It Started At Camp

14 | Meet the Parents

Lena

"Mom. Yes," I said, standing up.

"Lena, your father and I have been calling you. It's been nearly two hours. We were worried," she said once she was close enough. "And who's this?" She turned to Derek who had stood up.

"Oh, this?" I began. "This is..." I tucked my hair behind my ear too nervous to admit.

"Derek Sumter," he said. "It's nice to meet you, ma'am." He reached his hand out.

My mom raised an eyebrow at him and then turned to me, ignoring it. "Now, I know this isn't the same Derek from camp. 'Got my daughter pregnant' Derek. Tell me this isn't so."

"It...is," I confessed.

"Is this why you came to the park?"

"No! I just went for a walk and went pretty far. I only got back now and he was in the neighborhood."

She narrowed her eyes on me as though she were trying to gauge if I was lying. She always trusted me completely before this. So, it hurt to see her waver.

"Okay," she said finally. "We all have a lot to talk about..." she began. "So, please join us for dinner." She turned away and headed down the hill. I exchanged a glance with Derek.

"You good?" I asked him.

"Yeah, if anything happens, you'll tell our child stories about me right?"

"Shut up, you be fine. Just stay out of arm's length and maybe don't sit too close to me. He already knows how we got this child, let's not remind him." Derek nodded, but I was completely serious. I stopped and held him back. "Got it? Please, I don't want him to hate you forever. It's enough that he hates me."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "He couldn't possibly hate you."

I gave him a thin-lipped smile.  He would never know what it was like to be in my shoes.

Derek

"Finally you guys are home.  I am starving!  If you had taken any longer, I would've just--"  Lena's father stopped at the entrance of the kitchen.  He was a tall man, an angry man when he focused on me.  "Who is this?"  I had a feeling he already knew and yet I held out my hand despite my heart beating madly against my chest.

"Good evening, sir.  I'm Derek Sumter.  Me and your daughter met at camp."  There was no polite way to say I got her pregnant, so I held my tongue and lowered my hand when he didn't reach for it.

I could feel my face getting hot.

"Derek left camp early and immediately came here.  We thought it'd be best he eat dinner with us.  We all have so much to talk about..." she trailed awkwardly before stepping between me and her father who hadn't broken his intense glare.

She glanced back at me as she led her father to the dining table.  Without a word, she asked: Are you okay.  I nodded even though every minute in her father's presence was making me more and more nervous.

I took a long swig of water when I was situated at the dining table next to Lena (but not too close) and across her parent.  Her dad was diagonally across from me but I could still feel the heat in his glare.

"Would you like some potatoes?" Lena asked softly. 

"Yes, please.  Thank you."

Everything I said and did was being judged in their eyes.

"So, Derek, why did you go to S.T.A.R.?" her mother asked.

"Music," I said simply.  "I play the guitar."