All In My Head

Chapter six: Dinner

"Nessa!" My mother hollered at me from downstairs.

"What?" I yelled back, mentally groaning at my mother for calling me for something for the billionth time today... I heard her angry footsteps march every step up the staircase and stop at the entrance of my room. I watched her as she leaned against the doorframe with a distraught glare targeted at me.

"Put on something nice, we have guests coming to dinner," She ordered. I looked at her with curiosity, signalling her to go on. "You remember my colleague, Angela? She's bringing her son with her."

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing right now?" I inquired, mentioning my plain white crop-top and blue skinny jeans. She looked me up and down before looking displeased with my appearance.

"You look like a bum."

I scoffed at her comment. "It's not like I'm begging for spare change on the corner!"

"Don't lip off to me," She warned, uttering some comment about my choice of styling under her breath as she made her way towards my closet and teared through it for a outfit that she considered to be appropriate. Moments later, she threw a hanger at me that carried a white tank top along with a blue cardigan over it. "Here, they'll be here in about twenty minutes."

"You could've killed me!" I dramatically protested, pretending to be injured by the light but harmless throw.

She turned around and faced me with a grin, explaining emotionlessly, "Oh, sweetie, if I wanted to kill you, I'd've done it a long time ago." My mother left the room and me, speechless...

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About twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang throughout the house. My mother excitedly pranced to the door and opened it, revealing her best friend. Her bouncy brown hair and dazzling blue eyes were unforgettable. I've met her a few years back and it's like she hasn't aged a day.

"Angela!" She greeted, enveloping her in a big hug. "It's so good to see you! The potatoes are just about done, but come in!"

Angela walked inside our home with a beaming smile, while my mom hurriedly ran back in the kitchen. When I noticed she came in alone, I spoke up. "Where's your son?"

"He's still in the car. Lost my wallet in the car the other day, but he's so determined to find it," She explained still remaining her smile. "Bless his heart."

A few seconds later, an attractive looking young man who seemed to be my age barged through the front door with a brown leather wallet in his hand. Once she received her wallet back she murmured a 'thank you' before marching into the kitchen to help my mother, leaving us alone to talk.

"Vanessa, right? Such a pretty name." He complimented, gently but briefly shaking my hand. A light blush crept across my cheeks causing me to smile nervously.

"Thank you, uh..."

"Bradley."

"Nice to meet you, Bradley." I greeted back. Awkward silence filled the air between us as we both politely smiled at each other.

"Dinner's ready, you two. Are y'all gonna eat or just stare at each other for the time being?" Angela teased with a smirk. I laughed nervously at her remark and trailed behind her to the dining table.

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Dinner was luckily less awkward than my encounter with Bradley. I learned a lot about him from what his mother said at the table. We surprisingly have a lot in common, other than one of his many hobbies is hunting. I would personally rather starve to death than shoot Bambi's mother.

He spoke to my mother with pure joy etched on his face, "Dinner was amazing, miss Olsen!"

"Well, I'm glad you liked it."

Before the awkward silence could come back again, Angela firmly suggested with a slight smirk, "Vanessa, why don't you and Bradley get to know each other more while I catch up with your mother? Alone."

"Sure, I guess. My room's upstairs, second door on the right, just follow me." I answered. Just as I was about to go up the stairs, I turned to see the both of them grinning vigorously.

They're setting us up...

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"Are you into video games?" Bradley queried. Wordlessly, I showed him my shelf dedicated to gaming. It mostly contains story-line games but there is still a decent variety of games for two people. "Maybe we can play a two-player game for the time being? At least make it seem like we're hitting it off for our parents?"

"So we aren't hitting it off?" I teased. "It's alright, we can play a game. Only if we can play by my terms."

"Which is?"

"The winner gets taken out to a date, and the loser has to pay." I boasted with full confidence and my hand held out for him to shake.

Shaking my hand, he chuckled. "Prepare to lose."

Our characters fought to the death with one another. The time-bar said there was only thirty-seven seconds remaining. Bradley's character was called Adira, a feisty but small and petite blonde woman. She was throwing multiple punches and kicks at my character, Kace. Her attacks were slowly bringing Kace's health down, and I knew I needed to do something.

Kace, an insanely buff character with his arms larger than his entire body hit her with one large smack. The force was strong enough to cause Adira to fly across the arena and to the ground with a harsh thud. Her body went limp, and the health-bar was now empty. I smiled in victory as the narrator's iconic deep voice bellowed, "Kace wins!"

"Ha!"

"Looks like I'm paying for dinner..."

"Looks like you are." I acknowledged with a wink. The two of us exchanged our numbers, and agreed that Friday night at the popular movie theatre called 'Dream Theaters' would work perfectly.

"So it's settled." He said, locking his phone with the biggest smile tugged on his face. Another blush stained my cheeks as I added the event on my phone's calendar. I titled the event, "Bradley," with a heart emoticon next to it.

"Let's, uh, head downstairs." I responded, giggling when I saw he had the same tint of pink on his face like mine.

When we opened the door up and stepped out into the hallway, we saw both of our mothers standing at the bottom of the stairs with the same smirks on their faces as before. It was no doubt that they heard everything. The two of us descended down the stairs and huddled by each of our parent's sides. "I'll see you Friday, Vanessa."

"Looking forward to it." I answered truthfully.

"Bye, you two!" My mother beamed, seeing them out the door. She turned back to me eagerly. "So a date, huh?"

"Mom!"

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A/N: Hey guys! So you finally met Bradley... Opinions so far?

Also I just wanted to disclaim that I completely made up the names of the video game characters, as well as "Dream Theater." If there is such a thing as dream theatre in San Francisco, I'll be surprised! Enjoy your day!