Love Just Is

Every so often my parents would beg me to come home for the weekend, they’d say some stuff like how my brother missed me or something, but I knew it was really them missing me trying to avoid saying it so maybe I’d come home. And I kind of think they wanted me to admit I missed him too. Of course, more often than not I was so busy with school work that I couldn’t go home. Because going home would only end in me totally ignoring my school work for two whole days while I laid around in my bedroom catching up on TV shows with my dad, watching some new rom-com with my mum that my dad wouldn’t watch with her, and kicking my brother’s arse at whatever old two player game we had stashed away. I usually wouldn’t change out of my pj’s, not even when my mum begged me to go to the store with her, I’d look like a hot mess for two whole days and pretend that I wasn’t in university with things I had to do. And I always felt so bad about telling them that I couldn’t. I even really did start to miss my brother. Which was why I was so very happy when we finally got a two-week long break from classes after our finals at the start of April.

I’d promised my parents that I’d come home as soon as I got the chance and that lovely two-week break was my chance. I didn’t have any homework since classes were over until we got back so there wasn’t really anything to keep me from going home other than Harry. But I didn’t think that’d be a big deal because I was sure he’d be going home too and since that was the case it wouldn’t matter anyway. Until I found out he wasn’t going home.

“Wait, you’re not going home for the break?” I asked him. He’d come over for lunch neither of us had class and had agreed to study together without having sex. Well, really I’d told him that we weren’t having sex because I really needed to study so if he wasn’t serious about it to not even come over. And of course, with it being so close to the break I’d already started to pack so I could head home right after my last class.

As soon as he’d walked in he’d seen my mess of bags scattered across my living room. I was kind of a heavy packer, and there was no telling what I’d do while I was home. Plus Sophie and I were from the same town and we got out at the same time so I’d told her she could ride home with me if she wanted since she’d probably spend most of her time with me anyways and with us together for two weeks with no classes there really was no telling what we’d do or how many things I’d really need. Anyways, he’d seen all my things and asked what I was packing for and of course, I’d told him that I was going home.

“Nope. I mean I would. I’d love too really but my mum and her new boyfriend are taking a vacation and hadn’t realized it’d be the same week I was off plus my sister’s not going to be in town either and it’d be kind of boring. Of course, it’s gonna be boring here too since you’re going home, and so are the lads. Well, I don’t think Niall’s going home, I think he’s going somewhere though so he’s still leaving.”

And I felt really bad. He’d have to spend the whole break alone, which sucked. I couldn’t just leave my boyfriend on campus alone and while I wasn’t entirely sure what my parents would say about me bringing a boy home I invited him along anyways.

“Why don’t you come home with me then. Sophie’ll be riding with us too but I mean I’m sure my parents won’t mind you staying with us. My mum would have a fit surely if I told her I left you here alone.”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea? I mean what if your parents don’t like me or something? Or worse what if it’s not okay that I stay with you guys and you get in trouble? I don’t want that.”

“Harry trust me, it won’t be a big deal. There’s plenty of room in my house for you to stay, and my mum’ll probably be thrilled that I decided to bring you home because she can meet you. It might be a bit harder to get my dad on board because he’s kind of super overprotective and like worried no one will ever be good enough for his little girl. But I promise he’s really not that bad once you get to know him. My brother, I don’t really want to think about how that’ll end up going but regardless I promise it’ll be okay.” I told him not wanting him to worry about it. Sure it was weird to think about bringing a boy home to meet my family pretty much, and especially after the last guy I dated, but it’d happen eventually so why not get it over with now.

--

Harry was still kind of worried about the whole thing when we were packing my car with all of our things. Sophie had met us at my flat right after she’d gotten out of class and I wasn’t really sure how everything would fit in the car but we’d figure it out.

“So you know the last boy Maddie brought home, well he’s still ‘missing’ because he broke her heart so I’d be careful Harry, her family’s loony.” Sophie joked with him and his face was priceless.

“She’s kidding Harry,” I said kissing his cheek and sending her a look and she just laughed some more. “The police found him, and he was totally in one piece. I’m not gonna say he was in the best condition though.” I added in the most serious tone I could.

Harry was looking between us with wide eyes totally scared. “You’re serious?”

And Sophie and I couldn’t take it anymore we both burst out laughing.

“No!” I said when I caught my breath. “We’re joking. My family didn’t murder some poor boy for breaking my heart. Honestly, I think they felt kind of bad for him because he broke my heart. I think my brother got into a fight with him but he won’t admit it. He just came home one day and you could tell he’d been in a fight and he wouldn’t tell me what happened. But I heard from someone else that he’d gotten into a fight with my ex and totally kicked his arse. But I promise that unless someone else got rid of him then he’s still alive and well being a dick to some other girl.”

