Best Friends For Never

Chapter 10

NATE’S P.O.V.

My Sunday morning was ruined by the sound of the door bell ringing and my lovely mother shouting, “NAAATE! NAAAATE! ANSWER THE DOOR!”

“I’M SLEEPING!” I called back, before throwing my blanket over my head.

I slammed my head into my pillow and covered my ears when the doorbell rang again. Unfortunately, I ended up rolling out of bed and onto the floor.

 “NATE, IF YOU’RE STILL ALIVE, THEN ANSWER THE BLOODY DOOR!” I heard my mom shout again from her room.

I groaned and got up, momentarily battling my blanket, before reaching the door of my bedroom and opening it.

“Thanks mum,” I said when I spotted her standing at her door, “for waking me up, just to answer the door when you were closer to it.”

She rolled her eyes. “I was painting my nails, honey.”

“Women,” I muttered, shaking my head and racing down the stairs, throwing the door open.

“Nate!” Talia’s mum cried, pulling me into a hug I was totally unprepared for.

“Kate,” I said weakly, hugging her back.

“Oh, I’m sorry, honey. Did we wake you up?” she asked, pulling away. It was only when she said ‘we’ that I realized Kate hadn’t come alone. Talia was standing behind her, holding a box and looking like she wished she could rip the white fence out of the ground and kill herself with it.

“Nah, my mum woke me up anyway.”

She beamed at me and patted my head. “Your accent is just adorable, isn’t it adorable?” she asked, turning to Talia.

Talia looked at her like she was insane.

“TALIA!” Josh shouted from the top of the stairs. Unlike me, he looked fresh and clean. He had obviously gotten the chance to shower. He raced down the stairs, and I guessed that he'd probably also had breakfast, too, something very sugary judging by the amount of energy he had.

“Josh,” Talia wheezed, as Josh pulled her into a VERY tight hug.

“You guys must be here to drop Talia’s stuff off. I’ll show you to the guest bedroom!” Josh said, still grinning like an idiot.

“Wait,” I said, stopping him, “what do you mean ‘drop Talia’s stuff off?’”

“Don’t you remember?” Josh asked, smiling sweetly. “Mum told us that Talia would be staying with us for three weeks while Kate and Ted were on holiday?”

I blinked. “When did she say that?”

“On Saturday? After dinner?” he reminded me.

I continued staring at him. What was he talking about?

“As I recall, you had your headphones on, and you just nodded when she told you, before dancing out of the room, singing along to Paramore.”

I heard Talia snicker, but I ignored her.

I remembered it now. Well, I remembered my mom’s lips moving, and I remembered nodding, and I also remembered me singing. I just didn’t remember what her moving lips had been saying. But obviously, I wasn’t going to let that get back to her.

I grinned. “Oh yeah, I remember now...” I lied. “How stupid of me to forget, come in!”

Kate came in, followed by a not so happy Talia.

“Right up there,” Josh said, nodding at the stairs and gesturing for the two of them to go up.

I watched them go up, before turning back to Josh. “Talia’s staying with us?!”