𝐍𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐁𝐎𝐑

31

nessa walks down the hallway with a spring in her step. she's still relatively tired considering she never got home until around 3am. she and josh spent the whole night talking, catching up with each other. he asked about her now existing career and she thanked him for it because let's be honest- if it weren't for josh she probably wouldn't even be getting these types of jobs. josh talked about when he went  on a trip back home for a couple of weeks which he had fun on, seeing his family and all. surprisingly however, no matter what the conversation was or who talked, mikey and dating never came up. it's still an unspoken territory. for now at least.

"did you get lost or something coming back home last night?" mads asks while peeling potatoes.

nessa pops her head out from behind the fridge door and shakes it 'no', her eyebrows raised and a smile on her face.

mads rolls her eyes at her best friend, putting the pot of potatoes onto the stove so they can cook away nicely along with the turkey that's been in the oven since early this morning.

"what's with all the gordon ramsey shit" nessa questions as she bites on a carrot stick dipped in hummus.

mads swats at her with a dish towel. "nessa! those are for the snack table". she sighs.

nessa's only response is to laugh, crunching away at the orange stick. she knew friendsgiving was going to be a big deal to mads- it's the first one she's hosted-  but she didn't think she'd turn into chefzilla by the end of the day.

deciding that she should help out, nessa hops off of the counter and ties her hair up with a scrunchie she had around her wrist. after washing her hands she starts with making the crust for her infamous apple pie that her dad had taught her to make when she was seven years old and too bored to sit around doing nothing the morning of thanksgiving.

"thank you, i'm sorry for being grouchy" mads says, hugging nessa from behind. the brunette hugs her back.

"no need to apologise, i understand that you just want today to be perfect" she smiles. "and it will be".

mads and nessa spend the rest of the morning cooking and baking and setting up the makeshift dining room courtesy of jaden who hasn't had a moment to himself all morning between running out to the store for more carrot sticks (he growled at nessa for being the reason they were gone) and having to put the table up.

decorating the table was always an exciting part of thanksgiving for nessa when she was little. she loved putting out the name tags so naturally she begged mads to let her decorate today.

after laying out the table cloth and adding each and every decorative piece onto it, nessa starts her favourite task- the place cards. each time she sets out a new tag,  she gets excited about seeing the person later today. she sits the couples near each other but not together because that could lead to pda and nobody wants to see bryce make out with whoever he's bringing today while eating their food so for everyone's sake, she sits him next to addison. obviously.

nessa gets to her last card and doesn't recognise the name. 

"uh mads? is sarah the girl bryce is bringing today? because i thought he was bringing abby but there's another girl here too" nessa calls out  as she makes her way into the kitchen.

mads stands behind the island with a cup of coffee in her hands, a confused look on her face.

"i thought you and josh spoke last night?" she says hesitantly, sharing an unreadable look with jaden who looks like he wants the ground to swallow him whole.

sceptical, nessa stands in the doorway, holding the card in her hands.

"we did but what does that have to do with- oh".

josh is bringing a date. this sarah girl is his date.

"he never told you about her?" jaden asks, his phone in his hands.

nessa shakes her head 'no'.

"we never really spoke about our dating lives, we just caught up about everything else and i guess it's not that serious or he would have told me".

nessa dismisses the news. she isn't sure if she wants to ignore that josh is bringing a date because she's hurt he never told her or because she's hurt he's moving on.

mads and jaden share another look and now they both look like they want to be swallowed whole.

"ness it's pretty serious, sarah is josh's girlfriend".

_________________

kinda shoRT
kinda makes u all wanna hate me :)

anyways i love nessa 🥺
she fucked up but she deserves better