PART TWENTY-EIGHT: MEET THE PARENTS
The next couple weeks were relatively uneventful other than my casual dates with Patrick (all of which were at either his place or mine, in order to avoid paparazzi in public places). However, by the end of them, we prepared for a big step in our relationship: meeting each other’s parents.
After we had talked to each other about the fact that we both had parents who wanted to meet us, I knew that it would be happening soon. I just didn’t know how soon. Even though two weeks seemed like a relatively long time, I found out that no amount of time could completely prepare me for it.
Patrick got to meet my parents first. We found time for both of us to go to my parent’s house on a weekend. He had practice in the morning but no game that night, and he was in Chicago. I didn’t have hockey or class to go to, so we figured it would work out well. I made plans with my parents a few days beforehand and we decided that we would come for dinner. I immediately started to internally freak out about it. I knew my parents would be embarrassing. I knew something would go wrong. But when they mentioned that Brian would be there too, it soothed my mind. For some reason, the thought of my older brother being there was comforting. He had always been my protector, and that wasn’t going to change now.
Even with the safety blanket, I was still on edge the whole drive there. Patrick could tell, and he finally said something when we only had about ten minutes left of driving.
“Why are you acting so crazy and weird?” he asked. I glanced over at him, taking in his usual blonde curls and mesmerizing blue eyes.
“I don’t know. Maybe because I’m freaking out a little,” I answered quickly.
“YOU’RE freaking out? How do you think I feel?! This should be the least of your worries. You don’t have anyone to impress. I’m the one who has to try to make a good first impression here,” Patrick said.
“Oh, please. As if you have anything to worry about. My parents already love you and they haven’t even met you yet. You could mess up everything and they’d still accept you. Maybe I don’t have to make a first impression tonight, but my parents do. They’re extra excited and they’re going to come off as really overbearing, I just know it. I don’t want them to screw this up,” I explained. For some reason I was on the verge of tears, I could feel it. I was really concerned about everything, honestly. Patrick was different from anyone I had ever dated before, and not because he was a celebrity. He was more important to me than any of my previous boyfriends ever had been. I wasn’t really sure why yet, but he was. This “meet the parents” night couldn’t be screwed up.
“It’s okay, Lean. It’s great that you care so much about this, but I swear I won’t be mad or offended if they come off a certain way or if they say something wrong. We’re all nervous here. Please don’t get so stressed out about this.” As he finished his last sentence, I felt him take my free hand in his, since I had been driving lazily with only one. The combination of his words and actions calmed me, and I let myself cool down as I pulled into my driveway.
“Well, we’re here,” I announced, even though it was obvious.
In Patrick’s P.O.V.:
Lena took her key out of the ignition and started to get out of her car. I followed suit, taking in the scenery. Her childhood home was beautiful. It was a sizable two-story brick house with a thick blanket of snow over the roof and the yard. It looked like it would be a really great place to grow up. It was outside of town, so there was plenty of privacy. It was nicer than I had expected, even though I hadn’t really known what to expect at all. She hadn’t told me much about her house.
As we walked up the sidewalk to her front door, I grabbed her hand again. It was partially to calm her down, but it was mostly for me. I was suddenly nervous, now that I realized I had to be very aware of everything I did and said.
Lena knocked on the door, knowing it was locked. I heard a dog bark and I guessed that it was Puck, the Siberian Husky she so dearly loved. Great, that was another family member I had to impress. I tried to make myself look better in any way possible while we waited for the door to open, not that there was much for me to do. I straightened my coat despite the fact that I would take it off in a moment and pulled at my hat, which probably did no good. I think Lena and I were both relieved when Brian was the one who answered the door.
