rosemary's leg bounced up and down out of anxiety, staring out the window as she and Josh drove to where ever his family's house was. assuming it was even a house. the roads they drove down scared her in more ways than one, but mostly because they were the classic upper-middle-class neighborhood home to functional families with successful children.
sure, she lives in one of the best places to live in columbus, but that didn't compare to this. this was the American Dream, perfect worlds and neighborhood barbeques where everyone would talk about who's kid was better at soccer. she was scared of that life, she could never live up to the expectation they held.
"they'll like you, rosemary. i promise." josh spoke up next to her, breaking her out of her trance of anxiety to look at him. she didn't believe him, of course, but she had to smile weakly to make him think she did.
they pulled into the driveway of a nice house just like the rest of the nice houses, expect this one had a lot of cars out front. she felt claustrophobic just seeing the cars nevermind who was inside them. she followed josh out of the car with shaky hands and into the house like this wasn't the scariest moment of her life yet.
when they walked in, josh immediately had a rush of nostalgia. memories of when he was little and he'd run through that door, mud covering him from head to toe. his nostalgia trip was interrupted by his brother noticing his presence while walking down the hall, and flashing a quick smile.
"hey, josh! where've you been? everybody's already here." jordan spoke, glancing back at rosemary who, obviously, didn't say anything.
"yeah, sorry, we got stuck in a bunch of traffic." josh pulled his brother in for a hug, then realizing he hadn't even acknowledged rosemary. "oh! jordan, this is rosemary. rosemary, this is my brother jordan." josh was quick to step back so they could meet properly. rosemary smiled politely, and it was clear to josh that she was going to shake his hand, but jordan went right for the kill with a hug. not to be disrespectful, rosemary hugged back, but she was understandably caught by surprise.
"nice to meet you! welcome to our little corner of the world." jordan was super friendly, and josh was beyond thankful for that. they soon made their way to the living room where everyone was hanging out, and a chorus of greetings rang through the room when josh walked in. the first to get up was who she assumed was his mother, then one of his sisters.
rosemary took note of how welcoming their family was, it was pretty comforting. though the intimidation of how perfect they all looked together was a bit off-putting, she pushed that off for now. the christmas tree was lit up and presents filled the space below at least a foot out, and it was a very different sight. she thought christmases like that only were in movies, not real life.
josh introduced rosemary to everyone like he had with jordan, and if she was honest, this wasn't too bad. his family was really nice, and she was only a friend of his after all. Her anxiety was booming, as it always was, but truthfully she found it easier to block it out while listening to endless stories about josh.
"oh! rosemary, this is hilarious, once this person knocked on our door and asked if she was at the right place for drum lessons, and josh said yes! he was her teacher for like, three months. he even took her money! that's awkward if i've ever heard it." abigail went on, causing those in the room to laugh. even rosemary let out a little chuckle, which was music to josh's ears. though the story wasn't too pleasant to remember considering what... happened... hearing her laugh made him loosen up a bit.
the day went on from there pretty smoothly, they had dinner, and opened a bunch of presents. it was really sweet what everybody got each other, and rosemary felt bad that she wanted to give josh her gift to him at home. good thing though was that josh agreed to give his to her at home too.
