Song for this chapter: What Your Father Says

- The Vamps

I walk into the house, shouting out to signal my presence. My dad calls my name and I assume he's in the kitchen.

"Hey father." I greet, mocking him. He hates being called father, he says we only say it when we want something.

"A fight huh?"

"No beating around the bush then?"

"Why? Make me understand why you'd get into a fight only a day in?"

"I was protecting Lydia. These girls were bullying her, about to punch her and I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. So I intervened."

"Why didn't you let a teacher sort it out?" He asks and I scoff.

"Because the teachers don't care. If they did, Lydia wouldn't still be getting bullied."

"You're always causing me trouble, kid." He huffs and then brings me into his tight embrace.

"I'm sorry dad."

He just clicks his tongue and asks "How's Lydia?"

"She's good now, everything has fallen back into place for her." I say and he smiles warmly.

"That's great." He says and I nod, beginning to walk away. "Oh sweetie?" He calls, making me stop and turn to face him. "We're having guests round for dinner, they'll be here in 10 minutes." He tells me and I frown in confusion.

"Who is coming round? We've only been here for like a couple of weeks."

"One of my old friends from high school works in the same company as me, he showed me around the office."

"Does he have any children?" I question.

"Yes. Two sons. You might know one of them actually, Grayson Reed?" A huge smile spreads across my face.

"Yeah, I know Gray." I say happily and watch as my dad raises his eyebrows.

"Boyfriend material?" He questions and I grin cheekily.

"Not happening, father. I'm not looking for a boyfriend."

"Doesn't mean one isn't looking for you." He laughs as I run up the stairs, wanting to avoid this conversation all together. "If he's Michael's son, I'll happily let him date you!" He calls up the stairs after me. Knowing my dear old dad, he'd find every opportunity to embarrass me in front of Gray.

I get changed into some jeans and a white knitted jumper, I'm guessing it's not the sweatpants and jumper kind of dinner nor the dress type of dinner, so I decided to settle on something completely casual and then walk downstairs to get the door.

A man, Grayson's lookalike, stands in the doorway, with the same warm smile Gray always gives to me. They are the spitting image, despite his dads greying hair and deep blue eyes, instead of Gray's green ones. I bet in his younger days he could've passed as Grayson's twin.

A ginger woman with kind eyes stands next to him, absolutely gorgeous. With dimples the size of craters and bright green eyes, she stares at me, expecting some kind of greeting. A greeting, right.

Right.

"Hello. I'm Layla." I introduce, shaking their hands. The both grin at me before introducing themselves as Micheal and Claire.

"Our sons will be here very soon, Grayson wanted to get you some flowers. He was very happy when he found out we were coming here and of course his little brother wanted to follow him. He looks up to Gray, wants to be just like him." Claire tells me and I laugh, knowing that with Grayson's influence, that boy will grow up quite the ladies man. They come in and I take their coats for them, pointing to the kitchen where my dad is waiting.

"Con! Come down." I shout and hear him cuss me out from all the way upstairs.

"Connor Byron Greene, don't you dare speak to your sister like that." My dad bellows from the kitchen. Oh no, Connor got caught out. I laugh quietly when Connor comes storming down the stairs with a scowl on his face.

"Sorry, I wouldn't want to upset your precious little princess, father." He says sarcastically and my dad comes charging out with a spatula raised.

"What was that, son?" My dad taunts. Connor's face pales as he backs away, back up the staircase. "Come back down here, I didn't raise a pussy." My dad says and Connor's facial expression turns into one of disbelief.

"So you and La are allowed to curse, but not me? How's that fair?" He tells in outrage and I giggle, laughing at the red vein popping out of his neck, a clear sign of his actual irritation.

"Life's not fair. Now get in here and greet our guests. I taught you manners."

Connor sulks back down the stairs, and as he walks past dad, he gets hit on the ass with the spatula and screeches, running for the kitchen. "Son of a bitch." He shouts at dad, making him laugh and run after him, which makes Connor scream even louder.

The doorbell rings again and I turn around and open it, seeing Grayson with a huge smile plastered on his face and pink tulips in his hands.

"I didn't realise our second date would come so soon, lil one." He says and my mouth opens in shock. He leans in and plants a kiss on my cheek as he hands me the flowers and then walks into the house in the direction of the kitchen, leaving me gobsmacked.

"He was right. You are stunning. The names Ollie. Ollie Reed." The young boy at the door greets with a small nod as he holds his hand out for a handshake. I go to shake his hand, but he brings it up to his mouth and kisses it. Another Grayson Elias Reed in the making.

"Ollie, get in here!" Grayson calls, and Ollie's mouth lifts into a smirk.

"He's just scared I'm gonna steal his girl." Ollie arrogantly says, before obeying his brother and walking in the direction of Grayson's voice.

I walk into the kitchen in search of a vase, and place the tulips in water, before I take a seat next to Gray at the table in the dining room. My phone starts ringing, Lydia!

"I'm so sorry, would you mind if I take this?" I ask, politely and they all nod kindly. I accept the call and immediately regret it when she screams bloody murder into the phone.

"Bitch! You better help me with my outfit right now! I'm going on a date in half an hour! I'm gonna be late, I'm gonna look ugly and fat!" She cries and I roll my eyes. She's so over dramatic.

"Hi Lydia!" My dad laughs.

"Hi daddio." She greets back but then goes back to her hissy fit. "Tell. Me. What. I. Should. Wear." She demands and I order her to turn the camera around.

"Girls are such high maintenance." Grayson teases. The camera switches back to her face in an instant.

