"Wait, why did you moan out, Sophie? Is there a girl in there with you?" his dad questioned in confusion.

Nathan's eyes shot open wider in panic as he realized the extent of how bad things looked.

His dad cleared his throat. "Please, tell me, she wasn't under your desk and er..,"

"Nope, no, absolutely, not! I promise we weren't doing anything," Nathan rambled all in one breath, clearly desperate to reassure his dad that he wasn't being pleasured underneath the table.

"Oh, thank god," his dad chuckled in relief. "But wait a second, you didn't deny there is a girl. Where is she? Who is she?"

Nathan let out a heavy sigh and gestured for me to get up. I climbed to my feet with a smile and bent down a little, so I was in shot of the camera. I gave a little friendly wave to his dad. "Hey, Mr. Woods," I greeted with my best parent pleasing smile.

"Ah-ha, so, you must be Sophie. Were you by any chance the reason my son sounded awfully feminine at first?" he snorted.

"Yeah, she was," Nathan butted in before narrowing his angry eyes on his dad. "And you sure took your dear sweet time to realize I sounded suspiciously like a girl, " he scoffed.

 I lazily ruffled Nathan's hair with a snicker "Oh, simmer down, Natalie, it was a fair mistake to make," I teased.

His dad's deep laughter boomed throughout the room, clearly finding my joke funny. When he sobered up, his dad's eyes flickered back and forth between Nathan and I with fondness.

"I think I'm warming up to your girlfriend already, Nathan. She knows how to roast you; I love that," he snickered.

"She's not my girlfriend," Nathan added quickly. "She's my erm...," he paused and angled his chair back to look at me. His eyes softened slightly before turning back to his dad. "Well, she's my friend," he said simply.

I'm not sure why but hearing the word friend fall from his mouth made my heart warm a little. I knew he was only saying it for his father's sake, but still, I kind of liked the sound of it.

"Well, you're quite dumb then, aren't you," his dad snorted. 

The bluntness, and unexpectedness of his insult to Nathan caught me off guard, and I choked sharply on my spit in an effort to control my amusement. 

"Excuse me?" Nathan said.

 "Well, sorry, son, but it's true. Anybody, with half a brain, would have asked a girl as beautiful as Sophie to be their girlfriend by now?" he scoffed as though he was spitting straight facts.

"Dad, she literally has a boyfriend," Nathan spat out in frustration. 

"Cool, and you haven't killed him because?" his dad asked in a scarily serious tone.

"I'm not killing her boyfriend, dad; what the fuck?" Nathan choked out in shock.

His dad cracked a smile before loosening his poker face slightly. "I'm only messing around, of course, you can't kill him. You've got to hire a guy to do it for you," he winked. 

"Dad!" Nathan yelled.

 "Okay, okay, I'll stop, I'll stop," he chuckled as he relaxed back in his chair. "I get it; she's your friend, nothing else," he said seriously. 

"Thank you," Nathan cried.

"Well, your friend, for now," his dad added slyly underneath his breath.

 Nathan shot his dad a warning look, which his dad swiftly responded to by looking back and forth between the two of us while making kissy faces.

"Give me strength," Nathan groaned as he sunk lower in his chair in embarrassment.

I watched the scene between the two of them with a smile, loving every second of Nathan's humiliation. It was an absolute wonder how he had turned out to be such a moody bitch when his dad seemed so light-hearted and fun. 

As his dad continued to make kissy faces at the camera, I stole a glance at Nathan. I was surprised to see the corner of his lips twitching as though he was fighting back a smile at his father's ridiculousness. And for some deranged reason, I found it kind of adorable.

His dad eventually eased up and cleared his throat. "So, getting away from your failed love life son, and back to my point of calling. When are you planning on coming back home to Greece?" he said while rubbing his hands together in excitement.

My gaze flew down to Nathan's. "Greece! You live in Greece?" I blurted out in shock before I could stop myself. 

"Nathan? You haven't told your girlfriend about the hut? Why not?" his dad questioned with a pout.

Nathan let out a long-exasperated sigh. "Maybe, because she's not my girlfriend, just a thought," he spat sarcastically at the camera.

 His dad let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah, and the only reason she's not your girlfriend is because you're a dumbass who doesn't know how to attract a lady. I would have opened with the hut and-"

Nathan swiftly jabbed a button to mute his dad, cutting him off from his rant. Then with a lazy swing on his chair, he swiveled back to face me.

"Don't listen to a word he says; he's crazy," Nathan said in a serious tone.

 I snorted and decided to hold back on my teasing. After all, his dad had already served him a rather healthy dose of embarrassment.

 "So, what's this I hear about you and Greece?" I said, lifting my eyebrow. 

"Oh right, my dad has a beach house in Greece, and I told him I was going to go down there and visit since it's reading week, next week," he shrugged.

"You have a whole arse separate beach house?" I gasped.

"Yeah, it's a little much...," he trailed as his eyes diverted off mine in embarrassment.

"No, that's incredibly cool, you idiot," I laughed as I leaned forward to whack him upside the head.

"You think so?" he questioned in surprise, a small smile cracking to his face. 

"Yeah, of course, I think so. And, I hope you enjoy yourself," I said honestly, as I shot him a warm smile.

Not long after, Nathan, unmuted his dad and resumed on with their conversation. I tried to listen in and pipe in when I could, but my mind kept drifting away. I couldn't help it; all their talk of previous holidays and fancy restaurants they planned to dine in made me feel incredibly small. After a while, I stopped saying anything at all, and plastered a fake smile on my face as I drowned in the feeling of not belonging.

---------------------

"Wow, you're in twelfth place; you must feel like shit," I laughed as I glanced over at Brandon with a cheeky grin. We were both sat side by side on the sofa, playing the racing game; Mario karts.

