Brook

I will be over soon. I'm leaving work shortly

I sighed loudly after hitting send on the text message to Alex. Most days when I was at work and knew he was waiting at home for me, I couldn't wait for the day to be over so I could see him, especially if he had just gotten home. Today was different.

I know we needed to have this conversation about his parents but now that it was something that was definitely going to happen, I was nervous. Stupid nervous. I didn't know what Alex was going to say. Maybe he didn't want me to meet his parents. Maybe that wasn't what this whole thing we had was to him.

I shook my head as I gathered my belongings and locked up my office. I was making myself crazy for nothing. I knew Alex thought what we had was special. If anything, his behavior this morning more than confirmed that.

When my alarm went off this morning, I found myself alone in my bed. At first I thought I dreamed Alex stopping by but the memory of almost reaching for the lamp on the side of my bed and bashing his head in before I realized who he was, was way too vivid in my mind.

I heard someone moving around in the kitchen and I just assumed it was Jenn and that Alex had given up after I fell asleep and went home.

I took a quick shower and got dressed for the day before making my way into the kitchen. I expected to see Jenn sitting at the table, a large cup of coffee and three text books spread open in front of her at the table. Instead, I found Alex finishing up washing the dishes and a fresh plate of his waffles sitting in the middle of the table that was set for two.

He smiled when he saw me and gave me a big kiss. I swear I almost forgot that we were in the middle of a pretty big fight.

He told me to sit down and brought me a cup of coffee, made exactly how I liked it. We started eating, making mostly small talk before he brought up his parents.

I brushed him off and told him there wasn't enough time to get into that now. I needed to leave for work soon and I didn't want to leave in the middle of that conversation. He understood and told me to meet him at his house when I was done with work.

He offered to finish cleaning up breakfast while I finished getting ready for work and before I left, he walked me out to my car and gave me another big kiss.

I wanted to just hug him and kiss him and tell him how much I really did miss him but I couldn't let my guard down. This was something too important to me.

As I sat in my car outside of his house, I began to worry of it was really that important to me. Did meeting his parents really mean enough to me that I had to fight with him about it? When I realized the answer was yes, it made me kind of scared. All of a sudden Alex and I were this serious couple. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing, it just seemed to come out of nowhere and I wasn't completely sure if it was something I was ready for after the whole Josh thing.

Shaking my head again at my run-away thoughts, I dragged myself from the car and up the walkway to the front door. I knocked and stood there, lamely shifting my weight from foot to foot as I waited for Alex to open the door.

"Hey," he smiled big when he saw me.

"Hey," I smiled back, stepping inside when he pulled the door open for me, pressing another big kiss to my lips before shutting the door behind me.

"How was work?" he asked, leading me into the kitchen.

"Good," I nodded, taking in the unusual quiet of the house.

There were no dogs barking or jumping around, no Rian in the back playing with his drums or sitting in the driveway with his motorcycle running - I'd never actually seen him ride the thing. Alex didn't even have music playing.

"I have a lot of meetings set up this week. A lot of the seniors are starting to freak out with it being the end of the year."

Alex nodded like he understood where I was coming from.

"Well, I'm sure you did a fine job calming them down."

"I sure hope so."

"Do you want anything to drink?" I asked, pulling the refrigerator door open. "I just made some iced tea."

"No," I shook my head. "I'm good. Thanks though."

He nodded slowly and an incredibly awkward silence fell over us.

"What are the dogs up to?" I asked, knowing full well that they weren't even here. "They're so quiet."

"That's because they're not here. I thought I told you that they were staying with Lina until tomorrow."

"Right," I nodded. "You did say that. What about Rian?"

"He got up early and went over to see his parents. They usually put him to work as soon as he gets home. He's probably painting a ceiling or putting together a dresser as we speak," he said with a chuckle.

"What's Jack up t-"

"Brook," Alex interrupted me. "What are we doing here?"

“Avoiding an awkward situation,” I said, looking up at him.

"I think we landed in one anyway,” he said with a sad smile.

“Looks like it," I nodded.

"Come on," he grabbed my hand and led me out to the yard.

I took a seat at the patio table and he took the seat across from me.

"So," I said lamely when he didn't immediately start talking.

He sighed, seemingly frustrated by the whole thing, like I was.

"I'm sorry," he finally said.

I shook my head and opened my mouth to protest but he stopped me.

