Back Home • Book 2 | COMPLETED

39.

Nathaniel's Point Of View

"So," I say as we get on the road, "How'd the surgery go?"

"It went well," he says.

"Are you not supposed to be driving?" I ask.

Usually after a surgery you're not allowed to do certain things, like driving.

"Well... Technically I am allowed to, but I am not really supposed to for a bit," he says as he pulls into the driveway of his house, "but, fuck it."

"Okay then," I say and get out of the car after he parks and turns it off.

"What time do you have to be back by?" he asks.

"Any time between 19:00 and 23:00," I say.

"Okay, so anywhere between 7pm and 11pm," he says, "that works."

"Momma!" Reid yells, "I'm back!"

"Okay! I'll be down in a minute!" She yells back.

"Is it strange having your dad back around?" He asks me.

"No, not really. His girlfriend though, yes. Definitely. She creeps me out," I say, "And what about your dad?"

"Well he's still in Nebraska, but he's visiting soon," he states, then adds in a sarcastic, "yay."

"I heard that your moving in with Ryan soon. Right?" I say.

"Yes," he says, "I'm very excited."

We walk up to his room

"I sent out a tweet this morning about a q&a," he says.

"Is that the forfeit?" I ask.

"Not quite, you'll have to wait some," he says smirking.

"Shit," I complain.

He sets up his camera as I sit on the end of his bed, where he usually films.

"Okay," he says and grabs his computer. Then he sits next to me. Then says, "Hello! Welcome to another video. My name is Reid Starr and that is Nate Hunter. If this is your first time seeing either of our faces well leave a thumbs up anyway and subscribe."

"That is a terrible intro," I comment jokingly because mine isn't much better.

"Anyway," he says, "I know I haven't uploaded in the past three weeks but most of you know why. If you don't it's because I had to have heart surgery. Then I had to recover, so I tried to upload some of my older videos that never made it to YouTube. But I did make a montage of the past school year. So that will be uploaded within a day. Anyway, onto the questions. First question."

He hands me the computer. He has all the tweets pulled up, or at least the ones that he wants read.

"Melanie asked, 'Why do you guys where green ribbon?'" I say.

"Okay, I actually get this question a lot," he states.

"I don't get asked as much as I used to," I say.

"We wear the green ribbon because stands for mental health awareness," he states, "and as a lot of you know, we've both had and gone through those issues."

"Stop the stigma," I comment.

"Yeah, stop the stigma. If you don't know what that is basically stop discriminating or treating people differently based on a thing like mental illness," he explains.

"Jase asked, 'Would you date each other if you weren't already dating people?'" I say, "If... If I never met Angelina... Yeah I would date Reid."

"Yeah... I mean if I had never met Ryan I would date Nate," he says.

"Charlie asked 'What are the odds that you'll make out?'" he says.

"1 2 3," I say then we both say, "2."

We both turn to each other and start making out a little. Starting with a kiss. I put my hand on his shoulder to bring him closer to me. He puts his and on my neck and does the same, but then immediately pulls away.

"Okay. Next question," he says, "Caden asks 'What's something that nobody knows about you?"

"Um... Well I love the rain," I say.

"Really? Cool. Well, I... I um I've never told my brother about my boyfriend," he states.

"Okay then," I say.

"Next question, Kayla asks, 'Who started the #Rethan?" Reid says.

"Oh my god," I say, "That has been going on for a while."

"Yeah it has, but I have no idea who started it," he says, "Let me look that up."

I didn't realize until now that he kinda threw his computer on the ground and was looking off his phone. He reaches for the computer, but falls off the bed in the process. He motions me to get the camera.

"Really?" I ask as I point the camera to him sprawled on the ground like an idiot.

"Yeah. But I'm also bleeding," he says which is true. His nose won't stop bleeding. He gets up and goes to the bathroom. I don't follow but I put the camera back.

A few minutes later I hear a thud sound. Holy shit. That was Reid. I run to the bathroom and unlock the door.

"Oh my god Reid," I say, "What the hell happened?"

I'm on the ground with him trying to stop the bleeding.

"I-I don't remember. I just remember hitting my head," he says.

I put a bit of pressure on the cut and he winces.

"I'm gonna call an ambulance," I say and get out my phone.

"Wait," he says.

"What?" I ask, confused.

He points to something. The fucking camera. This was a fucking prank. My heart was beating so fast. Oh my fucking god.

"Seriously," I ask, "Reid. I fucking freaked."

"Yeah you did," he says getting up. He then gets some water on his hand and wipes off the blood.

"Now is that real?" I ask pointing to the blood.

"Yes," he says.

"Jesus Christ," I say, "Was that my forfeit?"

"Yes," he says.

We both start cracking up. God. This scared me to death, but at least my forfeit is over.