Looks Can Be Deceiving

A small knock came at the door. Maybe the guys locked themselves out. I walked up to the door and opened it to see the moonlight shining down on Pandora, lighting up her flawless skin. She smiled as if she wasn’t sure that was the right thing to do. Off a whim, I wrapped my arms around her waist and held her close to me. She smelled wonderful. We stayed like that for a while before I pulled away. She blushed a little bit as I grabbed her hand and pulled her inside.
“Come in.” She held on loosely to my hand as I took her to the counter. “Do steaks sound good?”
“Oh…” she frowned. “Was this expensive?”
“I doesn’t matter. It’s gonna be good,” I laughed as she looked around, not paying attention to the food anymore.
“This house… is huge.”
“Yeah, it sucks sometimes. I get sort of lonely when the guys aren’t over. You want me to show you around?”
“Sure,” she responded softly. I nodded and went over to the living room.
“I figured we could watch some movies later,” I shrugged. “The bathroom is over there… and the back porch is down the hall,” I pointed towards the kitchen. We both trudged upstairs. I nervously rubbed the back of my neck. “And this is my room… it’s sort of messy. I didn’t really think to clean it.” She smiled up at me.
“It’s okay, Austin.” She looked around. “I like it. It’s comfy.” After a minute of hesitating to say anything, she slowly walked over to my dresser, carefully looking at all the pictures. She glanced back to me and pointed to one. “Is this your mother?” I nodded and made my way over to her as she stared at the photo. “She’s beautiful, Austin.”
“Yeah, she was… she was a great person.” I was quiet. “I miss her like crazy.” She frowned and unexpectedly wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me close.
“I’m sorry for bringing it up.”
“No,” I laughed, trying to make her feel better. “It’s fine. I like telling people about her.”
“How did she pass?”
“She had a heart condition… Marfan Syndrome.” She nodded. I decided to leave out the part about my heart condition as well. I didn’t want to ruin the night with such a negative conversation. “Wanna get back downstairs?” She nodded as I grabbed her hand and pulled her with me. She sat at the granite counter top and smiled at me as I took my position on the other side. “So, how do you like you’re steaks?”
“Medium rare, please,” she said softly. She always spoke as if she was afraid she would break something with her words.
“Ah, a medium rare girl,” I smiled. “My kind of girl.” She blushed faintly under the recess lighting. “What else would you like with dinner?” She shrugged.
“Whatever, is good.”
“Do you like… salad?” She nodded as I turned to open the refrigerator. My phone vibrated against the counter, causing Pandora to jump a bit. I smiled at her and slid the screen to answer.
“Hello?”
“Austin,” It was Alan. “Are you home?”
“Yeah, what do you need?”
“Phil forgot his sun glasses and Tino left his jacket behind.”
“It’s dark out, why does Phil need his sunglasses?”
“I don’t know, why does Phil do half the things he does?” I sighed and looked over to Pandora who was starting to panic. She was trying her best to keep herself calm in front of me.
“Fine. You guys are on your way now?”
“Yeah, we’ll be there in two. So put your clothes back on and turn off the porn.” I rolled my eyes.
“Bye.” I hung up and set my phone down.
“So… they’re coming over?”
“Well, they left earlier before you got here, but they forgot some stuff. They’ll only be here for a couple minutes. It’s fine. They’re really nice guys.” She nodded, looking whiter than I remembered before I got on the phone. “You can chill on the porch if you’re not comfortable meeting them,” I offered, not wanting to make her feel out of place.
“No, it’s fine.” I nodded.
“I’ll be right back. I gotta go put these on the grill.” I walked out onto the back balcony and opened up the grill. Hopefully the guys would get here, grab their stuff and get out. I didn’t need Alan or any of them to scare Pandora off. I had purposely invited her over tonight because the guys were going to be out of the house. Guess my plan wasn’t going to work as well as I thought. I lit the flame and set the steaks off to the side, letting the grill heat up for a while. I closed the lid and went back into the kitchen. Right as I got back inside, the front door opened. I leaned against the counter, glaring at Alan as he made his way over to us. I made eye contact with Phil who was on his way up the stairs.
“Make it quick guys,” I looked over to Tino sternly who was walking behind Phil. He nodded as Alan smiled at Pandora and walked over to the fridge. He opened it, grabbed a beer and kicked it shut with his foot. My mouth dropped open as Tino came back downstairs.
“Alan, really?” he rose an eyebrow, lowering his eyes down to the bottle of beer in Alan’s left hand.
“What? It’s for the road,” he muttered.
“He’s so clueless. Sorry Pandora,” Tino apologized, frowning.
“It’s alright.” She offered a small smiled, looking to me with nervous eyes. Phil joined up, holding his sunglasses in his hand. Phil was just about to say something before Tino talked first.
“Yeah, he’s a dumbass,” he muttered. Phil looked to me, making sure I was keeping my calm. “We’ll get him out of here, Austin.” Tino smiled down at Pandora and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “It was nice to meet you Pandora.”
“You too,” she said as Phil hugged her. Alan frowned at her.
“Well now I feel like an ass.”
“It’s quite alright Alan.” He looked to me as if he wanted to apologize, but he knew I was already bothered by them coming back.
“Have a nice night you two,” he said softly, following Phil and Tino back out to the car. The front door slammed shut as I looked to Pandora with an apologetic look.
“I’m so sorry, Pandora. I tried so hard to get them out of the house. I even made sure all the alcohol was put away, and then Alan had to mess it all up. “
“It means a lot to me that you tried so hard to make everything perfect.”
“I just… wanted tonight to end differently than the last time we went out together. The whole point of tonight was to make you feel comfortable around me. I want you to trust me, ya know?”
“I do trust you Austin. I may not show it, but I’ve been trusting you. If I didn’t trust you, I probably wouldn’t have come over tonight.” I smiled.
“Really?” she nodded. “Good…” I walked around to her side of the counter and grabbed her hand. “Wanna see the view?” She hopped down and walked outside with me. She trusted me. I smirked to myself. She trusted me.

Notes