Imogen drove us over to my parent's house. I was more ecstatic if anything to see Damien. It's been months since I was able to hug him and really talk to him about everything that's going on in life. I've tuned in to a few of his streams and he's gotten huge. 15k views last time i was in there. I'm so proud of him honestly. Zara grabbed me by the hand as the car parked. We had to be a bit early to help set up- Imogen and me. So I assume Zara and Jasmine are just gonna hang around while we help make everything all pretty and shit.

We walked up to the door, I let go of Zara's hand as it swung open to reveal my mother and a friend of hers I hadn't seen in ages- Lisa. Or as I called her as a child, Mrs. B.

"Blair!" Mrs.B says, "It's so nice to see you again!"

She pulls me into a hug and my mother wraps her arms around me too. "Your father's upstairs getting dressed. Damien is somewhere around here."

"Okay, okay. Don't ruin the outfit I just put it on." I pull them both back, "It's nice to see you again, too Mrs. B. Hi ma."

I introduce Mrs. B to everyone who came with. "You know Imogen."

"Hi honey, you look lovely." She says grabbing her hand endearingly.

"This is Jasmine- a close friend." They greet each other and as I go to introduce Zara Mrs B. Cuts me off.

"You're Zara! That model!" She jumps in excitement. "oh god, I had no idea you'd be coming. Excuse my look for the night I didnt realize someone of your status would be here."

"Oh, no. Really. You look great." Zara's obviously taken aback by the reaction she got out of her. "I'm just glad to be here and welcomed into such a nice home. Thank you for letting me visit Mrs. Dupont " she turns to my mom.

     "It's nice to have you." She smiles and directs us to follow her to the kitchen.

God, this house is not at all any different from when I was a kid. Everything exactly where it needed to be, seemingly untouched. My mother had me cooking the last appetizer before dinner. I decided in the moment that I'd make both vegan and non-vegan meatballs with salsa verde. She then had Imogen finish setting up the decorations and making sure the house is "up to code". That pretty much left me alone in the kitchen for an hour while my mother and Mrs. B went out on the porch and drank their little hearts away.

"Can I help?" I turned to see Zara's face beaming with joy.

"Why are you so happy?" I asked, a ball of meatball in my hands as i placed it down on the sheet infront of me.

"I looked at you, is there any other reason to be happy?" She walked up and kissed me softly.

I pulled away. "Babe, my dad could come down any minute."

"Right, sorry. I couldn't help it." She blushed. It was so rare for her to actually blush like that.. It's cute.

"BLAIR!" My brother screams from the other side of the kitchen. He comes up and scoops me in his arms as if my hands weren't an insane mess from cooking.

"Okay, Damien. Let me down." I kept my hands up so I wouldn't get his freshly pressed suit dirty.

"My bad." He playfully punched me on the arm. He turns to Zara. "And you! You know, you're the talk of the party right? I overheard my mom call a few of her friends who were coming to say you were here. How does it feel to be seen as royalty?"

"Oh god, seriously." Her face grows flushed. "Hey, you can actually talk to me for once."

"Yeah, well I happen to have gotten myself a girlfriend so no girl makes me more nervous than she does." He subtly brags.

"Girlfriend?!" I turned to say.

"Yeah she's coming tonight. You'll get to meet her." He responds. "She's great. Plays video games, she's super smart. And she's a huge fan Zara. I'd love it if you could.. be extra nice to her?"

"When am I not nice?" Zara questioned.

"Good point."

About two hours into the party, the meatballs I had freshly made were almost completely gone. Zara has been passed around more times than a blunt in rotation. I have barely had any time with her since it started. I'm staring at her now, in a group of people, taking pictures and mingling with people she probably wont ever see again. It's kind of annoying how my mom is using her as a status boost- as if she really needs it. We made eye contact while she was talking with someone who's name I had no idea of, but, I have seen around since I was a kid. Her and her husband were the type of people who said "I knew you since you were a baby, don't you remember me?". Anyways, I watched as she excuses herself to come over to me and as she's standing in front of me, I begin to think of all of the things I wish we were doing right now.

