Nathan completely ignored all my persistent assurance that I was okay and pulled his car into the parking space beside my apartment complex. Wasting no time, he quickly shut off the car and climbed out. From how harshly he slammed the door, I could tell he was still rather pissed about not being able to take me to the hospital.
I crawled quickly out of the car after him, and once I'd straightened myself out, I found him watching me over the roof of the car with narrowed eyes.
I rested my elbows onto the top of the car, and let my eyes fan over his in amusement. "For the fifth time, Nathan, you do not have to look after me. I'm fine," I said, letting out a disbelieving chuckle.
A voice in my head reminded me that I should really be welcoming him into my flat, not pushing him away. After all, nursing someone back to health was an oddly romantic thing to do. But I didn't feel like doing that today. It felt too real.
I really was hurt, and with hurt comes weakness, and I refused to willingly let myself feel weak around him. It made it feel as though he was getting into my head rather than the other way around.
"Oh really? You're fine, are you?" Nathan spat out tightly. "Since you're so fine, Sophie. Why don't I watch you walk down the street without limping?" he said, giving me a pointed look. "Go on," he urged when I remained frozen in place still.
In fake confidence, I shrugged and straightened myself upward. "Yeah, whatever, easy peasy," I said as I pushed myself off the car.
Nathan rushed around the car, so he was at my side in a second. I internally sighed as I felt him guidingly press his hand against my back as though I was a toddler taking their first few steps.
Surprisingly, I managed to make a few fairly normal-looking steps. Well, yes, it was extremely painful, but that wasn't the point. The point was I was right, and Nathan was wrong.
Still strutting along, I turned to face Nathan with a triumphantly smug grin. "See, Nathan. Look how stupid you look. I'm walking perfectly f-"
The words got stuck in my throat as my right knee suddenly buckled underneath me. I gasped and stuck my hands out, but the impact from the floor never came. Nathan snatched an arm around my waist and brought me back up straight again as though he was expecting that to happen.
He raised an unimpressed eyebrow up my way. "You were saying?"
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, calm down, grandma. I'm limping, big deal. It'll be gone by morning, trust me."
"Or, it could get worse, and better yet you might never wake up because of the internal hemorrhages that could be bleeding out inside you right this minute," he snapped, a harsh frown spreading over his face.
I let out a long-exaggerated groan. "God, you're the most dramatic person I've ever met. What do I have to do to get you to shut up about this?"
"Simple – go to the hospital," he said flatly.
I opened my mouth to interrupt, but he raised a finger to silence me. "Or you could sensibly let me sit in on you for a while. It's your choice," he stated plainly with the tilt of his head.
Crossing my arms, I narrowed my eyes at him. Nathan, not seeming intimidated at all, stared right back.
Finally, I let out a heavy sigh. "Fine, whatever, you can come in," I grumbled.
For the first time in a long while, I saw Nathan's mouth twitch up into something which almost resembled a smile. "Well, I was coming in anyway, but your permission is quite nice too," he said with a patronizing wink.
Not even having the strength to reply to him, I turned around and speed-walked away, or more accurately speed-limped, towards the doors to my apartment. I didn't make it as far as the stairs before a hand snagged the back of my shirt and pulled me backward.
"Hold your horses; you're not climbing upstairs," Nathan snapped bossily.
I scoffed and turned back to face him. "I hope you're not suggesting the elevator because I'm not sure about you, but I certainly don't want to be trapped again."
"Yeah, of course, I don't mean the elevator. I'm not stupid. I meant I'll...er.. help you up, you know, give you a piggyback ride or something," he mumbled rather quietly as his eyes darted around awkwardly.
Stifling a snort, I raised an eyebrow. "You want to give me a piggyback ride?" I repeated, my mouth twitching slightly.
"Yes, that's what I said. And before you start, spare me the, 'I'm a big girl Nathan, I don't need your help, blah blah blah'," he said imitating me, in an overly girlish falsetto voice while opening and closing his hand like a hand puppet.
I smirked and eyed him up and down. "Actually, Nathan, that wasn't what I was going to say at all. In fact, I'd quite fancy a free ride," I shrugged.
"Seriously?" he said, lifting his eyebrows in surprise.
"Yeah, you can be like my little donkey," I snickered.
The hint of a smile that was forming on his face instantly dropped. "Just shut the fuck up, and get on already," he grumbled as his lips pulled together in an irritated pout.
"Aww, Natalie, you always know how to sweet talk a lady, don't you?" I chuckled as I made my way over to him.
Not even giving him any warning, I grabbed onto his shoulders and launched onto his back. He let out a heavy grunt as I landed and quickly tucked his hands underneath my thighs to stabilize me.
"Not struggling, are we?" I teased.
He let out a rude snort and continued on his journey up the stairs. "Yeah, your matchstick build is really doing a number of me," he drawled sarcastically.
Offended, I gave him a harsh slap to the back of his head. "I'm not sure who you're calling a matchstick, but it's certainly not me. I'm a fucking voluptuous, bitch, you asshole," I spat with a frown, feeling oddly protective over my curves.
Nathan chuckled, and I felt the rich sound rumble against my chest. "You're easy to wind up, you know," he muttered with a light laugh. My frown etched deeper, realizing I had fallen right into his trap.
"Okay, you've officially pissed me off. You don't deserve to carry me anymore," I said sharply as I attempted to slide myself down.
Nathan's hold didn't budge, and he gripped the back of my legs even tighter with the clear intention of not letting me go.
"Why the hell are you so grabby for?" I huffed after five seconds of zero success.
"I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that we're climbing up the fucking stairs. Are you looking to have a second fall or something?" he drawled sarcastically.
I paused, realizing he had a point and that trying to wrestle out of his grip on the staircase probably wasn't the brightest of ideas.
