nice | drew starkey

4.6

"Good morning!" Maddie shouted and jumped on top of me.

"It's almost 10 am," Elaine pointed out, sitting on the edge of my bed.

"Mornin," I groaned into my pillow and tried to roll over. Maddie was sent flying off the side of the bed, almost taking Elaine with her. "Sorry,"

"You guys were supposed to let her sleep in," Mads said while leaning on the bedroom door.

"Well, now I'm up," I yawned and looking down at Maddie who was now pouting on the floor. "Brunch time?" I asked the girl.

"Hells yeah," Elaine shot off my bed and began to walk down the stairs with Mads. I reached out my hand to help Maddie up, which she quickly took.

"Thanks, let's go get food," Maddie smiled and gave me a quick hug before following them. I grabbed my phone and sent my mom a quick text.

Thank you <3

Of course, dear <3

I smiled down at my mom's response. But in the corner of my eye, I saw Drew's sweatshirt sitting on the ground. My heart began to throb again, I missed him. I loved him. The fabric of the sweatshirt only intensified as I slipped back on my body. My phone dinged and I saw a text from Elliot.

Morning! Is Duke alive?

I had completely forgotten about Duke. I tiptoed my way into his room and saw him snoring loudly. His body sprawled across his small bed almost comically.

He's alive. Sleeping like a log.

Okay good. I was worried.

Thanks again. :)

Not a problem! Could he go get breakfast with me once he's up?

We're having brunch here if you want to come over.

Oh nice, see you soon then!

Yep!

Down the stairs, I could hear the girls deciding what they wanted for brunch. I quickly pushed Duke to wake him up and began to walk down to the girls. They were arguing about omelets or waffles.

"Why not both?" I offered. My mom stocked the fridge before they left so I knew we had all the ingredients.

"Can we?" Elaine gave me large hopeful eyes.

"Sure," I shrugged and began to google recipes. Maddie and Elaine high fived and Mads began pulling out some ingredients. "Are you guys going to help though?"

"Duh," Maddie scoffed and rolled her sleeves up. Mads and I began to make omelets while Elaine and Maddie made the waffles. Our music was cranked up really loud, I almost didn't hear Elliot at the door.

"Oh, Elliot's here," I quickly wiped my hands on the towel in front of me. Maddie dropped the whisk into the batter. Mads dropped the knife she was using to cut the vegetables with and Elaine looked at me with huge wide eyes. "What?"

"Duke's friend my ass," Mads muttered and returned to cutting.

"He and Duke were going to go out and I said we were making food and that he could eat with us," I explained, placing my hands on my hips.

"I wish you would've told us, I would've tried to look nicer," Elaine joked and tried to fix her ponytail. Heading to the door, I rolled my eyes and stuck out my tongue at another one of Mads' comments.

"Well hi," I breathed out, as I swung the door open.

"Morn," Elliot smiled and I noticed the container he had in his hands.

"What's that?" I asked as he walked into the house.

"Mom made homemade cinnamon rolls, and wanted me to bring you some," Elliot shrugged.

"YUM!" Maddie cheered. Mads scolded her and swatted her arm. "I meant the cinnamon rolls, jeez," Maddie laughed.

"Morning ladies," Elliot gave a small wave. They all responded with a  polite morning.

"Duke isn't up yet but you're welcome to hang with us," I took the container from him and set it on the counter. The rest of the breakfast went off without a hitch. Duke finally came downstairs just as we were finished making breakfast. The number of flies he caught in his mouth when he saw Maddie though was hilarious. He would never live that down. Once we had all finished eating, we began to clean up the dishes. The Maddies cleared the table, Elaine washed, Elliot dried, I put the dishes away. Duke whined the entire time.

"My head hurts," Duke moaned, still recovering from his hangover.

"I bet," Elliot laughed as he set a plate in front of me.

"There's Tylenol upstairs," I said over my shoulder. I heard his sock feet scramble up the stairs. "Idiot," I said under my breath.

"Must run in the family," Elliot jokes. Elaine laughed but quickly tried to cover it with a cough.

"Damn," Mads unabashedly laughed. My mouth dropped open and I swatted his arm. In response, he began to smack me with a towel. My dad used to do that with our towels too. I scooped another towel off the drier and instantly began to whip him back. Elaine began to splash Maddie which turned into a full water war and Mads just sat on a chair, laughing at all of us. Elliot and I were running around snapping each other, crackling like crazed maniacs. I tried to get his towel by grabbing it out of his hand. We were spitting friendly insults in each other's faces all the while, tugging on this poor towel. Elliot and I quite literally have knocked heads when we were younger, it was something we did when we were kids. His breath fanned across my face as he was breathing heavily because we were running around. In our loud roughhousing, I didn't notice Duke had answered a knock on the front door.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I heard Duke growl and I turned to face the door to see what was going on.

"What the actual fuck Charlie?" A voice rang out, and it made my heart sink to my stomach. Like I was on the shittest rollercoaster. I hadn't had time to prepare at all for hearing that voice. My stomach began to churn as I turned slowly. Elliot's face dropped and the girls instantly stopped fighting. I only had one thought ringing through my head.

Fuck me. 

...

I wonder who's at the front door.... hmm...

And what do you guys think of Elliot? What the fuck is going to happen now?