"Hey," She stands across the table from me. "You look lonely, care to have some company?"

"I hope you're talking about yours cause then I'll be extremely disappointed." I pout.

She laughs and sits beside me. "You having a good time?"

     I look around to make sure no ones watching before I leaned in, "Can we go upstairs, I'm bored."

     "No funny business?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

    I rolled my eyes, "Fine."

     I lead her up the stairs discreetly, watching out for any wandering eyes. As soon as we got into my bedroom and I had shut the door, turned to look at her. She tilted her head and looked at me confusion lingering in her eyes.

"So what now?"

I immediately went in to kiss her, wrapping my arms around her neck.

"I thought we said no funny business." Zara led me to the wall and leaned me against it, cupping my cheeks as my hands wandered down to her waist.

"Nothing funny about how much I had been dying to get my hands on you." I respond against her lips, biting down on the bottom one.

"Princess, no marks." She responds, reconnecting our lips before departing once more into the middle of the room. "okay as much as I love this, your parents are downstairs."

"Just kissing?" I pout staring into her eyes with my puppy dog face, knowing how weak it makes her. It gets me everything that I want from her.

"Fuck," she sighs, "you know I can't say no to that face."

I walk towards her slowly as she opens her arms for me to come closer. I get a little faster until I feel her wrap her arms around my waist and I can lean up to kiss her. I smile into the kiss knowing that these are the lips I wanna be kissing forever. I pulled away for a second to look into her eyes only to see that the door is opened, with Mrs. B standing right there. Her jaw was practically to the ground and her eyes were bloodshot. I pushed Zara away slightly as a gasp leaves my lips and Zara turns to see what I see.

"Mrs. B." I respond. "I-I can explain."

"You're the girl in the photos!" She shouts, "THE MYSTERY GIRLFRIEND!"

I run to her and pull her into the room shutting it behind her. "Mrs. B please. Keep your voice down." She begins to breath heavily as she tries to catch her breath. "Please, please."

"YOU! The- and photos, how did- YOU?" She continues. "OH GOD THIS. This is HUGE! I mean you could be famous!"

"No no no, we don't want people to know! My dad doesn't know yet, please." I begin to beg. "Please don't say anything. Please. I am begging. I can't have this come out right now. He will kill me."

"But this could be HUGE!" She begins. "Think of all the publicity-"

"Mrs. B. I am begging you. Stop." I can hear the frustration in my voice. "Look. I love her. I really do. Bringing this to the public could do some things to our relationship that I'm just not ready for. My dad is not open to our kind of relationship. I need you to promise me with your entire being that you will NOT tell a soul what you saw just now."

     Mrs. B gets it finally. She lets out a sigh of disappointment. "Okay, darling. Okay. I hear you, I do. But this relationship. It's the next big thing, come on. An opportunity of a lifetime-"

     "I'm not with her for the fame or the money or attention. I love her. Can you please stop? You're just like my mother. I don't need this. I don't need people like you ruining something amazing that I have going for me."

    "I won't say anything. If it means that much to you, I won't" she responds. "I'm sorry, dear."

     "Thank you Mrs." Zara responds, putting her hand on my shoulder.

    "Of course." She nods her head and walks out, shutting the door behind her.

    I sigh in defeat and lay down on the bed. My loud groan fills the room and Zara sits besides me, running her fingers through my hair for comfort.

     "It'll be okay." She leans down and places a kiss on my cheek. "What do you wanna do?"

"I'll just.. meet you back down there. I'm sure everyone is missing you right now." I tell her.

She kisses me and leaves the bedroom. I cannot wrap my head around what just happened. What if she tells my dad? Worse- what if her incessant and overwhelming need to be in the spotlight drives her to call some sort of press and expose this. I wouldn't even mind the public view, truthfully I love her no matter what people say or think, but, Just... My dad?

I gathered up the courage to go downstairs. I looked around before completely descending the stairs and made sure there weren't any eyes on me. So far, so good. As long as I can make it another week here, I'm golden. But, still. There's tomorrow's get together.