nearby || c.h.

2

"Oh my gosh hold still, how am I supposed to do this with you wiggling?!" I laughed as I scolded Amanda. I was trying to paint her nails but she wouldn't keep her hands still in my grasp and I ended up getting polish around the nail bed.

She laughed, "Sorry, I'm just really bad at not moving, I have so much energy today! It's the first day of being out of high school! Summer break!"

I looked at her, "Well do you want to have cute nails for summer break?"

She looked down and rolled her eyes, "Fiiinnne I'll try my best."

I thanked her before continuing to brush the hot pink lacquer on in thin, even strokes across her naturally long nails. In the middle of her ring finger, her phone started to ring.

I pulled away allowing her to answer with the hand I hadn't gotten to yet. "Hi Mommy!"

I watched as she tilted her head in confusion, "What? What do you mean tomorrow afternoon?.......no he didn't tell me," she looked visibly annoyed, "Okay yeah sounds good...oh Daisy's gonna sleep over tonight...what?"

Her face changed into a look of slight anger, and I strained my ears to try to hear what her mother was saying on the other side.

"Mom we literally just graduated! We're adults!.....what are you even talking about I-...yes ma'am. Fine......yeah I love you too, see you guys tomorrow."

She hung up the phone and rolled her eyes, extending her hands for me to begin painting again, "Well first of all, apparently my parents were going on an overnight trip to the coast today that Calum neglected to tell me about, so they're on the road now and won't be back til tomorrow afternoon."

I smiled, "So we'll have the house to ourselves?"

She rolled her eyes, "No because apparently mom feels 'more comfortable' with Calum here to fucking babysit us! I tried to tell her we didn't need it but she said that it would make her have a 'sound mind' while they were gone."

I furrowed my brows and scoffed, "Does she know you're literally gonna be away by yourself in college in a matter of months?"

"Thank you! Yes that's what I've been saying! She's gonna need to learn to let go sooner or later! I remember she was barely phased when Calum left, but honestly I think it's clicking for her that it's just gonna be her and dad at the house. Empty Nest Syndrome or whatever it's called," she shrugged.

I blew on her nails so I could do a second coat and dipped into the bottle to begin again, "Yeah but how bad can Calum be, he wants as little to do with us as we do with him."

She nodded, "Yeah you're right I guess. I dunno part of me thinks I should be spending some time with him while he's here, you know?"

"Yeah I understand. He only has one more year of medical school left right?"

Daisy smiled softly, "Yep. It's crazy. Who could've picked the little punk kid out of the family to end up being the doctor? One more year there and then he starts his residency as an actual doctor."

I shook my head in disbelief, "I can't even wrap my brain around that. I mean I remember when he was like twelve and he used to pull my curls. Oh man and that one time I pushed him off the swing when we all went to the park together because he took it from me."

Amanda laughed, "He was so scrawny he looked like a baby giraffe when he fell!"

We both started laughing hard at the image and I shut the bottle of polish, placing it back on the shelf, "All that reminiscing made me hungry."

Amanda nodded furiously, "God I was waiting for you to say something, let's go raid the fridge."

We went downstairs, Amanda shaking her hands in the air to dry the polish faster and Calum was at the kitchen table on his laptop. He looked up at us and gave a weird look to Amanda, "Great dance moves, maybe that's why you don't get invited to parties."

Amanda rolled her eyes and snorted, "I'm fucking drying my nails, idiot."

Calum pretended to look shocked and glanced over to me, "Do you hear the way she speaks to me? Unbelievable!"

Amanda walked around to the side of the table Calum was sat at to look at his screen, "What are you do -- ew." He looked up at her, squinting, "Are you always this nosy? If you weren't snooping you wouldn't have seen this anatomy diagram and gotten grossed out."

I opened the fridge, observing the contents and pulled out a Capri Sun, "Are you doing homework over the summer?" I boosted myself up to sit on the counter and he nodded, "Its more of a summer essay and review really, I'm constantly studying it seems."

I chewed the thin yellow straw slightly and smiled, "Nerd." Amanda began rummaging through the pantry and extracted a box of cheese-its, hopping up onto the counter beside me so we could share.

"So why didn't you tell me mom and dad were gonna be gone?" She interrogated. Without looking up from his typing, he shrugged, "Thought I did. Must have forgot."

"Yeah no shit," she retorted, "Anyways, Daisy is spending the night so try not to bother us."

Calum finally looked up from the screen, "Dude, I've barely moved from this spot since you guys got home."

She crunched a cracker and shrugged, "Touché."

"That reminds me," I started as I slipped off the counter, "I need to go get a change of clothes, be back in five." I went out the front door, to my house right beside hers and walked in, knowing it would be unlocked since my dad was home.

It was just my dad and I. Him and mom divorced when she realized she'd be stuck with a kid for eighteen plus years. Baby fever is cute and fun until you actually have a baby.

"Daisy?" He called from the kitchen. I met him in there, hugging him as he kissed the top of my head, "How was the last day of school?"

I started heading towards my room, "Torturous. It felt so long!" I walked back to the front of the house where my room was at (we lived in a one story) and went in to get comfy clothes and my phone charger before going back into the kitchen to say bye.

"I'm sleeping over at Amanda's tonight."

Dad nodded, stirring the pot of whatever he was making for dinner, "Sounds good, baby. Oh, who's car is that in front of their house?"

"Calum's, he's home for the summer."

He smiled with a chuckle, "You be careful around that Hood boy, now. I know how you get with him."