Words & Whiskey

EDITED VERSION: Chapter Eleven

A knock on the door halted me from my work. Sam and I may have ditched class, but I still needed to get my work done. I was just getting on a roll with my manuscript that I needed to complete in a week because finals were fast approaching but everything kept getting in the way. "Nathan I swear to God if you fu-"

I swung open the door to be greeted by someone who was certainly not Nathan. The stranger stared at me with intense blue eyes and his plump lips were upturned in a smirk. "You must be Audrey."

I slightly closed the door so I could quickly shut it in case this stranger decided he spontaneously wanted to kill me. "W-who are you?"

The man laughed as he ran his hand through his dark, raven-coloured hair. "I'm a friend of Nathan's. The name is Hayden."

He held out his hand for me to shake and I gently placed mine in his. "I'd say my name is Audrey, but you already know."

I took another good look at him and a hint of recognition took me by surprise. "Nathan has a picture of you and him in his room. You travelled with him, didn't you?

"Ah yes, down under," Hayden responded with a smile. He looked past my shoulder. "Is it possible I could come in and wait for Nathan to come home?"

I nodded my head and opened the door wider. "Of course! Sorry, I'm crazy scatterbrained at the moment."

Hayden stepped into the apartment and I quickly made my way to the living room in an effort to clean up my mess. Papers were everywhere, pouring off the coffee table and onto the floor. Meanwhile, dictionaries were scattered on the couch and my coffee and leftover Chinese food were left cold by the television. "I am so sorry for the mess."

Hayden let out a velvety chuckle. "Finals, I presume?"

I picked up the last of the papers, being extremely careful not to get them out of order. "Kind of, I have to finish a manuscript for my Creative Writing class."

Closing the dictionaries, I placed all four of them on the now clean coffee table. Hayden came up behind me and picked up a few papers that I had missed. Luckily, they were just some notes. "Sounds tedious."

"Makes me want to want to rip my hair out if we're being honest," I sighed, making my way to the kitchen to make myself another coffee. "Want anything to drink?"

Nathan's friend sat on the counter stool. His piercing eyes stared at me and I couldn't help but think he was intimidating. "Coffee would be nice if you don't mind."

"Coming right up," I said as I started to make the coffee for both Hayden and me. Once it was done, I placed a steaming mug in front of him. "So, Nathan told me you continued to travel after you guys left Australia. Where did you go?"

"Went to Europe, but that was brief," he chuckled. "I ended up coming back to Canada and stayed in BC for a while."

I nodded my head. "It's beautiful in BC. I went there a couple of summers ago with my parents. Personally, I didn't mind all the rain."

Hayden smiled at me in appreciation. "Glad someone agrees with me."

The door swung open and Nathan's voice sounded. "Ed sent me home early because business was slow. How about a pizza prin-" He stopped in his tracks, looking completely baffled. His eyes darted from Hayden and me. "What the hell is going on?"

"Well it's good to see you too, bestie," Hayden laughed. He stood from the counter stool and walked over to Nathan, who still looked utterly confused. "I decided it was time to come home."

Nathan smiled with pure joy and dropped his gym bag. Walking over to Hayden, gave him a hug. "It's about damn time!"

"Yeah," Hayden said, he gave him a pat on the back. "Missed having a place to call home."