Radke Family dinner with Bee & Cassidy

[Beatrice Reynolds]

Beatrice was really surprised when Finn took a cookie and actually ate a bite of it. What in the world? She didn't even know if they were safe to eat! Yet he did it without any noticeable hesitation. Was he just a really sweet guy or did he really like her? "Finn.." She blushed when he pulled her in for a kiss. What did this mean? Were they heading towards becoming a couple? She had never felt such butterflies in her entire life. She thought that she had loved Bo but this was so different. Bo had been infatuation but Finn felt like it could be the real deal. He thought that she was cute! And he didn't call her stupid or crazy or anything like that which was something that she kind of expected all guys to do because both words fit her oh so very well.

She naturally chose to sit next to him at the table and she had her hand placed on his knee. She was gently rubbing with her thumb not to try and turn him on sexually or anything of the like. She just wanted to do it so he knew that she was there for him if he was nervous and because it was comforting for her. She watched with a small frown when Parker and Cassidy came to the table. She knew that Lorelai liked Parker for some strange reason so she figured that hearing about this wouldn't make her happy but that didn't mean that she was going to be rude to Parker or Cassidy. They had no idea that her baby sister had feelings for him! It wasn't either of their faults that she had developed a little crush.

She set a piece of chicken on her plate and cut it into tiny cubes of meat a tad nervously. Was she suppose to eat now? Or wait? Were they the kind of family who said a prayer before they ate? God, she'd never been to a church in her life! The anxiety filling her right now was too much to even consider eating anything. She leaned in to whisper something sweet to Finn, "You did a really good job cooking, babe.... I think you might need to come over and show off your skills sometime for me." Whoa.... Had she just called him babe?

They weren't even dating! It was way way too soon for that nonsense!

[Cassidy Simmons]

It wasn't as if Cassidy wasn't used to people mistaking her and Parker as a couple. When they had first started to grow closer, she'd get pretty bashful about it, but now she usually just went along and made a sort of joke out of it. It was a given that came with having a guy best friend, right? So, Carolyn wanting them to be together didn't come as too much of a surprise, especially since her own mother wanted the same.

She looked at Parker, curious as he whispered to her, her lips curving up as she began to smile at what he had started to say, then was shot out of her thoughts once Finn called them over to dinner. Cassidy turned over and placed her feet on the floor as Parker went to get her chair, "Thank you," she half-smiled as she tried standing up for a second, taking a step closer to her chair before sitting. She always appreciated Parker's help, it was more a gentlemanly based intention than a pity party, and he knew when to let her do things on her own.

Once they were at the table, Cassidy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear then looked over to Finn, "This looks really good," she nodded in agreement with Parker, then laughed when she saw Finn willingly get the burnt patty for his burger, getting a less crisp one for herself and placing it on her bun, and she looked to Carolyn, "Thank you, again, for letting me stay here," Cassidy turned to Parker, "I really appreciate it." She nudged him, playfully.

[Finnick Radke]

Finn was trying to hold in his excitement from his tiny move outside. That had been the first time he'd kissed her. Then again it only confused him more on where their relationship sat, but if this was all she wanted right now, instead of being official, he was okay with that. When they had gotten settled, he could feel Bee's hand over his knee. His first instinct was to pull away, but it was Bee and she was safe. Finn placed his hand over hers and kept his eyes away from Parker and Cassidy as if he were fourteen and never held a girl's hand before.

He ran his thumb over the top of Bee's hand when she called him babe, and could feel his face get a little warmer. "I agree," Their mom started in, "You did a fantastic job, sweetie." He accepted everyone's thank you's and whatnot's, and took his free hand to grab his food. It had been a while since he'd seen Cassidy and Parker together, but it was always nice to have her around.

