Until I Met You
A family picnic (35)

A family picnic (35) Grace

I woke up. When I opened my eyes and my vision adjusted to the bright light of the sun that was pouring out of the window, I smiled.

I knew that I was at Jake's house. For a moment I just sat on his bed remembering what had happened yesterday. It felt like déjà vu to me. Every scene was similar to the other incidents that occurred after I came into this college. First Ben, then those bullies in college and now getting drugged at a party. I don't understand why my life after coming to this college had become so eventful. It seems like the universe was against me. This was the reason I wasn't even feeling shocked about yesterday. This was the reason I didn't even want to think about yesterday.

Anyway, I got out of Jake's bed. Looking down at my clothes I remembered that I was wearing my own clothes because I didn't change them in the first place. So without giving much thought to it, I walked downstairs.

At first everything was quiet, but as I descended more stairs, I heard dishes being pushed around and then I heard a feminine voice, singing. When I reached the floor, I saw a figure of a woman.

I took a step to approach her but hesitated a bit. Loudly, I forced a cough. She spun around to look at me.

She looked like she was in her mid forties. She had black hair and big, brown eyes which I had already seen before. I've seen those eyes on Jake.

She was his mom.

She stared at me with confusion. And had a questioning look in her eyes. I was staring at her without an expression. I didn't realize that I was staring at her until she spoke, "Excuse me, but who are you?" Just like that, I was brought back to reality.

"Hello. I'm Grace. Jake's girlfriend." I introduced myself smiling. I didn't know if she would like me or hate me.

"Girlfriend? Jake's girlfriend?" She asked me with a look of disbelief. She looked skeptical and didn't seem to believe me. And from her look, I knew that she doesn't like me. Crap. What would she do if she knew that I was... forget it. It doesn't matter. It's not like that we're...

"Yes. I'm Jake's girlfriend. And I'm hoping that you are Jake's mother?" I asked. Tentatively keeping my voice soft like I was trying to calm a fiery beast that would attack me any second. Basically I was feeling that she would burst out any second and would ask me to get the hell out of there. I shifted my weight on the other leg feeling like I was being scrutinized by her eyes, which I was. She did not say anything and stared at me for what felt like eternity.

Her eyes twinkled and her lips lifted in a warm smile.

"So you are the person who stole my kid's heart?" She asked, joyously. I felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from my shoulders and I couldn't help but smile back at her.

"More like, he stole my heart." I said playfully and dramatically I put my hand on my heart, without meaning what I said.

"Really?" I heard from behind me. My heart slammed into my chest as I saw Jake and his dad walked inside the house from outside. It was Mr. Davis who had spoken that but all I was thinking was if Jake had heard what I said. He didn't show any sort of reaction to what I just said and I took that as a good sign. Maybe he didn't hear what I said. Only his father did.

"Mr Davis. Good morning." I said to Jake's dad, smiling. He smiled back at me and put the groceries on the table. Till now, I didn't even realize that he was holding something.

"So you met Jake's mom, huh?" He asked me. I nodded my head.

"Yes. I've never seen her here before, so I wasn't expecting her to be here." I said.

"No one expects her to be here." Jake said and lazily walked to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. For a second, an awkward silence descended over all of us.

I looked between all three of them and noticed some sort of tension. To be honest, I didn't even know that Jake had a mom. I've never seen her in his house. Also, Jake never talked about his mom. Never, nothing.

It's not like he talks about his dad also but at least I knew that he had a dad. His mother was like an almost alien person to me. If I hadn't met her now, I would have thought that he didn't have a mom.

"I think we should go for a picnic." Jake's dad said.

"You know, it's nice weather. The sun is up and the sky is clear, and we all are here, so we should go for a picnic and have some fun." Mr Davis suggested.

"Yes, of course. We should choose this as an opportunity. Let's go for a picnic." Mrs. Davis agreed enthusiastically.

"What do you think, Grace?" Mrs. Davis asked me. I didn't have anything to do today, so I agreed.

"Sure, why not." I said, and we all looked at Jake, expecting him to agree with us too. He looked at all of us then shook his.

