The S.U.N. and The Peter Pan Project

Chapter 23

The following day was pretty unexpected.

Had I known what was to come, I probably wouldn’t have rejoiced so much about it, though…

My first surprise came when I woke up on the sofa.

I actually pinched myself till my skin turned blue to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

I wanted to ask Matt about it but couldn’t find him.

In fact, I didn’t see much of the boys at all.

I presumed they were probably busy working on their mission so didn’t make much of it.

They didn’t say anything when I sat with Kerry and Alicia at lunch.

As we were finishing our food, Nate came over to our table to ask the girls if they’d agree to take me to the mall to get me new clothes and anything else I wanted before handing me a pink credit card with my name on it.

I was speechless at first but then realized they’d taken my pleas seriously so was determined to make the most of it.

The girls and I were so grateful the boys were letting the three of us hang out together that we decided to show them we could be trusted. We actually didn’t even mention the S.U.N, or any of the boys during the three long hours we spent roaming shops, that’s how good we were…

There was so much stuff I needed to function normally again! 

Apart from the five uniforms the boys had provided me with, I’d been living on the meagre content of the backpack my brothers had sent with me.

 I felt overwhelmed when I started listing all the items I needed to buy, but Kerry immediately took things over and defined our action plan as she called it.

It proved very efficient.

By the time we were done, I’d spent more than five hundred dollars and we were absolutely exhausted.

We quickly stopped at the food court for a smoothie which I paid for to thank the girls for their great help.

Finally at seven, Alicia phoned the number Nate had given her and less than five minutes later, he came to pick me up.

Nate was very quiet as he drove me back to Matt’s place. In fact he was so quiet that it felt off.

I decided to do some digging.

In the week I’d been at Matt’s, I’d come to consider Nate as a friend and his silence was worrying me.

I cleared my throat nervously.

“Are you ok?” I finally managed to ask.

“Hmmm.” He nodded before adding. “You?” He quickly glanced my way. “Did you have fun?”

“Yeah, it was nice, thanks. I did spend an awful lot of money, though. I hope it’s going to be alright... I do have money on my bank account back in France. If only I could have access to it…” I was rambling.

“Hey.” He put his hand on my knee in a reassuring way. “Don’t worry about money, ok?”

He clearly had no idea about how much I’d spent. I had to tell him. I cleared my throat again.

“I don’t think you realize…” My voice was small.

“Did you get some cleats and shin guards?” He cut me off.

“Oh yeah, there was this great sale at Foot Locker…” I paused. “But, Nate. I did spend something like five hundred and twenty dollars…”