Life gets much more stress free after I get my college acceptance letter. For the next few days, I'm literally a bundle of joy and practically a saint to anyone who comes across me, which is actually quite detrimental to them because when I behave normally, I'm a demon.

But all is pretty much well.

"Kenny, when are we going to meet your boyfriend officially?" David asks at dinner one night while I'm cutting up potatoes for Jackie. I freeze in my position, thinking this over.

"Well,"

"YEAH!" Tyler clasps his palms together and then puts them on the table, peering at me with inquisition. "When are we going to meet the guy you've been blowing off so many family dinners to be with, huh?"

Not any time soon, I hope. "Tyler, you already know him."

He rolls his eyes. "I know him as my best friend. Not as my step sister's boyfriend. I need to know if I can give my blessing."

I'm about to mention the fact he gave his unsolicited blessing almost two weeks ago now but he glares at me in an attempt to silence me. "You gave me your blessing with that sappy story about how you-"

"That is not important right now, what's important is the fact your boyfriend has not met our shared family,"

David actually nods along. "I want to meet him. When's he available?"

I try to forget the fact he told me earlier that he was free tomorrow night. "I'm not really sure, they're in the middle of the baseball season so he's pretty busy all of the time,"

"Hey, it's mid-season for me too and I'm still here, eating dinner with my family," Tyler says. He's such an enemy of progress.

"You don't have a girlfriend or a job, do you?"

He looks back at his plate. "Touche,"

My mom clears her throat and I'm pleased. Surely this means that we can stop discussing my love life and go back to idly chatting about what was on the news this week, doesn't it?

"I'd like to meet him officially too," She says. I wince, knowing that my hope was misplaced. "When's he free?"

I squirm in my seat, thinking of a way to stall. "I mean, he's really busy so –"

"He can't be too busy for you." She interrupts firmly. "The way the two of you kiss goodbye –"

My eyes widen. "Mom!"

"- I mean, he's completely besotted with you. Just ask him."

David is grinning. "Why don't you call him now, you haven't started eating yet."

This is going to be the last time I ever cut food up for Jackie before I take a bite of my food. In fact, this is going to be my last family dinner ever. Not including Thanksgiving and Christmas of course. Oh, and Easter, can't give that shit up.

Everyone's staring at me with a wide and suggestive smile on their various faces. The pressure builds up and doesn't diminish, even when I pick up my phone and start dialling his phone. I pray he doesn't pick up.

He picks up on the second ring. Of course I'm not so lucky. "Slugger, what's up?"

"Hey Dante!" I say, quite aware of how fake I sound. Jackie's head snaps towards me and he pouts slightly.

"Why do you sound like – is your mom there?"

I laugh nervously. "Yeah, um... they're all here,"

"Oh." He pauses. "Well, tell everyone I said hi. Except Tyler. Tell Tyler he sucks,"

That I will. "Um, sure,"

He chuckles. "I'm sorry sweetheart, I'm gonna have to hurry you up a little bit,"

I clear my throat as the very suck-ish Tyler gives me a knowing look. "Yeah, well, my parents want me to ask if you could make dinner any day this week," I say in one quick breath.

"Not just this week," David whispers half-heartedly. It takes all my willpower for me to not glare at him.

Dante takes the longest time to reply and after a full minute passes, my worries shoot straight through the roof. So much for having a carefree time after getting into college, huh?

"Sorry, I had to-" He starts speaking.

Suddenly stressed out, I squeak out a goodbye and hang up. Without hearing a reply.

"What'd he say?" My mom asks, too interested for my own liking.

"He can't make it any time soon," I lie weakly, putting my head in my hands. "He said he's busy."

Her face drops slightly. "That's too bad, huh?"

I just nod and face my food, trying to relax and think of how I'm going to confront him when he calls me about this later tonight. He will call me about this. And probably make fun out of me for freaking out too.

Tyler's phone rings as a silence settles over the table. He looks to his dad to ask about picking it up before he does with a complacent look on his face.

"Danny!"

Oh fuck.

