I hit reply when the front door swings open.
“Shit,” I groan when a very angry Nate comes storming through.
“What the hell is going on?” he demands as he looks me over. “And why the fuck do you smell like a bar?”
“Ugh,” I groan. “Shut up. You’re far too loud.”
He rolls his eyes, clearly not impressed with my hungover state. “Get your shit together, babe. We have to be at school in twenty minutes.”
“Damn it,” I groan as I push myself up out of the chair. “I need to shower. Can you find mom and make sure she’s not laying somewhere in a puddle of her own vomit?”
“What?” he grunts as I walk past him, holding onto my head.
I make my way upstairs not sure if Nate has followed me or not, but when I look down over the railing, I find Nate walking through the house with my passed out mother dangling from his arms.
He walks up the stairs as I head into my room and strip out of yesterday’s clothes before walking into the bathroom. I turn the taps and moan out as the cool water hits my skin. Now, that’s what I’m talking about. Though, if I was smart, I would have stopped to get some pain killers for this raging headache.
Nate appears in the bathroom doorway not a few moments later and makes himself comfortable on my vanity while he watches me shower. I mean, it sounds creepy, someone watching me shower, but with Nate. It feels right.
“Where’d she end up?” I ask as I wash the soap from my body.
“From what I could tell, she was heading for the couch but she didn’t quite make it that far. She was about two feet away, clocked out on the ground. She didn’t even wake when I picked her up.”
“Shit,” I cringe. “I swear, we didn’t intend on drinking that much,” I explain. “We opened the envelope from dad’s work.”
Understanding dawns in his eyes as he nods his head. “Is that what was torn to shreds in the blender.”
A smirk crosses my lips. “I forgot about that,” I murmur to myself.
Nate grows quiet and I look over at him to find his eyes piercing into mine. “Do you want to talk about it?” he asks just loud enough to be heard over the water shooting down on my body.
I shake my head and look away, not wanting to share with him just how badly my father’s relocation is still stinging. “Not yet.”
He pushes himself off the vanity and walks towards the shower as he plucks my towel off the back of the door. “Alright,” he tells me. “When you’re ready.” I give him a smile, hoping it manages to ease his worries, though I should know better by now. Nate Ryder won’t give in until my heart is happy and someone is bleeding for hurting me.
He opens the shower door and I turn off the tap and spreads out the towel for me. I step out into his arms and he wraps it around me before rubbing his hand up and down my back. “Come on,” he says. “I now have only seven minutes to get you to school.”
“I don’t want to go,” I whine.
“I don’t care. You’ve had too many absences lately. If you want to get into a good university then that means actually attending school.”
“Might I point out that you’re the one who had me skipping for the first time,” I remind him.
“There’s a fine line between living a little and being careless.”
“And you think I’m being careless?”
“What would you call getting wasted with your mom and skipping class due to a wicked hangover?”
I raise my eyebrow at him, clearly letting him know just how unimpressed I am right now. “I call it a necessity.”
He shakes his head and steps back. “Come on,” he says. “Go get dressed. You can curse me out in the car.”
I groan as I storm past him to my closet and get myself dressed before I storm back out and head down the stairs with Nate right behind me. I grab a banana from the fruit bowl and set out some painkillers and a glass of water for mom on the table.
Nate takes my hand and helps me out the front door before bringing out his rare gentlemanly traits and opening the passenger’s side door for me.
I duck down and climb into his Camaro before relaxing in the seat. He gets in and starts up the engine and before I know it, we’re halfway to school.
Strange nerves begin to settle within me the closer we get. The only time I’ve ever felt this way was my very first day here which is understandable, but right now, the reason behind these stupid nerves only serves to piss me off.
I mean, there’s a new quarterback who’s suddenly become the new king of the school, apart from Nate and Jesse of course, no one will ever take that title away from them, no matter how hard they try. Jackson is shady as shit and I hate that he’s here in my school, weaseling his slimy way into my life.