Only In It For A Minute

I examined the boy in front of me as he looked at me expectantly.

“Well?”

“You look fine, John,” I told him as his stood there in his black shirt that was untucked, black skinny jeans and boots. His hair was messy, but he looked good. “Can you please stop worrying.”

“I haven’t done this many times before, you know, especially not with girls who parents are English,” he said, running his hand through his hair again.

“I’m English too,” I said.

“I know but it’s different with parents.”

“They are normal people, it’s not like they’re some kinda aliens or something,” I told him with a slight laugh.

“I’m sorry, Tash, I can’t do this,” he said, pacing up and down my room. “What if they hate me and don’t want you to move to LA because of it?”

“John O’Callaghan, will you stop fucking panicking!” I said, raising my voice. I stood up and walked in front of him, getting in his pathway of pacing. I took both his hands in mine and looked up at him. “My parents are going to love you, stop being nervous, stop worrying and calm yourself boy.”

The rest of the guys were hanging out in the lounge of my flat whilst me and John got ready. We were due at my parents house in just over an hour and it had suddenly hit John what he was about to do.

“Look, I met your family and that was fine. This will be too,” I told him.

“Yeah but it’s easier for girls,” he said. “When guys meet their girlfriends parents, they have to meet up to their dad’s standards for them.”

“John, my dad is going to love you, now will you just stop already?!”

I grabbed my bag and we walked out of the my room and everyone turned to look at us.

“Tash you look lovely,” Jared and Tim both said.

“Thanks guys,” I smiled. “Now can you all tell John he’s going to be fine, he’s shitting his pants about this.”

“Oh god, John you have nothing to worry about, Tash’s mum and dad will love you,” Lizzie confirmed.

“Thank you,” I nodded at her before turning back to John. “See, I told you.”

We said goodbye to them all and made our way to the train station so we could get to Oxford. On the train, John was very quiet, so every so often I would squeeze his hand or kiss his cheek. After the short journey, we got off the train and got a taxi to my parents house. Once we arrived and paid, we got out and stood at the end of my drive. I took one look at John and could see the worry over his face. I had never seen him like this before.

“Come on,” I said, taking his hand and leading up the path. “It’s going to be fine. In five minutes you’ll wonder what you were worrying about.”

As I rang the doorbell, I could hear his breathing next to me. The door opened in front of us and there stood my mother.

“Tash! Hi, come in, come in,” she said, pulling me in for a hug as I stepped in the door. “And you must be John,” she said, letting me go and pulling him to her as well. I saw the look on his face as he hugged her back and let out a small laugh which only caused him to look at me with wide eyes. “It’s so nice to finally meet the American boy who is stealing my daughter away from me.”

“It’s nice to meet you too Mrs Barratt,” he said smiling down at her, now she had finally let go of him.

“Oh don’t be silly, call me Caroline,” she told him. “Now come through and meet Tash’s dad,” she said walking off.

“Here goes nothing,” John mumbled as I walked with him. I playfully hit him as we walked into the living room.

“Terry, Tash and John are here,” my mum said, as my dad put down his newspaper and turned to where we were stood in the door way.

“Yes, hello John, I’m Tash’s father, Terry,” my dad said, standing up and putting out his hand for John to shake. He was still hovering next to me, so I gave him a light push forward, which John then took as a hint to shake my dad’s hand.

“It’s good to meet you,” John stuttered out. We sat down on the sofa and my dad sat back in his chair, which my mother sat on the arm of.

“So Tash says you’re over here for a tour?” my dad said.

“Yes, we just finished it, heading back home tomorrow,” John replied.

“And taking my daughter with you, of course,” my dad said. “I’m trusting you’ll look out for her over there.”

“Of course sir,” John quickly replied.

“No need for the sir,” my dad smiled.

“So John, Tash hasn’t really told us a lot about you, so why don’t you fill in a few gaps?” my mum said.

“Sure, what do you want to know?”

“Well, how did you end up in a band?” she asked.

“Erm, ha, well,” he began. I knew this story and suddenly wondered how he was going to tell it this time. “Basically Tim, who is now our tour manager, is the older brother of Pat, our drummer and he told me that Pat’s band needed a new singer and I sort of just offered to try out. And the rest, as they say, is history.”

“How long ago was that?” my dad now asked.

“About 4 years ago now I think,” John told them. “I did originally plan to go to college but I didn’t last very long there before the band got signed to a label and we were sent off to start touring and recording.”

“And your parents don’t mind?” my mum asked.

