Just as Jace reaches her, he utters, "hey."
Shocked, Natalie yelps and drops her phone.
"Jesus!"
"Nope, it's just Jace again," he responds, chuckling at her while she picks her phone up, "you can't seem to remember my name."
Embarrassed by her display, she refuses to look at him and grumbles, "you fucking scared me."
He grins at her. Her smooth, black hair seemed to catch the waning sun at the perfect angle.
"Are you walking home?" he asks.
"Yeah, my parents aren't answering."
"Want a ride?"
"Of course, I would."
Any thoughts of embarrassment are forgotten as soon as he mentioned his car. Natalie would never say no to riding that smooth, plushy seat of his car.
"It's over there," he points to his left.
How can cars be so sexy?
Natalie would never tire of looking at Jace's car. And its owner, too.
Jace, ever so gentlemanly, opens the door for her.
"Thanks," she smiles at him.
They buckle in and Jace starts the car.
"You remember my house, right?" Natalie asks him. He nods.
Deja vu hits her. She remembered that she had a question for him.
What was I gonna ask him?
She tries to chase the thought but ultimately forgets and moves on.
"Could you drop me off like a block away instead of right across?"
"Can I ask why?"
Natalie takes care to word her next statement properly, not wanting to come off like a jerk. She also didn't want to freak him out with her mom's invitation of dinner.
"Umm, when you dropped me off that day we bought weed, my mom saw your car and didn't recognize it. So she kinda wants to meet you and may have asked me to invite you to dinner," she rambles on quickly.
"So?" Jace asks.
"You don't have to, obviously."
Jace shakes his head, but keeps his eyes at the front.
"No, I don't mind. It's free food," he turns to her and quickly flashes a smile. He turns away, though, before she could fully appreciate it and ingrain that picture perfect face in her brain.
"Uh, ok. If you really don't mind. My family can get eccentric at times though," Natalie warns him in an attempt to dissuade him from coming.
Please. Please say no.
Against her hopes, he doesn't heed her warning and insists on going.
After several minutes, they reach the Liang home. Jace gently breaks and puts the car in park. Natalie is about to gather her things when he gets out and opens the door for her.
What a sight.
A gorgeous man holding the door with one hand and reaching his other towards you. Muscular arms tapering down to a lean wrist and long fingers asking for your hand. Slightly bent over, his hair falls to the mercy of gravity and surrounds his face.
Natalie snatches his hand and stands up as gracefully as one could getting out of the car while carrying a bag.
He drops her hand and closes the door.
Oh, thank god.
Natalie mentally thanks all the gods of the universe for whatever made Jace let go of her hand, which was starting to get clammy from her nerves.
She steps forward ahead of Jace, discreetly wiping her hands as rough as she could, and leads him to her house.
Knocking at the door, she yells for her brother to open it.
"Sam! I know you're in there!"
She knocks loudly and vigorously.
"Open the door, please!"
Footsteps from the other side rush towards the door and hastily open it.
Sam mumbles an apology before darting upstairs to his room.
"Sorry about him," Natalie says, "he's going through that phase, you know?"
Jace doesn't really.
"I'm actually an only child," he responds.
"Oh, lucky," Natalie quips, but only half-heartedly. As much as Sam annoyed her, especially when that little asshole stole her stuff, it would've been much more lonely without him.
"By the way, do you mind taking off your shoes? I'll give you slippers," Natalie turns around and pulls out the biggest slippers they had on the shoe rack.
"My parents are just really anal about keeping the floor squeaky clean."
Jace kicks his shoes off and slips on the slippers. Before he could bend to put his shoes away, Natalie grabs them and places them on the rack.
"Thanks."
Natalie goes "mhm."
"Ready to meet the parents?" Natalie looks at him with a teasing grin that's met with Jace's own wolfish grin.
"Lead the way, my lady."
She walks past him to the right and into the kitchen.
She's greeted with a gross but expected sight. She clears her throat loudly—her parents immediately break apart from their kiss.
Ugh. I forgot about their daily canoodling. Jace is gonna be so weirded out.
"Eww, guys. Didn't you hear the door?" Natalie admonishes her parents, who were acting more like horny teenagers at the moment. "And I brought a friend, too."
"You'll understand when you're older, my dear," Natalie's dad says, unapologetically.
"Sorry about the scene, Jace," she mumbles quietly to him.
"It's, uhhm, fine."
It clearly wasn't to Jace, who was blushing red.
"Anyway, this is my mom and dad. Guys, this is Jace," Natalie introduces them.
"Nice to meet you all," he politely says like he hadn't seen them mauling each other's face not even seconds ago..
