Looking Up

-----Elle's POV

"Don't go crying, to your mama, cause you're on your own in the real world!" Steve and I sing along to the radio as we make our way to my parent's house.

As the wind hits my face, I realize how long it's been since I've let anyone, any guy, into my world. But Steve- he's an exception. Steve is a man- not just some guy from college who you thought was the one. He's not here just to take advantage of me and lie- not like one guy did only a year ago. I close my eyes and let the stress from the past, be swept away by the wind blowing through my hair. I lean my head against my right arm and start to recognize familiar road signs.

My heart starts to beat faster- what if Steve is scared away by the roadblocks I will have to face in the future? What if after my father dies and I'm no longer the same girl he fell in love with? As panicked thoughts run through my mind, I try to hide my distress by humming to the song playing through his speakers.

"Steve- we don't have to do this- you don't have to meet them."
"No, no, I want to! I'd love to meet them- honestly."
"Are you sure? I mean- my father's sick and -"
"Elle, stop. I especially want to meet him. Stop worrying, ok?" he says to me calmly and rubs his thumb against the back of my hand.

The cab of his truck becomes silent after he looks me in the eyes when we slow down to go through a toll booth. The sincerity in his soft hazel eyes is enough to calm me down. When we get to exit 13 I tell him to slow down and point him in the direction of my house.

-----Steve's POV

I constantly keep conversation with Elle until we get to her house since I know she's really nervous. Well, I mean I'm nervous too, but I can't imagine what's going through her mind right now.

After a minute of driving through a winding and confusing neighborhood, Elle points out a yellow house to stop at. Blooming flowers stretch across a brown fence that sits about 15 feet in front of the house. White windows decorate the sides of the house along with dark blue shutters. A wooden porch with a navy blue striped awning is home to a few rocking chairs and an old porch swing. A woman walks out of the swinging front door wearing a wide smile ready to greet us, as we pull in to the long stone driveway.

"I hope you're game is good today Mase," Elle shoots me a smirk, giggles, and jumps out of my truck. Elle's mom is already embracing her in a tight hug by the time she gets her feet out of my truck. When I get out of the driver's side door, I listen to Elle tell her mom about the trip. As soon as I walk over to them, Mrs. Bostic already is reaching for a hug.

"Hi Steve! Nice to meet ya!" she yells enthusiastically. "Elle hasn't told me much about you so I hope you like answering questions!" We all laugh and she leads us towards the house.

"It's certainly beautiful out here," I say, taking in the nature around me.

"Thank you! I've been spending a lot of time outside since Elle's father got sick- we haven't really left the house in a while," she replies. Suddenly, I notice a change in her mood. Shit- I shouldn't have said that. Elle squeezes my hand and tells me it's okay with her eyes.

"Well! Anyway! It's okay! I love gardening!" Mrs. Bostic says, picking up her cheerful mood again.

As we step inside the house, the first thing I notice is the amount of pictures covering the walls and end tables, which reminds me of Elle's apartment. Despite the dreary fate of her husband that hangs in the air, Mrs. Bostic keeps the house brightly lit, and decorated with vivid colors. Every room is open, and connected to each other. The only thing that separates the first floor is the stairs leading up the top, in the right side of the room. As I look up, I see a banister and the top floor hallway that connects, what looks like, 3-4 rooms.

"Elle! Why don't you give Steve a tour of the house? Just don't go in our bedroom- your father's sleeping," she says as she shoos Elle, "I'm going to get you guys some snacks!"

Elle leads me through the first floor, quickly pointing out the kitchen, bathroom, her parents' room, and the den. She also points out some embarrassing photos of herself on the way through the house. "Alright, so my room hasn't changed much since my freshmen year of college, so don't make fun of me too much," she says and lets out a chuckle as she leads me up the stairs. When we go through the hallway, I notice a picture of a young man in a military uniform and I stop Elle.

"Hey! Who's this?" I pull her with my hand towards the picture.

"Oh," she lets out in a quiet voice, "that's my cousin, Rob. He died in combat a few years ago- when I first started college. He's Andy's older brother- we used to be really close. He spent his summers with us before he went into the army"

"Elle, I'm really sorry. I- I didn't-"

"It's fine don't worry," she says interrupting me and gives me a small smile, "I know you didn't now."

After looking at the picture for another several seconds with contempt but sad eyes, Elle leads me down to her bedroom. When she opens her orange door into her bedroom, I can't help but to laugh.

"Oh my god, Elle!" I let out as I walk over to the Danny Brier poster hanging in her room. As I look to my left I notice an N*Sync teddy bear on her shelf. I dash over to it and pick it up, "This is perfect, please let me keep this," I laugh.

"Ha-Ha yes I know very funny! I keep a lot of stuff- and I still love N*Sync!" she says snatching the bear out of my hand while laughing.

"I just love these posters of Hartsy and G too," I laugh, pointing at the posters. After a while of making fun of Elle- all in good spirit of course- we head downstairs for some snacks.

Elle and I sit at the dark cedar dining room table with her mom talking more about our trip.

"So Steve, how'd you meet Elle?" Mrs. Bostic says with the same sparkle I see in Elle's eyes at times.

