The one he never claimed. (Complete)

23.

"How long were you two deciding on hiding this from me?"

For as long as we could.

"We were just waiting for the right time dad." I lie. Telling him was never on my agenda in the near future or at all. I'd hoped we'd go years and maybe even get married without him knowing.

But his reaction to all this makes me feel stupid for hiding my relationship with Cody in the first place.

"I mean I kinda knew."

"What?"
Cody and I say in unison.

We're visiting dad because he wanted to see me before my big graduation in a few days. This is also the first time we're talking about the events of the past few days at the graveyard, likely because we're all only now in a good mood - in a better mood.

I'd been upset the past couple of days because I'd been really excited to finally celebrate my mother in the right kind of mood, the mood I hadn't been able to celebrate her in for too long.

I'd been a bit hard on myself for the fact that I let the mess with Ezra and his fans keep me from being with my mother on her birthday, this is the first time this has happened in forever. I've never not been by her side on her day.

It took me a while but I've managed to turn my whole mood around, partly because I'm finally graduating. Four years of absolute torture and I'm ready to be an adult.

"Oh c'mon sweetheart, you haven't been home in god knows how long and Cody all of a sudden stopped visiting too? I'm old but not that old."
He continues with a shrug getting me slightly out of my daze. I mean I wasn't expecting him to throw a party at the news but was the shrug really necessary?

I for one think that it's great that Cody and I are dating, he's a good guy - a genuine, smart guy who knows what he wants, why wouldn't any parent want that for their daughter?

And I get that they're friends. Cody has never really had many friends of his own so whenever I wasn't around, he would hang around with dad, I guess they grew closer with time. Even though he started to make other friends as he grew up, they still remained close. A whole week wouldn't pass without them seeing each other.

But the past couple of months, we've been spending as much time as possible together, and obviously that meant he hasn't then been visiting dad. And well, dad knows we've been hanging out a lot more than usual. I guess it is pretty obvious.

I'm just happy it's finally out in the open and we can finally stop being so secretive about it. I've done the whole 'hiding each other from the world' thing, it wasn't great.

"Well... what are your thoughts about it?"
Now that he knows, I can't help but want to know how we feels about it. Is it weird? He is his friend after all.

"I mean obviously the two of you mean the world to me. I just want you to be careful." He answers and I nod my head in understanding.

It's always very risky dating someone near and dear to you. I've known Cody almost my whole life, if things don't work out we might end up not speaking to each other again, or even hate each - which will essentially affect the people around us. So I get why he said what he said.

That's why,

"Dad, I love this man. I do not doubt that this is forever." I reveal reassuringly. Clearly shocking Cody because he has an unreadable expression on his face at my confession.

Maybe I shouldn't have put him on the spot like that, it's not fair. I then play it off by saying,

"Dad we've gotta go look for a dress."

I have to look good for graduation, so after stopping off at dad's - Cody and I had planned to spend the rest of the day looking for the perfect dress.

"Well, you two have my blessing. Bye hunnie." He finally says as we stand up to leave and I ignore the hesitation in his voice.

"So..."
I finally say after Cody and I have been driving for a while. My mind is on a rampage and I hate when that happens. We've been stopping at boutiques looking for a dress and so far we're not doing great.

But that hasn't at all been an issue. The issue has been that I can't seem to get his reaction to my revelation out of my mind. Is it really that crazy that I've fallen in love with someone I've known my whole life?

"So..." he says clearly waiting for me to proceed.

I didn't want to have to talk about this but I feel like this is important. I know how I feel about him but is it reciprocated? I wouldn't want to waste my time if not. I would much rather have him tell me he's still confused about his feelings for me than not say anything.

"I feel like we should just go ahead and address the pink elephant." It's weighing heavily on my head and my heart.

"I know it makes you feel uncomfortable when I say this but I really do love you Cody."
It's important to me that I say my truth.

I would've thought he would be in the same pace as me right now because when he'd confessed his feelings for me he seemed pretty deep into it.

The fact he'd wanted me for years should make his feelings for me stronger right? Well apparently not because,

"I didn't know we were exclusive."

I try really hard to control my breathing. Was I imagining the past couple of months?

"What do you mean?"
I'm barely keeping it together.

"Well we've never really talked about being serious."

"Yea but it was pretty obvious."
I've practically been living with him.

"But was it though?"

I turn my head to the side to stare out the window.

"Alex..."

"Babe..."

"Alex please say something."

I take a deep breath. Then,

"Have you been seeing other people?"
I'm still looking out the window, it's what's keeping me together.

He doesn't need to respond to my question, his silence answers it for me.

"I'm really tired right now, we should go."
I want him to drop me home because I need to not be around him right now but I don't want dad's doubts heightened so I let him drive us to his house instead.

"Alex, we never talked about being exclusive. I'm really sorry, you know I'll never purposely do anything to hurt you." That's not a lie.

We're now back at home and I'm making myself a sandwich.

"C'mon, you know me." He continues to plead. I'm still struggling with how I feel about all this but in all honesty, I do know him

"Do you love me?" I hear myself ask before I'm able to stop myself.

"Yea of course. You know that." He answers almost immediately with certainty in his voice, I do not doubt that he means it. But,

"Are you In love with me?" My voice breaks.

Deep breaths.

"Alex, it's only been a few months. I love every single moment of being with you. I'm sorry that I was seeing other people but that's only because I didn't know you weren't seeing other people." He says and I'm left wondering what that means for us now.

"So what happens now?" I finally ask now turning my head to my sandwich. I've suddenly lost my appetite and it's been sitting on the counter for a while.

"Well I like what we have, it's great." He says moving closer to me.

"Baby there's no reason why we should involve love into this." He continues now cupping my face in his hands.

"Let's just have fun and not take things too seriously, okay?"

I sigh.

"Ok."