When Adam was informed that his father’s boss Mr. Lelan and his family would be staying at their house for a couple of days, and that Adam was to be the attentive host to the Lelan’s 18 year-old daughter Alise, Adam groaned. He had met the elder Lelans before, and not only were they loud, overbearing and rude, but they were nothing to look at. Immediately, this dashed any hopes of this Alise being tolerable at all.
The day finally arrived, and Adam’s father and mother were scrambling around the house, making it look that “visitor perfect” that everyone always puts together when they’re having company. When the doorbell rang at 11:55 PM, Adam thought his father would have a heart attack. Fortunately, he made it to the door without a coronary, and the second he opened it, the Lelans were shouting this and that as Adam’s mother whispered to Adam to stand up straight.
It was then that Adam noticed there was no daughter with the two adults. A glimmer of hope emerged inside of him and he voluntarily stood up straight now. Maybe there’d be no babysitting, after all. But as is with almost all last-minute hope-raising occasions, this one came shattering down as Mr. Lelan opened his big fat mouth.
“Alise!” he screamed, turning to face the driveway of Adam’s house.
“Coming,” said a voice, although there was no face in sight.
A few seconds later, the hottest girl Adam had ever seen in his life stepped inside his door. He felt his jaw drop, but could do nothing to pull it back up.
“This is our daughter, Alise,” Mrs. Lelan said, pulling Alise by the arm to face Adam and his parents.
“Why, isn’t she beautiful?” Adam’s mother said as Alise smiled politely. Then it was her turn to yank her offspring forward. “This is our son, Adam.”
“Adam,” Adam’s dad interrupted. “Show Alise where she can put her luggage.”
Adam waved for Alise to follow him up the stairs. As he walked ahead of her, hearing the wheels of her luggage roll on the marble behind him, he tried to think of something clever or witty to say to her, but was drawing a complete blank. Defeated, he stepped into his room and turned to face her, saying nothing.
“Is this… is this your room?” Alise asked him, looking around at the various posters of basketball players and musicians.
“Yeah,” Adam said.
“Oh, I don’t have to run you out of your room,” Alise said, looking embarrassed.
“No, no, it’s not a problem at all,” he said. “The guest room up here is kind of a mess, so don’t worry about it.”
“Well, thanks,” she said, smiling sweetly at him. Her hotness was about to set Adam on fire.
“I’ll, um… we can…” Adam stuttered as Alise looked at him expectantly.
Get it together, dumbass,
he said to himself.