"Well, I went into to Sweetie Pies because I saw an advertisement in the paper I was reading during breakfast about the Flyers cookies they were going to be selling. I realized I hadn't gone to a bakery in a Philly yet, so I decided why not Sweetie Pies. She was the cashier and we talked for a bit and- well- I couldn't keep myself away from the bakery." I tell her with a sincere smile.

Mrs. Bostic looks at the both of us with a huge grin, "AWWW! That is SO cute! I love it!" Elle's face at this point has gone completely red. "So what do you do?! Do work somewhere in the city? Is it near the bakery?" she asks me rapidly.

A door in the other room opens and suddenly a thin tall man comes through the next room over to the dining room- his face lights up when he sees Elle- their resemblance to each other is almost shocking. Their eye shape, smile, nose, and ears are exactly the same- except for her hair color, which she obviously gets from her mother.

After their embrace and a couple of laughs, Mr. Bostic sits down and turns towards me. "Well, Elle, who might this be?" he asks with a warm smile. "This is Steve," Elle tells him as I get up to shake his hand across the small table, "he's my- uh-"

"Boyfriend- I'm Elle's boyfriend sir!" I smile and firmly shake his hand.

"Well, nice to meet you! And don't call me sir- you make me feel old!" he says as he lets out a loud laugh. It surprises me how cheerful both her parents are even after knowing his fate. As I sit down his wife informs him on what he missed.

"We were just asking Steve what he does- so- honey, do you work in the city? Near the bakery?"

"Well- uhm I guess you could say that-" I chuckle, struggling to find the right way to tell them I play professional hockey.

"Well, I guess you could," Elle's dad starts to laugh, "Steve, Steve Mason? Right?"

I smile and nod my head and Elle and I start to laugh. "I thought you looked familiar! Sweetie!" he looks over at Elle, "how'd you manage this?" he lets out another loud laugh. Elle squeezes my hand under the table and smiles at me. "Well anyways Steve, it's a pleasure to meet ya," he tells me, "So! How was camping tell me all about it!"

For the next hour or so, Elle and her father took turns telling me and her mother stories of camping. It's amazing how they communicate with each other- filling in parts of the stories for each other and even picking up where the other left off without skipping a beat.

"Hey! Why don't you kids stay for dinner!" Mrs. Bostic proposes to us. We both agree quickly to the idea and offer to run to the grocery store for her to pick up some of the ingredients that she needs.

Once we get to the Shop Rite 20 minutes from her house, Elle and I split up to find everything faster. I search the aisles for pasta and spaghetti sauce quickly, and after I stand in our meeting spot. After 10 minutes of waiting, I begin to worry- it wasn't supposed to take this long right? I start to walk through the aisles searching for Elle's familiar face.

Finally in the last aisle, I find Elle but the look on her face reads distress. A guy in his 20's is holding onto the shelf behind Elle's head, talking closely to her. She's trying to look calm as he talks to her but I can tell she's upset. When she sees me walking towards them she looks relieved and quickly gets out of the conversation and jogs towards me.

"Who was that?" I ask angrily, staring at the back of his head. "Why was he standing so close to you- you looked scared- no terrifi-"

"I'm fine Steve really," she says, moving my head down to meet her gaze, "he's just someone I knew in college- don't worry."

We make our way to the registers, and I keep asking about the strange guy. Why won't she just tell me who he is? Obviously he wasn't just someone she knew. I can tell after a while she's starting to get fed up with all my questions so I just drop it.

Once we get back to her parents' house, Elle helps cook dinner while I sit with her father and talk about hockey, and his passion for the Flyers. The dinner they cook is amazing and we sit around laughing and her father spends some time telling me about Elle when she was little and went to hockey games.

"Did she tell you that she used to play street hockey with her cousins all the time? Even played in a league for it in high school! "Mr. Bostic says to me.

"No! She never told me!" I yell and smile at her, "we've gotta play!" She just laughs and nods okay.

After we have dessert, Elle and I decide to head out and finally make the trip back into the city. Before we leave, her father pulls me to the side, "It was very nice to meet you Steve. Take care of her for me," he says shaking my hand, "I hope to see you very soon."

"You too Mr. Bostic, it was a pleasure." I say giving him a sincere smile.

Walking out the door with Elle, with her hand in mine, I smile to myself, "that wasn't so bad was it?"

"No, no- I guess it really wasn't," she replies, looks up at me, and smiles. "Thanks for not running away, Steve. I never really said it, but thank you- it means a lot."

"No need to thank me- really Elle, I'm here for you- always- don't forget that." I place my lips against hers and help her up into the passenger seat of the truck.

We wave goodbye to her parents once again and then start our way back to the lively city.

Notes

Hey guys! I am SO sorry that it took this long to update! After I got home from Europe, I had terrible jet lag and then my entire family visited and I was just so busy.

ANYWAYS, everyone finally left and I could finally write! I hope you guys love it- I hope I'm not too rusty. This chapter's a lot more about her parents and learning more about Elle. I hope I'm doing this right! Thank you so much for reading and subscribing! Please comment! I absolutely LOVE feedback! Thank you again! I should be able to update soon!

Thank you!