"Let me first, please? I've been kind of planning out what I wanted to say to you since the plane ride home."

"Okay."

"I should have been a little more understanding towards you with this whole thing. I get why you're mad. I really do."

"Yeah. But Alex, I totally overreacted.I think I was more mad about the posts online. I shouldn't have been so-"

Sami had showed me the blog-thing he posted kindly asking All Time Low fans to refrain from trash-talking me. I really appreciated that.

"You weren't so anything. You were actually pretty perfect," he said and I immediately frowned at the word perfect but he brushed it off. "If I was you, I would have been worse. I mean, not only did I screw up with the parents thing, but you have a bunch for fourteen year olds talking a bunch of shit about you on the Internet. You have every right to rip my head off if you wanted."

"Alex..."

"Just, let me finish," he said with a sigh. "The whole meeting my parents thing freaked me out. I've never actually done it before."

"But Lina..."

"She knew my parents before we were dating because we were friends. It was different. With you…” he paused and shrugged, "I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Do we go to their house? Do they come here? Should we take them out for dinner? Do I introduce them as Mr. and Mrs. Gaskarth?"

For the first time I let myself look Alex in the eye and I could see how genuinely nervous and upset he was by this entire thing.

"Alex, I..."

"I freaked myself out thinking about it and then I just ignored the whole thing. Until now..."

"If you're not ready for this to happen, I completely understand. Just because I got whiny doesn't mean you have to give in."

He reached across the table and gave my hand a squeeze.

"I want you to meet my parents, Brook. I want them to see how incredible you are and how happy you make me. I mean, I -" he paused for a second and gave my hand another squeeze. "You mean so much to me, I want you in every part of my life. You fit so well with my friends, there's no question how well you'd it with my parents."

I felt a smile spread across my lips.

"Are you sure?"

"Yup," he nodded. “I was just freaking out and overthinking the whole thing.”

“That sounds familiar,” I chucked. “But you’re sure? Like really, really sure?"

“Yes,” he nodded again. "So sure in fact I called my mom earlier and invited her and my dad over here for dinner tonight."

“I’m sorry,” my eyes widened. "What did you just say?"

"Is that not okay?"

"Tonight? Alex, I am not emotionally prepared to meet them tonight."

"Then what was this whole bitch-fest for?" he laughed at me.

"I figured once you agree to it, I would have a few days to prepare."

"You have plenty of time to prepare," he said, sliding his chair over and moving closer to me. "They will be here in a few hours. In the meantime, you better get cracking on dinner. My mom has heard all about what a great cook you are."

I felt my stomach drop to my knees and my eyes widened all over again.

"Please be kidding. I don't have time to cook for them. I don't have anything I would need. You don't have the right pots and I don't have sauce and-"

He silenced me with a soft kiss to my lips.

"You're going to give yourself a stroke."

"There's not enough time for that right now," I said, pushing him off before darting for the kitchen.

"Brook," he ran after me, grabbing my hand and pulling my body back against his. "I was kidding about the cooking thing. I went to the store and bought some steaks that I will put on the barbecue. All you have to help me with is putting together a salad and vegetables and potatoes."

"Potatoes? That's it?"

“Yes,” he nodded, kissing my nose lightly. "That's it."

I smiled for a second before smacking his arm.

"Don't you ever freak me out like that again!"
***

Just as Alex's parents pulled up in front of the house, a slight panic attack came over me. Alex basically took me by the shoulders and shook the crazy out of me. He promised me that everything would be okay and after when he kissed me, I felt myself start to relax just a bit.

After the introductions, I felt my nerves slip away even more, especially when both Alex's mom and dad encouraged me to call them Isobel and Peter instead of Mr. and Mrs. Gaskarth. Alex's dad didn't talk much but I had expected that. Alex told me his dad wasn't always the best talker but he was a great listener. His mother on the other hand, was quite the talker. I could see most of Alex's personality had come from her. It was cute to watch Alex speak to his parents, who still had full on English accents, and hear faint hints of his come out on certain words.

After Alex's mom asked him all about this latest trip to LA, we seemed to split off into groups of two. Alex went out to the yard with his dad to finish up the steaks on the grill, while his mom helped me to finish setting the table.

"Alex tells me you've been wanting this meeting to happen for a while now, huh? And that maybe you guys argued a bit about it," Isobel brought up.

I stopped dead in my tracks momentarily. I was trying to gauge the situation. She could possibly be mad at me for fighting with her son or for not fighting hard enough to meet her sooner.

