132 - Yes or No

*It’s only spying if you get caught. – Riffraff’s grandmother, Nan*

Only a few days after they had the big religion conversation, Vin knocked on the frame of Camille’s office door with a goofy grin. She motioned for him to come in and Priscilla waved from the computer screen.

“Hey, Auntie! What’s going on up there?”

“I’m the size of a fucking house!” Priscilla complained halfheartedly with a giant grin. She tried to stand up but could not do it. A man chuckled off screen as a hand appeared in front of her to help her stand up. “Thanks, babe.”

The man pulled her to her feet and then rested a hand on her belly that was under an oversized flannel shirt. He gave her a quick kiss before murmuring something against her ear. Smiling, she turned her head and stole another kiss.

As he left, Priscilla turned sideways to show off the large belly. “Five more weeks, or so. The bad thing is, I don’t think I’m going to make it to your graduation. But I hear that you may be coming back up with your Oma and Opa.”

“I should hear from MIT any day now,” he grinned.

He already had acceptance letters from LSU, Tulane and Arkansas. But the one that he really wanted had not come yet. Or so he thought.

Camille cleared her throat as she grinned at him and held up the envelope from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The burgundy letters declaring that it was from the Admissions Office drew his attention.

“Oh, hell, yeah!” he cheered. “Have you opened it?”

“It’s not addressed to me,” Camille offered the envelope to him.

“I can’t,” he shook his head and stepped backwards. “If it’s good, I’m going to want to celebrate.”

“That’s not a bad thing,” Camille and Priscilla both argued.

“Yes, it is,” he assured them as he walked over to the door and looked out of it before closing the door and going over and sitting on the day bed. “If it’s not good, then I’m going to be sad.”

“That’s not a bad thing either,” Camille assured him.

He grinned at his adoptive mother and motioned that they had to be quiet by placing his finger over his sealed lips. Intrigued, she tossed the envelope on the desk and grabbed the refillable water bottle that had her flavored water in it.

“I believe that is my signal to go find out what we’re having for dinner,” Priscilla declared from her end of the call. “Let me know what the decision is.”

“Okay, we will,” Camille assured her. “Love you!”

“Love you, too!” Priscilla said as she reached over.

The square on Camille’s screen went blank and then it gave her the option of five stars to the answer the question of how the call was. Ignoring the question, Camille closed out the program and turned in her chair to see her dog nudging Vin’s hand to pet him.

“Yeah, you’re a real scary dog,” she rolled her eyes as she shook her water bottle.

“Don’t you listen to her,” Vin assured Tink. “You are a big scarry, ferocious dog. So, we have to make sure that you behave tonight.”

“Is it just Tink that has to be on his best behavior?” she asked with an amused grin.

She took a drink, and he waited for her to swallow. When she realized what he was waiting for, she took another drink and slowly swallowed it before giving a dramatic sigh. Before she could take another drink, he grabbed the bottle and sat it on the arm at the far end of the bed.

“Hey, that’s mine,” she complained with an amused laugh.

“Yeah, yeah,” he chuckled. “Are you good with Julio coming over tonight?”

“I have no problems with it,” she said. “Does he want to join us for dinner?"

Vin shook his head, “Honestly, I don’t know, he wants to do a promposal to Nicki.”

“Nothing like waiting until the last minute.”

“Apparently, he was worried about me telling him no.”

The alarm on her phone went off and she turned it off, “I got to go check my chicken.” She motioned to the envelope, “What do you want me to do with that?”

“Maybe after the promposal?” he suggested.

She agreed and ushered him out of the office. Downstairs, she pulled her chicken out of the slow cooker and then she and Darkness put the rest of dinner together as the kids worked on their homework at the kitchen island.

Just before they sat down at the table, the doorbell rang. Trying to act casual, Camille asked Nicki to go see who was at the door. Once the teen was out of the room, Camille grabbed her tablet and pulled up the front porch camera. She sat in the high barstool that Nicki had just vacated, and the three Johnson men huddled around her.

They watched the young Hispanic man as he shifted on the porch nervously. Two large balloon bouquets sat on the front porch and the boy himself held a large bouquet of flowers. He wore a tight white T-shirt with something written on it but they could not tell what it said.

“Oh my god!” Nicki exclaimed from the living room as she opened the door.

There was a slight delay between what they were seeing on the screen and the audio coming from the tablet. Nicki on the screen made the same declaration just after the door opened she stepped out onto the front porch.

Julio on the screen handed her the flowers before his voice came across the audio. “Nicki, I’m hoping that no one else has asked you because I really would like to ask you to go to prom.”

On the screen, Nicki accepted the permanent marker before Julio had finished speaking. She was marking something on his shirt when her digitized voice asked, “I just mark my answer?”

“Yeah, just check yes or no,” Julio replied as they hugged.

“Ugh, this lag is killing me,” Camille admitted as the couple kissed on the screen. “I’m hoping that means it’s a yes.”

“If that’s a no,” Darkness chuckled, “I’d hate to see what she would do for a yes.”

“Then I would have to tell him that he could not ask her out,” Vin smirked.

“What the hell are you all watching?” Nicki demanded from behind them as the one of on the video feed led Julio into the house.

“Damn, I’m going to have to get Werewolf or Trevor look into this,” Camille shook her head as the three around her acted guilty. “I cannot watch *As the Front* *Porch Turns* with that much lag.”

Turning around, she saw that Nicki had boldly marked the YES box. Darkness moved to get a vase for the flowers as Camille hugged their daughter.

Camille smiled at the youngest, “Mitch, run upstairs and grab the envelope on my desk.”

He ran up to her office and back in record time and handed the envelope to his brother. Darkness moved over and placed an arm on Camille’s shoulders.

Nervously Vin opened it and smiled.

“YES! I’M IN!”