All the Wrong Reasons

What Now?

Chapter 10:

“Are you okay?” Nathan entered my bedroom bearing a cup of tea. He sat down next to me on my bed and handed it to me.

“Yeah, I’m fine” I said, sipping the tea. It was peppermint, my favourite, but the taste was bitter in my mouth.

“Liar" Nathan put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. I pulled away, much as I wanted to melt into Nathan’s warmth and stay there for a long, long time. It was just that if I did that, I was going to break down and start crying, and then I would never stop.

“No, really, I’m fine” I lied. I didn’t know what I was so upset about. This was good news, right? Yet I wasn’t so sure. I had a bad feeling in my gut about this. “How did you find out anyway?”

“Kathy rang me up. She needed a lift to St Marguerite’s.”

“Okay. Did she say how he was?”

“He’s doing quite well apparently, given the circumstances.” Nathan paused “Annabeth, do you want to me take you over there?”

I mulled this over for a moment.

“No” I said eventually. “That wouldn’t be a very good idea. But thanks for offering.”

“Anything, anytime, remember that. Now let’s go downstairs before we get accused of doing naughty things.”

I smiled weakly.

“I should be so lucky” I said. Nathan raised an eyebrow.

“Anything, anytime, as I said”

This actually made me laugh.

“That’s better” Nathan said, planting a kiss on the top of my head.

Mum and Jennifer were sitting at the kitchen table when we came downstairs. The echoing silence that accompanied our arrival made it clear they had been talking about us.

“Hey there” Jennifer said with enforced jollity. She smiled widely at Nathan, trying to project the image of a welcoming host, despite the tension radiating off her. Mum was looking her usual batty self. She didn’t seemed very fussed about me taking boys up to my bedroom.

“Mum, Jennifer, this is Nathan. He’s a friend from school”

Nathan nodded at them, and his eyes swept our comfy, scruffy kitchen, with the scratched tiles around the sink and the shabby wooden table. His presence unnerved me slightly; it had been so long since I had invited anyone to my house. I didn’t much about Nathan’s background, but I got the feeling there was quite a lot of money rolling about, and while we weren’t exactly going hungry, there wasn’t much cash to spare.

“Is it alright if Nathan stays for dinner?” I asked suddenly. Jennifer looked taken aback, but she nodded.

“Sure, I’m certain there’ll be enough meatballs for everyone” she said, a puzzled expression on her face. Her eyes went from me to Nathan and back to me again. I could almost hear the wheels turning in her brain, wondering what was going on between Nathan and me.

“If that’s okay with you, of course.” I turned to Nathan, who, to my relief, didn’t look horrified. Hell, he even looked pleased. “Maybe you have something else planned”

“Meatballs sound great!” he said, a small smile curling the corners of his lips.

If my mother and sister were confused about the nature of Nathan and my relationship, they were no further illuminated by the end of dinner. We constantly shot each other smouldering glances, before glancing away very quickly and we occasionally caught each other’s eye and started to giggle, but we avoided all physical contact. At one moment, Nathan’s hand brushed against mine as we both reached for the bread and we jumped away as if we had just been burnt. Jennifer watched us nonstop throughout dinner and her frown deepened until there was a deep groove between her eyebrows.