Operation Beautiful

“What are you guys doing tomorrow night?” Emma asks her parents at the dinner table.

“Nothing that I know of,” Lorraine says, glancing at her husband. “Are we doing anything, dear?”

Dave shakes his head. “I didn’t plan anything.”

“You should go out and do something,” Emmaleigh insists. Her parents look at her like she’s crazy. “You guys were supposed to go on a romantic cruise for your anniversary and I screwed it up. You could at least go out for dinner tomorrow night. It’s Valentine’s Day, after all.”

“Honey, you didn’t ‘screw up’ anything,” Lorraine says. “And I’m not sure if I feel comfortable leaving you at home alone. Even if Corey is here.” She looks over at me and smiles. “Besides, Corey is going home tonight, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” I mumble. “We have school tomorrow, so Matt’s going to pick me up after dinner.”

“Come on, Mom, please!” Emmaleigh insists. I have to wonder why she cares so much. “I’ll stay over at Jess’s house after school and you can come pick me up after dinner.”

“Will Jessica’s parents be home?” Dave asks.

“I think they’re going out for dinner and a movie,” I say. “But Matt, Jessica and I will all be there.”

Lorraine is still apprehensive, but Dave soothes her fears. “Maybe it’s not such a bad idea,” he says. Emmaleigh smiles eagerly at him. “I mean, we’ve both been getting up at odd hours to check Emma’s blood sugar. Maybe a couple hours out of the house...just to relax?”

If the idea of a honeymoon every year wasn’t an indication of Lorraine’s romantic side, her eventual succumbing to her husband’s and Emmaleigh’s nagging sure is.

“Just dinner,” she says.

“And maybe a walk on the beach,” Dave adds. She opens her mouth then closes it again.

“Maybe.”

“And maybe a movie.”

“Dave! Do you even--” she stops short at her husband’s laughter.

“Just teasing, dear, just teasing.” He smiles and pats her on the back. “We’ll be home by ten, I promise.”

“And I have my cellphone, I’ll call if anything goes wrong,” Em says. And then she turns back to her food a big grin on her face.

“Why are you so eager to get them out of the house for Valentine’s Day?” I ask, as Emmaleigh helps me pack after dinner. She just shrugs.

“I feel kinda guilty about ruining their honeymoon. Besides, I know my mom’s a hopeless romantic. She’s probably been hoping they could go do something, even if she didn’t want to say it in front of me.”

I just nod. “Hey, toss me that shirt,” I tell her. She throws the shirt at me from the bed. It unfurls and my Batman boxers fall out. Well, that wasn’t supposed to be there. “Sorry,” I mumble, leaning over to grab them. She just laughs.

“It’s not like I haven’t seen them before,” she says. “Now if they were the ones Matt got for you, then you should be apologizing.”

We both start to laugh at the recollection of those God-awful boxers Matt got for me for the sleepover. It seems like ages ago, but it’s only been a couple months.

“Is Jessica doing another sleepover any time soon?” I ask Emmaleigh. She shrugs.

“I’m not sure. She probably will. It’s been a while since she’s had one.”

I shove the last pair of jeans into my duffel bag and zip it shut. Matt honks from outside.

“Perfect timing,” I say, as Emmaleigh walks me to the door.

“Bye, Corey!” Lorraine yells, rushing out from the hallway to see me off. Dave is right behind her.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Em says. I nod and wave, slipping into Matt’s car with ease.

“Have fun at that sleepover?” Matt asks.

“I suppose,” I say, though just getting to spend time with Emmaleigh and her family was fun.

“How is she?” he continues. We pull out of the driveway and begin down the main road to our neighborhood.

“She’s fine. We’ve really got the hang of it. It’s a lot of guess and check, you know? And diet changes. But she’s adapting really well.”

Matt lets out a dry laugh. “You sound like her doctor.”

A doctor is better than nothing, but I don’t comment. Instead, I try to change the subject. “So, what have you been doing for the past few days? Anything new going on at home?” I just realized that I haven’t been back at the house since Thursday.

“Nothing really. Jess keeps blowing off her other friends off to read really dry diabetes crap.” He smiles. “It’s good to see them getting close again.”

“Yeah,” I say. Jessica has been a regular visitor to the Watson household lately. She, Emmaleigh and I will hung out a bit at the mall and stuff. She’s been completely ignoring me for Emma, which is quite frankly a welcome relief.

“Oh! Your mom called, I told her you’d call her back today or tomorrow.”

I perk up at the mention of my mother. “Really? Did she say anything interesting?”

“Um...just hello. She wanted to know how you were and stuff. I said you were fine, but you were at a friend’s house.”

“That’s nice,” I say, leaning back with a smile. Just remembering my family and friends back home makes me feel happy, sad and nostalgic at the same time.

“Yeah. What’s Belgium like again?”

Gosh. He’s asked me that so many times and every time I find it harder to explain. “It’s...green. Lots of fun stuff to do, I guess. They have malls and fast food like here.” I’m completely missing the essence of Belgium, but how the hell am I supposed to explain that? “It’s...you know. It’s home.”

Matt nods. “I know.” We turn into our neighborhood and he speaks again. “Oh! The gang wanted to go out tomorrow: with you and Emma and Jess. What do you think?”

“Sounds good. Any particular reason?”

“Not really. Everyone’s parents are either out or working that day. Besides, we haven’t gotten to hang out as a group for a while, you know? You’ve been out of school since Thursday and everything’s been kinda crazy lately.”

“Sounds like fun. Emma was planning on coming over tomorrow night anyway. She’s kicked her parents out of the house for a romantic something-or-the-other.”

“Oh.” We pull into the driveway and get out. Matt turns and grins at me. “Dude, this is going to be so much fun.”