Messed Up Youthful Innocence

(Erelin’s POV)

“You think the house in tact?” Chrissy asked as we got out of our cars.

“It looks ok on the outside.” I said.

“Just wait until we see the inside.” Pete mumbled.

We walked up the pathway to our house. We had left the kids to themselves, while we went on a little trip to Florida to meet with John Janick of FBR.

“You have to admit it though: it was a nice, quiet weekend.” I said as Pete unlocked the front door.

“Yea it was. We should go off without the kids more often.” Andy said as we walked inside the house.

“Petey? Kayla?” I said as we walked inside the house.

It was a quiet. And their cars are still here.

“Uhh maybe we shouldn’t go out more often. You guys come here.” Chrissy said from the family room. We walked over and saw a not so pretty sight. The kids were sleeping. Katie was on the love seat, Pete was on the floor, and Kayla (Pete’s and my daughter) sleeping in the arms of Drew (Chrissy and Andy’s son.) My eyes went wide as I couldn’t help but stare at those two. Their legs all tangled together, his arms around her waist, and her head buried in his chest. The first thing I was going to was pull her off, but I think Pete read my mind because he walked over to get her. I pulled him back.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Pete whispered angrily.

“There has got to be a logical explanation and the only way is to do this calmly and rationally.” I said calmly.

“And we’re about to find out.” Andy said as he walked over to Katie.

He shook her gently just to enough to wake her up.

“Sweetie, sweetie wake up.” Andy said as he shook his youngest and only daughter.

She opened her eyes and looked at first to her father, then to her mother and to Pete and me.

“Hi dad, back so soon?” she yawned.

“It’s noon.”

“Oh”

“Sweetie care to explain what happened when we were gone?” he asked as he tried to stay calm as possible.

She looked up right as Chrissy moved away to show her a good view of Kayla and Drew lying on the couch. I looked over at Pete who I knew was clenching his fists. I tried a bit to calm him down, but he pushed me away. I looked down at his fists, the same fists he always put through these walls so many times whenever he was angry. Looks like I’ll be making a trip to the hardware tonight.

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

Andy must have given her his fatherly stare because she took off the blankets and muttered something under her breath. She walked over to Kayla and Drew and poked Drew awake.

“What Katie?” He grumbled.

“Uh, you have a little explaining to do.” She said.

I then heard a Drew mumble a “shit” and that’s when Pete huffed out more steam. Katie grabbed one of the pillows and threw it at our sleeping Petey. He instantly got up and saw me staring at him. He sat next to Katie on the loveseat to watch the whole thing. I looked over at Drew who was trying to wake up Kayla.

“Morning Sunshine” Pete said giving Drew a deadly look.

Kayla then woke up immediately, rolling over to look at Pete and me. Drew and Kayla then sat up quickly and sat very straight onto the couch, not looking at us, especially Pete’s vein that was popping out of his head.

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

“Kayla, Drew, do you have something to tell us?” I asked calmly as I looked at them.

Pete managed to hold on to my arm, but was digging his hands into it. 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” I snapped back, raising my eyebrow at him.

I looked at him giving him glare as I saw him clench his jaw shut.

“Andrew” Andy said, giving him a stern look.

Drew was shaking. He then looked up at Andy, and only looked at him without blinking.

“Kayla and I have been going out for about two weeks.” He said holding in squeaks.

It looked like he was about to pee in his pants. He didn’t want to look at Pete. Hell I didn’t want to, but after 27 years of being together with this man, you sorta get use to him. It looked like he wasn’t that much scared for his father as he was scared for Pete.

“Two weeks ago was prom.” Andy said as he gave him that look that I knew was infamous look Chrissy always talks about.

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

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

Chrissy sent Petey and Katie 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, I was trying to get Pete to calm down and Kayla looked like she wanted to give Drew a hug. The only thing that was on my mind right now was that any minute Pete was gonna get a knife and start ripping apart Drew.

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

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

“Yes sir.” Drew spit out nervously.

At least he was being courteous at this point. I looked at Chrissy and gave her a tired look. She knew what I was thinking because she was thinking the same thing. “So, Katie, Drew grab your stuff, we’re gonna head back to the house, we haven’t been home in a few days.” Chrissy said calmly.

“Okay!” Katie squeaked jumping off the couch.

She ran as fast as she could upstairs and grabbed her brother and her stuff. Kayla and Drew cautiously got up from the couch. I held back Pete, but he knew where his grounds were. He sat down on the love seat and stared into outer space. I walked the rest of them to the door. Petey gave Drew a pat on the back and Kayla and Katie hugged. Andy took the keys for Drew’s car and walked out the house. I hugged Chrissy as well.