"Yeah, Ken's here. I know, she's so fu- so weird. You want me to tell her what? You're an – you're crazy, I can't tell her that. Why? She's my sister, that's gross. Oh shut up. You wouldn't." He sighs and then turns to face me. "Kenny, Dante says that you're too cute and some other things that I can't bring myself to tell you,"

I look down at my food, my cheeks heating up. Jackie makes gagging sounds.

"Happy now? You totally owe me, our brother's dying because I had to say it in front of him." He pauses and then laughs out loud. "Very fair. Okay, cool. So what's up?"

It's only when Jackie asks me why my mouth is open that I realise that I'm way too invested in this conversation. But I don't care, this includes me because they said my name.

"Oh really?" Tyler looks at me with a wide smile on his face. "Oh, alright. That's cool. My dad's gonna be so happy. Yeah, Tina too. No. Dante I'm not telling her that. You tell her. No!"

"Why is everyone talking to Tay?" Jackie asks me. "Is he Tyler's boyfriend too?"

I shush him in hopes of hearing more of their conversation. The anticipation of what's going to come up is killing me.

"Text her. Then why are you calling me – No, I'm putting my foot down. How dare you bring up Sarah? We're not friends anymore." Tyler chuckles and then shakes his head. "Whatever dude, I'll see you tomorrow,"

He hangs up and then slyly ignores the fact everyone is waiting for him to speak out what he's heard. After taking a bite of food, he looks up innocently and acts surprised when he sees everyone looking at him. "What?"

"You were talking to Kenny's boyfriend, right?" David pushes. Tyler grins at all of us one by one (but an especially devious one for me) before clearing his throat.

"Dante says he'll be over tomorrow for dinner,"

*-8*-8*

I ignore my phone that night. Dante calls but through my own hysteria, I can't bring myself to pick up.

So when he shows up at my house the next day and texts me to come outside because he has 'more flowers than he can carry in his car', I freak out some more. But then I suck it up and go outside to see him.

He gets out of his car when I open the door.

"Slugger, hey!" He says with a bright smile.

"You're a little shit," I reply instantly, only slightly aware of the fact my sister is somewhere behind me. It doesn't have the desired effect because he smiles wider.

"Nice to see you too, sweetheart," He chuckles and then scratches the back of his head. I roll my eyes then go forth and hug him because he's looking a little lost. "How's your day been?"

I sigh slightly, inhaling his slight popcorn scent. "Let's not talk about the stress you and Tyler have caused me," He laughs at this. "Where are the flowers you needed help with, and why are there more than you can carry in your car?"

Dante stops hugging me and instead takes my hand, still smiling largely. "Well, you said you wanted flowers that time and it took me a while to realise I hadn't gotten you any."

I smile. Even though I was kidding when I said I wanted flowers, it's still very nice that he thought about it enough to actually get me some. I've really lucked out.

"I was at the florist and realised that if I got you flowers, I had to get your mom and sister some too. And because Tyler is an asshole, he'd probably ask for some too, so there's like three for him and one for Jackie because he's a G. Oh, and for your stepdad too because you mentioned he liked fucking petunias or something, so..."

He gestures at the backseat of his car. I open my mouth wide at the sheer amount of flowers he bought.

"This must've cost you a fortune!" I exclaim. "Dante!"

Awkwardly, Dante pats my back and then scratches his head. "I kind of went overboard, didn't I?"

"Well... thanks," I tell him nonetheless. "It's a bit much but at least you thought about it. Sort of."

He smiles at me then wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close. "You're impressed, aren't you?"

"So impressed. I'm slightly disappointed that your car won't smell like popcorn any more though, but flowery scents are an okay alternative,"

He laughs and then kisses me on the cheek. "The roses are for you,"

I spy a bunch of pink roses sitting in the corner and feel the familiar feeling of tears forming in my eyes. Even though I try hard not to let him see (try being the very operative word here), he still catches the fact my eyes are watering more than they really should. He half recoils, half pulls me closer to him as if he's unsure what to do and I don't blame him. I really don't.