"I- I just see the relationship Alex has with my parents and I guess I just wanted the chance to have something similar with you," I answered, trying to keep my voice even.

"He also mentioned that you were afraid that we would think less of you for it..." she added.

I looked up at her from where I had just folded four napkins perfectly in half. I just nodded. I was unsure what to say.

Finally she cracked a smile and I felt myself release a breath I was unaware I was even holding in.

"Well that's just crazy talk. I wouldn't consider that for a second. I know it was Alex that prolonged this."

I nodded again and when I didn't say anything, she kept going.

"My son likes to pretend that because he doesn't tell me things that I don't know about them. Truthfully, I probably know more than I should. I know Alex has had more than his share of girlfriends and many of them probably overlapped each other. He was never good at the whole relationship thing."

“I’ve heard,” I nodded. "We have kind of spoke about that before."

"Sure, he was with Lina for like six years," she paused, glancing over at me and I nodded to say I was well aware of Lina's existence. "But they weren't meant for each other. How many times can two people break up over six years before they realize it's not meant to be?"

"Sometimes..."

“I’m sorry,” she interrupted me. “I don't mean to sit here and talk about my son's ex-girlfriend. She's a lovely girl but I'm so glad it's over."

"So am I," I said with a nervous laugh.

Isobel gave me a warm smile and waved me over to sit with her at the table.

"Before they come back inside, I just want to thank you. You have had a tremendously good influence on my son so far since you've been dating and I can really see a change in him."

"You're welcome.” I nodded slowly. “But really, it was never my intention to change him."

"Oh, dear, I know that but I'm talking about the way you've matured him. I don't overhear him taking to his friends about the hot chick from the bar last night. Or see him ignoring calls and texts from girls he had no intentions of speaking to again after one night. He's also stopping coming over here to do his laundry so he could get me to fold it."

"I may have gave him a tip or two on how to do that properly." I laughed a little.

Isobel smiled a little wider and gave my hand a squeeze.

"My son really, really likes you, Brook. I would probably go as far as to say he may be in love with you."

I smiled and once again had to suppress the nervous feeling that came over me at the mention of the L word.

"Thank you, Isobel. Alex is a pretty spectacular guy and I'm sure for every way I have influenced him, he's done something for me.”

She smiled and leaned forward to give me a hug.

"I'm very glad this finally happened."

"Me too," I said when she released me.

A few minutes later Alex and his father came in with the steaks and we all took our seat at the table.

While we ate, Alex's parents asked me about my job and what made me decide to become a guidance counselor. They seemed impressed by my answers, which made me happy.

Isobel grilled Alex about the upcoming tour schedule for All Time Low, which included a week in Hawaii and three months on the Warped Tour. Both of which were outings he was wholeheartedly set on convincing me to come along for. It was a bit of an ongoing argument.

Occasionally, Alex would squeeze my knee under the table and I could tell it was his way of assuring me that everything was going just fine.

After we cleaned up dinner and put everything away, we were sitting back at the table eating the pie Isobel has made for dessert. She had also brought an old photo album with her that contained plenty of pictures of a very young Alex. I was totally okay with having to look at tons of incredibly embarrassing pictures of my boyfriend.

"Okay. I have had enough of this humiliation," Alex said, standing from the table. "I'm going to go clean the grill and put it away."

"Wimp," Peter laughed, standing up as well. "I will help you."

"And then there were two again," Isobel laughed as we flipped to the next page.

It was a picture of a younger Alex with two older women. Isobel explained they were Alex's sisters that still lived in England.

I nodded, examining the picture and remembering Alex telling me all about them.

On the next page was a picture of Alex with a boy that looked quite a bit like him but was a bit older than Alex was. They were sitting next to each other on a couch, each with a guitar on their lap.

"Who is this?" I asked, glancing up at Isobel and seeing a sad look wash over her face.

"That's Alex's brother, Tom," she answered quietly.

I nodded slowly. I could not recall Alex ever mentioning that he had a brother which was strange since I talked about mine all the time.

"Right. He still lives in England too, right?"

Isobel's sad face grew even sadder, making a knot form in the pit of my stomach.

"Brook, he died when Alex was twelve years old."
***

Notes

Story Title: Taylor Swift - Sparks Fly
Chapter Title: Good Charlotte - Secrets
Brook's outfit


:(