we wanted you to have a clear head to grieve."My mom said slowly, fidgeting with her hands.
"Why does it matter how I found out? I wasn't able to grieve! You guys kept such a big thing from me... I just don't understand why. You do realize that somebody very close to us passed away and you kept it from me? I'm repulsed."
"Don't talk to your mother like that Bella, you need to understand we weren't going to say anything because we didn't want to hurt you anymore than he hurt you. You would have seen him when we went to London that wouldn't have been good for you." My dad said.
"You don't know what's good for me! If you did you would have told me."
"So many things were happening at once sweetie. It wouldn't have been healthy for you to see Harry at the time, you were in rehab... we couldn't tell you."
"So you keep it from me for another year? I found out from my ex-boyfriend, not my parents. How sad is that?"
"What?" My three family members spoke simultaneously.
I shook my head, "Harry told me."
"You saw him?" Ashley asked, being interrupted by my mom.
"You haven't been using again, have you?"
"Yeah I did see him. What does it matter? You think I'm gonna fly off the handles again? Nice to see how much faith you guys have in me." I rolled my eyes.
"He's not good for you Bella. I think we all just need to take some time to figure out our feelings, we can talk tomorrow."
"Don't bother, thanks for coming but I really don't know if I want to see the people that lied to me about such a big thing. Have a good night, and a safe drive home." I got into my car, driving out of the parking lot and on my way to Berkeley.
When I pulled into my parking space I pulled out my phone, sending a text to Ashley. She didn't do anything wrong, I regret not saying more to her tonight.
'Love you always, it was nice to see you. I'll figure things out with mom and dad then one weekend before exams you can come spend a weekend up here with me?'
I pressed send before pressing on Cheryl's contact, hovering over the call button for a moment before pressing it.
"Cher... can you come over? I need to talk to somebody."
