Played.

8: "Are You Hungry?"

"Well done, Maddison. You did great today." Marcus looked at me, closing his textbooks as we reached the end of the section.

"Aw, thanks, Marcus." I paused. "You know, I hate my full name. 'Maddison'. Ew." I quivered. "Call me Maddie."

"I like it, but whatever, Maddie." Marcus smiled, showing off his straight, white teeth.

"There you go." I couldn't help but smile back.

"Are you hungry? I'll go and check if dinner's ready." He announced, lifting himself from his position opposite me on the bed.

I watched as he slipped out of the door. I could hear his footsteps walking down the hallway.

Instead of sitting there awkwardly, I pulled out my phone from the front pocket of my shorts and began typing a message to my mom.

i'm having dinner at marcus' house so don't bother making me anything. i'll be home soon xxx

I stopped, realizing I had told her that I was shopping with Bailey. Swiftly deleting the unsent message, I started over.

i'm having dinner with bailey at the mall so don't bother making me anything. i'll be home soon xxx

There, that's better. For a second, I had almost turned myself in.

I heard a noise from the other side of the room, causing me to look in that direction. The door opened to reveal Marcus.

"Dinner's ready." He cheesed.

Getting up and walking over to him, I carefully shut the door behind me and followed him down the hallway. We continued through the house toward the kitchen.

"Go and sit down at the table, I'll help my mom bring the food in." Marcus instructed.

"No, it's alright. I'll help." I trailed him through to the kitchen.

"Are you sure? You don't have to, you're the guest."

"No, no. I want to."

We walked into the kitchen. It was a spacious room with white laminate floors and cream walls. To the centre, there was a long, white island with a tiled top, on which food was piled, much more than was needed to feed four people.

Above the centre of the island was a glass chandelier, hanging majestically. Near it, also in the centre, was a pale wooden ceiling fan, spinning gracefully. They were enclosed by lights in each corner of the room.

The appliances, all of which were white, including a double fridge, and a tall glass stand with four obtuse ovens inside, were lined up around the lower half of the room. On the upper half, there were a variety of different sized cabinets.

There was a wide gap between the two cabinets in the center of the wall which was filled with bold, black letters that spelt out "CUISINE". Underneath the letters, was a little noticeboard, with paper being held to it by board pins. A marble clock hung above the letters.

In the room there were two other people, apart from Marcus and I. One was the boy from before, his brother, Justin, and the other I didn't recognize, but I assumed it was his mom.

She was quite a short woman, around my height, with beautiful brown, swaying hair that flew down to just above the center of her back. Her eyes, unlike her sons, were a wonderful ocean blue. Marcus and Justin had obviously gotten their straight nose and tan skin from their mother. She possessed the same gleaming smile that Marcus did.

"Mom, this is Maddie." Marcus gestured to me with an open hand.

"Hi." I waved and stepped towards her, out-stretching my hand.

She took it in hers and shook it, smiling. "Hello."

"Can I just say, Ms. Bieber, your house is beautiful."

"Thank you, dear. Please, call me Pattie."

"Of course."

"You've met Justin?" She questioned, looking over to him.

"Yeah, upstairs, kind of." I mumbled.

"Justin, come over and introduce yourself." She pulled him toward me.

Oh dear.

"Hi." I looked up at him, awkwardly smiling.

"Hey." He jerked his head upwards.

A silence filled the air for a moment before I decided to speak.

"I'm Maddison." I reached out my hand.

"Yeah, I'm Justin." He ignored my hand, walking past me over to the table, picking up some food and leaving the kitchen.

I quickly pulled my hand back in, sensing my cheeks reddening.

"Oh, don't mind him. He's not always like that. It's just -. He's going through a bad break up." Pattie waved her hand, dismissing Justin's behavior.

Bad break up or not, I could tell we weren't going to get on.

"Come on, guys, let's eat. I'm starving." Marcus interrupted, helping Pattie and I take in the remaining food.