"Are you crying, Kennedy?" He asks, sounding alarmed. I wipe underneath my eyes with my sleeve and shrug. He gives me a tight hug. "Don't cry, sweetie? I'm... Sorry?"

I giggle and sniffle. "You don't have to apologise, I'm just really happy,"

It takes him half a minute to process this. "So you cry when you're happy? Do you laugh when you're sad?"

At first I think he's joking but one glance at his face tells me that this is a genuine concern. "I cry then too," I tell him gently and watch as his eyebrows begin slowly raising until they're pushing his hairline upwards and backwards.

"Well... shit then,"

I let out a chuckle and hug him some more, secretly thinking about the fact he got me pink roses. I mean, there's a hell of a lot of them and if I can get my act together, they should live for longer than three weeks in my room and in turn make me smell pretty good. My sister told me to never do anything just for a guy but I'm not sure if keeping my flowers alive just for him falls under the category of doing things she was talking about.

"Kenny, have you two stopped having a moment?"

Speaking of my sister...

I turn around and see McKinley making her way over, passive aggressively chewing gum and eyeing up Dante. He gulps before plastering a smile on his face and waving at her.

"Hey, McKinley!"

She smiles at him but the calculative glint doesn't leave her eye. "Dante. How's your sister doing?"

He nods. "She's good, she actually asked if I was gonna see you today and invited you to lunch a week on Sunday," Then he squeezes my shoulder slightly, bringing me back into the conversation. "She invited you too, sweetheart,"

I freeze before I can think up an answer. "Oh. Um. Yeah, cool,"

He smiles at obvious hesitancy before clearing his throat and turning back to McKinley who looks like she wants to die. "So, I got you flowers!"

Her eyebrows pop up. "How very sweet, which ones are they?"

"Chrysanthemum's." He says and then releases me to go into his car. As soon as he opens the back door, the sweet smell of flowers wafts out pleasantly into the air and he hands a big bunch of chrysanthemum's McKinley.

She actually looks surprised and a bit happy too. "These are pretty. Thanks, kid, you did good." Then she eyes my empty hands up and frowns. "Unless Kenny here didn't get any..."

He doesn't even hesitate when handing me my big ass bunch of roses. I beam because they're actually prettier once I'm holding them. Well, everything is prettier except the thorns but I'm telling myself that this can't be helped.

We bustle inside, flowers and all and my nerves pick up again. My mom's standing on the stairs, flipping through a magazine and wearing her favourite navy blue pantsuit. It's so embarrassing but she just got back from work.

"Oh! Hello!" She says when she sees us come in and smiles warmly at Dante. He grins at her from behind a bunch of cone shaped flowers.

"Hello Mrs..." He looks to me for an answer.

"Barrett," I whisper just loud enough for him to hear. He maintains his smile.

"Mrs Barrett, right? It's nice to meet you," Somehow he manages to shake her hand and still hold his posse of flowers. He hands her the cone ones effortlessly. "These are for you,"

My mom beams. "Oh, I absolutely love lilies!" Then to me, "He's a keeper sweetheart,"

I attempt to hide behind McKinley but she stands with her back against the wall so there's nowhere for me to go. Dante just grins.

She hustles us into the kitchen, talking to him specifically about school and his mom. McKinley and I lag behind slightly, observing and taking this all in.

"He's got her," She comments when they sit at the dining table together. It's odd seeing them joke and laugh like old friends since my mom's in her forties and he's just a few months older than me.

"You think?" I ask, pretty much knowing the answer. My mom's very much an open book: she cannot conceal her facial expressions at all. So the fact that she's all smiles and is listening intently to what he has to say without checking the time tells me that she's having a great time.

Is it okay for me to be jealous of my mom and my boyfriend's growing friendship? Because I am.

I mutter something about water and flowers to McKinley and she gives me her bunch as well so I can find a vase for her to take back to her apartment. After filling up various vases with water, I take my own upstairs and think of where I'm going to put them in my room. Tyler's standing on the landing, checking himself out in the full length wall mirror. He doesn't even look ashamed when I catch him.

