The Walls Caved In

"So, I was thinking," Eric said. I nodded my head, murmuring a little 'mmphmm' that he probably couldn't hear. I wasn't exactly preoccupied as I listened to him talk, I was just multitasking. I always had time for Eric, it seemed. A clean notebook was sitting in front of me, labeled: 'Expectations for Senior Year.' I couldn't help myself. I just wanted to have something in my head, something that was working me towards growing. Ever since I met Eric, I wanted to grow and transform. I wanted to get back everything I had passed up.

"I was thinking," he said again, after I hadn't said anything else. He knew I was listening. "I want to meet your parents."

"No," I said,

"No?"

"No," I told him firmly.

"Okay, then. I want you to meet some of my friends."

I was quiet for a moment, my pen changing directions due to my moving fingers. "Joyce," Eric said. I sighed, "I suppose that can be arranged."

"Great! How is tomorrow afternoon? Would you mind coming over early, because Mom wants to make you breakfast. I don't want you to get freaked out by it or anything.. she just wants to make breakfast! Then, we can leave and meet up with some of my buddies..."

Eric continued to speak. My pen was no longer twitching as my fingers twitched with it, but it was sliding across the paper as I unknowingly wrote one word: friends. Eric knew better than to ask to meet my friends, he knew that I had none for him to meet. I'm sure he suspected that I would loosen up, soon, and set up a meeting for my parents to meet him.

He was hoping for too much.

It wasn't too long after he set up our plans that I bid him good night, and demanding that he not call me back because he was tired- he seemed to be yawning with every other word. I laid my phone down beside my note pad, looking at the only word that I had written under the title. Yea, friends would be a good thing to have for this last year. I laughed, flipping the book shut and getting ready to sleep.

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"Are you alright?" I asked Emma (Ms. Jackson demanded I call her by her first name, and it wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be.) I had been watching her face in between bites of a delicious, maple syrup drenched pancake. I saw the look that had passed over her face, making the smile slide from her lips. It was familiar to me. I knew it to be a mix of relief and bitterness. I had seen it many times on my own mother's face when she came home from work, or left for it.

Emma looked up, shaking her head. The smile replaced her frown immediately. "Just the child support coming in," she said. "I shouldn't let it work me up, but it still does." She laughed at herself, taking in gulps of air.

"My dad left us when I was five. I don't see him anymore- haven't since I was eight. I don't need to, I guess. As long as he doesn't give mom any trouble."

I looked towards Eric's voice as he shuffled into the room. The first thing he did was walk by his mother, patting her back and squeezing her arm before circling the granite island.

"He's so protective of the women in his life," Emma said. Then, she winked at me.

I don't think an adult has ever winked at me. Ever. It was kind of nice, because it seemed like she knew where I was coming from. She just winked, and smiled, and made me feel comfortable.

"Yes, yes I am," Eric said. He was chuckling to himself, probably because of the slight shiver that had ran down my spine when he spoke. His hands wound themselves around my waist, and he placed a single kiss to the side of my neck.

My cheeks warmed, my face flushed, and Emma winked at me. Eric kissed my neck again.