Her parents reply similarly. Her mom, Debra, unfazed from the earlier incident, tells him to sit down, which he attempts to but is stopped by Natalie's hand in his arm.
"Hold on."
She walks over to the kitchen drawer and pulls out some wipes.
"Lemme clean the table first," she says, annoyed with her parents, "just to be safe."
"You're so dramatic, Nat. And you, young man, please sit down. I'm going to get Sam," her dad, Henry, gently orders as he leaves to fetch Sam.
Debra starts getting plates and utensils out and Jace stands up to help her. Despite being turned around, Debra hears his chair moving and tells him to sit down.
"Don't worry about it. I'll get everything ready. Just sit."
He sits back down awkwardly. Taking pity on him, Natalie sits in the only chair next to him instead of helping her mom as she would usually do. Her mom would rather her keep Jace company anyway.
While her mom is occupied with plating food, Natalie turns to Jace and whispers to him, "I told you this was gonna be awkward."
Before Jace could respond, Sam comes running down from the upstairs followed by his more subdued dad. Sam takes the seat across from Natalie while their dad helps his wife put the plates of food on the table along with the utensils.
Then they both take a seat, Debra at one end of the table, near to Jace and Henry at the other end.
Unsure if he should wait, Jace keeps his hands on his spoon and fork and looks at Natalie for guidance.
"Go ahead, Jace," Natalie whispers to him.
Sounds of metal hitting ceramic plates prompt him to move. He reaches for a spoon when he sees there are also chopsticks. Having eaten countless Chinese takeouts, he is comfortable with them.
He grabs some rice using his chopsticks along with some chicken and vegetables.
"So..." Natalie's mom is the first to break the silence, "Jace, are you and Natalie dating?"
Jace, caught by surprise, just says, "uhh." He stalls for a couple seconds and tries to respond properly when Natalie beats him to it, "no mom, I introduced him as my friend, remember," emphasizing friend.
She looks at her mom with a glare and desperately hopes to convey to her to not ask anymore awkward questions.
Debra is unbothered by her daughter's look and continues.
"I was just asking, dear."
Again Jace is unsure how to go on. On the one hand, he should probably say something to not look weird in her parents' eyes by letting Natalie do all the talking for him. On the other hand, he has no idea what to say and doesn't want to get in the middle of a clash between a mother and daughter.
He opts for the easier route and stuffs his face with more rice.
Thankfully, Sam buts in and changes the conversation.
"Is the fancy car across our house yours?"
Jace still has food to chew through, but in his desperation to finally say something, he hastily swallows it down.
"Yep, you like it?" he looks at Sam, who grins widely.
"Yeah! Can I sit inside it sometime?" Sam asks eagerly.
Jace quickly scans the parents' face to gauge their expression, but he can't seem to understand whether they would be okay with it or not.
"Um, maybe later if your parents are okay with it?"
Sam looks at his mom, who nods.
Natalie, unable to contain her smugness, brags to Sam, "it's really nice. The seats, especially, are soft and comfy."
The conversation slows but Sam continues to pepper questions at Jace about his car.
Then Natalie's dad decides to finally join the conversation by offering Jace a bottle of beer. He leans over to hand Jace one, which Jace reluctantly takes.
Oh, my god. Did he completely miss the conversation about Jace's car?
Natalie mentally curses her father's inattentiveness.
"Uh, I can't really drink this. I have to drive," Jace explains as politely as he could.
He adds a "thank you, though" to not seem rude.
Henry lightly scoffs and dismisses his concerns, "don't worry, it's weak." Jace looks to Natalie for help when Henry refuses to stop and insists Jace should have a drink.
"Dad!" Natalie reprimands him, "he said no already. Just leave him be."
Jace shots her what he hopes to be a look of gratitude.
Everyone has pretty much put down their chopsticks and began just relaxing when Sam lets out a screech, "Ma! Can we get ice cream?"
"Hmm, we're too tired to drive, dear, maybe another day?"
But Sam is smart. He laid out the question only to trick his parents. He knew after eating a lot, they got sluggish and didn't like doing anything except watching TV and lounging on the couch. So he asks: "can Jace drive us then, me and Natalie?"
When they don't rise to the bait, Sam adds, "we'll be quick, please?"
Though their parents can be strict, they struggle to deny their youngest's request.
"Ehh, why not?" Henry responds and even hands Natalie some money.
"Yes!" Sam shouts and stands up. He enthusiastically tells Jace and Natalie "let's go, guys!" and orders them to get ready and go outside.
"Shotgun!" Sam cries out as he rushes outside.
Natalie shoves him aside, "nope, you're too young." Jace walks behind them and unlocks the car with his key fob.
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