color blind | e.d

iv. the talk

The first thing my mom does when I walk through the doors is make me take a seat, she sitting on my left and my dad on my right. There are papers everywhere on the table. Mom quickly fixes them into a neat pile.

"The reason your mother and I wanted to talk to you was because of these," my dad hold up the newly organized papers. I skim them and notice some of them are college related material.

"Honey, these are all the colleges that are looking at you. All you have to do is pick one of them," my mom smiles at me.

My heart literally sinks in happiness, my hands cupping my mouth as I start to cry. Hands rub my back as I cry silently. My dreams are finally coming true.

"Feel free to look through them anytime you want," my dad says with a grin.

Mom adds, "These are schools that deal with professionals and very smart people like yourself. Remember when you used to think you couldn't do it?"

I nod numbly at the horrid memories of the millions of times I've felt so worthless.

"Look at where you are now. You aren't looking for the colleges. The colleges are looking for you. And I told you to pray to God every night and talk to him about this, and believe in your heart that you could do it," her finger points to my chest.

"Baby, you did it!" my dad cheers and hugs me so tightly I was afraid I'd stop breathing. Mom joins in. I bury my face between them, hiccuping with tears of absolute joy.

"I did it," I repeat quietly. I'm definitely telling Ethan about this.

"This weekend we'll go and celebrate, and you can bring Tamar if you want," my dad says but I stopped him right there.

"Actually, I had someone else in mind," I bite my lip nervously, hoping my parents wouldn't take him or this the wrong way. They pull away from our hug to look at me.

"Well, who is it?"

"His name is Ethan. He's around my age and we met at the café yesterday. He's really sweet and he's become a new friend of mine."

"Y'all are just friends?" my mom questions like that didn't sound right, and I nod quickly.

"Positive." That was partially true because of the major flirting he did with me earlier today, which questioned me if we were friends or what. That was silly of me to think. A white boy dating a black girl. What a scene.

"Okay, then I guess he can come," Dad says, but he doesn't sound confident in his word. "I just don't want you to get your feelings hurt, that's all."

"I understand. He even invited me to the movies," I say, which causes my mom to go into a fangirl mode.

"She's growing up, Dave!" she plays with my jaws and cheeks, mocking me and all.

"Stop, Ma," I roll my eyes to hide the blush. "I'm going upstairs to get read for bed."

"It's only 4:00," my dad says.

"Then I'm getting ready to just lounge around."

When I enter my room, I squeal as loud as I can, dancing around and finding some sweats to change into. After changing I dialed Ethan up as fast as I could. After the fourth ring he answers.

"Hey, April." His voice sounds so amazing.

"Ethan," I say excitedly.

"What? What's going on?" he jumps to alert.

"I just got some acceptance letters from colleges wanting me! There's so many I can't choose!" I squeal in happiness, my tears watering again.

"That's amazing!" he cheers. Someone else yells, and then there's two voices cheering at the same time. I laugh as I notice I'm on speaker phone.

"Grayson is jumping with joy and says congrats! He's extremely happy for you but not as much as I am," Ethan says after the five minute screaming and excitement.

"Hey, Grayson!" I say.

"Hey, April!" Their voices sounds almost identical, just like them. What a match. "Ethan has told me so much about you and he even imagines having sex with you-"

"Dude, stop!" Ethan yells at him, a smack sounding from the other end of the phone. I knew that had to hurt. "Dude, stooooppp!"

"Just tell her the truth," Grayson laughs, then laughs harder which makes me laugh. I can only imagine the amount of blush rising on Ethan's cheeks.

A door is slammed before a deep sigh comes from Ethan.

"Excuse him, he can be an ass sometimes," he says. "And I swear on God I never said those things, I promise. I never even was talking about having sex with you or anything like that." I find it cute when he does that, just rambles when he gets socially awkward.

"I believe you Ethan," I say.

"Thank goodness."

"Before you go, I wanted to invite you to come out and celebrate with my family and I this weekend," I add shyly. "I already talked to them about it and how you and I met so you're good."

"At first I was nervous, but I know that you'll be with me so I'll be okay."

"Of course you will! I promise they aren't that intimidating."

"Okay, if you insist," Ethan says.

"They haven't found out about what happened at the restaurant. It's kind of a sensitive subject to us," I say, picking at a stray strand from my covers.

"I totally understand that. My mom taught me to always respect people, no matter their skin color, race, gender, sexuality, you name it. She taught us to never give up on any one and stand for what you believe in, and I believe you deserve more than what that old heathen said," he tells me, some shuffling going on in the background.

"Yes! Same. My parents told me to always be kind, regardless if you don't get that same kindness back from the same people."

"Looks like our parents taught us well."

"You said it."

"I hate to cut our conversation short, but we have to take Gray to his MX race today and they don't have service there. But if you need me, just text or call basically blow up my phone if you ever need anything," he says sincerely, making me smile from ear to ear.

"Will do. Bye Ethan."

"Bye, April. Hope you keep that gorgeous smile on your face," he says, a smirk in his voice.

"I'll try."

"No, you will. Promise me." I wait a beat.

"I promise."

"There we go. See you soon." Our conversation ends there, leaving my body tingling in happiness and my cheeks to burn from smiling too hard.

A/N
-idk where this is going but bare with me ily
-m.xo