Noisy Neighbours (The Midnight Beast Fanfic)

Part 8: Ash - Desperation

This chapter - RATING; PG-13 - Strong Language

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Dru and I battled it out on our XBox, Dru winning by a mile. Stef refused to do anything; earlier today he'd said he would do some editing, but thanks to Maisie he'd been as productive as a lemon. He was on the edge of couch, dreaming. Charlotte had tried to comfort him, but she'd gone and it hadn't been very effective anyway.

"Maybe she's not interested?" he mumbled to nobody.

I rolled my eyes - the amount of crap he had been spouting today was just ridiculous. Plus he wouldn't shut up.

"YES!" Dru suddenly yelled, standing up on his feet and pointing at the screen triumphantly. He had officially thrashed me for the sixteenth consecutive game.

"Yes? She's not interested?" Stef said, glum.

"Not you," Dru said, eyes glued to the screen, stabbing away at his controller.

My phone buzzed and I picked it up. Just a Facebook notification. I decided I might as well take a quick peek at Natalie's page; only if I had known Stef would lean over and have a total heart attack.

"Is that Natalie's page?" Stef yelled, snatching the phone out of my hands.

"Give me my phone back, Stef!" I yelled, running after him. He was frantically stabbing away at the phone. For fuck's sake! He didn't even like Natalie - wait, what, did he? No, he was all for Maisie! No, no, shotgun Natalie! Idiot!

"You don't even like her!" I screamed, as I shoved into him and untangled his fingers off of my phone.

OH FUCK.

HE'D SENT A FUCKING FRIEND REQUEST.

WHAT THE HELL, STEF.

I glared at Stef as I ran away from him - he began rapdily chasing me, his arms stretched, trying to grab the phone again.

"She'll be friends with Maisie! Then I can add Maisie on Facebook!" Stef wailed, running ridiculously after me. I slammed the door and locked myself up in the bathroom. I must've burned off all the calories from the pizza from all the running. I sat on the loo and switched my phone back on, so I could go and delete the friend request.

WHAT?!

SHE'D ACCEPTED.

NATALIE HAD ACCEPTED MY FRIEND REQUEST.

HOLY CAMOLEY.

I went to go check out her page and brush up on my knowledge on her. Until I got a notification of a new wall post.

HI SHALL WE HANG OUT SOMETIME?!?!?! xxxxxxx

Was she asking me out?! Like, properly asking me out? Oh WOW.

Excited, I left the bathroom and began drafting a reply in my head. I should probably go for the casual reply, as if I didn't care... like maybe Yeah, sure, whatever. Or did the 'whatever' sound too casual? Or maybe I should just give a one word answer... like yeah or sure. Or would that seem as if I wasn't interested... I could add a smiley face. Or was that too cheesy? How about playing hard, like, saying Busy this weekend, when are you next free? What if SHE was busy for all the weeks after that though? What if -

Stef had managed to get his hands on my bloody phone and was already typing away - FUCK.

I lunged forwards to grab the phone before he began to properly yell.

"NO, NO, I'M NOT FINISHED!"

"Finished with what?" I asked, raising my eyebrows, pulling at the poor phone.

"Replying!"

"Use your own bloody account!" I yelled.

"NO, WAIT!"

I yanked the phone and Stef lost his balance, falling over on his side whilst I swiftly peered at my phone. OH STEF.

YES YES YES!!!!! TONIGHT?????? ME & MAIS

What the hell did that even mean? Talk about his English - what a total fail.

"What were you even meaning to write, idiot?" I asked, holding the screen up too him, but far enough away he could get it.

"Me and Maisie - if only you'd have let me finish," Stef moaned. "Me and Maisie could've met up or something, but it's all your fault Ash."

"Stop being such an immature idiot," I muttered. I was going to just delete the comment and reply maturely, explaining the situation but I realised Natalie might be a bit confused. And doubtful. And have an insane image of me now.

I decided I would go and properly explain to her, face-to-face. Then casually suggest we hang out. Right?

Excuse: CHEESE GRATER.

I shoved my feet into a random pair of trainers and then thought - maybe she would notice my shoes? A pair of Vans - but what colour? Maroon was trendy but blue was classic. You could never go wrong with a pair of white trainers. But then maybe black was better, quite casual and understated... But then which black ones?

I pathetically gave up and began dragging the door aside, my feet inside my maroon pair. Stef yelled.

"Where're you going?"

I couldn't tell him - I mean, he'd have a mental breakdown if he saw Maisie in real life right now.

"Um -"

"You're going upstairs, right? WAIT! ASH, WAIT!"

He began running like a crazy child and I quickly tried to shove the door to stop him. Dru abandoned his game and came running to help me. Surprisingly, Stef had quite a bit of stamina - he must've really liked her. He battled his way out and managed to sprint upstairs, with no shoes.

Dru and I ran up after him and he was waiting.

"Knock. I don't want to look desperate."

I burst out laughing - what the hell! He didn't want to look desperate. Honestly, he was worried he was desperate. He was the most desperate guy on the planet at the moment. An absolute crazy, mad, obsessed idiot.

Dru inhaled and lifted his hand to knock on the door before the door opened by itself. Ooh, magic.

Maisie stood in front of us with a huge stack of empty takeaway boxes.

Well, she did, before they all crashed onto the ground.