Nothing Lasts FoREVer

“Do you really want to face my mom in the morning?”, I chuckled.

“Should I be afraid?”

“It might not be as rewarding as you may think! She’s tough…”, I warned him.

“If you don’t want me to come just say so!”, he was pouting.

Pouting? Really? I thought we were just messing with each other as usual. Was he faking his pout? Why was I making a big deal out of it? He was probably just messing with me. What the fuck was wrong with me that morning?

“What time is it?”, I was supposed to go to work at 10 a.m.

“Seven in the morning… What does that have to do with anything?”, he asked frustrated while looking at his watch.

“I need to get to work at 10 a.m., I just wanted to make sure that we still got some time. Are you ready for this?”, I asked him.

“I was born ready, honey!”, he grinned.

Jimmy wrapped his arm around my shoulders and unconsciously I put my arm around his waist. And there we went, talking and laughing the entire ride home. As soon as we got there, I started to feel anxious, nervous, frighten. We got inside my house; Jimmy was following me close by. I knew my mom was still home, so I called out for her.

“Mom?”

“Yeah, baby? I’m in the kitchen.”, she answered me.

“I brought one of my friends with me so you could meet him…”, I stated while walking towards the kitchen. I was glad that my mom spoke English as her second language otherwise that would have been a problem in their communication.

“Bring him in then!”, she seemed cheery.

We walked through the kitchen and I finally introduced them to each other.

“Mom, this is Jimmy… We’ve been sharing his tent for the last few days. Jimmy, this is my mom.”, I was observing their reactions, especially my mom’s. Her eyes were wandering his tattoos, his looks in general and I could see that she did not like what she saw as I expected.

Jimmy threw his right hand on her direction. “Pleasured to meet you, Madame!”, he said as he touched her hand.

“Likewise!”, she was being cordial.

“I really need to take a shower… Would you make her company, Jimmy?”, I reached him and placed a kiss on his cheek, whispering on his ear, “Here comes the worst part… Now you only have to win her over! Good luck…”

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“I’m sorry… I really need to be honest with you and I’ll take my chance now that Catarina is not here.”, Caterine's mom started to say, looking right into his blue eyes. “I don’t think you’ll be a good influence for my daughter! She’s not thinking straight right now.”

“I’m actually not a good influence for any of my friends! I used to get one of my best friends in trouble all the time, so… Who am I to disagree with you?”, he agreed calmly.

Caterine's mom was already feeling victorious when Jimmy striked back.

“Just so you know… I may not be the best of influences, but I definitely care about your daughter. We don’t know each other for that long, I’m aware of that, but I can assure you that she’s part of my family now, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my family. You’re her mother and I fully understand that you’re only trying to protect her, but don’t you ever doubt my feelings or my friend’s feelings for Cat, based only on our appearance. That’s prejudice and you’re better than that! She really needs us by her side, right now!”, he declared.

“What do you know about my daughter’s needs? You know nothing about her!”, she was still fighting him back.

“What I do know about her is more than enough for now! She told me about her dad…”, he let that last sentence hit Cat's mother.

“What? She told you about her father? What did she told you? She refuses to talk to me or her shrink about her father subject…”, she confessed.

“She will tell you when she’s ready to talk about it more openly… She didn’t say much, she summed up the facts. She still has some walls, some barriers I wasn’t able to break just yet. But I will, with time, patience, support and love. What I’m about to tell you, I really hope you to keep it between us. She is like the missing piece in my life, I knew it the moment I met her. I don’t really know what this means, but she’s a part of me and believe it or not I’m a part of her, whatever this means! She’s a real special girl…”, he was starting to dazzle her. “And my friends love her too, you know? So please, just try to see past our looks, give us the benefit of the doubt at least!”, he pleaded.

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When I returned to the kitchen they were talking politely, laughing every now and then. Whatever he did, whatever he said worked… She saw beyond his looks now.

“I’m glad to see that you two are starting to get along.”, I said smiling.

“There you are! Did you ever doubt it?”, Jimmy looked at me and poked his tongue out. I could see in his face “I told you”.

We hanged with my mom for a little while longer. She still didn’t trust him completely, but he was definitely starting to win her over. We left the house around 9h30 a.m., and I promised my mom I would bring the rest of the guys over soon.
Jimmy and I were talking the entire ride back; he refused to tell me what he had said to my mom. As we got to the beach, I left him in the camp and I got to work. I worked all day until 6p.m., the guys paid me a little visit in the middle of the afternoon. They would be waiting for me when I got out.
At 7p.m. I said my goodbyes to my boss and left. The sky was getting weird, it look like a storm was coming; storms were not that common in south of Portugal in the middle of summer. As soon as I reached them I forgot all about the weather, they were all already up waiting for me so we could go all together to our daily swim.
It was dark when we got to our camp. Brian and Matt started a fire as soon as we got there. We all sat around the bonfire while eating our hamburgers.

“What the fuck?”, Johnny looked above as he felt some rain drops on his face.

“It’s starting to rain… There’s no binge for you tonight, Johnny boy!”, I messed with him.

“Raining in the middle of summer? Unbelievable! That’s not funny, Cat!”, he faked a pout.

“Take the beer inside your tent, then!”, I laughed.

“That’s not a bad idea!”, Zacky said with a grin.

I rushed into the tent when the rain intensified. They all did the same.

“I MISS YOU GUYS ALREADY!!! IT’S WAY TOO EARLY TO BE STUCK INSIDE OUR TENTS! GIRLS?”, I yelled.

“WE CAN HAVE OUR GIRL TALK TOMORROW, CAT! DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT, BABE!”, Val yelled back.

“Girl talk?”, Jimmy glared at me.

“Thank God our tents are waterproof!”, I played the clueless.

“HEY, GUYS? DON’T BE SAD… WE CAN HAVE OUR MAN TALK TOMORROW!”, Zacky yelled between chuckles from the tent next to us.

“HEY V! I MISS YOU ALREADY! DO YOU WANNA CUDDLE?”, Brian teased and we all burst into laughter.

“I DON’T WANT MICHELLE IN THE MIDDLE, GATES! GET RID OFF HER FIRST!”, Zacky replied giggling.

“YOU GOT SOME COMPETITION, ‘SIS!”, Val laughed.

“ZACKY IS THE LEAST OF MY WORRIES!”, Michelle played along.

“THAT REALLY HURT, MICHELLE! WHY DON’T YOU BELIEVE IN OUR LOVE?”, Zacky pretended to be hurting.

“I’M THE ONE SLEEPING WITH HIM, V! MEANWHILE YOU’RE STUCKED WITH JOHNNY!”, Michelle laughed.

Notes