Even If You Don't

Mari’s POV; Two months later

“Sydney, you beautiful thing!” Michael exclaimed when we stepped outside of the Sydney Airport, “Oh, how I’ve missed you!”

“Mike, you think you could dial it back a bit?” Kaylynn rolled her eyes, “You’re disturbing the peace.”

“He always disturbs the peace,” I commented, “It’s like you don’t know him.”

“Yeah,” Luke agreed with a chuckle, “You’ve been on tour with us for what, six months? You should know how he is by now.”

“Shut up, Luke!” Michael shot back.

“Mari said it first!” he pouted.

“Mari is the only person who can beat me at video games; She’s allowed to say whatever she wants about me,” he said matter-of-factly.

I smirked victoriously as I climbed into the car I was taking with Calum, Michael, and Vanessa. Luke simply scoffed as he and the other three members of our group went to the other car that was waiting to take us to where we’d be staying until we had to leave for Melbourne in a couple days – the boys insisted that we stay with them while we were all in Sydney: both now and when we came back for the final shows of the tour.

After arriving at our destination, we were given a quick tour of the house. We dropped off our bags in the rooms we’d be staying in – Vanessa and Kaylynn were sharing the guest room, I was obviously staying in Calum’s room, and we all knew Kenzie and Ashton were going to end up sharing his room despite the fact that he'd said he was going to take the couch.

They had told us they wanted to show us around the city before the jet lag hit, but they all agreed to do so after they went to visit with their families for a bit. The girls and I told them we’d wait around their house, wanting to give them their space as we were sure that they’d really missed them in the time they’d been on tour. Calum, however, invited me to go with him to meet his parents. I opened my mouth to object – I knew how much he’d been wanting to see them again and I really didn’t want to ruin their moment together – but Kenzie spoke before I could do so.

“Come on, Mar!” she chirped, “You know what they say: When in Sydney!”

“No one says that,” I rolled my eyes.

“You don’t want to go?” Calum asked, “It’s okay; I’m not going to force you.” I could still tell he was a little disappointed though.

“It’s not that I don’t want to meet them, Cal,” I sighed, “I just... You know... You’ve talked about how much you’ve missed them for so long and I don’t want to intrude...”

“You’re not intruding, Mar; I’m inviting you,” he assured me, “And I, uh... I might have brought up the idea of you coming along with me to their house today-” He scratched the back of his neck shyly. “-and they’re excited to meet you.” I couldn’t help but chuckle under my breath – I should have known he’d already run the idea by them before asking me.

“Go on, Mar!” Vanessa said, “The girls and I will be here whenever you all come back and then we can go on our Tour de Sydney!” I laughed a little louder, the boys and I saying goodbye before we left in separate cars.

~

It hadn’t even been 10 minutes of a drive before Calum was pulling into a driveway. I felt like I should be nervous – meeting parents had always been somewhat of an anxiety-attack-waiting-to-happen kind of thing for me – but I wasn’t even a little worrisome. Though, maybe that was just because I was so comfortable with Calum as his assurances that they would like me because he liked me.

Calum took my hand after we got out of the car, pulling me onto the porch. He didn’t bother knocking – if his parents were anything like my mom, she would have made fun of me for it even though I didn’t technically live there anymore – and we went in. But we didn’t even make it past the door frame before I heard his mother’s voice.

“Cal!” she shrieked happily, “You’re finally home!”

“Mum!” Calum grinned widely, letting go of my hand so he could run over and hug her. I simply grinned as I closed the door behind me, hearing another voice come from somewhere in the house.

“There’s my boy!” Calum’s dad beamed as he turned the corner. When Calum let go of his mother to hug his father, his mom looked over and saw me watching all of them.

“You must be Mari!” she smiled, coming over and pulling me into a hug without warning. I let out a soft grunt, not expecting to be hugged, but I hugged her back nonetheless.

“And you must be Cal’s mom,” I giggled, “It’s nice to finally meet you; He talks about you and his dad all the time.”

“Only good things, I hope,” his dad came over to give me a quick hug as well.

“Of course, Mr. Hood,” I nodded as he let go of me, “I don’t think I’ve heard him say a bad word about anybody, let alone you guys.”

“You don’t have to call us that, sweetheart; You can just call us Joy and David,” his mom insisted, “Anyone Cal likes enough to meet the parents doesn’t have to bother with formalities.”

“Mum,” Calum warned, his cheeks turning a light shade of red.

“It’s only fair, Cal,” I shrugged, “My mom had her fun embarrassing me while we were in Indy; Now it’s your turn to suffer.”

“I can see why you like her,” I heard a third voice, looking over as Calum’s sister came into the room.

I’d met Mali a few times before – twice at the shows we played in London, once as the band and I were walking into the recording studio and she was walking out, and once when I was just out and about in the city. Of course, that was all before I’d even met Calum – though, Calum did tell me that she seemed really happy when he confirmed the relationship after she’d called him and asked if the rumors about us being together were true.

“What are you doing here?” Calum asked with furrowed eyebrows, “I thought you weren’t flying in until the Sydney shows.”

“And miss out on embarrassing you in front of Mari now that you’re actually dating her?” Mali snorted softly, “I don’t think so.” Calum whined softly, making me laugh as she came over to hug me. “It’s good to see you again,” she said.

“Always a pleasure, Mali,” I snickered, “I can’t wait to hear what’s in store for me.”

“You know what? That’s gonna have to wait,” Calum said suddenly, “We’d better be getting back to the house – we have to show you guys around the city before we lose too much daylight.”

“That’s not fair, Cal!” I pouted, “I live with my mom when I visit! I didn’t have another house to retreat to when she started embarrassing me!”

“That’s a real shame, princess, but you know how Ash gets when we’re running late,” he walked over to the door, putting his hand on the knob as I sighed. I knew he was only wanting to leave before he got too red, but I knew he was right as well – Ashton would have a fit if we didn’t get back when we said we would.

“We’ll see you tomorrow, dear,” Joy smiled, hugging me again, “Whether you come over here with Calum or not.” Calum groaned as I laughed loudly, hugging David as well as Mali.

“I’ll text you some photos later,” she murmured in my ear so Calum couldn’t hear her.

“How much do you think he’ll hate me if they accidentally end up on Twitter?” I whispered back.

“What you choose to do with them is out of my control,” she teased, letting go of me. I laughed again before telling everyone goodbye, being quickly ushered out of the house by my boyfriend.

“Come on, Cal,” I grinned after we got into his car and started making the drive back to the boys’ house, “At least they like me.” He didn’t say anything; All he did was smile to himself, reaching over and grabbing my hand to hold on my lap.