Exchange with New Hope Club

Chapter 24

Riley's POV

For me, Sunday mornings were very boring. Because Blake slept through all Sunday mornings and would wake up at lunch time. While Blake was sleeping, I remembered that I had a tiny bit of maths homework which I finished in ten minutes. I went down to the lounge room to read my book to find Abbie sitting on the couch with reading her book.

"Good morning Riley!" she said brightly, looking up at me as I sat down beside her.

"Good morning, Abbie! Sleep well?"

"Yeah, not bad, you?"

"Pretty good thanks," I said with a smile.

"Blake told me what happened to your friend, Jade. Is she alright?" asked Abbie.

"Getting there, slowly I think. Reece is absolutely amazing to her," I said.

"That's good! I remember my first heartbreak and it sucked. It took me a while to get over it. How about you?" she said.

"I've never had a boyfriend," I told her.

"Really? I'm surprised because you're quite pretty," she said (and looked genuinely surprised).

I laughed and blushed. "Thanks."

"Haven't found the right guy or don't want one?" she asked.

"A bit of both, really," I said. "But I guess there is a guy I've known since primary school who I like but I'm just his friend, I guess."

"Aw, that sucks," sympathised Abbie. She focussed her attention back to her book then looked up as if she had a sudden thought.

"What do you think of Blake?" she asked.

"He's really sweet and caring. He's made me feel right at home," I said truthfully.

"That's nice! It's been good having you here because he has less time to annoy me now," she laughed.

"I feel like that would be the same if my brother had an exchange student," I said, also laughing.

"Ooh! You have a brother? Younger or older?" she asked.

"Younger," I said grimacing.

"Oh my god! Younger brothers are the worst! They're so annoying," said Abbie.

"What's the worst thing your brother has done to you?" I asked.

"He always pulled my hair when I was younger. He's gotten better. Now we just have petty arguments about who has the front seat and such but yeah. How about you?"

"Well, my brother always tells on me for the dumbest things like being on my phone at night or something and then I'll get in trouble but when he hits me or something he'll get away with it, it's the most annoying thing ever," I said. "Although, I kinda miss him. Just a little."

Abbie laughed again. "Well at least he's not so annoying that you don't miss him at all."

I nodded. "That's true. Although he has a talent for annoying me when he's not there."

"What do you mean?"

"I had a dream that he was jumping on my bed then trashing my room and I woke up feeling really annoyed at him. Even though it was just a dream, I still wanted to call him and tell him of," I said, laughing at how ridiculous that sounded.

"That's totally something I would do! And I wouldn't put it past Blake to do something like that," she said. Finally, someone who understood me! Most of my friends didn't have little brothers so they just didn't get how frustrating it could be.