I'm Your Wreck

34- Awkward

I was in Ollie's room on a random Thursday night, studying for a calculus quiz. I sucked at any math course I'd ever taken and almost always leaned on him for help. Plus, he let me use his fancy calculator as long as it never left his room. He had a severe emotional attachment to the thing, and all of the complicated graphs it could produce.

Banks was there too, sitting on the bed with one of his own text books. I think he was just there to be in the room, because every time I looked up at him, he was either looking at me or checking his phone.

"You're pushing the buttons too hard," Ollie protested as I entered some numbers into the calculator. "She's delicate."

"Sorry," I sighed, trying to move with more caution as I continued with the calculation that still didn't make any sense to me.

There was a knock on the front door and then Kenji, who was in the kitchen making dinner, hurrying through the living room to answer it. Probably Beth or Bridgette, maybe one of Ollie or Walker's friends. With five of us living here all with social circles that extended outside of this house, there were always people showing up unexpected.

So none of us batted an eye at these sounds until there was a woman's voice greeting Kenji. I didn't recognize it, but both Ollie and Banks jumped, staring at each other wide-eyed.

"This is an...interesting set up you boys have here," the woman was saying to Kenji. "That couch is certainly a bold choice."

"Is that...?" Ollie asked Banks, who was sitting upright in the bed now, the textbook laying limp and abandoned beside him.

"What the hell," he muttered.

"Banks! You have visitors!" Kenji called up the stairs.

"Who is it?" I asked dumbly as Banks pushed himself off the bed, vanishing into the hallway as if the house was on fire.

"His parents," Ollie said before following.

Curious and stunned, I slowly followed both of them down to the first floor. They seemed really freaked out that his parents were here and I had no idea why. Banks didn't talk about his mom or dad very much, so I wasn't really sure what I was walking into.

By the time I carried myself into the living room, there was a short, thin woman wrapped around Banks. Her dark brown bob hung over his shoulder as a much taller man stood nearby, smiling.

"What are you guys doing here?" Banks asked after pulling out of his mother's hug.

I was just wearing a pair of sweats and some old socks with a hole at the toe. My hair was dirty and disheveled, I hadn't shaved in a couple of days. Definitely not in the kind of state I'd want to be in to meet my partner's parents. I would at least want to be wearing a shirt.

"We wanted to surprise you for your birthday!" she said, pulling Ollie into her embrace next. "It's good to see you, Oliver."

"Your birthday?" I heard myself ask before I even realized I was speaking.

All four of them turned to look at me, as if only just now realizing that I was in the room.

"It's next week," Banks said, motioning for me to join the conversation rather than lurk weirdly by the staircase. "These are my parents, Jill and Mark. And this is Liam. My boyfriend."

By the shocked look of appraisal on both of their faces, I quickly gathered that they didn't seem to know he had a boyfriend.

"It's... uh, nice to meet you," I said, trying not to sound caught off guard, even though I totally was. In that moment, it seemed like everybody in the room was caught off guard by the situation we'd found ourselves in.