"Oh shit," Nathan hissed as he scrambled himself off of me and onto his feet. His eyes darted around frantically in panic as he stared back at a wide-eyed Brandon.

"Oh god, this looks so bad," he groaned as he ran a hand over his hair. 

Brandon didn't say anything and looked between the two of us in confusion. Nathan swallowed and looked more uncomfortable than I'd ever seen him. 

"I swear to god, we weren't doing anything, I promise," Nathan said desperately. 

I froze up as I realized why Nathan seemed so panicked. He thought Brandon was my boyfriend. Meaning, he thought my boyfriend had walked in on me being straddled by another guy.

When nobody said anything else, Nathan continued rambling on. "I mean, I am strongly against cheating, so I would never. And besides, no offense, but your girlfriend is incredibly annoying, so I wouldn't even go for her even if I could," he snapped rudely as he pointed a finger in my direction.

 I scowled and pushed myself off the floor and onto my feet. "Well fuck you, no need to be rude," I grumbled.

Brandon scratched his head and tilted his head. "I am really confused right now...," he murmured as he continued to look back and forth between the two of us.

Shit. I'd forgotten to tell Brandon that he was supposed to pretend to be my boyfriend.

Quickly speed walking over to Brandon, I grabbed his arm and interlocked our fingers. "Babe, don't get mad; he's right, we weren't messing around. I lost my temper and attacked him," I muttered with a cheesy smile.

Brandon's brows knitted even closer together in confusion. "But I'm not-" 

 I quickly slapped a hand over his mouth before he could finish. The last thing I needed was for him to blurt out the truth and for me to look like a liar. 

"Shh, let's not say something we might regret," I hissed as I gave Brandon a warning look in silent communication for him to shut up.

Nathan cleared his throat awkwardly from behind us. "So, you guys seem like you have a lot to talk about so, I'm going to see myself out...," he trailed off awkwardly.

Wasting no time, he hastily picked his laptop off the ground, which by some miracle had survived the fall, before shoving it into his rucksack. Then he hurried for the door at a speed faster than I thought was humanely possible.

"See you, Natalie," I called out to his retreating figure.

 He didn't respond, and the door swung loudly back behind him.

As soon as he was gone, I slowly released my hand from Brandon's mouth and smiled back at him sweetly. 

"Sorry about that; I just didn't want you to fuck things up for me," I said.

"Fuck things up?" he laughed as a proud smile stretched over his face. "What was there to fuck up? It looks like your plan was working excellently. Screw the friend phase; you've got the guy jumping on you already," he said as he playfully bumped my shoulder.

I bit my lip. "Yeah...about that," I mumbled. "The reason he was on top of me might have maybe been because I...because I... tried to attack him," I blabbered out with a nervous laugh.

 Instantly, Brandon's face faded to one of disappointment. "Oh," he said simply. "Well, in that case, you did a shit job, didn't you?" he snorted rudely as he flopped down on the sofa.

"Ooo, pizza," he cheered as his eyes locked in on the box on the table, which he eagerly flipped open. His smile vanished as he stared down at the tragedy before him. 

"You greedy bitch, you ate them all! All that's left is the fucking crusts," he grumbled.

I let out an unsympathetic snort. "You snooze, you lose," I shrugged before flopping down beside him on the sofa.

Brandon threw the box back onto the table in anger and crossed his arms like an angry baby.

 "This is why I should live alone," he muttered bitterly under his breath.

"Well, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to put up with me. I'm your girlfriend now," I chimed, deciding to drop the bombshell there and then.

Brandon scoffed. "Erm..no, I'm not. Last time I checked, I'm pretty sure I'm still very much single and still in love with your manager," he snickered.

I shook my head at him. "Dear God, is there a day that goes by where you don't go on about my stupid manager? She's literally ten years older than you," I cried.

 "So, I'm not discriminatory," he winked.

"But back to the point, why did you call yourself my girlfriend?" he asked as his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. 

"Oh right...I might have maybe, told Nathan that to make myself look more desirable. I figured he'd be the type of prick to be turned on by the idea of going after a taken woman," I shrugged.

Brandon stared at me blankly for an uncomfortably long period before slowly letting out a heavy sigh.

 Then, suddenly he was on his feet and walking over to the fridge. I watched with curiosity as he picked two slices of bread from the loaf in our fridge before making his way back over to the sofa. I barely had time to process a thing before two pieces of bread were slapped either side of my face. 

I stared up at Brandon and found him staring down at me with a mischievous grin.

"Soph, what are you?" he asked in a serious tone.

I felt my face heat up in embarrassment as I realized what answer he wanted. 

"Brandon is this really necessary," I whined as I helplessly tried to wiggle his hands away from me.

"Yes, it is. You did something so moron-ically stupid that you literally haven't given me any other choice," he said flatly. 

I rolled my eyes, and finally gave in, and mumbled the humiliating words he was looking for.

"Nope, not loud enough, say it again," he repeated with a laugh.

"Fine, I'm an idiot sandwich!" I spat in between gritted teeth,

Brandon's teeth immediately broke out through his grin, and he started to crack up with laughter. "Oh god, I really should have filmed that," he wheezed as he finally pulled the slices away from my face. 