"Who was that?" She questions and I turn my phone so the camera is on Grayson. "Why are you with Gray?" She then gasps. "Oh my goodness! A second date? Already?" My face turns bright red, when I turn to look at Gray, his smirk is bigger than I've ever seen it, making the blush ten times worse.

"You told her about our date?" He teases, still grinning. My dad coughs from the other side of the table and I look up to catch everyone smiling at us.

"It wasn't a date!" I say, "his family is round for dinner, our dads are old friends." I explain. "Now let me help you pick your outfit!" She quickly places her phone down and scurries off to the corner of her room where her closet is. "Where are you going again?" I wonder.

"Restaurant, don't dress up too much, but be classy." Grayson says and I squint my eyes at him.

"Did she ask for your input?" I narrow my eyes, he just smirks as he shakes his head.

"Not dressy, but classy." I repeat and smirk when Gray opens his mouth ready to argue that that's what he said. "Wear black jeans with that wrap top you have with the flared sleeves." I instruct her and her face immediately lights up.

"How did you do that?" Grayson asks, looking shell-shocked.

"She's good." Lydia hums, rubbing towards the camera. "I'll get changed now! Thank you so much!"

"I want mirror selfies!" I point at her.

"Sure thing bubs, gotta show my wifey the finished look! Love ya." She says and ends the call.

"I'm sorry about that." I apologise to them with tinted cheeks.

"No worries, we all know and love Lydia. What a sweet sweet girl." Claire comments and I smile sweetly at her, while Grayson scoffs.

"Did you not hear her? She's anything but sweet." He complains as he rolls his eyes.

Laughing lightly at him, I leave the table, on a mission to get people's drinks. "What does everyone want to drink?" I ask.
At this point, Grayson seems to remember something and holds it above the table towards my dad. Whiskey.

My dad loves whiskey.

"Thank you Grayson!" My dad exclaims, with a smile on his face. I just roll my eyes and mouth 'suck up' at Grayson when he turns to face me with that stupid smirk on his stupid face.

My parents used to always tell me that one of the first things they connected on was whiskey, how they both absolutely adored it, and that was their go-to drink order on a night out. Let's just say it wasn't pretty whenever those two drank whiskey. When I say the got wasted, they got wasted. Which is probably why they loved drinking it so much.

I was glad that dad hadn't just stopped drinking it after mom left. Me and Connor always made efforts to hand him a drink when he set us a curfew before going out, it'd always make him happier. That meant we could stay out later. Smart kids.

"So... drinks?" I ask with a hesitant grin.

"I'll have this, you know how I like it."

"Yes I do, exactly how I like it isn't that right, daddy dearest?" I sass him and he rolls his eyes at me.

"Drink a drop of that and you know what will happen." He warns with a teasing smile.

"I'll get the drunkies, yeah yeah." I laugh and look to the guests, finding them staring at us in amusement.

"I'll have a glass of red wine, please." Claire asks and I nod my head.

"I'll have a whiskey too please, how you have it." Michael says, offering a wink and I laugh quietly before I look at Ollie.

"Soda, my love." Ollie flirts, making Gray kick him underneath the table.

"I'll help you." Gray gets up from the table and follows me through into the kitchen.

I get started on making the drinks, easily pottering around the kitchen to pick up the ice and alcohol.

"Want help?" He asks as he leans on the island next to me.

"No, it's alright. I'll need help bringing them in though." I tel him, he just nods his head. "What do you want?" I ask him.

"Whiskey. The way you have it."

"Ha. Ha." I say sarcastically.

"A soda is fine." He says, chuckling. Three sodas then.

"You didn't have to get me flowers, you know?" I tell him once I've finished making the drink and I've turned to face him. He raises one eyebrow and smiles.

"I know I didn't have to, but I really wanted to." He reveals, and I frown in confusion.

"What about my dads whiskey? How did you know?" I ask him.

"I need to get your dad to like me somehow lil' one and I had a feeling it was gonna take a while. I didn't know whiskey was his favourite, I'm just that good, I guess." He smirks and when he sees my star-struck look. "I think he already likes me though." He whispers and nods his head wildly. This boy always leaves me speechless.

"Why do you need my dad to like you?" I question. It's not that I didn't have ideas of why he wants my dad to like him, I just wasn't willing to admit that perhaps he'd want something more with me. His insistent flirting proved that - or maybe not, maybe he's just flirty.

"I thought it was pretty obvious, but I'm insanely attracted to you." I almost choked at how forward he was.

"You're bold." I say, bluntly as I tried really hard to avoid eye contact.

"I know what I want." He says.

"Look," I start, "I can't do this, I can't do anything! I don't want a boyfriend or anything - like that. I just, can't." I blubber, taking no breaths until he placed his hands, cupping my face.

"Calm down." He murmurs.

"Gray - I can't." I repeat and he looks away briefly before nodding his head.

"Okay," He mutters, raising his gaze to meet mine again, "I'll back off. I won't stop being your friend though." He tells me, then winks and backs away from me, picking up four of the drinks at once.

"Gray, you can't carry all of them." I say, but he just smirks and walks into the other room. I pick up the last two and heave a deep sigh.

Dinner continued smoothly after that, I was asked questions about school and my hobbies. I asked questions about their work and what a Ollie did at school. Grayson wouldn't keep his eyes off of me. Something told me that he lied earlier, that he wasn't going to back off. Because the way he looked at me, it wasn't just a friendly glance. Innocence was in no way mixed up in his gaze. I don't think he was willing to give up his attraction for me.

His longing gaze excites me.

But I know that if I was to allow anything to happen between us, I'd destroy him.

I couldn't let that happen, even if I was insanely attracted to him also.

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