To Caress My Day

Jess's brown eyes enlarged with uneasiness as Twigs expressed to them that she had a dilemma. As she sat at bench at Venice Beach Pier with her band, Neon Jungle, her close friend Simone, and Simone's band mates, she forced down a mouthful of her strawberry milkshake and blurted out her first worry. “Girl, you and the boyfriend aren't fighting again, are you?”

At the mention of Seth, Twig's entire body froze up as her eyes snapped to Jess in terror. It took her only a second for her to realize that her friend had called him her 'boyfriend' instead of by his full name. She let out a short breath in alleviation at knowing that Seth's identity was still intact from the GRL band members whom she still wasn't sure if she could trust them with such sacred information. Twigs gave Jess a quick reassuring smile. “No, honey, he and I are doing perfectly fine.”

“Thank god!” Asami rejoiced, holding up a palm to the heavens as she closed her eyes and tilted her head upwards in silent prayer. She didn't want her friend to have relive another abhorrent relationship debacle. It was already hard on everyone the first time around what with the desire to be there for Twigs while also being too occupied with their careers to drop by. They'd spent the whole time badgering Simone to care for Twigs in their absence and demanded daily updates on her well being.

Shereen was now puzzled as to what problem Twigs could have if it wasn't caused by a man. “Wait, if you and your man are doing great then what's the issue here?”

“Um...” Twigs paused, her eyes drawing to the Simone's band members dubiously since she only just recently met them. There hadn't been enough time spend around them to begin to confide her deep secrets and such with them and so she wasn't positive that mentioning her predicament in front of them was a good idea.

Simone recognized that her roommate was wavering and at first she didn't know why until she recalled her close band mates were still unfamiliar with her. Twigs wasn't sure she could trust them with her personal life what with being such a private person. Simone could understand that, but at the same time she could safely say she at least trusted them, and hopefully that'll be enough for Twigs to too. Simone gave her a roommate a consoling smile. “It's fine, Twigs. These ladies can be trusted like no other with secrets, I swear on my parent's lives. They won't breath a word of this conversation.”

Emmalyn held up a hand like she was swearing on the bible before a court. “Of course we won't! We understand the need for privacy. We won't tell anybody about this.”

“Okay...” Twigs replied, deciding to still keep Seth's name a mystery for now. “My boyfriend wants me to meet his father this Thanksgiving.”

All the ladies burst into 'awws' and positive remarks at the romantic idea, but Twigs found it hard to maintain a smile longer than 2 seconds. No one took notice of this except for Amira, who frowned at her as she tossed her empty fast food box in a nearby trashcan. She could tell her friend was having some second thoughts about Seth's amorous request and sought to help erase her doubts. “Hold on, baby girl. Are you having seconds thoughts about accepting his proposal, cause your face is screaming at me that that's the case.”

The ladies all went silent when Amira called her out. They all looked to Twigs with concern mixed with curiosity which only made Twigs nervously avert her eyes and shrug her shoulder. “Well...I-I guess you can say I am.”

“Sweetie, why are you having second about exactly?” Shereen cut in, still puzzled by Twig's misery.

“That...I'm not sure if I should do it.” Twigs admitted shamefully with another shrug. “Meet his father, I mean.”

“Why not?” Asami asked in a voice that almost resembled a small child being denied permission to playing with their friends. “You guys are doing great, you just said so yourself.”

“Yeah, I did, and we are.” Twigs defended again as she began to fiddle with her fingers. “I'm just...I don't know. I'm just scared about it.”

Being the only ones that didn't know what was going on here, the rest of GRL except for Simone merely sat back and listened in to the conversation. They wanted to know as much of the full story as they could before they gave any feedback.

“Tahliah, you remember that you're in love with him, right?” Amira reminded her as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Yes, of course I do!” Twigs admitted passionately. “I love him more than any man I've ever known in my whole life.”

Amira already knew that, and continued on to state the obvious facts. “And your boyfriend loves you just as much too.”

“I believe so, he's declared that to me many times before.” Twigs confirmed.

Simone cut in with a question. “Then what's the problem here? Are you nervous about meeting another one of his family members, because you handled meeting his sister superbly well.”

“Yeah, I did but this just feels like an entirely different scenario this time!” Twigs expressed in a bit of hysteria. “The man I'm about to meet created my man! I mean, if it had turned out his sister didn't like me after we first met, than it was going to be an 'oh well' on my boyfriend's part? However if his father doesn't like me, what then?”

Amira rudely rolled her eyes at her friend's burden. She still didn't see why this would be considered a problem. “So? Why does it even matter what that man thinks about you? You're not fucking him, you're fucking his son.”

“I kinda agree with Amira on this one.” Jess sided. “Look, Twigs, unless you do something seriously fucked up to him or his family I don't see why there is any reason to worry about this.”

“Unless of course your boyfriend is so balls deep into his Dad opinion.” Shereen pointed out the worst case scenario. “Then it will matter.” Everyone in the group couldn't help but gasp in disgust before bursting into laughter.

“Holy shit, can you imagine a man caring that much about his parent's opinions on such trivial things that he's willing to break up with the perfect woman?” Paula laughed, slapping a hand on her thigh.

“That kind of bullshit is something I don't ever want to be apart of!” Simone objected with a wave of her hand.

“Yeah, leave me out of that mess!” Natasha agreed. “Give me the real men, leave those little boys on their parent's nips.”

“Perhaps you guys are right.” Twigs concluded once the jokes died down. “Perhaps I'm overthinking this whole situation.”

“Don't feel stupid about panicking over this shit, Twigs.” Simone assured her. “It's totally normal to freak out sometimes on this relationship stuff.”

“Yeah, meeting the parents can be a huge deal for some people.” Shereen agreed.

“So, will his mom be there too?” Jess asked her, discarding her food box into the trash too. “Or is she not included in all this?”

Twigs hesitated, her smile dropping. “Actually...his mother died back in 2010.”

“Aww, that's terrible!” Emmalyn and the girls moaned in despair at the same time, feeling for the man's loss. “When did you two meet each other again?”

“Early August.” Twigs answered, her cheeks growing warm at their whirlwind romance.

“As in early August of this year?” Natasha questioned in surprise, earning a nod.

“You have only been together for almost 4 months?” Laura questioned, earning a nod too.

Seeing that the members of GRL are curious, Amira defended her best friend. “Trust us, ladies, they ain't on no fuck shit thing. We're talking legitimacy here.”

After earning several nods in understanding, Shereen looked to Twigs. “So, what's it gonna be, Twigs?”

Twigs glanced between all the beautiful amazing women surrounding her and gave them a beaming smile. “I will! I'm gonna meet my boyfriend's dad!”

“That's what I'm talking about!” Natasha supported. “Let's celebrate with some ice cream ladies!”