Teach Me ✅

16. Meeting the Parents

I pull up a few seconds after Josh does. He's leaning against his car looking at me worriedly as I climb out and walk over to him. "Hey" I smile, running my fingers through my hair. "You okay?" I ask worriedly.

"My parents are amazing" he starts and I can sense the exception in his voice. "But they are extremely overprotective and annoying at best when it comes to me and my siblings dating."

"Oh" I reply nervously. "So are you saying that it's going to be nearly impossible to impress them?"

"You're living with me after dating for literally a day. I'm just warning you that it's gonna be difficult."

"Great" I sigh as I reach for his hand. "No matter what you still like me right?"

"Of course" he smiles as he leans down to kiss me. "Come on gorgeous" he says as he tugs on my hand and leads me up to the apartment. We walk in and find his parents on the couch watching television.

"Hey mom and dad" Josh exclaims when he walks in with me trailing behind him.

"Joshua" his mom exclaims as she hops out of her seat and throws her arms around her son. "We missed you."

"Missed you too mom" he laughs lightly as he kisses her cheek and pulls away. "How are things?"

"How are things with you?" she counters as she looks past him, directly at me. Josh turns around to look at me and a smile pulls at his lips.

"This is my girlfriend Maya" he introduces me happily.

"We met" his dad says, getting off the couch to come join us.

"Right" Josh says awkwardly. "I'm sorry about that" he chuckles. "I kinda forgot you were coming" he admits. "I wouldn't have left so early had I remembered."

"Where were you?" his mom asks him curiously.

"My student teaching gig. At NYU" he says as he glances down at me. This was the moment of truth. Was he gonna tell his parents he was my TA or was that our dirty little secret.

"Do you go to NYU?" his mom asks me curiously as I nod.

"Mhm" I reply as I look up at Josh curious as to where he would take this.

"She's a friend of Riley's" Josh explains. "Riley Matthews. A girl in my class. Cory's girl" he continues as his parent's eyes widen. Okay not a total lie.

My head spins with all of the half lies the two of us had racked up in the past few weeks.

"Cory has a daughter?" the woman asks surprised.

"Yes" I answer, stepping back into the conversation. "She's actually my best friend from my childhood. We met when we were seven. Been inseparable since then" I smile.

"Perhaps she should come to Morgan's birthday dinner" Josh's dad suggests.

"I don't know" Josh starts but I cut him off.

"I'm sure she'd love that" I smile. Any diversion from the pressure I felt would be welcomed.

"Lovely" his mom smiles. "Oh and I'm Amy. Sorry we forgot to introduce ourselves."

"Alan" his dad introduces. "Nice to meet you."

"You too."

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When the door closes and Josh's parents are gone I finally feel like I can breathe again. I collapse onto the couch and take a deep breath.

"You okay?" Josh asks, taking a seat beside me, looking at me worriedly like he thought I would bolt any second.

"Yea" I reply. "It's just a lot" I admit. "And it's getting a little difficult to remember which half-truths we told which people."

"I told you this was gonna be hard Maya" he sighs as I nod in agreement.

"You did" I nod. "I just" I sigh. "I wasn't expecting to be thrown into such deep water so fast."

"Maybe this was a mistake" he says sadly.

"Maybe" I agree though my heart twisting in my chest says anything but.

"I'm gonna head to bed. I'll see you in the morning Maya" he says as he stands up, kisses the top of my head and walks off to the bedroom. I sit and let a few tears fall before pulling out my phone and calling Riley.

"Peaches what's wrong?" she asks worriedly.

"Am I making a huge mistake?" I ask bluntly, hearing her sigh on the other side of the line.

"Honestly?" she asks. I pause and she takes that as her cue to continue. "No" she says surprising me. "He likes you. A lot" she says seriously. "Look he didn't know his parents were coming. It wasn't like he ambushed you on purpose to freak you out."

"I know. I know" I nod. "I'm just overwhelmed Riles."

"Love is overwhelming sometimes" she says making me roll my eyes.

"I don't love him."

"Not yet" she replies playfully. "But you owe it to yourself to see if you might someday. Take a deep breath, make out a little and get some sleep. I promise it'll be okay Maya."

"I'll see you tomorrow" I sigh as I stand up and start heading to the bedroom.

"Yep" she replies happily. "Love ya."

"You too" I smile before hanging up and walking into the bedroom, finding Josh still up watching Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show. "Hey" I say lightly as I lean against the doorframe.

"You leaving?" he asks nervously as he mutes his television. I shake my head and walk over to the bed, taking a seat on my side.

"I freaked out earlier. I'm just really overwhelmed" I admit.

"I know" he nods in understanding.

"But I shouldn't have said this was a mistake. You've been perfect and I don't know if I could be getting through all this shit without you. I really care about you Josh and I think that's part of what's freaking me out so much. I'm gonna fall for you and then the shit could hit the fan and I'd lose you."

"Maya" he says softly as he turns to face me, taking my hands in his. "I'm not going anywhere" he assures me. "Everything is gonna be okay."

"What if it's not?"

"Then we'll figure it out from there" he says seriously. "So" he adds as he looks at me with a smirk. "Are you staying?"

"Do you want me to?" I ask as I scoot closer to him.

"Yes" he replies bluntly as he leans in to kiss me.

"Then I'll stay" I whisper against his lips before falling back onto the bed.

A/N: Happy birthday to my queen Sabrina Carpenter!!!!!