“Hey guys, come on in,” Brian said over the dog’s barking. I expected to be mauled, but I didn’t see him anywhere. I assumed that they had blocked his path to the door somehow so he wouldn’t immediately attack me. “You can just put your coat and hat and everything on the rack right there,” Brian added. Lena was already doing just that, so I followed suit. I tried fixing my clothes again, which included a gray long sleeved Henley, my nicest pair of jeans, and gray Vans. I originally wondered if it was decent enough, but Lena had suggested that it was perfect. She had dressed casually too, in a cream colored sweater, dark skinny jeans, and gray boots. Our outfits actually were color coordinated, even though we hadn’t planned them to be.
“Hello!” I heard a woman’s voice call. I saw a woman who looked to be Lena’s mom walking towards us.
“Hi, Mom,” Lena said as she was scooped into a hug. Her dad joined us and hugged Lena too.
“Mom, Dad, this is Patrick,” Lena said, returning to my side.
“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Stratton. It’s very nice to meet you,” I said, holding out a hand to each of them.
“Hello, Patrick, it’s nice to meet you too! But you don’t have to call us that, if you don’t want to. You can call us Marion and Joe,” Mrs. Stratton said. I made a mental note about this in my head.
“It’s great to meet you, Patrick. Nice job in your last game, by the way. Amazing angle on that goal in the second period,” Mr. Stratton - I mean Joe - said.
“Thank you,” I answered. Lena had warned me that he would instantly be talking hockey with me, but she insisted that it was a good sign.
“Well, you’ve met my parents, do you want to meet Puck now?” Lena wondered.
“Watch him Lean, he’ll be excited,” her mother reminded her. “He’s not going to hurt you Patrick, he just loves meeting new people. He never bites, but he might jump at first,” she told me. I nodded and Brian left for a moment. He returned with a large, black and white dog at his side.
“Attack!” Brian said, encouraging the canine who was now running towards me.
“Hey, don’t encourage him!” Marion scolded him.
“Oh, he’s a hockey player. I’m sure he can handle a little dog,” Joe laughed.
“He’s far from little!” Marion decided.
“He’s small compared to most of the guys in the NHL,” Joe answered. Their bickering was for nothing, though, because Lena took control over Puck and told him to be easy. He ran a little slower, then. He still jumped up when he got to me, but I could tell he was being more gentle than he would have been if Lena hadn’t been there. He attempted to give me a million kisses as I petted him.
“Well, go ahead and give Patrick a tour. Dinner is almost ready, so give yourselves about ten minutes,” Marion said once we all were at ease about my first meeting with Puck. She and Joe went into what looked to be the kitchen, and after Brian took hold of Puck, he did too.
“Lets go upstairs first,” Lena said. She took my hand and led me to a twisting staircase. Even though I didn’t get a lot of time to take everything in on the first floor, I noticed that the house was just as nice looking on the inside as it was on the outside.
The second floor seemed to be where all the bedrooms were. Lena showed me her parents’ room and Brian’s room as well as the bathrooms, and she paused the tour when we got into her room.
“You’re really nervous, aren’t you?” she asked.
“What makes you think I’m nervous?”
“You’re acting shy around everyone.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know that my nerves had been that obvious.
“You don’t have to be so reserved. You’re allowed to talk without being talked to first, ya know. Just be yourself around them,” she said. The advice was good, but the kiss I received was even better. I almost forgot that we were in her parent’s house for a moment, but luckily she reminded me.
“We better go back downstairs so I can show you the rest of the house. We’re eating soon,” she said. On the main level she showed me the office that was used for anything from work-related activities to school work, which explained why it looked a little abandoned from her and her brother not living there anymore. She showed me another bathroom, the living room, the dining room where we would be eating, and lastly, the kitchen.
“Just in time, you two. We’re going to eat, now,” Marion announced. I offered to help move the food to the dining room, but my offer was turned down. I was told that I was a guest and I deserved to be treated like one, so Lena, Brian, and I all sat down at the table.
