Teacher's Girl (Aflyingwhale)

Chapter 65: Summer Breeze 

Chapter 65: Summer Breeze

EMMA’s POV :

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"lan asked nervously.

We were standing in front of my front door.

My parents and I were having dinner together tonight and I decided to bring lan home.

This was a big step for us.

Our relationship was on a whole new level now.

No more lies and sneaking around, we could be an official couple.

I'd been hiding him from my family for such a long time, I didn’t wanna do that anymore.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine,"I said reassuringly.

"We don't have to tell them everything right away, do we?"

"No, we don’t.I just want them to meet you and know who you are as a person.Everything else is just whatever,"

lan was still absolutely nervous when I opened the front door and pulled him inside.

"Emma? Is that you?"mom called out from the dining room.

lan kept taking deep breaths and letting out sighs.I gave him another reassuring smile before pulling him to the dining room.

"Mom, dad, I want you to meet lan, my boyfriend,"I announced to them.

"Mr.and Mrs.Sinclair, it's an honor to finally meet the both of you,"lan smiled brightly.

"Oh...hello,"mom was absolutely shocked.

Dad couldn't even say a word.

"Please, have a seat,"she said again after a while of awkward silence.

We took our seats in front of them and they watched lan like a hawk.

lan purposefully wore a long sleeved shirt today.

He wanted to appear formal for some reason.

"So, this is what you wanted to tell us all week long?"mom asked me.

I had been hinting at her that I wanted her to meet someone.

I smiled sheepishly and nodded at her.

"Mr.and Mrs.Sinclair, I'm very serious about your daughter.I would love your permission to date her,"

lan spoke, and their attention was directed back at him.

"Oh, well, um, lan, tell us about yourself,"mom said, "

“How did you two meet?"

lan and I exchanged a look and I nodded at him.

We had prepared ourselves for this, we knew exactly what to say.

"I'm twenty-four years old.I’m a painter and I teach art on the side.We first met at Emory two summers ago.I was finishing up grad school at the time and Emma was there visiting a friend,"

"You went up to Emory? Two summers ago?"mom glared at me.

"Yeah, remember my birthday? I wanted to go visit Zach, so Tiff, Carrie, and I went out there.And before you yell at me, everything was fine.We were all being careful and we didn’t do anything crazy or bad,"I said defensively.

Nothing crazy or bad, just insane.Mom and dad shared a worried look.Dad looked like he was going to get a heart attack.

"So now you two are...dating?"mom said to us.

"Yes,"we both said in unison.

"Do you know that Emma's going to the University of Pennsylvania in the fall?"Dad spoke up for the first time.

"Yes, sir.I'm aware of that,"lan nodded quickly.

"I promise our relationship’s not going to affect Emma’s education.Her education comes first,"

"That's right,"dad agreed.

"But, I do plan to keep on seeing her.I love your daughter very much,"

lan said to dad, and he gripped my hand tighter.

"And I love him too,"

I said to mom and dad, pausing for a moment before continuing, "He’s the one that motivated me to apply for lvy League schools and push my limits.I wouldn't be able to do all this if it wasn’t for him,"

"Emma's an amazing girl.I can be the best version of myself when I’m with her,"lan said as he turned to me.

"I think we make each other better,"I kept my gaze on him too.Mom and dad didn’t say anything for a while, but I noticed the small smile that escaped mom's lips.And although dad didn’t say anything much, by the end of dinner, he gave lan a firm handshake and said, "take good care of my Emma,"

To which lan responded, "Absolutely and always,"

"See? It wasn't so bad?"I said as I walked him to his car.

"I thought I was gonna die out there,"lan let out a sigh of relief, the first time this entire night.

Dinner wasn’t so bad.After the typical interrogation round, mom and dad warmed up to lan.

The common denominator was me.They talked about college life I was gonna have and the future.

Honestly, I found it cute.

There were these three people that loved me to the moon and back and they were just talking about how to love me best.

"You were great in there,"I said to him.

"Your dad has the best poker face.I still don’t know if he likes me or not,"

"He’s just worried.Even though I've graduated high school and I'm gonna be in college soon, I'm still forever his little girl.Just give them time, when they see how good we are together and how responsible and mature we are, they'll come around," "Responsible and mature...sure,"he stifled a laugh.

