Best Friends For Never

Chapter 8

NATE’S POV

“Wake the hell up, you idiot!” someone shouted, shaking me awake. I groaned and rolled over, mumbling something incoherent as I did so.

“Come on, Nate!” the voice said again, louder and more annoyed this time.

“Go away,” I said, opening one eye and scowling at Josh.

“How about,” Josh said, “no.”

“Shut up. My head hurts,” I moaned.

“You dropped a vase on it.Big deal. Stop being such a baby.”

I almost punched him. Almost. He was the reason I dropped the stupid vase on my head!

I scowled. “Want me to drop a vase on your head? Huh?!”

“Even if you do, I’ll probably be more of a man about it than you are!” Josh accused.

“Fuck off.”

“MUUUUUUM!” Josh yelled. “NATE SWORE AT ME!”

“JOSH WON’T LET ME SLEEP!” I yelled louder, sitting up and shoving Josh.

“HE PUSHED ME!”

“MAN UP, YOU BIG BABY!”

Josh opened his mouth to say something else, but our mom walked in and narrowed her eyes at us, causing him to snap his mouth shut.

“Josh, I told you to wake your brother up, not start an argument with him!”

Josh scowled and huffed.

“And Nate. How are you feeling, honey? Do you still have a headache?”

Josh gasped. “He gets ‘honey how are you feeling’ and I get ‘don’t start arguments’?  Geez, why does nobody in this family treat me as an equal?”

“I’ll treat you as an equal when you start being responsible for landing your brother in hospital,” our mom pointed out.

“It wasn’t my entire fault,” Josh argued. “Nate was the one that dropped it on his head, not me!”

“I wasn’t the one that started it off by picking up a clock!” I argued back.

“Well, I wasn’t the one who was stupid enough to slip on a pile of spaghetti!” Josh yelled.

“Well I wasn’t the one—” I began, but my mom cut me off.

“Both of you, be quiet!” she shouted. The both of us immediately shut our mouths. “Nate, get ready for school, and Josh,” she turned to face my brother, “stop arguing with your brother and put some clean socks on. They smell like they haven’t been washed in years.”

“What? But you said I could stay off school as long as I wanted,” I complained.

“A week is long enough, and if you’re well enough to argue with your brother, then you’re well enough to go to school.”

Josh grinned and walked out the door, sticking his tongue out at me as he did so. I pulled a face and watched my mom walk out the room before groaning and getting out of bed.

When I looked at the digital clock on my bedside table, I decided there wasn’t any time for me to take a shower before school, so I simply grabbed a fairly clean shirt off the floor and put it on, as well as a pair of jeans.

I made my way downstairs and sat down in front of my dad and Josh at the kitchen table. Josh was texting someone on his phone, and my dad, as usual, was reading his paper.