Just For The Cameras

chapter 15 ~ nathan's family

CHAPTER 15 - NATHAN'S FAMILY

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"Mom that looks great." I exclaimed when Nathan and I stepped into the dining room after being called down for dinner.

The table was festively decorated and the smell of roast turkey filled the air and made my stomach rumble loudly. Christmas music was coming from our living room and through the opened double door I could see the huge Christmas tree and the stockings that were hanging above the fire place. It was exactly how it had been every year before I moved to Los Angeles and I had to admit that sending me home was the best idea Alexa had had so far.

Nathan and I sat down across from my parents and my mom immediately filled our plates with the food she had prepared. For several minutes we just enjoyed our meal without saying anything at all but then my dad broke the silence. And I could've killed him for doing so because his question literally baffled me.

"The necklace you're wearing is really pretty. Did you give it to her, Nathan?" My dad asked and pointed at the necklace Braden had given to me just hours ago.

I choked on my food and quickly covered it up with a cough so that my parents wouldn't become suspicious. But before I could reply anything, Nathan literally saved my butt.

"Yes, I gave it to her on our one-month-anniversary." He told my dad and squeezed my hand. I smiled at him and then turned to my parents.

"That's true; I've been wearing it round-the-clock since that day." I added and almost sighed in relief. That was a near miss.

"While we're on it, when did you two come together?" My mom then barged in.

"We've been dating for almost three months now." I replied.

"Three months?" My mom asked and suddenly looked at me as if I'd done something wrong. "But why on earth did you never tell us anything about him when you called us?"

Well, I didn't really think about telling my parents anything about my fake boyfriend. But I couldn't exactly reply this right now.

"I actually thought you would've already read about us in a magazine." I said bluntly, not realizing how wrong this sounded.

"I did." My mom said quietly. "But I never confronted you with it. I wanted you to tell us about it because you trust us enough to know more about your relationship and not just because I kind of forced you to finally say something about it."

By now my dad and Nathan had stopped eating as well and were just watching the two of us. I faced away from them to look back at my mom just to see that she suddenly had this hurt expression on her face that I absolutely hated. I couldn't bear seeing my mom when she was sad; especially not when I was to blame for it, and immediately felt guilty and genuinely regretted that I hadn't just told them about Nathan and me.

Now that I thought about it, even I realized that they didn't know more than some random stranger from the other side of the world. Shame on me!

"I'm sorry mom, I really am. I was just so excited about my movie that I never really thought about telling you about anything else beside that." I told her and it was even the truth. During the last weeks we had only talked about my movie and all the new things I could try because of it. "Please don't be sad, I don't wanna fight with you on Christmas. I promise to tell you more about my private life in the future."

"It's okay." My mom said after a few seconds and I sighed in relief.

"Thank you."

"Your dad told me the exact same every time I was wondering why you didn't tell us about him, but I never believed him and was even afraid that you didn't trust us anymore."