The Dating Game

TWENTY-FOUR

A few minutes after everyone finishes their food, Liam helps Mr. Matthews clean up the dishes and the kitchen as they discuss school together. Chase accompanies me to the clean, white couches in the living room where he makes some small talk with me before his mother walks in to join us.

"So, Michelle..." she starts as soon as the conversation between Chase and me falls silent. "I don't mean to overstep here, but may I ask what your ethnicities are? Your hair is so thick and beautiful!"

I smile awkwardly. I can tell she means well, but it always amazes me how white people are so fascinated with ethnic hair—even my sad excuse for African curls. Still, I answer her openly, with a more genuine smile on my face.

"Oh, I'm just black and white," I tell her. "There's not a lot to me."

"I'm sure there's a lot more to you!" She smiles cheerfully, nudging me as if she were one of my mom's old friends catching up with me about school or teasing me about boys. Again, I know she means well, and is just trying to compliment me; it's awfully sweet of her, really. But I am literally just black and white; physically, there is truly nothing more to me.

Still, though, I smile and nod. Better to be polite than to be so critical of others—something I've been working on since it's proven to be such an issue between Chase and me.

"And Chase," Mrs. Matthews suddenly says, craning her head to look at her son as he sits calmly on the other side of me. "Why aren't you dressed up or something? Your lovely girlfriend put effort into how she presents herself. You should too."

I glance down at my outfit, a cream-colored crochet sweater paired with one of my nicer pairs of jeans. Beside my makeup, I really didn't try that hard, but I definitely tried harder than Chase, that's for sure.

"I live here, Mom," Chase debates with an exasperated expression.

"And you look like you don't live anywhere," she teases.

It takes everything in me not to absolutely crack up at her out-of-pocket joke. I didn't realize until now just how similar Chase is to the rest of his family, especially when it comes to his mother and her equally witty—and admittedly funny—jokes. They're just as quick as Chase's, and dare I say, much better in general.

When I look at Chase, he's shaking his head and rolling his eyes—a behavior that would look immensely disrespectful had he not been smiling the entire time. It's a common trick, really: smile when you want to roll your eyes at your parents so that you don't get punished for it. Chase does it so well I'm almost fully convinced that man could get away with murder simply by pure charisma.

"I'll be back," Chase says suddenly as he stands up from the couch. Both his mother and I watch him dart into the hallway until he disappears into some room without another word. That's when Mrs. Matthews turns to me with a sneaky grin.

"Can I tell you a secret?" I hear her whisper into my ear, making me jump with shock. I didn't realize how close she leaned in until she was already there. Although, when she doesn't say anything about startling me, I nod for her to continue.

"I think you're a great girlfriend for him."

"You do?" I try not to sound too shocked. This is supposed to be real, after all.

"Yeah." She smiles warmly. "Ever since he started dating you, he's been changing little by little. He's a lot happier, you know?"

Happier? Because of me? Yeah, right. The only thing about me that would make Chase Matthews happier than he was two weeks ago is the fact that I freely allow him to kiss me now.