“Should be admit it though?”
“Nah. We’ll hang low for a while. We’ll be like the CIA: no confirming or denying. How does it feel, being a part of a celebrity scandal?” he asked, getting up, standing behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist. I leaned back against his shoulder, inhaling the sweet scent of his skin.
“I guess I could learn to enjoy it,” I replied playfully, lightly grazing the skin of his forearm with my fingers.
We went up to the pool overlooking the ocean and spent the morning relaxing, drinking colourful drinks and just relaxing.
At one point on the way down to the kitchen to get some snacks for us to share I checked my phone and sure enough, there were about two dozen messages. The only one I replied to was Leanne’s:
So I guess you’ve seen the news? she asked.
Yup. Merry Christmas to me! I replied.
So what’s the plan?
Neither confirm nor deny
Well I’m happy for you two
I haven’t confirmed or denied :-P
And you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. I’ve known for a lot longer than the media.
Really?
Of course. You weren’t exactly subtle.
Shit. Well thanks for not saying anything to anyone.
Anytime. Enjoy the media uproar you’ve just created.
Haha. Thanks. See you next week!
You know it.
When I finished chatting to Leanne I went back to the pool with a bowl of chips and some fresh fruit I cut up, then lounged on a chair. I knew I was tempting fate, I always burned instead of tanning, but damn it, I was going to give it a shot.
A few hours later, the doorbell rang.
“That’s weird,” Kiegan muttered. “Wait here, I’ll be back in a minute.”
It wasn’t until I heard the voices from outside streaming around the side of the house that I realized exactly what was weird about the doorbell ringing – there was a gate, with a code outside. Whoever was at the door had to have the code, and as far as I knew, only Kiegan knew it.
I grabbed a bathrobe from the hook at the edge of the door and made my way into the house. When I got to the staircase I looked over the railing, down to the front door, and my face went white.
Standing there, at the entrance, were our parents.
Holy shit. Why are they here? How did they get here?
I was definitely not ready for this. I figured maybe they hadn’t seen me, but unfortunately my mother had the eyes of a hawk. As I was stepping back from the railing, trying to be as subtle as possible, I heard her yell out my name.
“Tina! Tina, I need to talk to you,” she continued, her shrill voice bouncing off the walls, barging her way past Kiegan and into the house.
I sighed as I realized there was no escaping it at all.
“What, mom, suddenly you care about my problems?” I shouted back at her. I was pissed off. She had no right to come here and tell me what to do. Still, she acted like I was the unreasonable one, overdramatically pretending like my words had physically hurt her.
“Tina, sweetie. I just want to talk to you. Don’t you want to talk to your mom?”
“No, I don’t. I think I’ve made that pretty clear over the past few years.”
“Well, it’s pretty clear to me that you’re obviously not ready to make your own decisions yet.”
I laughed in her face.
“Why? Because Kiegan and I aren’t denying the fact that we’re in a relationship?”
“Yes. It’s wrong. It’s disgusting. And more importantly, you’re ruining your family’s name.”
“Fuck you, mom. Fuck you. The Hunt family name is more fucked up than anything Kiegan and I could possibly do to it, and you know it.”
“Now, now, Sam,” Elton called up to my mother. “No one wants an argument. Why don’t we all sit down and discuss this calmly, like adults.”
“Or you could get off my property before I call the cops,” Kiegan replied. He was obviously as pissed off about this sudden intrusion as I was.
“Please, son. There’s no reason to be so hostile.”
“Really? So you think that when estranged parents show up on their childrens’ doorstep that they should just be greeted like nothing happened?”
“No. Of course not. But there are bigger considerations at stake here than you.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“Well, Edward’s run for President, of course. If he is to have the best chance of winning, an incest scandal among his nephew and niece, especially concerning a nephew who’s now a celebrity in his own right, could completely destroy his chances.”
“Good,” I replied from upstairs. This time it was Elton Hunt’s turn to look like he’d been wounded.
“Good? Don’t you realize? I know you don’t like the man, but having an Uncle in the White House can be a very powerful tool indeed, Tina.”
I laughed. “I’d rather rot in hell than ever take advantage of anything that man has to offer,” I replied. “Now get out of the house.”