A Story to Tell Your Friends

I was petrified.
I’d hardly stopped shaking since we’d boarded our plane, which Jack had only laughed at me for. He’d spent the last three weeks trying to keep me calm when I flipped out, but today he’d chosen the tactic of humour. He and I both knew I was being ridiculous, but it was his family. I wanted to make a good impression (despite Jack’s assurances that I already had, which I didn’t believe). I’d spoken to May a couple of times over the last couple of weeks, just generally chit chatting about Thanksgiving, with her making sure I wasn’t a crazy person with weird food needs (I mean, demanding pizza for most meals is reasonable, demanding pizza for Thanksgiving, is not). However, Joe and everyone else in the family were completely new to me. Apparently, Jack talked about me a lot to them and they all seemed happy enough, but that was irrelevant. We all know people exaggerate the qualities we like about the people we love. I was not in safe hands. My main fear (which I’d relayed to Jack on multiple occasions) was that they would be expecting someone amazing and be let down when they were stuck with me.
As it was, our taxi was currently slowing down outside Joe’s house, and Jack was still laughing at me. Like I said, he’d given up reassuring me a long time ago, knowing that there was absolutely no way I was going to listen to him until I saw that they liked me for myself. I was still doubting they would.
Jack sprang from the cab when we finally stopped, rushing to the door and hammering on it as I was still tentatively getting out of the vehicle. I hung back as the door opened, taking our small weekend bags from the car and taking the smallest steps I could manage up the garden path. There was a rather loud and excited bout of screaming from the doorway, and I could see the tops of his siblings’ heads before he grabbed them into a hug.
I will admit, my concerns about them not liking me briefly slipped away with thoughts of how cute it was that he was this close with his family.
They returned, full force, however, when May whacked him on the arm, a scowl on her face.
“Jack! Why is Clara carrying the bags? Go help her,” she scolded. I felt myself cringe inwardly, but Jack simply chuckled and came to grab the bags. I gave them up hesitantly, knowing that they were my only excuse to hang back and let them catch up. He nudged me forward a little and I now had no choice but to follow him up the garden path.
“Guys, this is my girlfriend, Clara. Clara, this is my sister, May, and my brother, Joe,” Jack said, introducing me even though it wasn’t entirely necessary.
“It’s nice to meet you guys,” I smiled. I was still petrified, despite the warm smiles gracing their faces. First impressions meant nothing to me right now. By the end of this weekend, they could quite easily despise me and convince Jack to leave me. It was totally a reasonable course of events and definitely not created by my anxiety riddled brain. Okay, so maybe it was the product of anxiety a little, but it could definitely still happen.
“Finally!” May shrieked, grabbing me and pulling me into a hug. “We’ve been waiting to meet you for months. Jack won’t shut up about you, and we’re sorry he was a dick, we definitely taught him better, but you know how men get when their ego is bruised.” She continued to babble at a pace that only Jack and Tammy could compete with, telling me just how excited she was to meet me, as she escorted me inside the house, completely bypassing Joe, who had just barely had chance to smile at me before May swept me away. I could hear the boys laughing as I was dragged further into the house, promptly being sat in the kitchen, where the preparation for tomorrow’s dinner had already started.
“Where are mom and dad?” Jack asked, appearing not long after I’d been forced to sit myself down. I scowled at him lightly. That was another thing he’d thrown on me only a couple of days ago. I didn’t complain, considering he would be meeting my parents in a month, but at least I’d given him plenty of warning instead of telling him the same week it would be happening. I had, of course, huffed about it to Tammy, but that wasn’t really the point.
“They’ve gone to pick up a couple of last minute things,” May replied. “They should be back in about an hour.” Jack nodded, sliding onto the stool beside mine, as May started back on what she had been prepping before we’d interrupted her with our arrival. “So, anyway, how was your flight? Was he beyond irritating?” Jack scowled as May addressed her last question to me, faking annoyance.
“I’ve been utterly wonderful and reassuring, thanks.” I laughed lightly, my nerves telling me not to make too much noise, but Jack still heard and grinned at me. “But, yes, our flight was fine. Clara was the annoying one, not me.”
“I was not annoying,” I protested, allowing the volume of my speech to increase ever so slightly.
“No, but it got you to speak, didn’t it?”
“Your loud mouth doesn’t let anyone speak.” He snorted loudly at my response, pulling me into him as May smiled, continuing her mixing.
“You tell him, Clara,” she said. “You need to hold your own against him. He was way too spoilt as a child.”
“Hey, she can hold her own. She is beyond scary when she’s angry.”
“I wasn’t that scary,” I laughed, nudging him in the side with my elbow. “I was more drunk than anything, so maybe it was that. Or maybe it was just how drunk you were that night.”
“You were like a teeny tiny Ewok or something.”
“1. I’m not teeny tiny. 2. Are you trying to call me cute or just plain hairy, Chewbacca?”
“Did you just try and call me hairy?”
“Jesus Christ, it’s like there’s fucking two of you,” May gaped, interrupting our pretend bickering and staring at Jack. “I never thought you’d find someone as nerdy and childish as you, but well done.”