The Lies That Define Us Part 10

"I was kidding." I cracked a smile. "I am capable of joking now and then. Although, it is rare."

"Oh." She visibly relaxed. "That's funny."

"You're not laughing, though."

She raised her bright blue eyes to mine. "I think I'm still in shock that you actually tried to be funny."

"Tried and failed," I said, before popping the last bite of sandwich in my mouth.

Ari opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by the sound of the doorbell.

"What the h.e.l.l?" I muttered, standing. "No one should be here."

Ari gasped and seemed to curl in on herself. I took in her odd behavior but said nothing.

"Stay here," I told her.

She nodded her head, and I was surprised she actually listened to me.

I stepped out into the hallway and caught a glimpse of who was outside in the slim window beside the front door.

"Aw, h.e.l.l." I quickly skittered back into the kitchen.

"Who is it?" Ari asked, fear s.h.i.+mmering in her eyes.

"My parents."

The fear left her eyes at my statement, and she exhaled a long breath. "Thank G.o.d," I heard her whisper under her breath.

"Get in the closet." I grabbed her arm, pulling her off the chair.

"What?" She gasped. "Are you crazy?" She tried to yank her arm out of my hold, but I only tightened my grasp.

"Possibly," I responded, shoving her into the pantry closet. "Now get to organizing." I pushed the door closed and ran to answer the front door-the doorbell was ringing for the fifth time by that point.

I swung the front door open at the same time an angry Ari launched herself at my back.

I was surprised, and unable to hold both of our weights. We went tumbling to the ground at my parents' feet.

"Dammit, woman," I groaned, rolling to my feet. I rubbed at my neck before reaching down to help her up. "What the h.e.l.l was that for?"

"You shoved me in a closet," she seethed, jabbing a finger into my chest.

My parents began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" I snapped, rubbing at my sore neck again.

My mom responded first. "Oh, just that I jumped on your dad's back like that after one of our first conversations."

I sighed and scrubbed my hands over my face. "I'm glad we could amuse you. What are you doing here?"

My dad let out a laugh. "You could at least act like you're happy to see us."

I forced a smile. "See?" I pointed at my face. "Happy."

My mom shook her head, grinning at me. "You are one-hundred-percent your father's child. Sometimes I wonder if you have any part of me."

"I have your eyes," I reminded her.

"That's true. Now, are you going to invite us in or do we have to force ourselves inside?"

"Sorry," I mumbled. "Come in."

I stepped aside, not realizing I'd been barring the entry with my body, and let them pa.s.s. Them and their big a.s.s suitcases, that is.

"Staying for a while?" I questioned, glaring at the suitcases like they'd personally offended me.

"As long as we need to," my dad said, giving me the evil eye that told me I'd most definitely done something wrong.

"What the h.e.l.l does that mean?" I exclaimed as I closed and locked the front door.

He shrugged. "You've checked out of life, Liam. We're here to check you back in."

"Cute. You should put that in one of your songs."

"We both know I don't write the songs," he countered, taking my mom's purse from her shoulder and setting it on the floor. "Care to tell us who this is?" He nodded at Ari where she stood by the stairs.

She seemed very amused by the whole thing. I glared at her, and she merely grinned back at me.

"This is Ari." I waved my hand dramatically in her direction. "She's staying here for a while."

"Is she your girlfriend?" my mom asked gleefully.

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Leave it to my mom to ask that right off the bat.

"No. Absolutely not."

She frowned, looking from me to Ari. "Why not?"

"Mom," I groaned, burying my face in my hands.

Ari snickered across from me. Of course she'd be highly amused by the situation.

"No offense, Mrs...? I don't actually know your last name," Ari muttered toward me. Continuing, she added, "But your son is kind of an a.s.s."

My mom smiled. "He's just like his dad." She lightly b.u.mped her fist into my dad's chest. "Hard on the outside, but a total softy on the inside. Keep digging." She winked at Ari.

"Mom," I scolded, hoping the embarra.s.sment didn't show on my face. I was nearly twenty years old, and my mom was treating me like I was still a kid.

"I'll just be upstairs." Ari pointed unnecessarily, putting one foot on the bottom stair and grabbing ahold of the railing. "I'll let you guys, uh...talk." She waved her free hand at the three of us standing in the foyer.

I glared at her. Partly p.i.s.sed that she was a witness, and also p.i.s.sed that she was about to leave me alone with them. It made no sense, but my thoughts and actions rarely did.

"Didn't you have some cereal boxes to alphabetize?" I asked her through clenched teeth, pleading with my eyes for her to stay.

Her lips lifted into a tiny smirk. "Do it yourself."

I shook my head and watched as she disappeared upstairs. A moment later, I heard the click of her door closing.

