Free Bird

"Neva, sweetie," someone whispers as I'm slowly rocked back and forth to be woken up. I open my eyes and see Ashley smiling at me, "we're about to land."
I rub my eyes and begin to prepare myself for this. Meeting my best friends parents, my idol's parents. To see where Andy grew up, to see where it all started, to see how he became the man he is today. Funny, an inspiration, an accident prone rock star, an amazing boyfriend to Juliet, and of course, my amazing best friend. I wonder if Juliet had these same questions. Will they like me? What will they ask about me? I know it's not that important because I'm not dating Andy, but he was my first friend when I came to California. He was the first person I could trust, the first person who knew about NOT. I snapped from my thoughts as the planes lands and i'm jostled in my seat.
"You ready to meet my parents?" Andy asks once we are off the plane and headed to find out luggage
I give a nervous smile, and everyone laughs. Ashley wraps his arm around my shoulder and kisses my temple while Juliet smiles at me and says...
"That was my same reaction when he asked me that for the first time. You'll be fine, Amy and Chris are super nice."
With this new reassurance I hop in the taxi next to Ashley and Juliet and breath as we begin the drive to Andy's childhood house. When we pull up Chris is shoveling the last of the driveway, and waves at us when get out of the cab. We all pitch in for the fare and grab our bags. Amy runs out when she sees us and we're greeted with hugs. She hugs Andy, then Juliet, and as she hugs Ashley Chris walks up to hug his son. Amy turns to me and stops for a second.
"You must be..." she pauses trying to remember.
"Natalia." Chris says.
I smile and shake my head no, just when Ashley tells them,
"This is Neveah, my girlfriend."
"And my best friend!" Andy shouts, "I saw her first" he adds with a laugh
"Well let's go inside and get acquainted, it's freezing out here."
We're all lead inside and given hot chocolate as we sit around the dinner table. Andy and Ashley went with Chris to put our bags upstairs, while Amy and Juliet shared in small talk. I sat quietly, just looking out the window. I only saw snow once in my lifetime and that was when we had that horrible winter. I was startled when Ashley kissed my cheek, snapping back to reality.
" Lost in the snow?" he whispered in my ear
I nod and give him a smile. He pulls up a chair next to me and joins in the conversation. I catch bits and pieces as I go back to staring out the window.
"ok?" "First?" "Where" When I hear my name I decide it's time to join in the conversation.
"...met" Andy finishes
"What?" I ask from my end of the table
"She speaks!" Ashley squeals
"Sorry, was lost in the snow, growing up in Florida you don't see much. It's beautiful"
"Beautiful until you live in it, it used to snow a lot, still does, im talking like..."
"30 feet of snow per mother fer, I know" I say with a smile
" Anyway, Neveah, tell us about yourself." Chris interjects
I freeze. What do I say? What do I tell them? Will they think I'm a freak? No they can't be like that, but I don't want pity. All of this runs through my head and I panic, I can't stop the panic from spreading across my face. Ashley grabs my hand, and excuses us before leading me to the small living room.
"Breath Neva." he tells me as he cups my face in his hands and makes me look at him.
I breath, and let his presence comfort me. I am able to fully calm down, and wipe the tears that escaped during my panic attack.
"I... I can't go back in there and face them, I.... I can't talk about... I don't want..." I whisper through the sobs
"Shh, it's okay. I'm here, Andy is here, Juliet is here. You don't have to say anything, or you can unload a huge can of relief. They won't judge you Neva, they didn't judge me." He rubs my back while he holds me together.
I look at him and nod...

Notes

sorry, kind of boring