He dumped them down on the table before flopping back down beside me. To avenge myself, I gave him a harsh kick to his knee.

 "Ow," he whined. "That's abuse! I'm in an abusive friendship," he said as he faked a sniffle.

 I rolled my eyes. "Oh please, Brandon. Let's not pretend you didn't tackle me to the floor because I touched your last burrito," I scoffed. 

Brandon shut his mouth and immediately stopped whining, clearly knowing I had a point.

After Brandon had finished over excessively rubbing at his knee, he turned back to look at me. "No, but seriously, telling him I'm your boyfriend was kinda dumb. From how guilty he looked when I walked in, I don't think he's the type of guy who cheats," he explained simply.

I took a couple seconds to ponder his words and slowly realized he was right. 

"Wow, fancy that, the dick's actually capable of positive human qualities. I guess there's hope for everyone," I snorted. "But yeah, I guess you're right. I suppose we're going to have to have a messy break-up at some point," I joked.

Suddenly, my back pocket started to vibrate. I furrowed my brows and fished my phone out the pocket of my jeans. As soon as I read the name on the screen, my heart dropped down to my stomach.

 It was her. 

My stomach raged with an avalanche of emotions, a mixture of relief, worry, and above all fear.

With shaky hands, I hastily pressed the answer button and rose nervously to my feet. I immediately heard her breathing on the other end of the phone, they were shaky and slow, just like they always were these days. 

I caught Brandon staring at me sympathetically from the corner of my eyes. He knew me well enough to know who was on the other side of the line. 

I ran my sweaty hands up and down the material of my jeans, in an attempt to dissipate some of my nervous energy. "M-mum, are you there?" I asked in a voice so soft and fragile that I barely recognized it.

"Yes, I am, honey. How's my big girl?" she croaked out from the other side of the line.

 It had been a little over a week since I had last talked to her, and though not long, it was so nice to hear her voice that I was tempted to start sobbing there and then.

My mum would and always would be the greatest person I knew. She was exactly what every little girl would want from a mum. She would listen to me drone on about my problems for hours, slap me upside the head for being an idiot, tease me about my silly little crushes, and most importantly she loved me. 

But, then three years ago, life had to fuck everything up by making her sick.

"I'm fine, Mum. I'm always fine, so stop worrying," I chuckled softly into the phone. 

"Oh really? What have you been having for dinner, then?" she asked cautiously.

I paused and then glanced nervously over to the pizza box, which was the remnant of last night's dinner.

"Erm...healthy stuff, of course. I had tons of vegetables, yum yum," I blabbered with a nervous laugh.

 I caught Brandon's eye, and I watched him mouth 'Liar' at me which I rolled my eyes at. 

My mum sighed. "Sophie, be honest. Is there a pizza box in your apartment right now?" she asked flatly.

I didn't even need to see her face to know she was likely raising a judgmental eyebrow. It was her go-to mum's judgy face.

"Okay, fine, maybe I'm not eating the healthiest. But I'm still alive, so it's all good," I joked. 

"Buy supplementary vitamins," she said simply. 

"God, you're such...you're such...a mum," I groaned overdramatically into the phone. 

"That's because I am a mum. And besides, I'm a nurse, remember? So, I find it hard not to show concern for your diet," she chuckled.

"Well, you're supposed to be taking a break from that, remember? Other nurses are supposed to be looking after you now?" I said softly. 

The moment I spoke, her breathing became oddly quiet from the other side of the phone.

"Mum? Are you still there?" I asked in confusion. 

She cleared her throat. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking...," she whispered. 

"Well, stop thinking," I interrupted. "I know what you're thinking, and I don't want you to think like that. You're going to get better, and you're going to come back home," I explained adamantly.

 She swallowed. "No, I'm not, Sophie. You know what the doctors have said. Someone who has stage four leukemia; rarely gets better," she said gently.

"Rarely mum, rarely! Not definitely! So, stop acting like it's going to happen for sure," I yelled. My heart beat violently in my chest, in desperation for her to believe my words. 

"I'm sorry, Sophie, but you need to start accepting the truth, or it's just going to hurt more when it eventually happens," she said softly. 

The next moment, I heard the sound of muffled voices as though someone had entered her wing. "Look, sorry, Soph, I need to go now. The doctors need to run some tests, but I'll give you a ring later tonight, okay?" she explained softly.

"Okay, then I'll talk to you later," I mumbled weakly. 

"I love you," she sang. 

"Love you more," I whispered. 

Then the phone line went dead.

I glanced up at Brandon, whose eyes were dripping with empathy. He swallowed. "Soph, I'm-"

Not feeling up for listening to any comforting lies, I stormed out of the room before he could finish and slammed my bedroom door behind me. I leaned my back against the door and slid down to the floor.

 My mind kept swirling with one persistent and godawful thought. As much as I tried to deny it, I knew it was true. 

My mother was dying.

-----------

Author's note: 

Hope you enjoyed chapter Eleven. Sorry it ended kinda sad, but I promise there's more fun to come next chapter. And by more fun I mean Sophie continuing to see how badly she can piss off Nathan ;)

Next update: Monday (6-8 PM - UK time)