“Well, of course, like yourselves, they would have like to have seen their child finished university but when they saw how well the band was doing, they accepted that this was what I loved to do and was able to make a career out of it.”

“Yes it’s great that you’ve been able to come over and obviously tour a different country,” my dad commented.

Fortunately for John, the interrogation ended then as my sisters both walked into the living room.

“Oh hey guys, I’m glad you’re here,” I said, standing up. “John, this is Jess,” I said introducing him to my sister. “And this is Amy,” I said, indicating to my youngest sister. “Jess how come you’re home?”

“Mum said I had to come back for because she wanted to have a big family meal or something,” she told me. Jess had started university a couple of months a go in Exeter, meaning that Amy was the only daughter left at home for my parents to worry about now.

We sat around for the next half an hour or so, with John getting to know my family and vice versa. My mum and dad were most concerned with knowing that I was going to be alright in LA when I left. Amy wanted to know the ins and outs of everything about The Maine, which John happily told her. The two of them were getting on so well, which I knew would happen. Amy was a big fan of the band, so for him to be here was exciting for her. After we had exhausted most topics of getting to know John, I had an idea.

“Hey, wanna see my old room?” I suddenly asked John, causing him to smirk. I shook my head, ignoring it and grabbed his hand pulling him out of the room and up the stairs.

I walked along the hallway which I hadn’t walked in a while. I did come back to visit my family whenever I could, but since I lived so close, I hadn’t stayed here in a long time. In fact the last time I could remember was Christmas last year when I’d spent a week here. As I reached the room that used to be mine, I opened the door slowly to find that it had barely changed since I was last in it. My old bed was still against one wall. The wardrobe in the corner was the same one I’d had since I was about 13. The walls were still the same shade of lilac, the carpet hadn’t change either. As me and John walked in, I saw him look around and smile.

“How long has it been since this was your room?” he asked.

“Nearly 3 and a half years,” I told him. “Since I left for university basically.”

“It’s cute, I never would have guessed you were a purple kid,” he laughed.

We sat on the edge of my bed and laid back so we were laying next to each other with our feet on the ground. He found my hand between the two of us and laced his fingers into mine.

“So how are you feeling now? Still nervous?” I asked.

“No, you were right,” he said. “Your family are great.”

“See I told you you’d be fine!”

“Tell you what, Amy’s great, you’ve got one cute sister there,” he said.

“Are you trying to tell me something?” I laughed.

“No! She’s sweet though, it’s great to know how much people love the band, you know?” he said.

I rolled over and climbed on top of him so I straddling his waist. I bent down and kissed his lips as he placed his hands on either side of my body. My hair fell around our faces as we continued to kiss and he moved one hand away from my body to tuck some of my hair behind my ear. As I pulled away I looked into his eyes and smiled.

“So we’ve both met each others families now,” I said, moving off of his waist and sitting on the bed as he sat up.

“Yeah, things are getting kinda serious,” John smiled. I looked at him and smiled back. “Is it bad to say I can’t remember the last time I met a girls parents? And especially to be as nervous as I was.”

“It was cute,” I teased. “‘Tash I can’t do it! What if they hate me?’” I mimicked from earlier, laughing at the same time.

“You’re mean!” he laughed, pretending to be sulking.

“You’re so cute, I love you,” I suddenly blurted out. There was a short couple of seconds delay before it clicked in my head what I’d said. Me and John had technically been together two and a half months now but since we didn’t get to see each other much, we had yet to say ‘I love you’ to each other, whether we’d felt it yet or not. My head shot to look at John to see his reaction to what I’d said. He looked stunned to start with but a few seconds after, his lips turned into a smile and his eyes lit up.

“You love me?” he asked.

“Yes,” I smiled back. May as well be honest now I blurted it out once, I thought to myself.

“Oh good, I love you too,” he said, leaning towards me and kissing my lips with force. I held him to me as our mouths work together for a few seconds. As he pulled away, he grinned widely at me which I returned. “I’d wanted to say it this entire tour but there was never the right moment,” he told me.

“Really?” I smiled. “When did you know?”

“I knew you were something special that night in Vegas before my birthday when you told me to put all my chips on 21. I knew I loved you when you were sat in my garden when my parents had the barbecue during the summer. I was sure of it when I saw your drunken mess of messages and tweets just after you’d got home. I knew I had to tell you when I first saw you after we arrived a couple of weeks ago.”

“You’re pretty sure of it then, aren’t you O’Callaghan,” I smiled.

“I don’t think you know how much I love you,” he said.