He rang the doorbell. My dad rang the doorbell. Someone get me out of here.

"Dad, let's not do this right now," I begged him while tugging the sleeve of his shirt but my mom squeezed my shoulder and stopped me from uttering another word.

"Nonsense sweetie, we need to offer them comfort. I mean we did go all through the trouble of preparing this fruit basket for them in a last moment's notice. We can't just leave, it would be rude for us to-"

My dear mother was cut off by the door being opened. Pio stood there, on his tip toes, trying to pry the door open and catch a glimpse on the strangers that were ringing the doorbell for the past 5 minutes.

At first, the little guy wasn't able to see me from where he stood behind the door. The only thing he saw was probably the intimidating stare of my dad who was having a hard time softening his features as to not frighten the boy into slamming the door in our faces.

My mother was quick to shove my father out of the way, offering Pio a motherly smile and crouching in front of the little guy.

"Hello, sweetie, what's your name?" I could see how Pio started fidgeting with the ends of his shirt, switching his gaze from my parents towards the floor once in a while, looking conflicted on letting my parents in or running inside screaming bloody murder and hollering for his family to protect him from stranger danger.

He looked so frightened that I felt kind of guilty when a giggle escaped my lips. Pio's attention immediately snapped to me as he craned his neck to take a look of who was laughing. I gave him a small smile and a wave.

"Hey, little guy," I said softly, crouching to hug him. He didn't even waste another minute to crash his small body into mine and crush me with his bone crushing hug.

"Casey!" I laughed, rising to stand properly while holding him in my arms and settling him on my hips. He started playing with my hair and when my mother's hand land on the small of his back and rubbed it slowly, he looked behind him only to bury his face in my shoulders, making me chuckle and my mom huff jokingly.

"Let's come in, shall we?" I ask him and he nodded silently, still not raising his head. I led the way in the house and was about to search for Adam in the garden when we bumped into him while passing through the kitchen.

"Pio, what's wrong?" He asked from inside the kitchen, not looking up from the food that was brewing. It looked something likes soup but I couldn't be sure.

"Adam, Adam! Look who's here!" Pio squealed as I gave him a big kiss on the cheek. What? Anyone wouldn't be able to help it! This is Pio we're talking about here!

Adam immediately raised his head from stirring the contents of the pot and met my eyes before he finally noticed my parents standing behind me. He cleared his throat and tried to straighten his shirt.

I instantly felt guilty by letting my parents come here with me. He certainly didn't need to deal with this after losing his mother. My mom didn't hesitate to jump in front of me and offer Adam an award winning smile while giving him the picnic basket that was now full with all sorts of fruits; including durian.

I know it's not exactly something that you would normally put in a basket to give to your daughter's boyfriend but who said anything about my parents' being normal.

I refrained from giving my forehead a good slap and cover my face in complete and utter embarrassment when my father finally got a good look at Adam.

"So, you're the boyfriend?" Adam looked confused as hell but answered him truthfully.

"Uh, yes sir."

My dad squinted foolishly, making him look like he's got something stuck in his eyes. "What fruit do you like?"

You would think he was about to ask him about his favorite football or soccer team but no... I just had to have a weird ass dad.

Adam looked as if he was being cornered by some deranged donkey in the middle of a zoo. His eyes kept on looking anywhere but my dad and I had to suppress the urge from choking on air while trying to hold in the laugh that was threatening to spill out.

"Err, orange?" My dad nodded, looking satisfied with the answer. Adam took the picnic basket from my mother and mirrored her smile with a timid one, seeming a bit intimidated by my parents' continuous stare.

"Good, there's a couple in the basket. I hope you have a durian lover in this house but it would be fine if you don't because I could always-"

He was cut off by my mom's elbow that jabbed his side to stop him from offering some 'aid' in finishing that durian. What can I say, he loves his durians.

"Thank you for the fruit basket. Can I get you anything?" Adam was a tiny bit more relaxed than a second ago and Pio was still cooing at my hair while I stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

"A cup of tea would be fantastic," my dad groaned out and my mom was quick to send him a stern glare.

"What?" He didn't seem to understand what his mistake was and looked at my mom with hurtful eyes. "I want a cup of tea," he justified innocently.

"It's alright, Mrs. Johnson," Adam gave her a small smile and got back to the kitchen while I led my family to sit on the sofa in the living room.

"Well, he looked like a decent gentleman," my mom commented and caused my dad to growl under his breath.

"I still don't like the fact that he's dating my baby girl," he stated and I shushed him quickly when I heard footsteps coming our way.

"I was making some porridge for my family before you came and I thought you'd like some since your daughter seemed to have taken a liking to them.

