"You've been in love with him since you were sixteen."

"No I haven't."

"Oh please, Avalon, I see the way you look at him. The way he looks at you."

"What do you mean? There's nothing g-" I pause to think. I groan, "I forgot my line." Maddy hands me the script and I read it over a couple of times again. She's helping me rehearse for one of the roles I'm auditioning for in only less than a week. We're switching between studying for finals, which we start taking after our six day break for Thanksgiving, and rehearsing my lines.

Maddy's actually enjoying this more than I thought she would. She says she feels like a real actress which is funny. The character she's reading lines for is actually very similar to her, so she's doing a good job at it. "Okay, I got it," I hand her back the script which she's using.

"You've been in love with him since you were children."

"No. I haven't."

"Oh please, Avalon, I see the way you look at him. The way he looks at you."

"What do you mean? There's nothing happening between us. He has a girlfriend, Ember."

"So?"

"What do you mean 'so'? I would never get in the way of that. That's not me."

"I know you, Avalon. You're hiding your feelings for Jaxon because of Farrah. She'll get over it. I'm sure she's not the one w-"

A knock at the door interrupts Maddy. I groan in frustration. She walks toward my bed and jumps on it. I walk to the door and open it wide. My eyes widen when I see the two people standing in the hallway.

"Mom, dad?!?" My mom holds her hands open and I jump into her arms, hugging her small frame. "What are you guys doing here?" My voice is muffled into her shoulder. I pull away and hug my dad. "We thought we'd spend some time with you since you won't be able to come down on Thanksgiving or Christmas," Mom says. I pull both of them into my dorm and realize Maddy still sits on my bed.

She has a smile on her face as she sees both of my parents. "Oh my gosh, mom, dad, this is my friend, Maddy!" I tell them. "Yes, we know. She helped us find your dorm room. We talked on Facebook," Mom tells me. I didn't even realize that they knew where I lived even though they've never been here. Maddy hops off the bed and greets my parents and then hugs me. "We'll talk later, I'll actually get to see you on Christmas." She kisses my cheek and then says bye to my parents.

My dad sits on my chair and mom hops onto my bed with me. We have a lot to catch up on.

+

After discussing school, acting, and my mom and dad for two hours, I finally find the courage to tell them about Christian. I think it's time anyway, we've been together for awhile now. Plus, they need to know the real reason I'm not spending Christmas with them for the first time. Not the whole truth, but maybe some of it.

"Okay so, I have something to tell you guys," I start. Mom and dad look at me worriedly. "What is it?" My dad asks questioningly. I open my mouth to speak and a knock at my door interrupts me. I furrow my brows in confusion. Maddy? "Hold on," I say, walking towards the door. I swing the door open again and my eyes widen, again. Christian looks stressed out as he uses the wide open door as an opportunity to walk into my dorm room.

"I've been texting and calling you all day, Novalee," He says, waking further into the dorm. My parents are both sitting on my bed now so they're out of sight. I walk after him and he sees them before I can say anything. "Oh, sorry. I didn't know you had company," He says nervously. I don't think I've ever seen him nervous. My hands are clammy so I guess we're on the same boat. I chuckle nervously, my parents don't say anything. "This is Christian, Chris these are my parents, remember?" I ask, looking up at him.

"Yeah, of course," He steps forward and my dad gets off the bed. Oh lord. My dad helps my mom off and they both shake his hand. "I'm sorry, have we previously met?" My mom asks Christian. I step forward so that I'm next to him. "No, you guys haven't met him but he knows who you guys are. I know Chris from high school, when we lived in Georgia," I clarify. My dad actually smiles, but maybe it's because I mentioned Georgia. He loved living there.

"Oh, so you've known each other for a while then? Weird that you haven't introduced us, Novalee," Mom follows after dad with a smile on her face as well. "We kind of lost contact after Nova moved to New Orleans. We didn't start talking again until we met again this school year." I notice Christian's features have calmed a bit, but his shoulders are still a bit tense. He's still a little nervous.

"Oh, would you look at that. It's nice to meet you, Christian," Mom smiles genuinely. My nerves calm down a bit more, and then they don't. They probably think we're just friends! It'll be a different story once they know he's my...boyfriend. "Likewise, the both of you," Chris says with a smile. I look up at him and he looks down at me. Don't look at me lovingly, I want to say. Not yet, at least.

