another side

chapter six

I ended up sleeping over at Nate's. Not really by my own choice, but it ended up getting far too dark to walk home and he ended up falling asleep on my shoulder, so I untangled myself from him and left him to sleep on the opposite sofa. Wrapped in warm blankets I had retrieved from the hot press, I eventually nodded off and slept soundly until Nate gently shook my shoulder the next morning.

"Morning, Syl." He chimed, leaning down to kiss me. Seeing him made me remember the last nights events. It was just starting to become reality that I had almost dumped him. I can't believe I went through that stress and still ended up back where I had been before. Breaking up with someone was more effort than I had thought it was going to be.

"Morning." I mumbled, rubbing at my eyes as the light that poured in from the gaps in the blinds threatened to shock me. I sat up slowly and put a hand to my hair, assessing the damage that a night on the sofa had done. I found the ribbon I had used to tie it up and pulled it out again. It had managed to keep my hair mostly tidy, but I still had to rake through it with a brush before I was able to retie the ribbon again. Once my hair was smooth, I collected it all in my hands and put it back into a high ponytail, pulling a few strands free from the ribbon to frame my face.

Nate swept back into the room with his toothbrush hanging out of his mouth and little white flakes around the corners of his lips. He walked into the kitchen while he brushed and I watched through the doorway as he threw some bread into the toaster and pushed it down.

"What do you want for breakfast?" he asked, but his words were muffled by bristles and bubbles. He went and spat his toothpaste into the sink.

"I'm not that hungry." I responded. I didn't really like eating when I had just woken up, unlike Nate who could eat at any time of the day.

"You sure you don't just want some toast or something?" he suggested. He lifted the loaf and showed it to me. "Look, it's the good bread."

The "good bread" was this type of bread that had some random holes in it and seemed for some reason to taste better than any other bread. When I saw it my stomach gurgled in response.

"Yeah, okay." I said.

Nate always got us to eat at the table, which was a weird habit for someone who brushes his teeth in the kitchen. I sat in front of him, munching my toast which was perfectly golden and buttery while he ate his own toast along with a bowl of weird chocolatey cereal that I hated.

"So," he began between mouthfuls, "I can't believe I never asked. How was hanging out with the wicked witch of the west then?"

"You mean Carmen?" I queried.

"Do you know any other wicked witches?" he scoffed.

"It was fine, actually." I shrugged. "We got all the work done and that."

"I'm guessing you did all of it." Nate laughed.

"No." I protested. "We worked together."

"Why does it seem like you're defending her all of a sudden?" Nate looked up at me inquisitively. He was searching my face for something – probably a sign that I was lying to him.

"I'm not defending her." I muttered, staring down at the crumbs on my plate. "I'm telling the truth."

"Whatever." Nate said. "All I know for certain is that my cousin is definitely a piece of work."

"Aaron?" I said. "Yeah. He's an asshole."

"I always hated him."

I knew that was a lie. They used to be close, but Nate had this whole moral purism thing going on where he liked to pretend he always knew that Aaron was an ass.