Leap Year Wishes

Chapter Six

My heart skips a beat as I look at the strong grasp that is holding my wrist. I look up at the face belonging to that person, but I don't see a threat. I don't see danger. I don't see a devil. I see Nathan. I feel my heart beat slow down as I walk toward him. He is glaring at the old man, watching him getting in his car.

"Come on." he says looking down at me. he leads me to his dark green, old truck and I hop in the passenger side.

"Thanks." I say quietly and look at him once he closes his door.

"No problem." Nathan smiles at me then starts the car. "So, I'm sorry about what happened with Jason. He wants me to tell you something." He shifts around in his seat, obviously nervous.

"What is it?" I asked, just as nervous as he was.

"He says he's sorry about what happened with Holly, the girl you saw with him. But he says he is probably going to start dating her again. Before he hung up on me, he told me he had to go because he was going to Holly's house. I'm really sorry." He explains as he turns on my street. I only sigh and slump in my seat. We eventually arrive at my house and I look at Nathan as I open the door.

"Thanks." I say and step out of the car.

"Wait!" Nathan exclaims before I shut the door. I look at him curiously before he answers.

"Wanna do something tonight? I mean, I could cheer you up and I'm not doing anything tonight." he blushes and looks up at me. I nod, smiling, as I close the door and he turns the car off. Just then, a bright pink Ferrari drives by, blasting strange music. I try to get a good look at the people in the car, but all I see is a brown haired boy and a blonde haired girl. I shrug and head to the front door with Nathan close behind me. I unlock the door and step in the house.

"Mom?" I call through the house to make sure she isn't home. "She's still at work." I say turning to Nathan.

"Okay, cool." he says and sits on the couch, slipping off his shoes. I walk to the TV and popped a movie in our DVD player and left to kitchen to make popcorn.

I walk back into the living room and find nobody is in there. "Nathan?" I call out.

"You can call me Nate" He says, coming out of the bathroom. I smile and we sit on the couch. I start the movie, but we don't really pay a lot of attention to it; we were talking the whole time. We told each other the basics about ourselves; favorite color, favorite band, hobbies, dislikes, favorite food, you name it. We also told stories about times in our lives.

Nate stands up as the movie credits start and he stretches. I look at the time, 8:24. Shouldn't mom be back by now? I started to worry. She  is probably just working late shift again. I reassure myself,

"Oh, I should leave." Nate says, looking at the clock. "My parents will be mad if I stay out too late."

I watch him get his shoes on and say, "Thanks for coming. It really cheered me up." I open the closet behind me and pull out his sweatshirt. He stands up with both shoes on and I hand him his sweatshirt.

"It was no problem! I had fun."  He smirks at me and walks out the door. "See you at school, Liz." Nate calls back. I watch him pull out of the driveway and I close the door.

I walk back in the living room and grab my phone. I text a few friends back when my mom calls.

"Hey mom, where are you?" I ask.

"Sorry, I had to stop to get something. On my way. And Max called."

I groan. "What did he want this time? Money for beer or cigars? Crashed another car? Kicked out of his house?"

"Hey! Be nice! He wanted to visit." mom scolded me. "He's going to be staying with us for a week."

I sigh and say, "Okay, fine. Whatever. See you soon."

I hang up and plop down on the couch. Not Max! Anybody but Max! I sigh and stand up. I start to think of Max as I clean up the living room.

When I was born, i had a brother named Max. He is 6 years older than me and around 22 now. He lives in Chicago with his roommate, Chad, who is a player. He even tried hitting on me and Max didn't care. Max dropped out of college in his third year because he turned into an alcoholic and started smoking. Unfortunately, we look a lot alike, but we are actually nowhere close to being real siblings. Mom got super mad when he dropped out of college and since then, he's only come to us for money for cigars and alcohol or he got kicked out of his house and needed money for a motel.

Fun. I think sarcastically. I get to hang out with my idiot drunk excuse for a brother for a whole week.