The Tuition Fee

Chapter 12: July, Year 2

Nathaniel 

"Alina! Come on!" I shouted up the stairs, tapping my foot. "We're going to be late!"

"I said, one second!" She shouted from behind her closed bedroom door. 

I sighed loudly, making sure she could hear me as I shot off a text to Reese that we were going to be later than planned. He'd invited us to the lake with his family and Marissa for the fourth of July, tomorrow. Alina and I were finally, officially speaking again. Although she was gone a lot for work, and if she wasn't at work she was usually sleeping. But in the rare moments when she wasn't doing either of those things, and I wasn't busy with my internship, we were sitting together in the living room because there wasn't anywhere else to be. 

I recognized back in April that Alina and I would just have to be happy being friends. And right now, it was working. We had reached a point where we could tolerate each other in a car for four hours and that was a feat in and of itself. 

The door upstairs swung open and Alina stepped out, hair in a messy bun and backpack slung over her shoulder. I narrowed my eyes as she came down the stairs. "Is that my t-shirt?" I asked, looking at the Britton shirt hanging off of one of Alina's shoulders. 

She paused and looked down at it and then back up at me. "I have no idea, I just grabbed it from the dryer last night." 

I smirked and picked up my own bag from the floor. "Yeah, I did laundry yesterday." 

Her cheeks flamed red and she tugged at the shirt. "Well I was exhausted when I came home and it was the first thing I grabbed. You woke me up by the way." She poked my arm and moved past me, grabbing her keys and sunglasses by the door. 

This was surprising. Alina was one of those morning people that liked to get up and look at the sunrise or whatever bullshit she was into. She had 8 am classes every semester so far and always seemed so chipper in the morning. Even when she was up late for work or school, she was waking up early. "Well, we needed to leave. Are you ready?" I sighed, watching her jog to the kitchen and pull a cooler out of the refrigerator. 

"Yes, we can go now." 

"What is in that?" I sighed, trying to herd her out the door. She let me, hopping down the steps and practically skipping to my car parked on the curb. 

"Snacks and stuff for the car ride. I don't want us crashing because we got into an argument because one of us was hangry." 

I unlocked the car and she opened the backseat, tossing in her backpack and sliding into the passenger seat like she'd done it a million times. I watched her newfound courage with slight awe and slight confusion. What had gotten into her? 

"Uh, when did you make the food?" I asked, climbing into the driver's seat and turning the car on. It was a gorgeous white Audi A4 with tan leather interior my mom had gotten me for Christmas two years ago. I was pretty sure I loved this car more than her, and I was pretty sure she knew it. But she didn't care so long as I kept it up and running. She bought the car, I was responsible for everything else. 

"Last night when I got home from Crew's." Alina didn't look at me as she buckled her seatbelt and started rummaging around in her massive purse. She pulled out a book and a water bottle like the damn thing was from Mary Poppins. 

I pulled onto the road and reached for the radio, connecting the car to the Bluetooth on my phone. I scrolled through the playlists and landed on one I figured Alina and I wouldn't fight over: classic rock. I wasn't in the mood to be arguing with her right now, so keeping both of us pacified was my goal. I'd had a great week with my internship, aiding in shooting some promo videos for the season and getting to edit them too. I was loving my work with them, and the coach even offered to keep me on for the fall semester. Add onto that I was finally getting to see my best friend after three months, I was pretty happy. I loved the lake house, and I loved Reese's family.