"Did Dante get you those?" He asks me and points at the flowers. "Damn. You're best friends with a guy for six years and he doesn't get you shit but suddenly he has a girlfriend for two weeks..."

"Three," I correct loftily. It's not actually been three weeks yet but who's counting the particulars?

"Sure honey," Tyler says. "Anyway, I'm telling my dad he's here so you go take care of your plants."

I stick my tongue out at him and put my roses down in my room. They're so pretty, it's slightly unreal. I consider myself a plant person, so anything green is pretty to me anyway.

Jackie peeks into my room. "Kenny? Tay is here and he's talking to my dad,"

Nodding, I begin herding him out of my room and back down the stairs. "Yeah, he's here for dinner tonight,"

He frowns. "Oh."

"What do you mean, 'Oh'?" I ask as we get downstairs again. He shrugs and then wanders into the dining room, taking a seat next to Tyler who is looking at his orange poppies quite proudly.

"But I think that petunias smell better, especially the purple ones," David is saying when I sit down next to Dante. I take his hand and give it a squeeze to which he responds in the same way but maintains a serious face.

"That's very interesting. I didn't smell a distinction between them but obviously I don't have a trained nose for these things like you do,"

He's sucking up so much, it'll be surprising if David falls for this. I hide a smile as McKinley takes a seat next to me. She glances at me and rolls her eyes, therefore telling me that I haven't hidden my smile all too well.

"Thank you Dante!" But of course he's eating this all up.

My mom comes out with her so called cone lilies in yet another one of the many vases in this household and puts them in the middle of the table, right between Jackie and me. It almost blocks my view of him but I'm able to peak over just in time to see him folding his arms and pouting at the table. I think he might be upset that he's sitting next to Tyler instead of me for the first time in about three years.

"These are so lovely Dante," Mom says, grinning. "Thank you so much,"

"It's no problem, Mrs Barrett,"

"Oh please," She leans over the front of me and touches his shoulder. "Just call me Tina,"

Dante squeezes my hand under the table and I hold back a groan. "Tina, then,"

Mom smiles at him some more before asking David about dinner. The two of them go into the kitchen, chatting idly. McKinley sighs loudly, causing the rest of us to look at her with slight interest.

"I'm kind of disappointed," She says once she notices all the attention.

I raise my eyebrow and ask the obvious question. "Why?"

"No offense or anything – because believe it or not, I actually like you Dante – but I wanted one of them to hate your guts," She explains and takes off her glasses to rub her eyes. "Oh well,"

My eyes widen. "What?! Why?"

She shrugs. "For the drama of course,"

I shake my head and look to Dante who seems frozen. "Are you okay?"

"Did you just say you like me, McKinley?" He is prompted to speak. I cannot believe that's the only thing he got from her little revelation.

"Is that the only thing you got from –" McKinley sighs again. "Yeah, you're not half bad, kid,"

He beams. "Thanks."

My mom calls me into the kitchen and I stand up, leaving them to talk. She's standing by a bunch of dishes and a pie that looks delectable.

"That looks so good," I comment.

David spins to face me and winks. "Thank you, Kenny!" He says and then goes back to perfecting his rice.

I smile and face my mom. "So what's up?"

"Is Dante allergic to blueberries?" She asks me.

"I... don't... know?"

Mom gasps. "He's your boyfriend, is he not? Why don't you know if he's allergic to blueberries or not?"

I can't tell if she has a point or not. "Well, it's never come up before but I think he'll be fine with them."

She puts her hands on her hips and gives me an exasperated look. "Are you going to ask him or are we going to guess incorrectly and possibly send him to the emergency room?"

This is so odd. "Okay, I'll ask him."

Dante and Tyler are sitting next to each other and talking animatedly when I get back. At first I feel bad because I'm about to interrupt them but then remember that Tyler would do the same to me if he had the opportunity.

"Sweetie," I tap Dante's shoulder and he stops talking to look at me. "Are you allergic to blueberries?"

He squints at me, evidently confused. "I'm not... why?"

