Floating in the Abyss ✔️

Chapter 52

"Ash, come help me." Nick told me, motioning to where he was standing in the kitchen. "Scoop it out whilst I hold it." He held a bowl, full of this brown mixture, and tilted it so that the contents started to fall into a pan. I used the weird tool to scoop it out of the bowl if it got stuck.

"You say Elyse is bossy, but you are the bossy one." I mumbled.

"Excuse me, missy?" He raised an eyebrow at me, straight faced like usual. I'd gotten over him being a pain the other day.

"What is this?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"Brownie."

"And what's this?" I held up the tool.

"A spatula." He chuckled. It made me feel good that I could make him laugh. He was always so serious.

I brought the spatula to my mouth and tasted the brownie mixture. I was grateful for the taste of chocolate.

"Ash! Stop eating that." He scolded, trying to take the bowl off me. "That has raw egg in it! You can't eat that!"

I hugged the bowl and moved away, continuing to enjoy my treat until there was no mixture left in the bowl.

"If you get sick, don't come to me."

"Luckily I have 4 brothers and 2 parents I can go to then." I rolled my eyes at him. I would have never rolled my eyes at anyone until I came here.

"Ash! Honey, go change your top." Mum exclaimed then laughed. I looked down to see a straight line of brown where the edge of the bowl had been.

"Oops." I frowned.

"Doesn't matter. I'm a washing wizard and can fix it." She winked.

I hurried to change my top so I could watch the brownies in the oven.

"What time is it?"

"Like 12:30, why?" Nick responded.

"They finish school at 3 o'clock, right?"

"Yeah, and?"

"Are you picking them up?"

"No." He scoffed. "Ryan has his car."

"But they're bringing friends."

"They'll work it out." He told me. "What's the big deal anyway?"

"Jonah is bringing a girl, right? I'm not going to know anyone when I go to school so I might be able to become friends with her." I told him quietly. Making friends was one of my biggest worries about starting at a new school.

"You have four brothers at that school, and you know Sean. I don't think you're going to be lonely." He reassured me. I was still nervous. "Want to come for a drive?"

"Where to?" I asked.

"I said a drive not to a place."

"It wouldn't hurt to be a little nicer you know."

"I know." He smirked. "Mum!" He yelled out.

"Yeah?"

"I'm taking Ash for a drive. We'll be back soon."

"Wait, wait, wait!" She called out. She appeared less than 10 seconds later.

"I'm not doing any jobs." He held his hands up, backing out towards the door.

"Nicholas Hughes. You live under my roof and as long as you do, you have to help out." She stood there, hands on her hips. "I just need you to return these to the library. And Ash has an appointment at two, so you can take her straight there."

"Oh no, this was meant to be a simple drive. I am not becoming a chauffeur." He huffed.

"It's with Dad. She's getting her eyes checked. He'll bring her home, so you only need to take her in."

"Fine."

"Nicholas." She said seriously. I found it funny when people called him Nicholas instead on Nick. That's when you knew he was in trouble.

"Yes, mum. All good." He looked at her dead in the eyes and waited until she smiled.

"Perfect. Bye Ash. Oh, get food too. You need to eat." I think I was in pretty safe hands with Mr Dietician.

We drove off, listening to music. He didn't talk, which suited me just fine as I watched out the window. I thought to myself that I should ask someone to go on a walk with me. I barely knew the area which kind of worried me, since if anything happened, I wouldn't be able to get home. I don't even know my address. We drove for about 20 minutes before pulling up in a car park. There were a few food places, including McDonalds and Krispy Kreme.

"Come." Nick instructed.

"Did you put a lock on my door?" I asked, after he'd opened it since I couldn't.

"A child's lock, yes."

"I'm not a child." I huffed. His huffing was rubbing off on me. I didn't want to become a grumpy pain like him. "I'm a teenager."

"And I'm an adult, so I have authority. Now get out."

I followed him into another store called Willow's Muffins. It was a nice bakery with muffins on display everywhere, each in glass cabinets. The store was well lit with fancy white lines and there was a row of seats and tables against one wall.

"Pick one. Not chocolate."

"What, why?" I whined.

"It's not healthy. You're already having a muffin. They're not good for..."

"Okay, okay." I didn't feel like listening to him ramble on about nutrition. I'd heard enough of that from mum and my doctors. Although I really wanted a chocolate one, there were plenty others to choose from. To name a few; Apple and Cinnamon, triple berry, banana, blueberry, carrot as well as coffee. Although they all looked so good, I chose the triple berry. It had icing on the top, which I knew I'd like. It looked similar to the one Ryan got when we went to Ikea.

The lady running the store happily collected a triple berry muffin for me and a blueberry muffin and coffee for Nick.

"Would you like the muffins warmed up?" She asked.

"Yes please." Nick thanked her and we took a seat at the table. No one else was here, which I assumed had to do with the fact it was a Friday and people were at work.

"How is it?" Nick asked as I devoured half of it.

"So good." I smiled, still with a mouth full of crumbs.

"Ew." He chuckled.

We stayed for over half an hour and then headed off to go meet Dad. I knew he was an optometrist, but I'd never been to his work before since he most commonly worked from home. He'd been leaving a bit more recently, which I assumed had something to do with the fact that I was more settled, but then again, that could just be me being self-centred.

Back to some more eventful stuff next chapter...sorry if the last few chapters were kind of boring but I don't like too much action all crammed in.

Give me ideas for the next book and these last few chapters!

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Also...shoutout to WillowHinson for Willow's muffins ;) her comments are very iconic for this story if you haven't noticed them :))