After a moment of some actually awkward silence, their mom broke it apart with conversation about how everyone's day had been or what their plans where the next day, simple stuff. She took a sip of her sweet tea, now having finished her beer from earlier, and turned towards Bee and Finn. "So, do I get a picture of you two to hang on the fridge too?" She asked, cheerily. Finn looked confused and turned to look at the refrigerator door. "Well, actually, we're not.. we're just friends." Finn nodded as he passed a glance to Bee. That's about the time Parker chimed in his two cents with a big fat grin, "Is that why you two haven't let each other go since she got here?" He asked, laughing. Finn kicked at his kid brother's shin but let off a tiny smile to show that he was only playing.

"Really though," Carolyn started, chuckling along with Parker. "How cute would that be? Cassidy and Parker just don't see it yet, but you and Bee? You know something's there." She ruffled up Parker's hair playfully and gave gave Finn that look that said she knew what she was talking about. "But hey, maybe I'm wrong, who knows. Who wants German chocolate cake?" She asked, changing the subject because both of the boys were clearly uncomfortable and Parker had slunked down into his chair like he wanted to run away.

She talked from the kitchen as she prepared five small serving plates and pulled forks from the drawer. "What do you guys think about playing a board game or something after dessert? Or maybe a movie?" How she managed to carry all five plates back at once was immaculate and impressive as she passed them around and then took her chair at the end. "What do you like, Bee? Funny? Scary? Romantic?" Finn looked up, remembering the movie they had gone to see the first time they hung out. "Not scary.. She.. She doesn't like scary."

[Beatrice Reynolds]

Beatrice wasn't aware that her face could even possibly get this red! Was it suddenly really hot in there or was she it just her? She actually felt like her poor face was on fire when Carolyn and Parker were talking and it stayed that way even afterwards. She was so embarrassed! It probably didn't help the belief that something more than friendship was going on between them when she buried her head in Finn's shoulder to hide her blushing. Her heart broke a little bit when he had to say that they were just friends because she knew that it was her fault that he wouldn't be able to call her his girlfriend. She hadn't met him yet when she was with Bo yet she felt such incredible guilt for not waiting for him. If she had been single then they would probably be a couple by now.

She only removed her head from his shoulder because his mother mentioned German chocolate cake and she was suddenly filled with nerves for a whole new reason. Her mother had made German chocolate cake before .. often, in fact, and she always made a coconut-pecan topping which Bee couldn't have because she was severely allergic to pecans so she had a plain chocolate cake or cupcake so she didn't feel left out. What if his mother followed a similar recipe? Was it rude to not eat something? She wasn't making up the allergy yet she was still nervous about speaking out about it. She examined it carefully and didn't notice any so she felt like she was safe. She would have to mention her food allergies to Finn at some point just so he was aware.. he clearly had a good memory considering that he mentioned how she didn't like horror movies.

He knew her! He knew that she would probably have a baby panic attack if they watched something scary and didn't have a problem telling his mother this. "Yeah, I don't like horror much but Finn knows that. He took me to a movie on our first date and I was pretty much hiding behind him the whole movie." She was so much more animated when she talked about Finn which didn't seem possible considering how cheery that she was all the time. Something about him just seemed to light this fire inside of her and she didn't have any reason to not be happy. She didn't even realize that she had called their little night out on the town a date until after the words had left her mouth and it was far too late to consider it socially acceptable to correct herself and say that they were hanging out as friends. What if that upset her precious Finn?

Her precious Finn.

Why was she so possessive over him? She had never felt like this before and she didn't know if she liked it or not. She made up a rumor about Stormy stealing sperm because he could have potentially liked her for goodness sake and she even had a boyfriend at the time! "I-I-I-I um.. I-I-I" She stuttered which was a bad habit coming back from when she was younger. She went to years of speech therapy but it still came back if she got too nervous. "I re-re-ally like comedies like um..." Um? Had she seriously just said um again? Great, Carolyn was going to think she was an idiot!

