“We should just go home,” Alon said. “They probably don’t even wanna meet me.” He stood frozen outside the home of your parents, refusing to move any closer. “Let’s go, babe. Seriously.”

He probably sounded close to losing his lunch and he really hoped you wouldn’t comment on it. Alon wasn’t a stranger to dating around. Even the two of you had an on-again-off-again relationship—that was now very stable, thanks—but he’d never met his partner’s family. Maybe a sibling or cousin, but their parents? No way. That was too serious.

Oh. Alon stared at the door like it was going to burst open and drag him in by his ankles while he screamed. This was serious. You and him were serious.

Maybe that was why Gray seemed confused when Alon had told him where he was going for dinner. Alon didn’t settle down, but here he was following the basics steps of doing just that.

This was really serious.

Alon looked back at you, searching your face for something he didn’t know. You were the one he wanted to wake up next to everyday. You were the one he wanted waiting for him backstage when they finished a gig. You were the one he wanted. Alon wanted to kiss you in that moment, maybe ask you to marry him impulsively and then regret not doing in a more romantic way. Instead he stood there, mouth ajar and eyes wide.

This wasn’t the time to have an epiphany. He was about to meet your parents, and from what you’d implied the third time you started dating again, they weren’t his biggest fans. Unsurprising. Parents weren’t fond of the starving artist trope he fell into. They’d ask what he did for work and he’d have to reply he was in a band like he was sixteen. Cherry Burns was his whole world; unfortunately said world did not impress most parents.

“Shit, okay, no, we’re staying,” he rambled. He hadn’t been sick with anxiety on the days leading up to this. Alon barely blinked when you told him your family had invited him over for dinner. “We got this. I got this. They’ll love me. Probably. I’ll win them over with my good looks and charm. Should I mention I was thinking about taking college classes again? Would that make me look good? Probably keep the fact I dropped out a secret.”