young lies

chapter four - play the players

nick quietly tie toes into the guest room, where bexley sleeps peacefully on the bed. nick laughs at her snoring friend before she jumps on top of her to wake her up.

bex jumps and knees nick in the stomach, knocking her to the ground.

"ow." nick groans holding her stomach. bex, who is still cuddled up with her pillow looks at her and rolls her eyes.

"we've talked about this. you always do this and get some sort of injury." she turns over. "now let me go back to sleep."

nick who has snapped out of her pain hops up and smiles. "no can do." she says as she pulls her arm so hard that bexley gets pulled to the ground.

"ow! my back." she whines, arching her back to put her hand on it. "my god."

"we have to go get breakfast." nick waits for bex to get up but she just lies stationary on the floor. "okay, c'mon, let's go." she says taking her wrist and pulling her body towards the stairs.

bex mumbles something annoyed and closes her eyes.

"bex. if you don't stand up on your feet i'm going to have to drag you down the stairs." nick says trying to get her to wake up. she just pulls her wrist away and mumbles something before turning on her side. "okay." nick turns around and walks down the stairs that lead to the kitchen.

getting close enough to the bottom she hears liz complaining.

"no one even acknowledges how hard i work." she says aggressively whisking her batter before she notices the girl descending down the stairs. "oh, hey! good morning, nick. have a seat." she smiles starting to put food on a plate for the girl. "have a frittata."

"wow. this looks amazing. this must've been a ton of work." nick compliments.

"see? is that so hard? a little appreciation for what i do."

jeremy puts down his fork and smiles. "it's really good, mom."

"no one likes a suck-up." she states. jeremy's smile fades and landon and molly grows smirks turning to him. "so nick, where's your sister?" liz asks.

she shrugs her shoulders. "asleep in the hallway. mm, this is really good." pointing to the food with her fork.

everyone turns at the loud groan coming from the stairs as they see bexley crawling down the stairs with her eyes closed. about halfway down she grabs the railing and pulls herself standing and squints her eyes.

"wow bex, you've never looked better!" landon teases shoving a piece of toast in his mouth. bexley sends him the middle finger back at him and continues down the stairs.

"oh good! your awake. come, come sit." mrs. thompson grabs her arm and pulls her to the chair next to nick and putting a plate infront of her.

"how are you guys so awake?" she groans slamming her head on the table.

"well, anyways girls, i'm glad you're here. i wanted to chat with everyone." she says walking closer to the table and putting her hands on the back of the chair bexley's sitting in. "since someone destroyed all my good China last night-"

"mom, you're not allowed to say that word unless your asian." molly grits out.

she rolls her eyes and continues. "it occurred to me that now you guys are living in this house, you need to know that along with the benefits come the responsibilities."

"okay, sounds fair." nick says.

"and to that end, by the power vested in me, as the lead parent." liz begins.

ed chokes and his coffee then turns to his wife. "wait, what?"

"...i declare this chore market open!" she exclaims.