Messed Up Youthful Innocence

{Katie's Point Of View}

Two weeks after prom our parents didn’t know about Kayla and Drew. Kayla had woken me up as soon as she got back, seeing as I was sleeping on her floor. The three of us broke it to Petey a few days later. He was, less than thrilled, but he seemed like he might be okay eventually. There was a small amount of yelling, and Wentzish arguments. In the end Petey ended up calming down enough to stop threatening to kill Drew. Our parents had left Wednesday night and were supposed to be back on Saturday morning. This was our first time that they had left us for more than 24 hours alone. We were under strict orders to call our parents every night, and our grandparents twice a day. As long as we checked in with them, we were left by ourselves. Friday night we decided to spend the night at the Wentz’s. We ordered a ridiculous amount of pizza early in the night and ended up watching a few movies. I fell asleep on one of the couches around 2am.

“Sweetie, sweetie wake up.” I heard dad mumble while gently shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see dad crouched down by the couch with mom Pete and Erelin looking incredibly serious behind him.

“Hi dad, back so soon?” I yawned.

“It’s noon.”

“Oh”

“Sweetie care to explain what happened when we were gone?” Dad asked, he sounded…
well a little confused and a little angry, but it wasn’t at me. I looked around and mom moved so I could see the couch across from me. Drew and Kayla were curled up on the couch, but not in a just friend way. They were facing each other and their legs were intertwined. Kayla’s head was buried somewhere in Drew’s neck.

“Um, I’d rather not” I said trying to change the subject.

Dad gave me his most fatherly glance.

“Fuck, Drew” I mumbled. I got another sterner glance because apparently dad had understood that. I threw the blankets off of me and walked over to Drew and Kayla. I poked Drew and he groaned. I poked him a little harder. His eyes snapped open.

“What Katie?” He growled.

“Um, you have a little explaining to do.” I said quietly.

Drew mumbled “shit” right as I picked up a throw pillow and threw it at Petey who immediately sat up. The tension grew in the room as I sat next to Petey. Drew was keeping his cool as he carefully woke Kayla up.

“Morning Sunshine” Pete said giving Drew a look of death.

Kayla woke up and her eyes widened as she rolled over and saw her parents. Drew and Kayla detangled themselves and sat very straight onto the couch, not looking at anyone.

“This is gonna be awesome” Petey whispered to me.

“Kayla, Drew, do you have something to tell us?” Erelin asked.

Both of them were still looking down, Kayla opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

“What was that?” Pete asked trying to keep his calm and failing miserably.

“Peter” Erelin snapped back, glaring at him.

Dad’s expression was harder to read. He was always quieter than Pete, but a situation like this was uncharted territory.

“Andrew” Dad said.

Drew was cracking, he looked up at dad. Only looking at dad, and not blinking.

“Kayla and I have been going out for about two weeks.”

I think he was more scared of what Pete was going to do. Drew was twitching, almost like at any second he’d be able to jump up and run.

“Two weeks ago was prom.” Dad said not breaking his glare that no known human, except possibly mom could lie to.

“I think my dad’s gonna kill him.” Petey whispered excitedly.

“I know, it’s going to be sweet. “ I replied.

My mom sent us a warning glare that said ‘you two stay quiet and out of this if you know
what’s good for you.’

Pete was glaring at Drew, Erelin was trying to get Pete to calm down and Kayla looked like
she wanted to give Drew a hug. Hell, I wanted to give Drew a goodbye; you were a great
older brother sort of hug.

“Okay, well I guess that answers the question.” Erelin said trying to get Pete to calm down

“Prom?” Pete asked angrily, making Drew twitch a little more, as he broke eye contact with
Dad and glanced at Pete with pleading eyes.

“Yes sir.” Drew spit out. Honestly, he deserves something for the ‘sir’ part.

Erelin looked at Mom who looked the calmest.

“So, Katie, Drew grab your stuff, we’re gonna head back to the house, we haven’t been
home in a few days.

“Okay!” I squeaked jumping off the couch and grabbing mine and Drew’s bag from upstairs.
When I got back down, everyone but Pete was standing by the front door. I gave Kayla a hug.

“Good luck” I whispered.

“Katie, we’re both daddy’s little girls, you and I both know I can get him to be okay with this, it’ll just take time.” Kayla whispered back her eyes twinkling.

We piled into Drew’s car, Dad driving it. Drew looked unusually pale and the first few minutes of the car ride were silent.

“Drew, breathe.” I finally said breaking the silence.

“I am” he said angrily looking out the window.

“Stop being so fucking emo” I mumbled.