I shrug. "My mom wants to know,"

Both of his eyebrows raise and I sense the disbelief. "Sure she does."

I don't have the energy to fight back so I just let him believe I'm weirder than he does already as I go back to the kitchen. I mean, if he's still dating me after half the strange shit I've done then he's probably not going to dump me over some blueberries.

I hope.

*-8*-8*

"So, Dante, how's the baseball going?" David asks once we're all eating his pie. It's heavenly.

Dante smiles but it looks a little tired. "It's going well, we've only lost one game so far this season,"

Tyler mutters something that sounds suspiciously like show off from across the table and then sighs out loud. "You ready to get your butt whooped by us next Saturday?"

He shrugs. "If you think you're capable of that then sure,"

"Haven't you lost two of your games this season, Ty?" McKinley asks innocently. He sticks his stained purple tongue out at her but doesn't reply.

Jackie asks me to make a whipped cream face on the top of his pie and I have to stand up to comply.

"I'm going to miss you when you go in August," He states when I start sculpting the hair, "Who else is going to make faces out of my food?"

"Aww!" My mom coos. "Isn't that sweet?"

I pat his head and go back to sit down. Dante bites his lip in my direction but when I ask him what's wrong, he just shakes his head.

"Your sister mentioned you got a sports scholarship," McKinley pipes up. "An East coast school, right?"

Dante clears his throat. "Yeah, um, I got into Dartmouth, so I'm planning on going there after summers vacation is over."

My mom grins. "That's great! Kenny's going to Brown in the fall, she just got in last week."

He turns to face me with a frown on his face. "You got into Brown?"

I nod slowly. "Yeah... Is there a problem?"

He looks at his pie, the frown softening just slightly. "No, it's just – that's fantastic Kennedy, congratulations,"

It isn't hard to notice that something's off but I don't pursue it. Instead I just say thank you and take another bite of pie, thinking we can talk about what's up later, when everyone isn't so obviously listening to us speak. I hope he's okay.

The conversation among the table dwindles after this as everyone begins to focus on eating rather than each other. I often glance toward Dante who seems deep in thought each time. It's slightly harrowing because I don't know why he's suddenly thinking so hard about something instead of continuing to charm my parents.

He only returns back to normal when he's about to leave.

"It was nice meeting you both," He gives my mom a really tight hug and high fives David in a few swift movements.

"Dante, I want you to know that you are welcome here any time," My mom puts her hand on his shoulder. I roll my eyes at how cheesy this is but shuffle forward until I'm standing near enough to him that he can hold my hand.

"Thank you," He grins at her and then clears his throat. "I'll be sure to visit soon,"

My mom grins and then winks at me. "We'll leave the two of you alone, okay? Don't take too long, Ken, I don't want you to catch a cold,"

I'm ready to tell her that I probably won't catch a cold considering it's seventy degrees outside but just leave it alone so she can hustle everyone inside again. The two of us stand and wait for a few seconds, watching them go before turning to each other.

"I like your mom," He says first.

"She's so embarrassing," I cover my eyes and he chuckles quietly. "Hey, are you okay?"

For a second, he looks genuinely surprised that I've asked him that. "Yeah, I am. Why?"

I shrug. "It's just that you got a little weird after we were talking about college and stuff, and I wanted to see if you were doing good,"

It takes him a moment but he smiles and touches my cheek with the back of his hand. "You're such a cutie, did you know that?"

I don't miss the fact he hasn't addressed the question but I leave it anyway. "Thank you for finally acknowledging how cute I am," I say and stick my tongue out when he laughs.

"I always tell you how cute you are, what are you talking about?" He pulls on my hand a little bit and we start walking down to where his car is parked.

I wrinkle up my nose. "You don't say it often enough,"

He gasps. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you had a cuteness quota for me to meet,"

"Very funny," I sigh slightly and then give him a hug. "I'll see you soon?"

Dante wraps his arms around my waist and cuddles me close. He doesn't say anything in response, but the soft reassuring kiss he plants on the back of my head is enough.