My eyes lit up at the mention of the delicious food and I rushed to Adam's side. He was holding a tray of small bowls containing the white gooey substance. I looked at him, silently asking if I was correctly sensing the presence of the ca- what's-it-called-thing.

Adam laughed lightly, the first real laugh I've heard since forever. It brought a smile onto my lips hearing the familiar sound that injected butterflies into my stomach and again, it felt like a zoo.

The butterflies turned to elephants that brought a tremor to my body and caused the tremor to travel and give my heartbeat a treble. I didn't appreciate the feeling of making someone laugh enough until that moment and I found myself savoring every second of it.

I grabbed a bowl from the tray and passed it on to my parents while still holding Pio close to me with the other hand.

"You have got to try this. They are delicious and make sure you try those brown shredded breads on the bottom of the bowl," They looked at me weirdly and I have a deep suspicion they pictured the ca-thingy to be poop brown, which is definitely a disturbing image.

Despite giving me an 'are you okay' look, they each took a spoonful and shoved it into their mouths in a more elegant way than what I was doing since I was practically scarfing the whole thing down in a matter of seconds without fear of looking like a pig.

I mean, if I was going to spend my relationship days with this guy, why would I pretend to be someone I'm not. I am not going to eat in a lady like way if there was no one to impress with my stomach growling lie a vicious beast and since Pio was too young to understand anything, I had nothing to worry about.

Or so I thought.

"Cassandra Rylie Johnson, what did I tell you about eating slowly?! Haven't you learnt enough by the amount of times you have choked on your own food?" She shrieked and I quickly hid behind Adam with Pio clinging by my neck as I scurry from my mother's heated glare.

"I'm starving!" I whined from behind Adam in my defense and I could practically feel my mom's glare penetrate through Adam and reach me as if he was a transparent glass.

"That is no excuse, young lady!" My mom countered while Adam and my dad chuckled together at our banter.

"Woman," my dad joked with Adam, receiving a nod from my so called boyfriend.

"Hey!" My mom and I shouted simultaneously, obviously offended by their statement and gave them both a good whack upside the head. Both of them winced and rubbed the sore spot while both, me and my mom cackled. What? It runs in the family.

"Where are the others?" I looked around and not a second later, footsteps bounding down the stairs answered my question.

"Adam, Pio? What's wrong?" Preston's worriedly asked and I was a bit shocked when I heard the brotherly tone. It was like hearing a whole new Preston. I've never heard him sound so caring and it was a good change but it still sounded foreign in my ears.

Another face popped out behind Preston's legs, her hair flowing down past her shoulders and her big doe-like eyes looked around the room, her timid face morphed into one of delight when she saw me.

She completely ignored that there were strangers in the room and came running into my arms. We had a small group hug; just the kids and I.

Jerry was last to climb down the stairs and join us. He stood beside his eldest son and decided to silently watch his kids interact with other humans again.

"Guys, I want you to meet my parents," I told them softly, letting them go and making them face my parents. Cali took that chance to hide behind my leg instead, hugging it like her life depended on the limb.

"It's alright Cali, they won't hurt you. They're good people," Cali looked at me before her stare went back to my parents.

"Like mama?" She asked softly and my stand wavered at her voice; so afraid, so fragile. I was sure that the whole room full of people tears up at her question. It was a soft topic but none of us dared to interrupt her. Not even Preston who usually loved to snap at people if they start prying on a sore topic.

I nodded at her question and it was all it took for her to come out from her hiding place and face my parents. My mom and dad both plastered a smile on their face and I can tell my dad was trying his hardest not to scare her away while my mom switched on her mother mode.

"Hey Cali, my name's Ophelia but you can call me Lia. This is my husband, you can call him Finn. If you're not comfortable calling us by names, you can call us Aunt O and Uncle Finn, anything that suits you, sweetie."

I smiled and set Pio onto his feet when he started to squirm, trying to get out of my hold. They both played with my parents and the grins on all four of their faces were heartwarming.

I finally understood what Carla was trying to say. All I needed to do was just be me and a little help from some companions. I watched as Preston and Jerry smiled at the sight before them. Preston directed his gaze to me and nodded in silent thanks. I gave him a smile and nodded back.

'I will keep my promise, Carla,' I thought to myself whilelooking around at all the smiling faces.

~•~•~

Hey guys, I hope you like the chapter. Sorry for the long ass wait. I have an announcement which practically says I can only update once a week now.

My free time is flying away from me so I can't really give you an exact date on when I can update but to avoid giving you false hope on wattpad every time I post A/Ns, I'll be posting sneak peaks along with the schedule of the next update in my Instagram account: the_nerd_can_fight

Sorry for this guys. Make sure you're not going to be left out and don't worry about followbacks, I'll immediately follow even without you leaving comments in the story.

I hope you all have a great day and stay awesome.

God bless 💕 -J