He was coming home

47

Maybe there's something wrong

Nathan has always been very secretive about his life at home and about his dad, I've only ever been inside his house once, I've seen it before, sure but he never wants me to come inside

There has to be a reason, right?

I want to know what it is and why Nathan hasn't been at school or answering his phone

Gem doesn't know and Amara claims he doesn't know but she always knows more than she's letting on, I just haven't worked out a way to make her tell me what she knows

Maybe I should just wait to see if Nathan is at school on Monday before doing something that's unnecessary like kidnapping Amara, and blackmailing her into telling me

"Have you don all your homework?" Dad asks me as I walk into the kitchen

"Yes dad" I reply rolling my eyes

Of course I haven't, he should know me better by now

"Good" he says

"I want you to behave while your brother is here" he tells me

"Why wouldn't I?" I ask him

"Well the lat time I left him in Cher if you, he ended up bald, having to buy a whole new wardrobe and a giant fear I bugs and spiders and snakes" dad replies opening the newspaper

"Th only thing I did of that was accidentally knock of Seth's collection of alive bugs and spiders, I don't know how the snake got free" I say "so tell Seth to behave" I add he doesn't say anything else

"Shouldn't you be packing?" I ask him as he starts to read the newspaper

"I have plenty of time" he replies

He always says that and he always ends up nearly missing his flight because he left packing to the last minute, literally.

But I just roll my eyes and go back to my room to finish my English homework

I have to write a narrative in forty minutes, without cheating

So far it's been two hours and I'm basically copying off my favourite book, weightless. But the teacher will never know

"Where's dad?" Seth asks me sounding worried, I look up at him

"He's in the kitchen" I reply

"No he isn't" Seth says

"He's not in the house and I thought I heard him leave a couple of minutes ago, and hi room is empty, I think he's left for his business trip" Seth says looking like he's going to cry

"He probably has just packed his bag already and is now getting us some food for the next week or so" I say but I don't even believe myself

Dad lied about when he was leaving. 

"Well I'm ping out with some friends" I lie

I want to talk to Nathan and I really don't want to be hear when Charlie and Finn get here, I assume tha they knew and are actually arriving today

I wouldn't have thought Finn would have been allowed to come considering he's been in a mental hospital for the past month since the incident where he seemed to have lost his mind thinking Charlie was going to kill himself

I stand outside Nathan's house for a bit hoping that he'll come out like he used to

I hide behind a car when Nathan's dad leaves, probably to go to work or go to the bar with friends

Maybe I can sneak in and see Nathan while he's gone

Deciding to risk it I walk so not suspiciously up to the front door of the house and find the spare key and unlock the door, putting the key back

I walk upstairs to where I know Nathan's room is, I stop outside his door, not sure if I should knock or just go in

I decide to knock

"Come in" he says so I do

"Mira? What are you doing here?" He asks shocked or surprised to see me, I can't tell which one it is, maybe it's both

He's paler than before and he looks tired, there's a bruise on his arm that I can see in the shape of a handprint, but I don't say anything

"Visiting you, where have you been?" I ask him

"Around" he replies

"Around like where? You definitely haven't been at school" I say crossing my arms

"Yeah, um, I've been sick" he replies and I can tell that's he's not telling the truth but he isn't lying either

"And that meant you couldn't answer your phone?" I ask him

"I had it taken away from me?" He replies not sounding to sure about it but I just pretend I believe him, I can't be bothered arguing about it now

"Want to go sneak Gem out of her prison?" I ask smiling

"She's still grounded?" He asks amazed

"Oh yeah, her parents aren't letting her do anything anymore" I reply shrugging

"the new deputy principal is so unreasonable" Nathan comments

"We should teach him a lesson" I suggest

"No way" Nathan says

"Why not?" I ask

"Remember the last time we did something like that?" He says

"So? Daisy's gone and that's what we wanted, too bad if your dad liked her, she's a gold digger, she was only after his money" I point out

And Nathan just shakes his head no once more and I give up

"What's Amara up to these days?" Nathan asks me

"Well she figured that Gem's new boyfriend is actually my cousin, but other than that nothing whatsoever" I reply and Nathan laughs

"Well it good to know that your aunt has had at least one kid" he says

"Max has sixteen brothers and fourteen sisters" I inform him

"How?" Nathan asks

"We're still trying to work that out and they're all around the same age as us" I reply

"Wow" is all he can say