About the meeting.

Yes, seven people was definitely too many. My room was simply too small, but we had to make do. Mila, Grace, Sarah and Alice were on my bed, Noelle was sitting on my desk chair, Isabelle brought her own chair from her room (which already gave us less space to move around) and I ended up sitting on the floor, right next to my bed and between Mila’s legs.

“So? Spill it! How was it?” Isabelle asked them.

“Better than we expected,” Mila said, sighing tiredly. “Your mom is intense.”

Isabelle grinned. “She’s cool, isn’t she?”

“She’s always been nice to us,” Alice said. “But this is the first time I felt intimidated.”

“Yeah.” Noelle nodded slowly. “She was looking at us like she was studying us.”

“I’m so sorry…” I told them.

“Don’t be,” Grace said. “It’s better this way. It means she’s worried about you, and that’s good.”

“Hey, Oliver,” Sarah called me, so I turned my head to see her. She was frowning, looking down and gripping her knees. “I’m sorry.”

I blinked. “Uh? About what?”

“I thought… I thought I understood your social anxiety, but I didn’t.” She swallowed. “I barely said a word in front of your mom. I was… terrified. Not of her, but of saying something stupid, something that would make her hate me.” She bit her lower lip. “I kept thinking that anything I said would make me look bad, so I didn’t say anything and let Grace and Alice do all the talking. It made me realize… Was this how you felt every day?”

I smiled a humorless smile. “Kind of, yeah.”

“If it makes you feel better, Sarah, I was feeling the same,” Grace admitted, throwing herself back on the bed and groaning into her hands. “I’ve never felt so stiff, so… clumsy. I was afraid she’d call us out for toying with her son or something. If she had, I wouldn’t have known how to answer. I never cared about getting the approval of a boyfriend’s parents, but now? I’ve also never felt ashamed for having sex, but when she started talking about protection I wanted the earth to swallow me.”

“God, same!” Noelle agreed fervently.

“I had that talk with her when I was 17,” Isabelle admitted. “It was as awkward as you think, but she didn’t bat an eye. Mom is just… very serious about certain things. I think she’s afraid we’ll ruin our lives making stupid decisions.”

“I’d be afraid, too, if I had children,” Alice said. “Our parents can’t watch us 24/7, and even if they could, we wouldn’t want them to. It’s only obvious for them to worry about what we’re up to.”

Grace sighed, and in a barely audible voice, she muttered, “That so?”

I was either the only one who heard her, or the others decided to ignore her comment.

“You won my parents over so easily,” Mila told me, combing my hair with her fingers. “I want your mom to like us, too.”

“Yeah,” Sarah agreed. “My mom even wished me good luck when I left the house. Ah, she sends her regards, by the way. Almost forgot…”

I smiled. “I just got lucky. And besides, you’re five people. Of course she’s not gonna be able to get to know all of you immediately. I bet she only wanted to get the formality out of the way.”

“She invited us to stay over for dinner,” Noelle said. “W-We said yes. Do you mind?”

Isabelle and I both flinched and shared a look of horror and panic.

“W-Wait, should we have said no!?” Noelle asked, entering a panic as well.

“N-No, it’s not that!” I told her immediately.

“Oliver and I… We’ve been cooking at home lately, but… We’re still not good.” Isabelle told them. “I should tell mom to order food tonight, right?” she asked me.

“Hey, if it’s trouble…” Alice started, but I stopped her.

“It’s not trouble. We just don’t dare to serve you the trash we make.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Sarah told me. “It can’t be that bad.”

“It’s bad,” Isabelle told her. “It’s edible, but it’s bad.”

Mila looked around the room, frowning, then asked. “Does anyone other than Oliver and Isabelle know how to cook here?”

“Eh? Um… I don’t,” Sarah admitted. “My mom cooks too well.”

“Same here,” Noelle said.

“I have a housemaid,” Grace said.

“Me too, actually,” Alice admitted shyly.

“I can’t cook to save my life, either,” Mila said.

“Our generation is doomed,” I said.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Sarah told me. “Come on, just cook. We’ll eat it.”

“But I don’t want you to break up with me,” I told her.

“You’d need to poison us to get rid of us,” Grace said.

Isabelle and I looked at each other and spoke in unison. “I mean…”

“Okay, now I KNOW you’re exaggerating,” Alice said, laughing. “And I’m curious.”

Noelle grinned. “How about this? If it’s good, I’ll treat you both to whatever restaurant you want.”

Isabelle stood up immediately and began to kick my leg. “You heard her! Come on, we have to get to work!”

“Fine, but it’s your fault if I end up single!” I told her, standing up and going with her.

“Hey, Oliver,” Milla called. “Can we look for your porn stash on your PC?”

“Sure. Good luck finding anything.”

Isabelle and I went to the kitchen while the girls stayed in my room. As we were in the middle of cooking, I remembered.

I didn’t have a porn stash nor should there be anything in my browser history… but there was still the folder with all the photos the girls had sent me.

…

Oh well.

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