"If you want to go for a stupid picnic then go ahead. I'm not coming with you." He said. Both Mr and Mrs Davis looked disappointed. I gave Jake a dark look. He raised a brow at me. "You're coming with us." I told him. Taking a gulp of water, he put the water bottle back in the fridge and shrugged nonchalantly.

"I'm not." He said. I walked up to him and grabbed his arm, turning him to look at me.

"Yes, you are. And that's final." I said with determination. He stared at me for a few seconds and then sighed. I knew that sigh was of defeat. He rubbed his hand at the back of his head.

"Fine. I'm coming with you all." Jake announced. I smiled at him and squeezed his arm. When I looked at Jake's parents, they both were giving each other a look of a mixture of awe and amusement. It was like they were surprised that Jake would agree with me.

"Alright then. Let's go." I said.

Jake's mom packed the food she was making for us and put it in a basket. Then we all hopped in Mr Davis' car and drove to our picnic destination.

Jake was on the backseat of the car with me. He slumped against the seat and pretended to be asleep. Jake avoided my every attempt to talk to him. His answers consisted only, "humm". So I gave up and gazed outside the window to entertain myself. To avoid getting bored.

"It's just the starting of our fun time and it's already getting boring." Mrs. Davis said. Like she heard my thoughts in the air.

"Yeah. Of course. Because our type of fun includes family." Jake retorted without opening his eyes. I thought Mrs Davis would feel bad about what Jake just said, but she totally ignored him and jumped on her seat. She turned the radio. She changed channels after channels until she heard Justin Timberlake's voice.

"I can't stop the feeling" was playing on the radio. She urged me to sing along with her. And I took the invitation willingly. We both started jumping on our seat while singing along with Justin Timberlake.

"I can't stop the feeling... so just dance, dance, dance."

When that song ended Mrs Davis changed it to another channel. She found a Taylor Swift song, Shake it off.

"I stay out too late, got nothing' in my brain

That's what people say, mmm hmm, that's what people say, mmm hmm

I go on too many dates, but I can't make 'em stay

At least that's what people say mmm mmm, that's what people say mmm mmm."

And this time Jake's dad also joined us. He thumped his hand on the wheel while singing along with us. All the while, Jake tried to ignore the surrounding nuisance. I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards me. He didn't expect that hence he came to me without resistance.

He looked at me, surprised. I ignored his surprised expression and raised his hand with mine with the beat.

"Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break

And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake

Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off." I jumped with his hand in mine. To my surprise, Jake didn't pull his hand away and even smiled ridiculously at me, probably at my ridiculousness and moved around the music just a little with me. Behaving like teenagers, we reached a secluded area with only a single house around. And it was situated near a big lake. Mr and Mrs Davis got out of the car Jake and I followed.

"Whoa." I could not help myself but exclaimed as soon as I saw it. Mrs Davis came to my side and dragged me to her side.

"Like it?" She asked me, smiling. I nodded my head in yes.

"I bought it on our anniversary." She told me.

"It's beautiful." I said. She grabbed my hand and led me inside to the open field where the lake was. Mr Davis and Jake followed us. I felt they were amused by our behavior.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the day swimming, playing volleyball, chatting and eating. Jake was also involved in our conversation and whenever I felt that he was becoming lazy in activities, I would drag him with me. Finally, Mrs. Davis took me aside for a walk.

"So Grace, you're studying in the same college as my son, huh?" She asked.

"Yes." I answered her.

"You are a nice person, Grace. Before I met you, I was skeptical of my son's choice. But now, even though it was unexpected of Jake's choice, I know you're the one for him. You'd make him a nice guy." She said. I smiled at her. "Your son is already a very good person. You raised him well." I said. Her smile dimmed a bit.

"Yeah. I guess." She said.

"Grace." I heard Jake calling from behind. I turned and smiled at him. He came to our side and stopped. Mrs. Davis pat Jake shoulder and with a proud smile. She gestured to me with her eyes.

"Nice choice, kiddo." She told him and walked away.

My phone buzzed. I wanted to throw it in the air and get rid of it but I opened it my phone anyway, a gasp escaped my lips. Jake looked at me, worriedly.

"What? What happened?"

"My foster parents want me back."