Me: I’ve missed u 2 xo
* * *
I silenced my incoming notifications and watched as the semi-familiar streets became streets so familiar I could pick out every other store. I hadn’t given much thought to what it would feel like to return but now I was here, I realized how strange it felt.
How it didn’t feel like home anymore, not even a little bit.
Asher
“Son,” my father’s deep voice echoed over the line.
“Dad,” I clipped out, spinning the football with one hand.
“We’ll be back in town in a couple of days. Your mother wants to decorate and have dinner, just like old times.” There was a hint of sarcasm in his words.
“Old times, right.”
“Asher, could you be a little more interested please? This is important to her.”
“Of course, Dad. Whatever Mom needs.”
“We’ll be in town for the remainder of the holidays. I don’t have to be back in the city until January fourth.”
“That long?”
That was a little over two weeks away. I hadn’t survived two weeks with my parents in what felt like forever.
“Your mom had hoped we could all spend New Year’s together.”
“Actually, about that. The guys want to go to New York. Vaughn and Riley invited us. I thought we could—”
“Very well, I’ll arrange the penthouse. Just the five of you?”
“Six, I think.”
“Six?”
“Felicity’s friend Mya is comi
ng with us.”
“Ah yes, the new transfer. Is she someone you have your eye on?” He cut straight to the point in true Andrew Bennet fashion.
“Can we not do this, Dad, please?”
He scoffed. “It’s a perfectly reasonable question, Asher. You’re eighteen, a young man, and you have yet to bring home a girl for us to meet.”
Because you’re never home and I would never willingly introduce my girlfriend to you. “That’s because I haven’t found anyone I want to bring home yet.”
“So you and Miss...” he hesitated.
“Hernandez.”
“Hernandez? Are her family immigrants?”
“Excuse me?” I choked out.
“It’s a South American name is it not?”