Message in a Bottle

Chapter Fourteen
When I got to my house, the Jeep was already parked in the driveway. I clapped my hands excitedly. I got to the door, took a deep breath and opened it.
Benjamin and Carter turned there heads toward me as I stepped through, their jaws dropping simultaneously. My smiled as my face turned red.
“You look…,” Ben began.
“Beautiful,” Carter finished.
“I was going to say like a girl but yeah, that too!”
I glared at him.
“Uh… Ben was just showing me… some of your pictures,” Carter mumbled, still in awe, his eyes on me.
“Ben!” I exclaimed running over to them and snatching the photo album from Carter’s hands.
“Don’t worry,” Carter said, standing up and taking my hands. “You’re still as gorgeous as ever.”
I smiled, leaning in to kiss him gently on his lips.
“Okay, Morgan since you’re my little sister and Carter is your boyfriend I guess this is the part where I threaten Carter that if he ever hurts you, he’s going to die…. But Carter’s cool and I know he won’t hurt you. But just to clarify things,” he turned to Carter, “if you ever, ever, ever hurt my little sister I’m going to kidnap you, chop you up limb by limb, throw your pieces in a ditch, fill it up with water, and shoot the ditch with a rifle. Got it?”
I stifled a laugh at Carter’s livid facial expression. “Yes,” he stuttered. Then Carter and Ben exploded in boisterous laughter.
“That was a good one,” Carter laughed, wiping a tear from his eye.
“You should’ve seen your face!” Ben cried, mimicking Carter’s expression.
I rolled my eyes. “Enough of this weird bromance.” I grabbed Carter by his wrist and led him outside. Even when he was starting the car he was still laughing.
“So where are we going?” I asked when he was finally calm.
“I hope you don’t have anything against meeting a persons parents,” he said and smiled.
My face drained of color. “You’re kidding!”
He looked at me and back at the road. “Is something wrong?”
“Meet your parents…? Do you think how awkward that’s going to be for me? And you?”
“Oh, come on. They’ll like you. I promise.”
“Carter, I eat cows, you eat plants! I eat foods that was processed and genetically modified and you eat food with no MSG and… glucose or something!”
“Actually, glucose is a type of a sugar. I think the words you’re looking for is gluten-free but we can eat that.”
“Carter, I’m being serious!”
“And so am I! Morgan, everything will be fine.”
“Says the person who’s already met my family!”
“I didn’t get a chance to formally introduce myself to your mom and dad.”
“He isn’t my dad,” I snapped.
“Er… her boyfriend. But back on topic, just calm down. Everything will be fine. Trust me.”
“And I have no choice but to do so.”
He chuckled. “Yes.”

“Wait, what’re we doing here?!” I asked when he parked right outside of the most expensive restaurant around town.
“Oh… did I not mention dinner with the family?” he asked with fake realization.
“I’m not getting out of this car,” I said surely.
“Oh, come one, Morgan. You’re being over dramatic.”
“And there they are!” Carter said, pointing at the window where his parents and grandparents sat. His mom looked over to us and waved to us to come inside.
I shrank in my seat. “She saw me,” I squealed.
“Now you really have to come. No backing out now.” He hopped out of the car and came around to my door. I slammed my fist down on the lock.
He chuckled, popping up the lock. The windows weren’t rolled up. Now I felt like an idiot.
He opened the door and took my hand. “Let’s go. The only way you’d make a bad impression is by not coming inside. They already know I invited you.”
Reluctantly, I unbuckled my seat belt and got out of the car, brushing my dress off.
He held my hand until we got to the table where two chairs awaited us, both chairs at separate ends of the table. My hands begun to sweat and my knees started to shake.
“Mom, why are our chairs so far apart?” Carter asked, probably getting the hint.
“Oh! I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize that you two wanted to sit together. We’re already seated but I’m sure Morgan won’t mind, would she?”
His whole family turned to me. My face turned red. “Oh… uh… of course not?” I said, not intentionally making it sound like a question.
“Carter, aren’t you going to introduce the family?” his grandmother asked.
“I was getting to that,” he laughed.
“Morgan, this is my mom Faith, my father William, grandma Betty and grandpa Lewis.”
“Hi everyone,” I said and waved awkwardly.
Carter laughed lightly and walked me over to my seat where he pulled it out and I sat down next to Carter’s mother and grandma Betty in front of me. Carter took his seat across from his father and beside his grandfather.
My phone vibrated and I pulled it out of the little dress pocket. The text was from Carter.

I’m so sorry!!!

“It’s fine,” I mouthed to him and gave him a hopeful smile.
“So, Morgan. Is that a nickname or is it short for anything like Morganella?” Mrs. Richards asked.
“No… just Morgan,” I said nervously.
“Oh…. I was just curious because Morgan is usually a boy name.”
Before I could say anything Carter interjected. “It’s for boys and girls, mother,” he said, fighting the annoyance in his voice.
“Okay, okay. I was just checking,” she said, putting her hands up in surrender.
“Can I get you all anything to drink before your orders?” the waiter asked.
“Can we have a bottle of your finest wine?” Mrs. Richards asked. “And water for the children… unless you’d like anything other than water, Morgan.” It irritated me when she said my name because there was always a tone of disgust.
“Uhm… a water is just fine,” I said and smiled.
A got another text message from Carter.

Water?

I looked up at him and nodded my head, taking a deep breath.
We ordered our food and for me, it was a bit of a difficulty. I heard the steak here was delicious but Carter’s family all got something healthy and green and I didn’t want to feel like an outcast. So I ordered a tofu salad. Honestly, I loathed tofu so to take away the taste I drenched it with dressing. Carter’s mother stared at me when I did so.
“So Morgan, tell me about yourself. I want to know everything,” she said as if she was really interested.
I went over my life, making sure to leave out all the miserable parts of it. So basically I just told her about how I lived in Cape Hatteras my whole life, where I go to school, where I’m going for college and that whole mumbo-jumbo.
“So how about your family?” she asked.
“Oh, I still live with them,” I said, taking a bite of my salad.
“I wasn’t asking that in particular, Morgan. I just wanted to know what they were like.”
Deep inside I was screaming my head off. “Oh, they’re great.” When she didn’t respond I knew she wanted to know more. “I have one brother and… yeah….”
“How about your parents? Divorced?”
I bit my lip and played with my fingers. “They’re actually still together,” I lied. “As happy as they could be.”
Then my phone vibrated. I ignored it and I ignored Carter’s gaze on me that I was able to see out of the corner of my eye.
“What’re their names? What do they work for?”
“My mom’s name is Lydia and my dad’s name is Lucas. My mom… uh… works in a bank and my father is… uhm… a pilot. So he’s always gone.”
She nodded her head in approval. One point for Morgan! I cheered in my head.
“How about your grandmother? I really need to make new friends,” grandma Betty asked me.
“My grandmother actually died when I was eight years old. I was the only one with her that day,” I mumbled, shaking the painful memories out of my head.
“Oh, that’s horrible,” she said.
“We all die eventually,” Mrs. Richards said under her breath but loud enough for me to hear. She took a bite of her food.
That took me completely off guard. My eyes widened in shock and I looked over to see if Carter just heard what she said. Or if anyone did. But everyone was talking to one another, laughing, eating. So I ignored it.
For the rest of dinner I was silent and hardly involved myself in conversation and when someone asked me a question I would just reply with a ‘no’ or ‘yes’. And for some reason all I wanted to do at the moment was go home and see if Benjamin was okay.