The meal was amazing: steak, chicken, cheesy double baked potatoes, green beans, and rolls. I was still nervous, but I took Lena’s advice and I tried to be more outgoing and personable like I normally was. It seemed to work. I had a few laughs with Lena’s parents. Lena rolled her eyes at all her dad’s questions for me about my hockey career, but I didn’t mind them. He talked about his high school and college hockey career too, which I was actually interested to hear about. We had the same passion for the same sport, and he was a nice, funny guy, so we got along very well. Although Lena’s mom didn’t have the same love for hockey as me, she was still interested in hearing about it. We had decent conversations too, and of course Brian and I got along easily. By the time Lena’s mom brought out dessert, I wasn’t nervous at all anymore. I was actually beginning to feel comfortable there.
After dinner, I assumed we were leaving, but Lena said there were a couple things left to see. She wanted us to stay a little longer, but not to talk with her parents. I think she wanted to give me a break from them before we went back to Chicago, honestly. I was perfectly fine with that.
Lena grabbed our coats and led me to a door that led outside, to the backyard. She flipped a couple switches that turned on outside lights and then handed me a pair of snow boots.
“These are Brian’s, but they should fit you,” she said. She put a pair of her own on and I put on Brian’s, which did fit me well. Once we also had our coats on, we went outside. I was very surprised to see how huge her backyard was. They had a medium sized deck attached to the house that included a hot tub which obviously hadn’t been in use lately. There was also a playground still in the yard from when her and Brian were young and a pond that was frozen from the below-freezing temperatures.
“Nice pond. Did you ever play hockey on this ice?” I wondered.
“Yeah, we always did in the winter. We have goals in the garage that we would set up and Brian and I would play against my dad to get extra practice for games. We snowboarded, too, on the hill,” Lena explained.
“You must have loved growing up here,” I commented.
“I did. I wish I still lived here, honestly,” she answered. “Well, sometimes. I really love being in the city. That’s definitely where I want to be, but I miss this house and this yard. If only I could move it to Chicago and keep it to myself, then everything would be perfect,” she added.
It was very cold outside, so we came back inside and she took me to the very last part of the house that I hadn’t seen yet: the basement. It very clearly was the recreational room of the house. It was decorated nicely, but not in the same sense as the rest of the house. It had shades of red, black, white, and gray everywhere. The furniture was more comfortable than it was pleasing to the eyes. The biggest TV of the house was down there, along with a couple different gaming systems and plenty of video games. There was an air hockey table and a dart board was set up on the wall. There was also a table and chairs with containers of snack mixes on top. However, out of everything, the most interesting part to me had to be all the hockey stuff. There was a trophy case that was filled with trophies from when Lena, Brian, and their dad were in high school. Their dad’s high school jersey hung on the wall along with a couple of his hockey sticks. Lena and Brian even had their own spaces for their high school jerseys too. However, the hockey items weren’t limited to just the family. There were also Blackhawks posters, framed, which made me smile. I knew that this had to be Lena, Brian, and Joe’s favorite room in the house, since it seemed to be dedicated to their favorite sport.
“This is awesome,” I said. I didn’t know what else to say.
“I saved the best for last,” Lena admitted.
We stayed downstairs for a few minutes so she could show me the trophies. After a short while, we went back upstairs to leave. We said goodbye to everyone, even Puck, and once we were bundled up we headed back outside.
“That went better than I expected,” I said as we pulled out of the driveway.
“It did go really well, didn’t it?” Lena answered. It seemed like we were both relieved that there hadn’t been any problems. The ride home was light and fun, and it went by pretty fast. One down, one to go. Now that everything had gone so well with Lena’s family, I was confident that everything would be equally as great when she met my family. We weren’t sure exactly when that would be happening yet; it all depended on our schedules. Lena and I would go to Buffalo as soon as we could, but that wasn’t happening just yet. I thought all this over the whole way home. By the time I was back in my Chicago apartment, I was tired but happy. I got plenty of sleep, which ensured that I would be ready to go back to practice in the morning.