She Used to Be a Pearl

Caty has been acting really strange ever since last week. I have no idea what's up with her. She's been trying to hide it but she's been so distant. I hope my surprise will cheer her up.

I was currently dressing up to meet her family. She had no idea. We played our show yesterday and had today to do whatever we wanted, so I called her family last week and asked her mom if we could meet up. She said yes and invited us over for dinner. Caty still has no clue. She's been out with Jared all day and she thinks we're just going out to dinner together. I hope this will get her out of whatever weird mood she's been in. It's been almost a month since we started going out and I just want her back to normal.

"Hey, Caty. Almost ready?" I yelled out through the hotel room.

"Huh? Oh yeah. I'm ready." She nodded. She looked gorgeous in her blue dress with flowers on the bottom and her hair in curls.

"Okay, let's go." We walked down to the rental car and I opened the passenger side door for her. She thanked me, as always, and I shut her door and got in on the drivers side.

"Where are we going?" She asked as we started to exit the city. I had her address punched in on the gps, but she couldn't see it from the passenger seat.

"This place outside of town. I heard it's great." I told her.

She nodded and forced a smile before looking back out the window. I frowned and handed her my ipod.

"Can you pick something good to listen to?" I asked. One thing I had learned about her was that she loved controlling the music on car rides.

She smiled for real this time and went to work. She picked "Here Comes My Girl" and hummed along.

After a mostly silent car ride, I started pulling into her neighborhood.

"What are you doing, John?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked innocently.

Before she had time to respond I pulled into her driveway.

She quickly hopped out of the car and ran to the house. She swung the door open and ran inside without shutting it. I turned the car off and slowly jogged to the door. I walked in and heard squealing and noise coming from the kitchen area.

"Mom! I missed you so much!" I heard Caty squeal.

"I missed you, too!" Her mom replied.

I walked into the kitchen and saw Caty and an older blonde woman hugging. A young guy was standing behind them.

"It's cool, no need to hug me. I see you all the time, Cat." He said sarcastically.

"Come here, Cory!" She said pulling him into a hug. "I missed you."

"Missed you too, ugly." He said jokingly.

"Shut up." She said pulling away and punching him lightly in the arm.

"Mom, Cory, this is my boyfriend John. John, this is my mom and my little brother Cory." She introduced.

"Hi John, it's nice to meet you. I'm Diane, but you know that." She said referring to our phone conversation.

"Hey." Her brother greeted with a handshake.

"Hey man. How's it going?" I asked.

"Pretty good. You?" He returned.

"I can't complain." I smiled.

And the truth was that I couldn't complain. My girlfriend has a smile on her face and that's all that matters to me right now.

There was a knock at the door and Cory went to go get it.

His hair and his whole look reminded me of Jared. It was weird.

"Hey Cat this is my girlfriend June. June, this is my sister Caty and her boyfriend John."

We all greeted each other and finally sat down for dinner.

"So are you guys having lots of fun on tour?" Her mom asked.

"Yeah, it's been amazing so far." Caty answered. "I'm so glad I decided to do it."

"Me too." I blurted out. I immediately felt embarrassed until her mom shot me a nice smile.

After dinner Caty and I cleared the table and took the dishes into the kitchen. After we placed the dishes in the sink Caty pulled me by the hand into her.

"Thank you, John." She said before pulling me in for a kiss on the lips. I ran a hand through her hair and wrapped my other arm around her waist. I felt weak in the knees when she put her hand on the back of my neck and deepened the kiss even more. We pulled away, at last and walked into her living room.

Her family was so welcoming. We hung out just talking and laughing for hours.

"Oh wow, it's like midnight! We have to leave early tomorrow. We should get going." Caty said.

We got up from our seats and walked to the door.

"Bye mom. I love you." She said giving her mother one final hug.

"Bye Cat. I love you too. I'll miss you."

Caty moved on to hug her brother and I stood their with her mom.

"Thank you, John. Visit again sometime?" Her mom asked.

I smiled and nodded before pulling her mom into a hug. Diane hugged me back in a warm embrace and pulled away.

"Keep care of her." She whispered while Caty was talking to her teenage brother.

I nodded and was about to respond before Caty cut me off.

"Okay, we'd better go before I change my mind." Caty joked.

We walked out the door and back to the car. I opened the door for Caty when she wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug.

"I love you, John. I love you." She told me.

"I love you too, baby." I smiled as I kissed the top of her head. She finally pulled away and we got in the car.

She dozed off on the way back to the hotel and I looked over at her with a goofy grin on my face.

"How did I get so lucky?" I whispered.