Princess Charming

-Chapter 20-

“Hello?” says my mom and I sigh.

“Mom, it’s me.” I tell her and she laughs.

“Hello honey, schools starting, when will you get back?” she queries. I remembered my luggage that I didn’t bother unpacking, no point when I’ll be heading home tomorrow.

“I’ll be back tomorrow mom, I’ve missed you.” I smile, then it vanishes. I hear yells and screams that sound a lot like my dad. “Mom, whose shouting? Is everything okay?”

My mom gives a heavy sigh and I can almost see her closing her eyes in frustration. I gulp and breathe loudly. “The bills they-“ she exhales, her voice shaking and choking on the words, “-it turns out your dad hasn’t been paying the bills for months. It’s all come together and we owe them thousands.” She concludes and the tears fall. The worry in her voice, I could tell she was stressed and so was my dad.

“Also the mortgage.” She continues. “We haven’t paid it in a long time and if we don’t… we lose the house” her voice trembling and shaking. I was pretty sure she was crying. I could hear silent sobs and what could be worse than seeing your own mother cry? It’s breaking my heart. I have to get that loan off Nathan.

“Mom, don’t worry. Everything will be fine.” I assure her.

“No, it’s worse than we thought Belle, I’m so sorry.” She cries. I’d never seen her lose hope like this. She was always so brave and telling us not the worry. I sat up straight wiping my tears away, trying to sound brave, despite how scared I was feeling.

“Mom, it’s not all over yet, I promise that everything will be okay. I have to go now. I’ll be back tomorrow. We can sort this out. Bye mom.” I choke out, hearing a mumble from my mother when the line dies. I lie back in my bed, thoughts and worry swimming around in my mind. The door creaks open and in pops Nathan, grinning but it vanishes. He approaches and sits by me.

“You okay?” He asks but I don’t respond.

“I think I need help with the washing.” He raises an eyebrow. “Do you need washing powder” he asks and I crack a smile that soon turns into loud laughter.

“Yes, you do need washing powder. Everyone knows that” I chuckle lightly.

“Everyone but me” He smiles, I see he had foam on his shirt and he blows it on my face. I giggled and blow the foam back. I hear the door creak again and Alison’s head peaks in, grinning.

“Well, I got here earlier.” She beams. Nathan rushes to her, chattering then taking a black suitcase off her. She bids me goodbye and rushes off when the front door slams shut and the noise reverberates around the silent house.

He put the suitcase down on the bed, facing me. He smiled and clicked the lock open, revealing stacks upon stacks of money. I gasped and my mouth fell open, then my eyes met Nathan’s.

“The loan,” he says, shutting the case again. “When you get dropped off home tomorrow, it’ll be going along with you. Thomas will escort you.”