"Well, that's because Bowser, the rude oversized cartoon tortoise hit me with his fucking bullet, six shitting times!" Brandon spat as he shot me an incredibly nasty look. 

"Shame on you, fat-shaming poor little ole Bowser like that," I reprimanded with a joking tut. "And besides, how do you know that he didn't hit you by accident?"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Oh, I don't know, perhaps because you are Bowser, and you let out an evil cackle after each and every bullet hit me," he spat out angrily. 

"Hmm, good point, good point," I chuckled, giving up lying altogether.

After a couple seconds of silence, Brandon glanced over at me curiously. "Not to pry or anything, but who were you so excitedly texting this morning?" he questioned with a strangely knowing grin.

"Oh, it was Nathan. He sent me a funny video, and I was just texting him back with my comments, that's all," I shrugged, keeping my eyes focused on the game. 

"Hmm, it must have been quite the video for you to text him for an hour straight with a massive smile on your face," Brandon drawled slyly. 

 I paused the game and shot Brandon a weird look. "What are you trying to imply?" I questioned flatly. 

"Nothing, just making observations," Brandon hummed nonchalantly.

Before I could interrogate him further, the sharp sound of the doorbell chimed throughout the house.

 "Bagsie, not it," Brandon spat out quickly before I could so much as breathe. 

I threw my remote down on the sofa in anger. "Lazy piece of shit," I grumbled under my breath as I stood up and trudged my way over to the door.

The moment I opened the door, my eyes were bombarded with the distractingly hot sight of Nathan Woods.

 "Nathan? Um, hi," I stuttered out like an idiot, not feeling at all prepared for his unexpected arrival. "What are you doing here?" I asked rapidly.

"Oh right, I just came to deliver you a few things," he said as he gave the paper brown bag in his hand a little shake. "So, can I come in?" he asked awkwardly.

"Oh, oh, right, y-yeah, of course," I stuttered out stupidly before opening the door wider for him to enter. As I went to close the door behind him, I leaned my head against the doorframe and closed my eyes with a soft groan.

 What the hell was wrong with me? I'm always cool. Why the fuck had I lost my cool?

Pulling myself as best together as I could, I quickly turned around before anybody realized I was in the middle of having a mental breakdown.

Nathan had weirdly wandered over to my kitchen island and was rummaging around in his bag. I quickly walked over to him and leaned my hip against the counter. "Erm..what are you doing?" I asked slowly.

He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Oh right, I did a little extra cooking yesterday by mistake, so I thought you might like some of it for dinner," he said quietly. 

Then pulling a stack of plastic containers from his bag, he slowly slid them over to me. Confused, I looked down and froze, finding an entire roast dinner all packed up in neatly arranged Tupperware boxes. 

 There were vegetables in one box and crispy roast potatoes in another - there were even fucking Yorkshire puddings!

After a couple seconds of me staring in silence, Nathan cleared his throat. "You did say this was your favorite meal, right?" Nathan asked a hint of apprehension to his tone.

Still, in a dazed state, I slowly nodded my head. "Yeah...," I murmured.

Suddenly, Brandon appeared by my side. "Hey, what's going on here?"

As soon as Brandon's eyes latched on to the food, he staggered back in shock and had to clutch onto the back of the kitchen chair for support. "A-am I having a mirage, o-or is this real?" Brandon whispered; his eyes darted around the containers like a starved man on crack.

"Yeah, it is real," Nathan chuckled. "I made it for Sop- I mean for the two of you to eat together," he corrected with an easy smile.

I narrowed my eyes on him. "Wait, but I thought you said you made extras by accident," I questioned slowly. 

He shuffled awkwardly and averted his eyes for a second before returning them to mine. "Okay, fine, I admit I might have made a little extra on purpose. As much as I hate you, I don't want you to die of scurvy from only eating pizza every single day," he snorted as he sent a pointed look towards our piled-up pizza boxes in the recycling.

I winced, realizing he actually had a fair point.

"Oh, and before I forget -" he said as he stuck his hand back in his bag. I watched in confusion as he fished a Styrofoam cup out of his bag before placing it in front of me. "I dropped by Starbucks on the way, so I picked you up a drink," he shrugged.

The fuck is happening...

All I could do was stare. "It's hot chocolate, don't worry," he added with a chuckle.

I slowly flickered my eyes back and forth between his. There were no real words to describe how I was feeling, but I guess scared would be a good word to sum it up. 

"T-thanks," I stuttered out when I finally regained my ability to speak. "This is, this is so, erm-" I paused as I searched for the right words. "-err...incredible, Nathan, thanks," I finished. 

I didn't need a mirror to know my face probably resembled something close to a tomato right about now.

 Nathan gave me a soft, warm smile. The kind of one that lit up his whole face and made me want to smile along with him. "You're welcome," he winked.

Suddenly I felt a gentle pull on my elbow. "Can I talk to you alone for a second?" Brandon asked abruptly with a strange seriousness to his tone.

I reluctantly pulled my eyes from Nathan and turned towards Brandon. "Yeah, sure," I shrugged.

 On that last word, Brandon firmed his grip on my elbow and dragged me through our hallway and over to my room. 

The moment we were in, he shut the door firmly behind us before swerving around to face me. Brandon looked visibly stressed like he was in the middle of some sort of psychotic breakdown.

 "What did you want to talk about?" I asked.

Brandon shook his head adamantly. "I can't do this anymore," he spat out sharply. 

"Do what?" I questioned as I took a step closer to him. 

 He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "I can't be your fake boyfriend anymore. One, it's stressful as fuck, and two, I don't want to lie, and above all, I don't want to play any part in breaking this poor boy's heart," he stammered out frantically. "I quit!"

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Author's note: 

It's a double update so swipe for more :)