"Hey, it'll be different this time around.You said it yourself,"

I reminded him.After graduation, lan and I sneaked off for a bit and we talked about our relationship.

We talked about everything from always being honest with each other and dealing with long distance.

The plan was that we would long distance for a year and then lan would move to the east coast to be closer to me.

We didn’t have all the details yet, but we would figure itoutas wego.

"You've met my parents, I've met your mom.This all feels so real,"I said when we arrived in front of his car.

"Because it is real, baby girl.You best believe it,"he smiled and he leaned down for a kiss.

Even though it was just a short, sweet kiss on my front lawn, it was our first real kiss in public.

I would treasure this moment forever.

"I love you, Emma."

"I love you, lan,"

That night, I was sitting on my bed, exchanging texts with my girlfriends.

Tiff was getting ready for her backpacking trip and Carrie was spending all her time with Mark.

I was so busy with my phone screen, I didn’t realize mom had knocked on the door and she came in.

"Honey? You're still up?"mom said.

"Yeah, I’m just talking to Tiff and Carrie.What's up?"

She took a seat on the edge of my bed and sighed,

"Honey, we need to talk about lan,"She got my full attention now.

I put the phone away and asked, "Do you like him? Does dad like him?" Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

"Emma, things look pretty serious with you two.Why are we just hearing about him now?"

"It is serious, mom.I’ve loved him since two summers ago.But life got in the way and we just couldn't be fully together, until now,"I paused for a second and asked, "

“Why, do you guys not like him?"

"It's not that we don't like him...we just don’t know him.And he’s a little too old for you, no?"

"We're only six years apart.Aunt Marissa and Uncle Michael are eight years apart,"I said defensively, calling out my aunt from my mom’s side.

Aunt Marissa was mom’s younger sister who got married to a guy eight years older than her.

"She was thirty and he was thirty eight.The age gap doesn't really matter once you hit thirty,"mom retorted back.

"So, what? You don’t like him because he’s older than me?"

"I'm not saying that,"she sighed.

"I'm just saying, take it easy.Don’t rush into anything.You're still so young,"

"I'm gonna be in college in two months,"

"Still,"she insisted.

"I know, mom.I know what you mean.And trust me, rushing is that last thing we wanna do.We're taking things slow but steady.That's why we wanna come to you guys.We wanna make sure we're building a good, strong foundation for our relationship,"

"Wow...that’s very mature.I'll give you guys that,"she nodded approvingly.

"After everything that’s happened, I wanna focus on myself and college.Long distance isn’t gonna affect that.So, you have nothing to worry about,"

I gave mom a confident smile and she smiled back.Tears pooled in her eyes and she pulled me into a hug.

"I can't believe this.You've graduated high school and you're going to college.My baby’s growing up so fast..."

"Aw, mom.I’m not a baby anymore,"

"You'll always be my baby, baby,"

Summer went by like a breeze.I was having the best time of my life.lan and I were still wary about going out and possibly running into people from school because that would be awkward.But we still spent all our time together.If we weren't hanging out at his apartment, he would come over to my house.

One day, my parents were out at work and I was alone in the house.lan came over and we made out in my living room.I found it so surreal, the fact that lan and I were making out in my living room.

We moved things over to my bedroom next and that felt even more unreal.

Some days, we would go out and take day trips to the beach.

lan was feeling inspired a lot, so he would take his sketchbook everywhere to paint or draw.

I would just lie around, read a book and get a tan, while lan would be sketching.

Even simple things like that felt so amazing to me.

Before I knew it, the days were passing by and my birthday was just around the corner.

As my birthday present, I asked lan to be the one to drive me up to Philly.

Mom and dad were reluctant at first, but I was very good at begging, and they finally relented.

I figured that we were gonna do long distance soon, so I wanted to make the most of my time with lan.

Taking this road trip to Philly together sounded like the perfect way to do that.

We would have so much fun on the road and lan would stay for a couple of days to explore U Penn and Philadelphia with me.

It was the perfect way to end a perfect summer.

"Ready to go?"lan said when he arrived at my house the morning before my birthday.

He was smiling that mega- watt smile, full of excitement.

My parents were upstairs, busily helping me move my things.

I peeked around to make sure they weren't watching and I pulled lan into a kiss, saying, "With you? Absolutely and always,"