I pulled in a lungful of air and swiveled my gaze to my parents. Both stood with satisfied grins.

"What?" I groaned, starting toward the kitchen. "Spit it out. I know you both want to."

"Us?" my mom said innocently behind me. "We have nothing to say."

"M'kay," I muttered sarcastically. "You guys hungry?"

"We stopped for breakfast," my dad replied. "Stop stalling, Liam."

I turned and braced my hands on the granite counter, my fingers tightening around the stone until they turned white.

"Get on with it then. Why are you here?" I faced them, squaring my shoulders as I braced myself for whatever they had to say.

Contrary to popular belief I actually cared what my parents thought of me. I loved them, and we'd never had any major fights like most kids with their parents. Disagreements, on the other hand... Well, we had lots of those.

"You didn't come home for the Fourth of July," my dad stated, giving me that intense look he'd always given me when I was a child that told me I was in big trouble. Only I was an adult, and I didn't have to go home or be made to do anything I didn't want to do.

"You mean to tell me that you guys flew all the way out here because I didn't come home for the holiday?" I looked between the two of them. "Are y'all f.u.c.king nuts?"

My mom snickered. "Well, we are that. But we're also your parents, and we're concerned."

"I didn't come home last year," I countered, my grip on the counter tightening even more. "I had a party here, both times," I added. "It's not like I sulked around the house and did nothing all day."

"Is that what you do normally?" my dad asked. "Sulk?"

I wanted to laugh, but his serious tone and the worry in his eyes held me back.

"No, of course not," I retorted. "It's a five-to-six-hour flight from here to home. It's just kind of a pain in the a.s.s." I shrugged, letting go of the counter and stretching my fingers. "Speaking of flights, what did you guys do? Hop on a plane in the middle of the night all because I didn't come home?"

My dad grinned at this. "The perks of being a rock star-we have a jet waiting at all times. We flew in last night and stayed up at the place in L.A. before driving down this morning."

"Of course," I exhaled, not surprised at all.

"It's time to get serious, son." My dad's icy gray eyes bored into me. "What the h.e.l.l is going on with you?"

"Nothing." It was the same response I'd been giving for two years.

"It's not nothing," he countered with a rough shake of his head. "The moment your diploma was in your hand you couldn't get away from us fast enough. You can spew bulls.h.i.+t about your surfing as much as you want, but it's more than that. We're not stupid. What did we do that was so incredibly horrible that we drove our only son away from us?"

I winced and shook my head back and forth. "You guys did nothing wrong. It was my own issues that drove me away."

My mom opened her mouth to speak, but I raised a hand to silence her. "I can't talk about this right now. I really have to go. I have a meeting I can't be late for. We'll...uh...we'll talk about this later. M'kay?"

My mom sighed, and her shoulders sagged slightly. "Okay. Sure." Raising her eyes-the same light blue that stared back at me in the mirror every day-to mine, she said, "But we are talking about this later. We've let you off the hook for two years. No more, Liam. I mean it."

"Yes, Ma." I walked toward her and pulled her into my arms, hugging her tight. "Love you." I kissed the top of her blond head.

"See ya later, Dad." I hugged him, too, before heading out to my car.

I really did have a meeting. But not for five more hours. Oh well.

What they didn't know wouldn't kill them, and hopefully that would give me enough time to compose myself after their surprise attack.

Ari.

When I came downstairs ready to leave for work, I was surprised to find Liam's parents sitting in the family room watching TV but no Liam to be seen anywhere.

"Uh..." I started into the room. "I'm getting ready to leave for work. Did Liam leave?"

"He said he had a meeting," his dad responded with a shrug.

"Oh, okay. Well, I guess I'll see you guys later then," I said awkwardly, backing out of the room.

"Oh." His mom popped up from the couch suddenly. "How rude of us. We never properly introduced ourselves. I'm Remy." She hurried over to me and opened her arms for a hug.

"Ari," I said unnecessarily, accepting her hug.

"Mathias." Liam's dad waved from the couch.

"Mathias," Remy scolded, "get over here and greet the girl properly."

Mathias grumbled, much the way Liam did over most things, and stood. He walked over and held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you." He shook my hand. To his wife, he asked, "Does that suffice?"

"Good enough," she remarked, grinning at him. They seemed to be communicating silently with just their eyes-the way only certain people could.

"I need to get to work." I took a step away and their attention moved to me. "I work at Mo's; I don't know if you've heard of it. It's just down the road not too far. If Liam doesn't come back and you get hungry, just come on by."

"That sounds so nice. I'm sure we will." Remy smiled brightly at me.

I nodded once and headed for the garage. Behind me, they began to speak in hushed tones, and I swore I heard Mathias say, "She doesn't know."