“Katherine Taylor” both my parents yelled at the same time.

“Sorry”

“Mom, is Pete gonna kill me?” Drew asked.

“No, Drew, it would have just been nice of you to inform us rather than we find you two.” Mom
answered sighing.

“There’s not much he can do, without being too much of a hypocrite.” Dad said pulling into the driveway.

We grabbed our bags out of the car and Dad opened the door. I started up the stairs but stopped halfway up and turned around. Drew looked like he was trying to talk to Mom and Dad but didn’t know what to say.

“Drew, just go upstairs, we’ll talk later.” Mom said calmly. They turned and walked away whispering. Drew walked up towards me.

“I will love you forever if you sneak down and tell me what they’re talking about” Drew said once he reached me.

“I was going to do it anyways.”

He smiled faintly and grabbed my bag; I turned and softly descended the stairs. I heard them in the kitchen so I hid just out of view in the dining room.

“He’s 16, he shouldn’t be dating” Dad said.

“That’s not what you said in the car.” Mom replied.

“I was trying to make him feel better; Pete’s going to fucking kill him!”

“No he’s not, Erelin won’t let him.”

“He still shouldn’t be dating.”

“In general or Kayla”

“You know I mean Kayla. He has every other girl on the planet and he chooses Kayla. It’s not
that she’s ugly, she’s quite pretty, but seriously, he has no clue what he’s getting into.”

“Let’s look at this logically. How old were Pete and Erelin?”

“He was sixteen she was fifteen”

“Right, now how old were we?”

“I think you were four and I was five when I pushed you into the mud behind my house.”

“Yes, you were… bastard. I LOVED THAT OUTFIT and you ruined it.” Mom said raising her
voice.

“YOU WERE FOUR how do you remember that?”

“I just do.” mom said in a matter of fact way.

“It’s not so much of them dating that I’m worried about”

“Then what’s the problem, we can’t say much considering we were younger than them when we started.”

It was really kind of sweet to know that my parents had been high school sweethearts, but someday they just grossed me out they got so love-y with everything.

“What happened at prom for us?” Dad asked with an accusing tone to his voice.

“You kind of initiated it there honey.”

“I know, and that kinda worries me. I mean think of me and you put together, plus Pete and Erelin put together, and well yeah, we weren‘t great kids, we did a lot of things that we shouldn‘t have done, in places we shouldn’t have done it. ”

“We did them, we can’t take it back.”

“I know we can’t, I just don’t want them to make the same mistakes we did.”

“Are you calling them mistakes?”

“No, I’m just saying remember all those times I was grounded, or you were grounded and we snuck into each others houses?”

“Yeah”

“What about the time right after you graduated and my parents weren’t home and came home but almost caught us.”

I gasped right as what I realized that they were totally talking about them having sex. More because they are my parents and being the youngest I can always imagine that they haven’t’ had sex since I was conceived. And I don’t really want to think about me or Drew, being conceived.

“Katie, get in here” Dad said angrily.

Fuck, they heard me. I took a deep breath and tried to look innocent as I rounded the corner
into the kitchen. Mom was sitting on the island and dad was leaning against the other part of the counter.
Both of them were glaring at me, obviously knowing what I was doing down here.

“Hi” I whispered.

“No, we’re not going to kill Drew. No, we’re not going to stop them from dating. Yes we’re angry that he didn’t tell us. Yes you shouldn’t have been down here eavesdropping.” Dad sternly said.

“Katie, you okay? You look...” mom said sliding off the island.

“I heard you two talking, and then I heard too much.” I squeaked “and now I’m just grossed out.”

Mom looked confused, then her eyes widened.

“What? Us talking about what us, as adults, do?”
I squeaked in response.

“It’s a natural thing you know, it just kinda happens when you love someone. It may seem gross now, but just you wait.”

“BUT YOU’RE MY PARENTS I don’t want to think about you two having sex!” I gasped turning on my heel and running up the back staircase. I didn’t even go to Drew’s room I just ran straight into mine trying to get the mental image of my parents having sex out of my brain. I dove into my bed pulling the blankets over my head. I heard Drew come in.

“Well, what’s their verdict?” he asked softly.

“You can date her.” I squeaked through the pillow.

“And?”

“They’re angry that you didn’t say anything, Dad doesn’t want you dead.”

“Sweet. Katie what’s wrong?”

“I heard them talking about sex, and well EW.”

“You didn’t need to tell me that much.”

“You asked, and the thing is, they were arguing over this. I mean…”

I trailed off as I heard drums coming from the basement. Drums in the basement means dad is beyond angry.

“Shit” Drew mumbled as he heard dad.