Tangled Strings (sequel to Red Strings)

Chapter 42

"Mallory?" I say shocked she's even taller now, her hair curled and a lot longer then before, she's wearing a dress and her hands are stuffed in her pockets. "Skyler?" she says almost as shocked as I was. "What are you doing here?" "This is my house, what are you doing here? I thought you'd be in musical theatre college by now." "I differed." "Why?" Mallory looks down chewing her lip. "I just came to drop off your moms medicine." she says holding out a white paper bag. "What medicine?" "You don't know?" Mallory asks confused. 

"Your moms been on depressants for about six months now." "W-what?" I say realizing just how out of touch I was. "Guess when you went Hollywood you didn't have time for your mother." I grind my teeth snatching the bag from her hand. "I thought it was supposed to come on Monday." I lie. "Sure you did." "There's the Mallory I know and despite for a second there I thought you'd gone soft." Mallory's face falls. 

"I'm sorry." she whispers. "There's a party tonight tonight you should come." I snort. "Why would I do that?" I question. "Because you need to get drunk and as I recall you're about three days away from being legal happy early birthday by the way." "Thanks." I spit back almost forgetting my own birthday and she shrugs and pulls out her phone. 

She looks up then smirks at me. "You and Luke are so cute." she chuckles before turning away and getting into a yellow car and I cringe for her. I run back to my phone confused about what she was talking about and am shocked to see Luke had replied to my tweet. It was just one word. 

@Luke5SOS: You              

Natalie's POV

"Shit!" I scream as I look out the window.  "Oh god this CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" I scream again as I look around.  Then I hear the doorbell ring.  No, this can't be happening.  This cannot be happening.

"Nat?  What's wrong?" Calum immediately comes to the rescue and I look to him and say "What's wrong?  MY MOM IS HERE!" "Darling I know your mom's coming-" "No Calum she's right outside the door!" Calum immediately is shocked.  "You said she was coming on Thursday!" he said and I then snap back "Well that's what she told me!  Clearly she wanted to fuck me over as usual!" Today happened to be a bright sunny Tuesday that was going to go absolutely perfect until my mum showed up.  "Nat, we can deal with this-" "Calum tell me how the fuck we're going to get the house in order in a matter of five minutes hell get myself together?" I say sinking onto the floor.

Calum sits beside me as I hear the bell ring again.  I hear Ashton yell "I've got it!"  I feel my heart drop.  "No, Ash wait!" Calum yells and I scramble up before running down the stairs and saying "Ash don't you da-" "Oh hi Mrs. Lane!" "Why hello Ashton!  How nice to see you!" I hear my mother's voice and I feel my world shatter around me.

"Oh hey Natalie your mom came early!" Ashton said turning to me, obviously oblivious to my gigantic problem.  "Yeah, she did....hi mom!" I say putting on a fake smile as I opened the door to reveal my mom.  She wearing black skinny jeans and a stripy shirt on top, complete with a red scarf and her nude flats.  Her tortoise shell sunglasses were perched on her head.  I noticed how she had dyed her bob cut hair to a darker brown, but it was definitely darker than her brown eyes.  

"Hello Natalie!" she said opening her arms, despite the huge purse she had with her and I leaned forward to hug her, and she squeezed me back tightly.  I could smell some of her perfume which relaxed me but at the same time began to make me feel lightheaded.  I was glad to see my mom really I was, but at the same time I couldn't help but be ready to ship her back to Australia.

Calum then came behind us and said "Hi Mrs. Lane!"  My mum looked over my shoulder and gave a strained smile as she said "Oh Calum.  How nice to see you."  I could tell she wasn't pleased.  "Did you two get back together?" she asked pointing at the two of us.  "Yeah actually we did." Calum said proudly wrapping his arm around my waist.  "I usually wouldn't believe the entertainment news-" "Wait you found out because of paps?" I cut her off and my mum nods. "Oh yeah they were all over it darling.  Surprised you didn't know." My mom said pushing back some of her hair before clapping her hands and saying "Right how about I get all this stuff in yeah?" "Oh yes of course!" Ashton immediately said running over and beginning to grab a bag or two and bringing it inside.