You could tell that Harry was rather relieved but still freaking out all at the same time. There really wasn’t anything for him to worry about though and I was sure once we got to my house and he met my family that he’d understand there really wasn’t anything to worry about. My family could be crazy at times, I knew that and so did Sophie, but I was also pretty sure that everyone’s family had their crazy moments. And I loved my family so I was okay with their crazy antics.

The ride to my home wasn’t terrible like three and a half hours or so. Which was better than some people who had to fly home, or those kids who decided to go to university like seven-plus hours away from home and had to drive it back and forth when they wanted to see their family. Seven hours was the max amount of time I ever wanted to spend in a car in one day. And even that was pushing it. I kind of hated long car rides. They were the worst, everyone ended up getting cranky and spending that much time stuffed into a car with a bunch of people just didn’t sound like fun in my own opinion, so I was happy the ride home was less than four hours.

Harry and I dropped off Sophie at her house first, it was all of five houses and across the road from my own house, and once we’d gotten all her things out and I’d said hello to her own parents we drove the rest of the short ride to my own, pulling into our driveway behind my dad’s car and then smiling at Harry.

“Well, this is my home.” I told him as we parked the car and I took his hand for a minute, there really wasn’t anything for him to be worried about, “and I promise there’s nothing to worry about.”

“I hope you’re right.”

I was going to tell him that I was, that I knew I was right because my family would love him. I was going to try and talk him up and make him a little less nervous than what he seemed right now. But I didn’t get the chance to before my mum, dad, and grandma were all out the front door towards the car.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re home, honey.” My mum cooed after she’d opened my door to kiss my head before I’d even made it out of the car. “Oh and look George she brought a boy home.”

“Mum stop it,” I whined pushing her away gently so I could at least climb out of the car before I was being hugged by my dad then my grandma, who I should’ve known would say something. The old woman was a crazy.

“That’s a handsome boy you got there Maddie, I bet he keeps you very pleased in the bedroom.”

I was so stunned by that I didn’t know what to say, I knew everyone else had heard her too since she had never known how to be quiet about anything. But honestly, I was kind of embarrassed. Sure my sex life with Harry was interesting and he did know how to please me in the bedroom, and every other room of the house for that matter, but it wasn’t really something I wanted to address with everyone. And I certainly hadn’t wanted it to be brought to light by my grams.

“Mum I don’t really think that’s appropriate. Maddie show your friend where he’ll be staying and make sure you say hi to your brother.” My dad said and I just nodded my head.

“Come on Harry let’s go,” I told him deciding on my own that I’d pull him along and let my parents get the rest of our things, they’d already started unpacking everything anyways and I really didn’t want any more embarrassing moments right now.

“So you’re grams seems interesting. And we both know she was right, about me keeping you please.” He whispered in my ear causing me to bite my lip.

I was going to have to be strong while we were here, I wasn’t going to just give into him whenever he wanted me too. And it might be hard since I knew I had the tendency to give in but I was going to try my hardest to stay strong and not be a mess around him while we were here.

“This is your room,” I told him opening the door and ignoring his chin going to rest on my shoulder while his arms wrapped around my middle, “my brother is right below us in the basement, I’m in the room right down the hall, my grandma lives in the room across the hall from me, and then my parents are both upstairs in their bedroom where we also have another guest room and some other stuff I’ll show you some other time. Now you can stay and unpack or you can come meet my brother.”

He quickly kissed my cheek, and I think he knew I was trying to refrain from giving in.

Either way though next we were headed down to the basement where my brother and apparently his friends were.

“Dude who is that?” One of my brother’s friends asked,

“That would be my sister and uh I don’t know the guy,” Clay said shrugging his shoulders like it was nothing.

“Thanks, I’ve missed you too tosser,” I said slapping the back of his head and rolling my eyes. “And this is Harry, he’s uh my boyfriend.”

“Oi! That hurt Mads! And right in front of my friends!” Clay said rubbing his head and plopping down on the couch away from me. I just stuck my tongue out at him.

His friends decided to leave and give him some time to bond with me and Harry but promised they’d be back and that I wasn’t allowed to hog him the entire time I was home. Which I had no plans to do so. I had my own friends to see while I was here so there was no way I’d hog my brother the whole time. His friends could have him back after tonight. And for the most part, the three of us talked, well really I sat back and ended up playing our old Nintendo 64 while Harry and my brother talked. I had been part of the conversation until they both started to ignore me because they’d found something in common that I had no interest in talking about. And I was okay with that. It was easy to tell that Harry was getting along well with my brother, which was one step closer to getting along well with my dad, which meant that I had been right and hadn’t made a mistake bringing him along.