Chapter 13
After the game, Ryder and his teammates went out to celebrate, and as much I wanted to go, I felt obligated to entertain my parents since I hadn’t seen them in a while. My brothers and I took our mom and dad out to the local college hangout for dinner. We caught up on things and I updated them on how school was going. Aden and Austyn told me what they had been up to, and then I was told about Aden’s new girlfriend, who I had already met at the shift last month, but pretended not to know for Mom and Dad’s sake.
After dinner, we went to my house so I could show them how it was decorated.
“Wow, looks nice in here!” my mom exclaimed, setting her purse down.
“Yeah, you did good,” Dad said, looking around and nodding in approval.
I chuckled as I removed my CU hoodie and set it over the back of a chair. “Thanks, but I suck at decorating. Sanja did most of it.”
“Who is Sanja, and is she hot?” Austyn asked, picking up a framed photo of me with my brothers the day of my high school graduation.
I laughed again. “It doesn’t matter. You aren’t meeting her.”
“Hey, why not?” he asked, seeming offended, but I could tell he was joking.
I rolled my eyes at my horny brother.
My mom grabbed my arm and examined my tattoo, her eyes wide. “When did you get this?”
Dad came over and grabbed the other. “You have matching ones.”
I put my arms together to show them the beautiful disaster, and smiled. “A few months ago.”
“What does it mean?” Mom asked, seeming genuinely interested.
“I’m just a hot mess sometimes.” I smiled at her. No way was I telling her the real reason.
“Hmm, okay,” Dad said, and then turned around and looked around the house some more.
“Let me give you the tour,” I said.
I showed them the kitchen, my room, the bathroom, and since Sanja’s door was open, I did a quick, “Oh, and here’s Sanja’s room,” and kept walking. But I noticed my parents had stopped and were lingering in the doorway, staring into her room. My brothers were still sitting in the living room talking to each other in hushed tones.
“What?” I asked, looking in, and feeling like I was invading her privacy.
Then I noticed all the witchcraft artifacts everywhere. She even had some kind of shrine set up in the corner with crystals and crap. My parents shared a worried glance. Uh oh.
“Um, Sanja’s, uh, Wiccan. She’s really into the stuff, but she’s pretty harmless.”
My parents looked at each other again, and then back to me. “Okay,” my mom said and we moved on.
“Can I make some coffee?” I asked, knowing my parents’ obsession with the dark addiction.
“Yeah, that would be great,” Dad said, picking up my Statistics textbook and looking through it.
I rarely drank coffee so we had a one-cup maker. I brewed two cups and brought them over to my parents in mismatched coffee mugs.
“Thanks, honey,” Mom said, smiling at me over the rim of the steaming mug. “So do you like school? You really like it here?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I really do. The teachers are great and I am making friends.”
“Like Sanja?” my dad asked, forcing a smile. I could tell he was not happy I had a ‘Wiccan’ roommate. If he only knew.
“Dad, come on, she’s probably harmless,” Aden said, twirling the remote control between his fingers in boredom.
I heard keys jiggle in the lock and we all looked over to see the door open and Sanja walk in. She looked a bit surprised but then put on a genuine smile. “Oh, I didn’t expect a houseful,” she said.
My parents stood first, then me. “Sanja, these are my parents, Rick and Alicia, and my brothers Aden and Austyn.”
She shook my brothers’ hands first, since they were closer, and both brothers’ faces paled at the contact, and quickly pulled away. Then she shook my parents’ hands and this time it was her face that paled a little. She quickly recovered, and cleared her throat. “It’s so nice to meet all of you, especially at once. This is kinda overwhelming!”
“Nice to meet you, too. Do you like the house?” Dad asked, not taking his gaze off her.
“I love it, thank you for letting me rent a room. It’s made living so far from home so much easier.”
“Oh yeah, where are you from?” Mom asked, eyeing her.
Sanja set her purse down on the dining room table and went into the kitchen and grabbed a glass from the cabinet. “Texas,” she replied. She splashed some juice from the fridge into the glass and drank it one gulp.
“You don’t have much of an accent,” Austyn said, staring at her.
She wore a short pleated skirt with knee-high socks and a dark-blue polo shirt. She dressed like this often, so I was used to it, but Austyn looked like he was about to have his tongue flop out of his mouth.
Sanja laughed, her eyes sparkling. “Nah, we’re from North Texas, less of an accent, I guess.”
“That’s cool,” Austyn replied.
I looked at Aden, and he was staring at her intently, as were my parents. It was starting to get uncomfortable, and I think Sanja sensed it.
She set her cup in the sink and then cleared her throat again. “Well, I have some online assignments to turn in, so I’m gonna go into my room. It was nice meeting y’all.”
With that, she grabbed her purse from the dining room and retreated to her room, closing the door quietly behind her.
“Well, we better get going, got about an hour drive,” Dad said, taking both his and Mom’s coffee mugs to the kitchen and setting them in the sink.
“Okay, I have a little homework left to do, too, so I’ll walk you out.”
With warm hugs and goodbyes, I watched my parents and brothers walk out to their car, and then I shut and locked the door. I flipped out the lights, and took my phone and backpack to my room. My phone buzzed in my hand with a text.
Aden: You know your frickin roommate is a witch, right?
I rolled my eyes and replied: Yes, dufus. I’m not that dense.
Aden: Okay, just be careful around her. Witches are bitches!
Me: Funny. We’re fine, I like her a lot, actually.
Aden: Again, be careful and don’t piss her off!
Me: Goodnight, brother.
I laughed to myself, and as I was about to turn the door handle to my room, Sanja came out of hers and said, “Ayla?”
Turning, I smiled and said, “Yeah?”
Her expression was dead serious as she asked, “Why didn’t you tell me your parents were witches?”