Only In It For A Minute

“So my parents want us to have dinner with them tonight,” John suddenly said as we sat having lunch a couple of days later.

Since I’d got here, we’d eaten out every night and other than a brief meeting with his parents and two brothers, we hadn’t spent much time at his house and with his family.

“Really? That would be nice,” I commented.

“Are you sure? Because if you’re not comfortable with it, just say and I’ll tell them we’re busy or something,” he told me.

“No, I really would love to do it. I want to get to know the rest of the O’Callaghan’s!” I smiled.

So a few hours later we arrived back at his house and as soon as we walked in, I could smell something wonderful cooking.

“Oh good, just in time,” John’s mother said from the kitchen.

We sat down around the table, opposite his two brothers with his mum and dad at either end.

“So Tash, it’s nice to finally get to sit down and talk to you, John’s been keeping you to himself the whole time,” his dad smiled to me. Immediately, I could tell John took after his father, seeing the exact same smile that won me over in the first place. “I feel like we haven’t heard anything from you while you been here.”

“I’ve definitely heard enough from them,” John’s youngest brother Ross laughed. There was a quick thud under the table, I suspected from John kicking Ross. I blushed immediately knowing what he meant.

“Boys, do you have to?” their mum said, bring in plates of food. “Ignore them, Tash. It’s actually nice to have a girl here for once,” she smiled to me.

“I’m not used to so many boys,” I told her. “I grew up with my parents and two sisters and now live with my two best friends, so other than my dad there’s never really been any guys around.”

“I’d gladly swap, living with these four can be very chaotic sometimes,” she laughed.

“Whereabouts in England do you live?” his dad asked.

“In Reading, it’s about an hour outside of London but it’s got beautiful countryside parts to it,” I smiled. “I’m originally from Oxford though, which isn’t too much further away.”

“And John says you’ve just finished college?” his dad asked.

“Yes, I graduated three months ago, my friends and I decided to take the summer off and now it’s just the task of finding a job where I get to do something I love,” I told him.

“I think you already are,” Ross sniggered and Shane laughed with him.

“I’m going kill you later,” John shot back.

“BOYS!” came their mother’s raised voice. “I’m not going to tell you again.”

“He started it,” John mumbled, which made me smile.

“I don’t care who started it, we have a guest,” she continued. “Don’t ever have sons, Tash, they’ll drive you crazy!”

The conversation continued as we talked about my home life and John’s life on the road, amongst other things. We had all finished eating and were just talking about what me and John were planning to do before I left again.

“Let me help you clear up,” I said, as Mrs O’Callaghan began stacking plates in front of her.

“Don’t be silly, Ross and Shane can do it,” she said, moving her stack of plates in front of them. “Go on, you know how the dishwasher works.”

As the boys cleared up the rest of the plates, John and I excused ourselves and went to his room.

“I didn’t know you had two sisters,” he said, as I sat down on his bed and pulled a chair next to it.

“Yes you do, I talk about them all the time,” I told him.

“Yeah but I thought it was just the one, you only ever say ‘my sister’, you never mention names,” he said. “Tell me more about them.”

“Why you wanna seduce them too?” I laughed. “They’re both younger than me, there’s Amy, who is 16. She looks a lot like me, or at least that’s what we get told. She’s very similar to me actually. Oh and she loves that I’m friend’s with The Maine,” I smiled at John. “And then there’s Jess, she’s 18 and starts university really soon. She get’s straight A’s in everything, she’s on every team at school and everyone loves her. I sometimes wonder if she’s really related to the rest of us.”

“So there’s a Barratt for every O’Callaghan!” he laughed.

“JOHN!” I laughed, grabbing a pillow off his bed and throwing it at him which he dodged.

“Hey, be careful with that pillow!” he said. “But no, I wouldn’t want to set those two up with two nice English girls. God knows what they’d do.”

“Oh but it’s fine for me and you?”

“Hey, I’m a gentleman, those two are...BRATS!” he half-smiled.

I laid back on his bed and he came and laid next to me wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close.

“I like your family, you all seem so close,” I said into his chest.

“It hasn’t always been that way,” he laughed. “I think it’s only because I’m away a lot that I actually get on with Shane and Ross at all.”

“A house full of boys...I seriously don’t know if I could ever cope with that!” I smiled. “Your mother is a saint!”

We laid there in silence for a while. I had full days left here before I headed back to the UK once again. I knew it was going to be even tougher to leave this time round. I just breathed in his scent and held onto his body tight, I wanted to be able to remember everything exactly once I got home.

“You’re not falling asleep already are you?” he asked, resting his head on mine.

“Maybe...” I said quietly. “I’ve confused my body, I don’t think it’s got a clue at all about what time it’s on. I’m eating when it thinks I should be sleeping and I want to sleep when it thinks it mid afternoon!”

“Gotta love the time differences!”

“You don’t mind if I crash out now do you?” I said, looking up at him and he shook his head. I curled into his chest and felt it rise and fall as he breathed slowly.