Brave (New Earth Saga)

Ch. 43

"Morgan, let me explain?"

"What app are you on? Wait, I don't even want to know! What the h3ll?"

"Language!"

"Joe, you've never cared if I cursed before!"

"Alright, alright. Let me just explain more clearly then. I did not meet her on a dating app. I was in a virtual support group for people who have recently lost their spouse,"

"Oh,"

"And we had private messages during the group sessions a few times, that's it... I didn't even know she was human, or that you were with her until I came to pick you up,"

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"Well... We had an awkward interaction that made us stop talking, so it was just weird. But now it's not weird... because we can be... friendly to one another... I hadn't even realized it was her when I'd originally dropped you off... it's a small world... I think that's a song, yeah?"

"O...K..."

"I um invited her and Parisa over for dinner next week. How does that sound?"

"Oh. Um, that's great. I'd love to see them," I finally replied, feeling uncomfortable with the idea of seeing Daria for the first time. Why had Joe been all weird? It was almost like he was flirting with Daria? What the heck? Did Joe like to have some weird thing for dating humans who were single moms? And why would he move on from my mom so fast? He can't replace my mom with Daria... it doesn't work like that. Ugh. Why was I so spiraled from this?

Later in the week I finally returned to school. Even if Aaron and I had shook on it, I avoided him, Jade, and pretty much the entire group of humans who'd been giving me a hard time. Instead, I spent my time with Trent, and of course sometimes Logan. Today was finally Friday, which meant Daria and Parisa were coming over for dinner. I needed a buffer, so I'd made Joe let me invite Trent.

Joe, Trent, and I sat in the kitchen, arguing over ingredients for the curry dish they were trying to make human sized. First of all, I don't understand why Joe was making this meal he's literally never made before. Then, I didn't understand why Joe wouldn't just let me make the human sized food... he'd only really made the breakfast food human sized before... and even then, his portions were way too big. Oyy... This was going to be an interesting night.

When Daria and Parisa finally arrived, Trent gave me a lift to the door, as I was quite excited to have them at my house. When we reached the door, Joe had just beat us, but that wasn't what really grabbed my attention. I noticed Joe had changed his clothes from like 15 minutes ago. Instead of the casual t-shirt he'd had on, he wore a nicer button down shirt. Weird.

"Morgan!" Daria said my name, clearly excited to reunite. Even if it had only been a week or so apart, it was nice to reunite.

Parisa looked intimidated to be in such a huge house. Especially having to interact with two giants instead of just Joe. I hadn't clocked that earlier. I probably should have given Daria a warning so she could have explained that there would be two giants here tonight. It wasn't just Parisa who was eyeing Trent, the new giant in the room. Trent was also looking at Parisa, with an expression that was hard for me to read. Part of him looked happy, while there was still an undercurrent of sadness.

"How old are you Parisa?" Trent asked, in a gentle tone, that helped ease Parisa's tension.

"6," Parisa replied, in a whisper. Somehow Trent had heard, and as he clocked how old Parisa was, I clocked why he might be reacting how he was. River. River would have been 6 by now. And while Parisa wasn't River, her tan skin, and small stature could certainly remind someone of River.