find your love

58.

"you think your mom is going to like me? be serious," aubrey sucked his teeth as he drove, his fingers tapping on his leg as a sort of nervous habit. airie looked over at him from looking out the window, reaching over to rest her hand on his to calm him, gently squeezing his hand in hers. "i'm sure she will. my mom is sweet as pie, she knows about you, we talked for a while," she reassured him, his jaw lightly clenching as he turned his hand to lace his fingers through hers as the radio played music lowly. he sighed and airie gently squeezed his hand, rubbing her thumb against the back of his hand. "being serious, she just knows i feel a lot of things for you, but that i know that i want you," she reassured him and returned her attention out the window, the 'welcome to sweet home alabama' sign coming into view as they finally crossed the state line.

"i gotta take you to the barbecue place i used to go to all the time in high school, and my high school too," she chirped once she saw the sign, immediately smiling and squeezing his hand to hopefully calm him down as they made their way to huntsville now. he peered over at her and gave her a faint smile, his fingers lacing through hers and his hand squeezing hers within his. was he scared? 1,000,000%. he didn't know what her mom was going to think of him, what her sister would think, and even what armond would think, even if he already knew what was going on between the two of them; that was where his worry and nerves came in. he wanted them to accept him, even if only a little, and make some kind of impression on them; was this how she felt when he took her to meet his mom? that was a struggle in and of itself, one he couldn't even believe he did, but the fact that they got along well afterwards was more than enough to let him know that he made some kind of good decision.

after about 45 minutes, they pulled up to airie's home; her real home. there were three cars sitting outside; her dad's old, red 1971 chevrolet nova sitting in one spot, her mom's nissan in another, and armond's jeep sitting halfway on the curb. airie didn't even bother to pep talk him, jumping out the car and running into the yard when armond came running out the house to scoop his sister into a hug. "puddin!" he pipped in her ear and swung her around, airie bursting out into laughter as she hugged her brother and kicked her feet out and about, her mom coming out the door afterwards. aubrey gulped down his nerves and got out the car, adjusting his shirt as he watched airie let go of armond and make her way over to her mom, armond coming over to him, "what's up, bro," he spoke as he held out his hand, aubrey and armond dapping each other up. "how was the drive?" armond asked, aubrey shrugging his shoulders.

"not too bad, your sister isn't too annoying on road trips," he laughed along with him and eventually airie called him over, "aubrey! come here!"

he and armond shared a look before he motioned him to go, aubrey making his way over and waving his hands, "mama, this is aubrey. aubrey, this is my mama," she motioned between the two of them, aubrey reaching to shake her mom's hand up until her mom pulled him down into a hug, "boy, we don't do that proper mess over here- i'm a hugger, you'll learn."

aubrey laughed as he hugged her, patting her back, "it's nice to finally meet you mrs...."

"just call me mama. airie, why is he so formal?" her mom made a face at her and airie rolled her eyes, "because he has manners, ma. now come on, it's hot and i'm not trying to get smacked by some june bugs flying around here," airie squinted as she made her way inside with armond, pulling on one of his locs to make him mad, aubrey and her mom following shortly after.