For some reason "The Best In Me" by Sherwood reminds me of this story...

Enjoy and review.

"Baby, is Stephanie coming down for lunch or is she still studying?" mum asked two hours after my -let's call it fight- fight with Steph.

I turned my head around and hesitated; Steph spent this whole time upstairs alone, I just said she wanted some peace to study and they all believed me, so nobody bothered any of us. Was it right to go after her now? I've never really had a fight with her, so I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

"Hum... I'll ask her, mum" I said and got on my feet awkwardly.

I left my relatives in the living-room and went upstairs. I walked towards the end of the hallway and stood in front of my bedroom door for a moment.

"Steph?" I said out loud shyly "Babe, can I come in?"

For a moment I could hear nothing but my relatives all moving together to the dinning-room. But then I heard footsteps inside my room and she opened the door.

"Hi" I said awkwardly. There should be a manual with instructions for situations like this one. What do I do!

I knew her well and, to me, it was obvious she'd been crying, but she'd stopped a while ago. The others wouldn't notice it at all.

"Hi" she said with a dead voice.

"Hum... Lunch's ready. Do you want to come down? Or I could just bring you the food...?" I said.

"No, it's ok, I'll come down" she said and walked pass me. I grabbed her hand softly.

"Wait, talk to me. You don't have to come down if you don't wanna"

"Dougie, I'm fine" she said.

"Are you mad at me? I- I'm sorry, I don't know what to do-" I said. I've had girlfriends before, why do I feel so lost now?

"I don't know... I just... You know how I am when it comes to talking about my family, I never talk about it with anyone, no one else but you, Dougie. How come you told them? You should have asked me first. Do they all know?" she said.

"Babe, I'm really sorry! My mother asked me if you're parents were coming too and I told her you don't have parents, that's all. She must have told the rest, that's how our stupid family works, we tell each other everything."

She sighed.

"Ok, then. I guess if I'm some day going to be a part of them, they will find out eventually."

I nodded, trying not to screw up even more. Is that it? Are we cool now?

"Let's go"

I followed her but she still felt weird to me, like she was distant. She sat between aunt Moo and me during lunch, the kids whispering things to each other, giggling for time to time. I watched them most the time. Lunch was loudy but neither me or Steph talked, luckyly my relatives decided to focus on Moo and Dean for a while, but I knew very well that the attention would be back to the two of us soon, as it always happened. Only once Jazzie asked something about a shampoo, she said 'Hey, who's that weird pink shampoo upstairs?' and Steph said it was hers, asked if somebody minded her keeping it in the bathroom, nobody complained, that was it, quickly and stupid. Only the kids seemed to find something funny about it, which gave me a bad feeling, but I was already worrying for other things.

When lunch finished, Steph helped mum to clear the table, then went to the front garden, sat on the beach and studied the whole afternoon. I sat next to her the whole time, I just stared at her beauty and the photographs on her books. I didn't understand a thing, but she seemed to find it interesting. She read like 400 pages, I don't know how the hell she manages to read so fast and so much. I got a headache just by reading Harry Potter.

Just when I was about to fall asleep next to her, she closed her book, look at me for a moment and stood up. That was it, when she didn't kiss me I knew she was still upset. Oh, jeez, she's never going to forgive me for telling my family about hers. But she was the one who wanted this! I'd thought she'd understood.

"It's getting dark" she said.

I nodded and just followed her upstairs, trying not to look at miserable as I felt. I hated knowing that she was still pissed at me and it also made me feel like crap the thought that I had no idea of what I should do to make this better.

She put the books down in my desk and I just sat in the bed for a moment, staring at my phone, pretending I was doing something for the first time in the whole afternoon.

"So..." Steph suddenly said as she took her sweater off. She was wearing a lovely blue shirt underneath it, she looked hot... But by the tone of her voice and the situation, I kind of guessed she wasn't quite thinking about that kind of stuff right now "Erotic massage?"

I put my mobile phone in my pocket and stared at her for a moment; so that's what's been bothering her all day long? She's no longer angry about me telling my mum about hers anymore?

I stared at her in silence as she took her shoes off too. She continued speaking when I didn't answer.

"You never told me about that" she mumbled.

"If it makes you feel better, she never even tried it with me" I assured her quickly.

"I don't wanna know!"

"But you just said -!"

"I know, I know!" she sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. I looked at her in desbilief; was she going insane too, like the rest of the girls? "I just- It kind of bothers me to know there were so man girls before me, Dougie. I mean, how many of them where there?"

"Well... Four, I think."

"Four? Four girls met your family? You know, meeting families means a great deal. You're the first boy I ever told anything about my family"

"Oh, babe..." I put my arms around her and kissed her cheek. She allowed me "You're nothing like those girls, what I've got with you is a lot more serious, it's deeper"

She smiled and then giggled "You're starting to sound like a girl, Dougie" I loved hoe easy it was to cheer her up something, how she could never stay upset with me for too long.

I hugged her for a moment in silence.

"Babe..." I hesitated "You should be more open with me. I mean, you always hide your pain. Share your... Pain. I mean, it took you the whole afternoon to talk to me about what was upseting you"

I waited for her to talk, not knowing if I'd done something good by talking about this..

... But the she smiled.

"Wow, Dougie, you're finally becoming serious about us, aren't you?" she said.

"Hey!" I said slightly offended "I am serious about us!"

She smiled even more and kissed me.

If only she knew how serious things were going to get...