Stay-At-Home Brat

Leaving

There's drama looming!

Sophia's POV

I wallow before the lambent fireplace, emanating just the right degree of warmth and brightness into the living room. The rain beats against the windows, and I have a purring cat in my lap and a latte in my hand. To my left, I have Oliver, radiating cheerfulness with his laughter and witty commentary. He and I are skiving from work and housewife duties, or in my case, house-brat duties. But we have good reasons to do so. Sebastian was very appreciative of my mission to make him and Alexander friends again, and he showed it over the weekend by spoiling me with pleasures of all kinds. I obviously needed to tell my best friend about it, so he picked me up and took me to his place this morning for a cosy, slow morning.

His jaw is on the floor, listening to the fun, freaky, filthy activities Sebastian and I have been up to the past couple of days. ''...Neck kisses and gentle touching is what gets me going, but you do you, Ladybug."

I smile, my cheeks feeling a bit warm. Oliver is the one person I can talk about everything with and not blush madly or be overcome with embarrassment. He is such a chill and open-minded person, and he won't tease me or share my intimate life with the whole town.

''You'd never guess that frigid teacher was such a perv behind closed doors,'' he remarks.

I nod and drink the last sip of my chai latte. ''Yeah, do you want to do something?'' I ask. ''I'm becoming restless.''

"Sure. I was going to say: 'Let's go and annoy Holling', but that's not possible.'' He lets out a small sigh.

I murmur, ''I miss those times," as I twiddle with the empty paper cup. It has got that appealing autumny design again since it is that time of the year—the cosiest season of the year.

''What about the library and Alex?'' he suggests with an elfish twinkle in his eyes.

I waver for a moment, picturing myself and Oliver lark around in the library until Sebastian shows up and drags us out like unruly chavs after being forced to awkwardly apologise to the librarians. ''...Bastian will definitely know if we make a racket at the library, and I don't wanna get in trouble because of that."

''We can behave ourselves,'' he says, not seeming entirely confident about it. ''Or at least try our hardest.''

--

At the library, we encountered some alarming news from Alexander's colleague. Apparently, Alexander had called in this morning, saying he needed to rush to London due to a family emergency, and that he sounded distressed throughout the call. They didn't give us more details than that, but it was enough to make us freak out a little.

We are back in the car now, and for the past couple of minutes, we have simply stared cluelessly at each other. Oliver tried to phone Alexander, but he didn't pick up, nor did he respond to any text. Isn't this tragic? I just got Sebastian and Alexander back together—as friends—and now he's gone. I pull my phone out of my pocket to send Sebastian a message, wondering if he knows anything about this. He is a work, though, so he would keep his phone off until lunch, which is in like 3 hours.

"We need to figure this out." Oliver finally breaks the silence. "ASAP!"

I hum, gazing out the window at the people hurrying up and down the cobbled street—some drenched by the rain, others clutching hard onto their umbrellas to keep the strong wind from snatching them. I love this weather, and I'm not being sarcastic. Summer is the worst, and I've longed for these days. ''I'm honestly worried. It better not be George who died."

''Dad would be the first to find out after his family, and I've heard nothing from him," he says, sounding rather assured that it is not the case.

I brood over it, the only thing coming to mind being Zander. Something has been a bit off with him lately—more off than normal. I don't want to believe he is so bad that he scared away Alexander. I mean he seemed to truly care about him and plan a future with him, and Alexander is a good one who showed him more patience and understanding than anybody. It would be a huge shame if Zander ruined it all by being too much of a prick. ''...Did Zander mess up once and for all then?''

Oliver groans and throws his head back, bumping into the car seat. "He better not."

"Let's look into it," I prompt, handing him the car keys I've been fidgeting with.

"Zander should be at school studying English, shouldn't he?"

"I guess we will get to annoy Mr Hollingworth a bit, anyway." I smile impishly at him.

"But if I go, he will force me to stay all day and do my job," he sighs, hesitating.

"Let's go back to your place and ask Michael then," I say. "He's hanging out with the grandad gang, and they know everything going on, right?"

He chuckles heartily. "Yes, but let's get another coffee on our way."

"We don't have money for that. It was bloody expensive," I point out grumblingly.

"Oh, fuck!" he snarls, thumping the steering wheel. "I hate this real grown-up life..."