Deciding to compliantly enjoy the ride, I let him carry me the rest of the way up to my apartment. Once we were outside my door, Nathan lowered me to the floor gently. I didn't miss how his hands skimmed around my waist briefly to ensure I was stable before moving away. I rolled my eyes at his clear overdramatic-ness.
Deciding not to dwell on it, I drove my key into the lock before letting both of us into the apartment. Chucking my keys into the empty glass bowl by the door, I pulled my hair free from its tie and went about my normal routine as though Nathan wasn't even there.
Nathan awkwardly followed behind me as I snatched a packet of Doritos from the cupboard. Munching away on a few of them, I glided past Nathan as though he was a mere inanimate object before limping my way over to my room.
What? He was the one who invited himself over. It wasn't my responsibility to entertain him.
Upon arrival to my room, I chucked myself down onto the bed back-first before letting out a long sigh. I watched with humor-filled eyes as the door shyly peeked open, and a rather awkward-looking Nathan made his way in. It was as clear as day, he had absolutely no idea what to do with himself, and it was hilarious as fuck.
He cleared his throat awkwardly and ran his hands up and down his jeans as he made his way deeper into the room. He stopped randomly by the foot of the bed, and I arched an eyebrow to make him feel even more uncomfortable.
"So...," he drawled.
"So," I replied with a smirk while still munching away on my Doritos.
After a couple more seconds of awkward silence, I let out a loud snort, no longer able to help myself. "You have no idea what your fucking doing, do you?" I snickered.
I took his silence and glaring as a cue to continue. "I mean, I'm not surprised. You hardly seem like the nursing the sick type," I mumbled as I did a judgmental sweep over his outfit.
"What? So, because I'm rich, that means I don't know how to look after people?" he scoffed with a sharp defensiveness to his tone.
"Yup," I said, nodding my head matter of factly. "Look, Nathan, why don't you call it a day and go home. As you can see, I'm all cozied up in bed and on the starters to my dinner," I said as I held up my bag of Doritos as a demonstration.
Nathan looked between the bag of crisps and me before letting out a disbelieving cry. "This is absolutely fucking ridiculous," he laughed. Shaking his head, he turned back around and left through the door.
"Safe, drive," I called out to his retreating figure. I was surprised he left so easy after all his stubbornness before, but hey, I wasn't complaining.
Stretching over to my nightstand table, I grabbed my remote control before switching on my small little tv across the room. It looked more like a small laptop than a TV, but it just about worked, so I wasn't too fussed.
Shuffling back, I snuggled myself underneath the warmth of my duvet before flickering through the options on the movie section on Netflix. Since I had lost my job, Brandon had offered to pay for the whole of our shared account. As nice as that was of him, I didn't like the feeling of leeching off my best friend as Brandon wasn't exactly rich either. He only had a minimum wage paying tutoring job after all.
Ironically, the guy I was supposed to be leeching off of, I had indirectly told to fuck off.
I suddenly stopped scrolling when I stumbled on the movie, '50 shades of grey', and with a snicker, I immediately pressed play. The movie always gave me a good laugh. It was supposed to be a sexy romance story, but I much preferred to watch it as a comedy. Brandon and I absolutely lost out shit laughing when we first saw it and from that day onwards, we would randomly recite lines from the movie when the other was least expecting it.
Last week, I entered the kitchen and surprised him by whispering in his ear, 'I'd like to bite that lip,' in my best attempt at a sexy masculine voice. It was clear Brandon wasn't expecting it, from the way he jumped out of his skin; and almost stabbed his self with the vegetable knife.
Snickering at the memory, I chucked another Dorito into my mouth and snuggled even deeper into my warm comforter. As I did, it suddenly dawned on me how tired I was, and I soon felt my eyelids grow heavy.
Soon, I grew too lazy to even hold them open, and I let them close as the opening credit music played softly in the background. As I felt myself start to drift off, the door suddenly crept open, and I groaned in annoyance and sat up again.
I furrowed my brows as I saw Nathan come barging in with a tray in hand. Balanced on top, was a hot drink of some kind, alongside a bowl of tomato soup which I immediately wrinkled my nose at. Also, even more randomly, there was a large concoction of random medical supplies such as plasters, antiseptic spray, and pain killers. In the past five minutes, the boy had clearly got quite familiar with my kitchen.
I blinked back at him. "You're still here?" I asked in confusion, looking him up and down in disbelief.
He ignored me and walked closer to me before placing the tray down on the nightstand. He was about to say something before his eyes latched on to my TV screen. As soon as he took in whatever was on the screen, he froze, and his eyes grew significantly wider.
I followed his line of sight, wondering what all the fuss was about. Then I saw.
On the TV was a rather explicit scene of the female lead being tied to the bed by the guy with quite a few things on show. I immediately leaped from underneath the covers, and lunged towards the end of the bed where I had chucked the remote. I had honest to god, never moved so fast in my life.
Frantically, I pressed all the buttons at once, so desperate to get it off. But, being the unlucky person I was, I managed to slide over the volume button, so the girl's moans started to echo embarrassingly loudly all across the room.
"No, no, no, no," I stammered out frantically as I fumbled to click the right one.
Finally, the screen turned black. I let out an audible sigh of relief and closed my eye before flopping back down on the bed face first.
I'm done - very officially and humiliatingly done.
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Author's note:
Lol, I hope you enjoyed. And sorry, I couldn't help myself with the second-hand embarrassment. I'm genuinely addicted to humiliating my characters.
Also fun fact about 'fifty shades of grey': I joke watched it one time so I could watch my favourite youtuber review it and then...I let my friends watch Netflix with me and they saw it listed on my watch again list....and I kind of wanted to die....
So yeah...
Next update: Wednesday (6-8 PM - UK time)