CRUSHED

xvi - don't poke the bear

"What's wrong with you? I thought we had an agreement. We leave you at home without a babysitter and you don't do stupid things." Nevaeh rolls her eyes. I don't need a fucking nanny. I'm eighteen years old.

"Amirah? Amirah are you listening to me?" Nevaeh's vision goes blurry for a second due to her excessive eye rolling. "Yes Emmanuel, I'm listening." She can practically see the steam coming out of her father's ears at her calling him by his first name. "Amirah," Her dad repeats in a warning tone. "Mum told me to trust you but you're not taking this seriously. What is going on? I don't care what you do as long as you respect yourself and your body, but I don't know how credible you are now that your name is being smeared in the papers." Nevaeh purses her lips, forcing herself to swallow the lump in her throat.

"I'm so glad my own father has so much faith in me. You're in Germany with Arden, go scream at him for basically shitting on me in front of EVERYONE." Nevaeh hangs up, throwing her phone at the marble counters in her kitchen. Of course her father had to call her when she was hungry. For once in her life she was actually going to take care of herself. Now she'd lost her appetite. Who gives a fuck if I faint now, clearly not my judgmental father.

Nevaeh tries to refrain from shedding tears of frustration. Obviously, her emotions betray her. Her face soon becoming Niagara Falls. She leans against the island in her kitchen, staring at her shattered phone through foggy eyes.

"For fuck's sake," She curses. Nevaeh almost laughs at herself, keyword being almost. She is currently standing in the middle of her kitchen in bike shorts and a Ralph Lauren polo, hair a mess, due to the excessive hairspray from her last shoot, and now her face too with her phone in pieces in front of her.

"What the fuck did you do?" Nevaeh doesn't bother turning around, already recognising the voice. "Dad called. He's disappointed, borderline told me to stop whoring around. Boys are given a clap on the back and we're slut-shamed. Fucking love double standards," Nevaeh laughs bitterly, sniffling in the process.

Leon cautiously walks over to his cousin. He turns her around by her shoulders to see her tear-stricken face. "Nev," Leon gasps quietly. He's seen his cousin cry way too much since he got to England, and he definitely isn't growing fond of it.

Leon pulls Nevaeh into a hug, enveloping her in his comfort. She sighs heavily, relaxing into his shoulder. Nevaeh involuntarily sheds more tears, quietly soaking Leon's T-shirt.

After a few moments she pushes away from him, walking over to the phone connected to the guest house.

Her mother, Klara is on the board of directors that oversees student's financial problems. Hence, every year she randomly selects a new batch of students to house in exchange for their services. It's a win win situation. They get paid to either cook, clean, run errands et cetera whilst given free accommodation and access to the house's facilities when given permission.

She sniffles again and clears her throat.

"Hey Anthony?" Nevaeh pauses, glancing at the kitchen floor again. "Could you clean something up for me please? In the kitchen?" She waits for his response patiently, no trace of her crying in her voice. How could there be when she'd forced herself to hide the tremble on multiple occasions. "Yeah. Thank you." Nevaeh hangs up and finally acknowledges Leon again.

"No, I don't want to talk about it. You know it'll only piss me off even more. I'm going to take a nap." Leon just nods, knowing not to poke the bear. "What should I say to your parents, because I know they'll call me since they can't reach you." Nevaeh sniffles again, her nose runny, and waves a hand dismissively at Leon. "I don't know Lee, tell them I'm asleep. Their bullshit is exhausting."

Nevaeh shuts her eyes tightly when she reads the caller ID glaring up at her. Sighing heavily, she opens her eyes and answers the call on her second phone.

"Hey." Arden's voice resonates through her room because she has him on speaker. She suddenly feels like the only places she has been the past two weeks is her room or modelling studios.

"I didn't kiss her." Arden says again when he figures Nevaeh isn't going to respond. "I didn't ask." "I'm telling you anyway. I haven't gone near anyone here." "You and mini skirt looked pretty close." Nevaeh doesn't mean this in a derogatory way. She can't help that all she remembers is the gorgeous girl's outfit and Arden's arm around her shoulders.

"I was drunk. They signed the contract. We were celebrating." "Cool." Arden sighs.

"I'll be back tomorrow morning. Can I come over?" Nevaeh ignores the question.

"Look Arden I don't give a flying fuck about what you do in your spare time. All I ask is for a heads up and for my name to be kept out of the fucking Daily Mail." Arden runs his hands through his hair as her harsh tone meets his ears.

"I know."

"Hey babes." Freedom closes Nevaeh's bedroom door behind her. She strides over to her bed to see the girl lying there with her eyes open.

"Amirah?" Nevaeh blinks out of her daydream to look up at her best friend. She scoots over for Freedom to slot in beside her even though there's endless room on her king size bed. Freedom smiles, pulling the duvet away to get in under it, her shoes already gone at the front door. Her room is pretty chilly despite the warm weather outside. The two girls tuck the duvet around themselves, leaning against Nevaeh's mound of pillows. When they're settled Freedom feels around the bed for a remote. When she finds it in its place on the side of the bed she pulls it out and waves it in front of Nevaeh.

"Netflix?" Nevaeh nods smiling softly. Freedom wastes no time in turning the TV on, going straight to Netflix. Without hesitating she clicks on Love Rosie a movie they've already watched a million times, that they can and will still watch a million times more.

Halfway through the movie when Sam Claflin finds out his best friend has a child Freedom turns to Nevaeh. She lowers the volume on the TV before speaking. "Have you talked to him?" Nevaeh doesn't lift her head off Freedom's shoulder as she responds.

"He apologised for unintentionally giving me bad publicity. It's not his fault the media are snakes but he knows better." Freedom rolls her eyes. "I just cursed him out and hung up after a bit. If I had actually listened I would've probably started crying out of anger." "And he doesn't have the right to make you cry or angry." Freedom groans, pulling at the ends of her hair, that lay on her chest, in annoyance. "He's my twin, my best friend and I love him but not when he's fucking with my other best friend. Dad and Beau need to hurry up and get back from France to knock some sense into him. Mum will definitely have something to say too when Arden gets back. My whole family knows he's lucky to have you of all people interested in him and now he's fucking it up." Nevaeh pulls her duvet over her head at Freedom's words.

"Don't say stuff like that. I'm not that special." Freedom glares at Nevaeh then grins. "You're no Mother fucking Teresa but you're not one of the 'orange barbies'. You're not one of the delusionals either that is obsessed with him or anything. You always tell him when he's out of order or over the line. You know what my mum's like- and my dad," Freedom laughs. "He's always going around saying 'happy wife, happy life'. You're the exact kind of person my mum wants Arden to date, you're not a bloody doormat and actually passed your GCSEs. That's already a step up from the girls my brother messes around with." Freedom bumps her shoulder against Nevaeh's as she chuckles.

"My point is we all know Arden probably likes you more than you him but he's a little bitch that's afraid of fucking up a relationship with you so if he messes up before you've fully fallen then he won't get the chance." Nevaeh rolls her eyes. "I don't care what he's afraid of. He needs to get over it and communicate with me. He knows how blunt I am and that I rather honesty over going in circles over and over again. It might all be over now. I don't think he wants to take the chance so he is already shutting me out." Freedom raises an eyebrow at her best friend. "Am I supposed to believe that?"

Nevaeh huffs closing her eyes. "Yes, you are." "If you don't even believe it how is anyone else supposed to?" "People are gullible," Nevaeh states frowning.

"Not that gullible babes."