“Call me later.” Chrissy whispered in my ear.

“Don’t worry. I’ll talk to him. But if you see anything breakable missing or holes in the walls, you know why.” I said as we let go of each other.

“And when I pick up and you hear the drums beat repeatedly, you know who that is.” She said.

“I know. Bye loves. Drive home safely.” I said.

They walked out, and I closed the door quietly. In an instant, Pete started yelling.
“KAYLA EVELYN WENTZ! PETER LEWIS KINGSTON WEN… fuck it. LITTLE ME GET IN HERE NOW” Pete said in a stern voice.

They both looked at me with pleading looks, and all I could do was gesture them to go in there. They both sulked to the family room as I followed them. Pete was still sitting on couch. He gestured for them to sit on the couch across from the loveseat that he was on. The both sat down and looked from Pete to me. I stared at Pete as I saw him staring at them.

“I am going to leave some ground rules. Peter, you are to watch over your sister at all times. Kayla, I want you to break up with him and never date that boy again.”

“Peter!” I said.

“Dad!” Kayla and Petey said at the same time.

“I have put my foot down. End of story.”

“No it is not end of story.” I said.

“Yes it is.” Pete said as he got.

“No it is not. You are not the only parent in this household.” I said as I put my arms on my hips.

“I am their father.”

“And I am their mother.”

“Erelin…”

“Peter!” I yelled back.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kayla and Petey look at each other then look back at us.

“Dad, you can’t tell me I can’t see him. He’s my best friend.” Kayla finally said.

“What did I say? You are never to see again.”

“Dad, I can’t watch her 24/7.” Petey replied.

“Pete.” I said.

“You are to do what I say.”

“You’re being a little hypocritical.” I said calmly.

“Dad, you’re being unfair.”

“No I am not.”

“That’s enough.” I screamed.

They all looked at me as I all looked at them with my eyebrow raised.

“Petey, Kayla, can you please go upstairs and fix all your dirty laundry so I can start doing a load. I would like to talk to your father alone.” I said.

They hurriedly went straight upstairs to their rooms and left Pete and me alone.

“Erelin.”

“Pete, do not even start.”

“What do you mean? I am trying to be a parent. She’s too young to be dating. She’s only…”

“16? That age sounds about right. Aren’t you being a hyprocrite?”

“No…”

“Yes you are.”

“How?”

“I do recall a story of a 15 year old Asian girl who moved from Cicero which was at the edge of the City of Chicago to the North Shore Suburbs. Her family moved next door to a wonderful family in Wilmette. That 15 year old girl met the eldest son of her new neighbors who was in fact 16 years old. They soon became best friends, then hid their relationship behind their parents back. Years past, they were in love, then an incident happened which they never really discuss. She moves away, but comes back years later with her fiancée who is not that boy she fell in love with years ago. She was pregnant, but lost her baby. With that she broke up with her fiancée, and went back to the arms of her first true love. She gets pregnant again with her first true love’s twins. They get married, and they lived happily every after. And here we are 27 years later having this discussion.” I said.
Pete looked at me with a sorta of defeated look.

“Your point?” He managed to get out.

“My point is: is that now you know how my father felt when I was 16 years old and sneaking behind his back.” I said.

“BUT YOUR DAD LOVED ME!!!”

“And you don’t feel the same way for Drew? He is our Godson as well as Katie is our Goddaughter, and Petey and Kayla are Chrissy’s and Andy’s Godchildren.”

He then looked at me and was speechless.

“Pete, it’s going to happen one day or another. At least it’s someone we know well. That we also watched grow up.”

He stared at me and hung his had in shame.

“But she’s my little girl.” He said quietly.

“I know, she’s my little girl too. It’s going to happen some day.”

“I know, but wait what happen to our agreement?”

“What agreement?”

“That I take care of Kayla after she turns 15, and you do the same for Petey.”

“I know about that, but I know you were going to be too over protective over her.”

“I can’t help it.” He said as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

“I know.” I said as I wrapped my arms around his neck, then kissing him on the cheek.

“Who would have thought this would be so hard.”

“It’s not hard. Just complicated. It’s like watching ourselves grow up, but it’s our children though. Now we know how our parents felt about us dating when we were their age.”

I don’t really mind that they are dating. I really don’t. The only thing I’m worried about is Mr. Temper over here. I heard the phone ring and looked at the caller-id.

“Hurley, Andrew.”

I picked it up. I was about to say hello when I was cut off by the sound of hard core drumming in the background. That moment I knew Andy was blowing up steam. I then heard a crashing noise. I looked to see Pete had disappeared. I heaved a huge sigh. This was going to be very interesting.