[Cassidy Simmons]

Cassidy's eyes fluttered up when she overheard her and Parker's name said when Carolyn spoke to Bee and Finn. Didn't see what yet? What's that supposed to mean? She felt her cheeks warm up as she turned to look at Parker, who looked just as embarrassed sunk into his chair, and she sighed, somewhat relieved that he wasn't the only one feeling weird about it, her nerves calming down once the subject changed, despite the fact that the thoughts still lingered in her mind. Why did all these people think that they should be together? There was Parker's mother, her own mother, Elizabeth...

It wasn't like Cassidy had never thought about it. She was only human, of course there were days where she would look at her best friend in a way most best friends don't look at each other, which would explain why she so much enjoyed whipping out her camera every time Parker whipped off his shirt. Which, totally wasn't creepy at all. She just like teasing him about it... not that there wasn't anything to tease about, really. They were just that comfortable, she didn't see anything wrong with it or why it should mean that the two should be more than friends.

Maybe it was the fact that, she never exactly tried to explore those feelings in a romantic way. Whenever the thoughts came to her head, she shook them out and thought it was silly. This was Parker. Not that it was a bad thing, or that anything significant was keeping her from it, she just didn't want to bring that kind of stress onto their friendship, even if she was sure nothing would be all too different between them. They'd just been friends for so long, she was just so accustomed to staying just that, never thought too deep into it.

"We can um," she spoke up, adjusting her throat, "we can watch 'Just Friends?" she suggested, "You know, the Ryan Reynolds one?"

[Finnick Radke]

"If it tastes different, it's because Parker is allergic to walnuts so there aren't any in there." Carolyn had said, taking a modest bite from the slice. Parker had looked up from his plate, "Well now everyone knows an easy way to assassinate me, thanks, Mom." He laughed at her as she passed him that 'don't talk like that' look that mothers gave. The only person that didn't know that was Bee, but so far she seemed okay, and Parker kept note of how Finn had been looking at her all night. When she moved, he moved, when she spoke, he clearly listened.

Finn and Parker both frowned at the suggestion from Cassidy, but Finn was the first to speak. "Yeah, yeah I haven't seen that in a while.." He said in a low voice as he picked at his cake. He was really just lost in thought about Bee and how she had kissed him like that and then went off to say that 'friends could do that.' Boy, she was confusing. At least these two were acting on it unlike his little brother who he was now looking at. Poor Parker couldn't ever get the nerve to tell Cassidy what he felt, but Finn nor their mother would say anything because it wasn't theirs to say.

When dinner and dessert were over, their mom told everyone to hop into the living room and start the movie while she put things away and loaded the dishwasher. Naturally the boys insisted on helping but since they both had company, she wanted them to be there and not doing chores. Parker had taken his spot next to Cassidy, and Finn to Bee. Halfway through, Parker had dozed off on the armchair. Finn stayed awake during the whole thing but it was so hard for him to sit still for that long, he kept shifting around on the cushion until his mom reached over and told him to stop because it was driving her up the wall.

Before the movie had ended, his mom had decided to head to her room. She thanked Bee for coming over and told her that she was a lovely dinner guest and that she would be thrilled to have her over again. She had hugged Cassidy goodnight, ruffed up Finn's hair, and giggled at Parker and his light snoring. "Night everyone." She said as she parted.

When the movie was over, and Finn had shifted once or twice more, he stretched and looked to Bee. He stood up and shook his head at Parker who had his head hanging from the edge, one foot tucked under him, the other on the end table, and both of his arms sprawled out. "I'm going to put this kid to bed." He said, scooping his brother up in his arms. Parker had stirred for a moment but only to bury his face into Finn's chest. He carried him up the stairs and into Finn's bedroom. He tucked him in and turned off the light before leaving and cracking the door behind him.

Finn had made a pit stop in the bathroom before heading back downstairs. He did a quick once over and fixed his hair which his mom had so graciously messed up. When he was sure things were in place, he shut off the light and quietly made his way to the living room.