"Sorry my parents got here earlier, I haven't touched my phone and you know I always have it on silent," I tell him. He nods, "I get it now, don't worry." He turns back to my parents. "I'm sorry for interrupting your time with her," He says. My parents shake their head. "I'll see you later, just text me?" He says. Don't kiss me. I nod my head and smile. He returns the smile and pats my shoulder once. "Again, nice meeting you guys," He says.

"Maybe this won't be the last time we see each other!" Mom says. Christian smiles at her, glancing over at me for a second. "Definitely not." He waves to them once more and then leaves, winking at me before he closes the door to my room.

Great, now I have to tell them that they just met my boyfriend.

Mom and dad get back onto my bed and I make myself comfortable on my chair. "He's nice," Mom says with a smile. Even though she is protective over me, I'd say dad is the one who probably won't accept Christian right off the bat. "Yeah," I smile. I tie my hair back into a ponytail trying to avoid the next conversation.

"What were you gonna tell us, Novalee?" Dad asks. I look up at them from my fingers. My nail bed will start to show if I don't stop biting my fingernails every time I get anxious. "Oh right," I say. Why am I so nervous, these are my parents for goodness sakes. I remember back in high school, telling them about Devon. They were a little iffy about the idea of me having a boyfriend but asked if they could meet him.

When they did, they immediately loved him. He was really likable so I wasn't too nervous about it. Obviously he ended up cheating on me and even they were surprised when they learned that. Mom just said Christian seemed nice but after Devon, they'll definitely be more cautious about Chris.

"I told you guys that I wasn't going home for Christmas this year but I didn't exactly give you a reason as to why," I say. My parents would never push me to tell them anything I don't want to, so when I called them a while ago to tell them I wasn't coming home for the holidays, they didn't question me when I didn't give them a reason. Of course, they were curious, but they didn't push me to tell them anything.

They've always respected my boundaries.

"I'm going to Nevada for Christmas. With Christian," I admit. Before they can say anything, I add, "Because he's my boyfriend," I say quickly. Mom and dad both shut their mouths as they were about to speak. "He's your boyfriend? Like a boy that you're romantically involved with or just a boy who's a friend?" Mom asks. I sigh, "Oh my gosh, that sounded so complicated. He's my lover, mother." I try to joke around, hopefully to lighten the mood.

Mom and dad both raise their eyebrows like they're surprised, but don't approve of it. I'll avoid the "we dated sophomore year and he treated me terribly" conversation. It's already hard enough now. "He's not Devon," I add when they don't say anything.

Silence.

I groan, "You said he was nice, Mom." Dad rolls his eyes. Crap. "Devon was nice." He's not wrong. I knew this wasn't going to go smoothly, but Christian isn't Devon and I'm going to defend him as much as I can. He's already promised me he won't hurt me again. I trust him completely. "It's different, guys. Devon and I were sixteen, seventeen. Christian and I are both mature adults." I place my hands on my lap, trying to convince them with my confident posture and tone.

"And I've learned from my mistakes. You don't think I was scared of the possibility of getting heartbroken again? I know he won't do that to me," I add, trying to seal the deal. I know it's going to take a lot more than my words for Christian to get their acceptance. Mom turns to look at dad, they don't say anything, but it's almost like they don't have to. They know what the other is thinking without saying any words.

"We can't tell you what to do because you're an adult, but it goes both ways. You can't tell us how we feel about him and your relationship. You want us to get to know him, then you'll invite him to have dinner with us. And one dinner will not change our minds completely, only time will," Mom says sternly. Even so, I smile because they're willing to give him that opportunity.

I'm iffy with who I introduce to my parents but I never questioned wanting to introduce Christian to them. It was just a matter of when I would. "Okay. How long are you guys staying? Maybe we can go out to dinner on your last night?" I suggest.

"No. Tonight," Mom says. "Tonight?" I question. That's not enough time to prepare him! "Is that a problem?" Dad backs mom up. Two against one. I shake my head. "No," I say confidently again. "I'll let him know."