Dreams & Disasters || Tronnor au

|| F O U R ||

It had stopped snowing. The thin layer of snow from a few days before was melting and it was less than a month before Christmas. The house was warm, but for some reason I missed the chilly draft most houses had at this time of year. I was pouring cream into my morning coffee when my phone buzzed in my pocket.

It was my parents.

My finger hovered over the button for a second before accepting.

"Hello?" I asked, slightly apprehensive. There was a crackle on the other end before someone spoke up.

"Hello! Connor, how are you?" I heard my dad say.

"Hey dad. I'm good." I put my phone on speaker and set it on the counter.

"Mom and I just wanted to check on you and see how you were doing," he continued as I shuffled around the drawers for a teaspoon. "We haven't talked in awhile."

"You mean two weeks," I mumbled.

"What's that?"

"Nothing," I stirred my coffee and poured in a little sugar.

He paused. "How's Bethany? It's so great that you now have a house together. I've seen the pictures. It's absolutely gorgeous!" he laughed.

"Yeah," I forced a laugh, picking up my phone and turning it off speaker quickly. "Um, Bethany's good. She's really good. And yes, the house is gorgeous."

I could hear my dad smiling, proud of what I'd said. "Bethany is a really great girl. You know that, right?"

"Yeah dad," I sighed, "I know."

"She's really wonderful. When we met her a few months ago, she was really polite." he sighed. "So wealthy, too. And you could definitely use the money." He laughed at the last part jokingly, but there was a serious edge to it that make my skin prickle slightly.

"Y-yeah, Dad. Of course."

There was a few seconds of silence. "Do you have plans for Christmas? You know, you and Bethany could come visit us, or maybe Mom and I could come have Christmas with you two."

"I'm not sure," I said, taking a sip of my coffee and staring up at the ceiling. Me and Beth had already agreed to have Christmas at home, and we weren't planning for anyone else to join us. Honestly, I wasn't in the mood for another week of awkward dinners and getting up at 7 in the morning for church.

"Okay, well I think it would be great," Dad went on, "We can finally meet Bethany, see the house, and have another family holiday."

"We'll think about it," was the best response I had.

"Okay.. I'll have to go, and Mom wants to talk but she's not here right now. She'll call you later, alright?"

"Okay."

"I hope you make good decisions with Bethany. Alright, bye." And then he hung up. Good decisions? What in the world did that mean?

"Who was that?" I turned to see Bethany stumbling into the kitchen. She yawned, rubbing her mascara smudged eyes.

"Just my dad," I said. "He wants to have Christmas with us."

She stood up more straight, nodding her head. "Well, why not?"

"What?" I said, confused. "I thought we both agreed we wanted to have Christmas alone."

She only shrugged. "I never swore. Come on, I'll get to make a good impression on your parents and it will be just like family." I was still apprehensive. "Pleeease?" she pulled on my shirt like a little kid, tugging at it's frayed edges as if it would get me to agree.