I stopped beside my sister and followed her gaze.
My dad and mom were sitting in their armchairs. It was like they hadn’t moved at all. The glass fragments and paintings were still on the floor.
They weren’t alone. On the couch across from them was a man.
It took a few seconds to realize that I knew who the man was. I knew his slouchy position as he leaned forward on his cargo pants, his grey hoodie, his floppy, messy dark hair.
My nerves were on fire, gluing me to the spot. I wanted to look at Ada to see if she could see what I was seeing but I couldn’t look away.
I closed my eyes tightly, thinking it was some f**ked–up illusion. It wouldn’t have been the first time.
When I opened them, the room had gone quiet and my parents were looking up at me. Dex slowly turned his head in my direction and our eyes met. Those eyes of his were unmistakable. Dex was in my living room, talking with my parents.
What. The. Fuck?
I was speechless. And thoughtless. I could only stand there, staring. I’m pretty sure my mouth was agape too.
“Perry, seems you have a visitor,” my mother said.
I barely heard her. My eyes were still locked with Dex’s. They were masked and offered no clues to what was going on. But the tiniest twitch of his upper lip said enough.
Out of the corner of my eye I became aware that Ada was watching me closely. Everyone was waiting for me to say something.
So I said the first thing that came to my mind. “Dex…what are you doing here?”
He pursed his lips and let it slide. He casually looked at my dad, who had stood up.
“Dex came all the way over here from Seattle to talk business. Your business,” Dad said in that command respect sort of way. It was the professor in him coming out.
I finally looked at Ada. Her eyes were wide but she seemed to be enjoying the whole situation.
Dex was looking at us. He got up, easing himself off the couch, and sauntered over to the staircase, eyeing Ada with a bemused smirk.”This must be Little Fifteen.”
“The name’s Ada,” she said in her angsty teen voice, the amusement disappearing from her face. “You must be Perry’s crazy partner. You’re a lot shorter than I thought you’d be.”
I closed my eyes in embarrassment while Dex said, “Ah. I can already tell you guys are related. The Snarky Sisters.”
I opened my eyes at that just in time to see Ada muster the evilest stink eye as she flounced down the stairs and went into the kitchen. I looked back down at Dex.
“Sorry to just show up unannounced. Can we talk?” he asked in that rich voice of his. I glanced over his head at my parents. They seemed to expect it. I don’t know what they had been talking about but it was obvious Dex needed to bring me up to speed in private.
I nodded and looked up the stairs. My bedroom seemed like the most obvious place. I could almost feel Ada snickering in the kitchen at how absurd (and fitting) the situation had gotten in the last few minutes, from talking about how I hadn’t slept with Dex, to leading him to my bedroom. It was insanity.
I walked up them with Dex coming up behind me. I felt shaky, nervous and pale. I wasn’t prepared for this. I could almost feel the energy he radiated glowing at my back. Then vanity kicked in. Was my bedroom clean? Did I have underwear flung all over the place? I must have looked like absolute shit from crying my eyes out.
I opened my door. The desk lamp was already on but that light was a bit too romantic so I flipped on the overhead lights and ushered Dex inside. He stopped in the middle of the room and looked around, taking it all in. I closed the door behind us and did a quick scan to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary.
It was messy as usual but my underwear and embarrassing items were tucked away for once. Well, I guess the row of stuffed animals I had could have counted as embarrassing. Least they were when he laughed and lazed over to them, picking up my tattered monkey Tim.
He waved it in my direction. “How old is this poor guy? His f**king eye is hanging out.” He flicked it with his finger and it waved back and forth like a pendulum.
I gasped and ran over, plucking Tim out of his destructive hands. “That’s Tim and I’ve had him since I was two years old.” I held Tim to my chest in protective instinct. Dex stared at me with utter amusement.
“So I have stuffed animals, so what?” I asked defensively. I thought my Alice in Chains and Melvins posters made up for that fact.
He smiled, shrugged. I put Tim back down in the pile with the rest of his friends.
“So?” I asked, turning around to face him, feeling all nervy again.
He was looking over my walls. “So what?” he repeated blankly.
I reached over and smacked him lightly on his shoulder so his focus was on me.
“Dex. What are you doing here?”
He frowned. “You’re not happy to see me?”
My head craned back on my neck, caught off guard. “Well, yeah, but…I mean...”
“It’s OK, I won’t hold it against you. Unless you want me to.”
I raised my brow.
He grinned, a very quick flash, before he wiped it off with the back of his hand. Then he was all serious, his lips in a tight line.
“I couldn’t let you back out of the show,” he admitted. “I knew if you talked to your parents you’d just f**k it all up even more.”
I winced. That wasn’t very nice. But Dex was nothing if not brutally honest at times.
“It’s just a two–hour drive,” he continued, oblivious. “I’ve done more for a lot less.”
“You should have told me,” I said.
“Yeah? And have you freaking out for the next two hours? Come on, kiddo, I think I know you by now. This way was easier. And it worked. You can thank me, by the way.”
“What do you mean, it worked?”
He walked over to my bed, humming some song to himself. He lied down on it, putting his hands behind his head and kicked the mattress with the back of his heel. “Not bad, not bad. Could be a bit bigger, though. How do you fit your boyfriends on here?”
As annoying as he was being, it was a nice change to see him being a little more playful than the last time I saw him. Still, I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea and I wanted to be a little bit serious about the situation. I went over to my chair, pulled it over to him and sat down.
“Dex. What did you talk about with my parents? What was the business?”