A/N: Thank you to ChloeCullen for the awesome banner! makes me chucke everytime i see it!

So i thought i would do things a little differently and give you the POV for the one, the only, Nate Hastings. Abit of an emotional chapter not going to lie, there needs to be a balance of drama and humour after all!

Anywaay, enjoy and let me know what you think my beautiful people!

--

--

NATE POV

If I wasn’t so angry, I would have laughed at the state of my sister and best friend.

As they climbed into the car, they both looked like they had been hit by a steam train. The bags under both of their eyes were huge, Mia’s hair was standing at all ends and her makeup was smudged around her face making her look like the joker. Drake’s clothes were covered in what I’m assuming are beer stains, and he smelt like a clogged toilet.

They grunted as they closed the doors to the car, clearly too hangover to speak properly. It looked like being out in the sunlight was painful enough; trying to make a sentence would probably cause them physical pain.

So of course, I took advantage of that.

“GOOD NIGHT?!” I yell, breaking all silence in the car and actually making them both jump before they clutched their foreheads and closed their eyes painfully.

“I guess we deserve that…” Drake groans, getting more comfortable in his seat and leaning his head on the window.

“No, what you deserve is for me to kick your ass ‘til next week.” I clear up “You know what I’ve gone through? The thoughts of both of you being dead on a street corner were flashing through my head all night, I’ve had to drive an hour out of my way to pick your drunken asses up and to top it all off I’ve had to deal with Lacey all morning and convince her not to call the police.”

“I am really sorry Nate, there was a free bar and you know the rest.” Mia apologised, thinking that the words ‘free bar’ would make me realise that all of my worrying was for a good cause.

I turn around to the back seat, seeing my 16 year old sister sprawled out on them with her arm over her eyes blocking out the sunlight.

“And you! I went through the night of hell last night even before I realised the both of you had gone AWOL.” I pointed at her accusingly.

I see her scrunch her face with guilt as she knows exactly what I'm referring to.

“So Lacey turned up with Tyler last night then?” she asks knowingly.

“What a good guess Mia!” I reply sarcastically “And so began my night of hell. Not only did she turn up with him, she spent the majority of the night making out with him in the table in front of me, making loud suggestions to him about taking her into the toilets for a bit of private time and then ended the night by throwing pint of beer in my dates face.”

Mia burst out laughing, whipping the arm off of her eyes and looking at me in disbelief “You’re kidding?”

I shook my head “No, I am not. We full on had a Jerry Springer moment in the middle of the bar.” Mia carried on laughing, clearly impressed by her best friend’s behaviour “I’m glad you find this hilarious.”

“Before she threw the beer, what did you do?” Drake suddenly speaks up.

I turn to him, surprised by his input “What?”

He still had his head rested on the window, his eyes closed. He let out a sigh before opening them and turning to me with a knowing expression.

“What did you do after you saw them making out and before she threw the beer?” he asks again, looking at me with his brows raised. I glared at him, hating the fact I've known him for so long and kicking myself for forgetting this dude knows me better than I know myself.

“I punched Tyler in the face.” I finally admit, and Drake nods once as if proving his point, then turns back around and proceeds to fall asleep again.

“You punched him in the face?!” Mia exclaims, sitting up in the backseat. I see her face flinch slightly in pain as she sits up properly.

“Are you okay?” I ask as I see her shifting uncomfortably for a little while.

“Yeah just trying to get comfortable.” She responds dismissively, and I hear Drake breath a small laugh as if he knew something I didn’t “You punched him?”

“Well what was I going to do! The asshole actually went to take her to the toilets at the back!” I quickly defended. Yes, I may have overreacted slightly when I flew out of my seat, grabbed him by the collar and clocked him one in the jaw, but no way in hell was I letting him get his end away with Lacey in a bar I had to work in almost every day. While I was sat in the next room.

Judging by the smug smile on Lacey’s face as I did this, it was exactly the reaction she wanted. I had a feeling she had no intention of doing anything with Tyler she just wanted to get to me.

It may have worked.

Then one thing led to another, my date made the worst mistake that she possibly could and called Lacey a bitch. Next thing you know, the girl was throwing beer around like it was free.

Mia shook her head “If you weren’t on a date with another girl in the first place none of this would have happened.”

“We are not together!” I retort, not understanding the big deal of me going on a date with…What the fuck was her name?

“Then why did you punch Tyler in the face?” she challenged with a smug smile, knowing very well I had no reply to that.

I clenched my jaw and decide the best reply was none at all, so I turned back around and started the car proceeding to drive home. The radio turned on automatically, the sounds of ‘Get Low’ echoing around the car.

Mia and Drake let out groans simultaneously.

“Man, switch it off!” Drake moaned, burying his head in his hands as the hangover was clearly hitting hard.

“Oh sorry…” I apologise sweetly, turning the volume button up until I could barely hear my own thoughts. They both let out actual whimpers of pain, Mia collapsing on the back seat and covering her ears with her hands.

“TO THE WINDOW! TO THE WALL! TO THE SWEAT DRIP DOWN MY BALLS!” I sang along to the music, a satisfied smirk at the corner of my mouth.

Paybacks a bitch.

--

Don’t get me wrong, I trust my best friend completely. I knew he would never fuck me over intentionally, Drake was like my brother. We had grown up together and without sounding gay, we knew everything about each other.

I’m the only person he has ever told about what got him sent inside, and I have never uttered it to anyone else. Not even Mia.

So when I did accuse Mia and Drake of going AWOL and going behind my back to…you know, I didn’t say it because I didn’t trust Drake.

I just knew what Drake was like. The boy thought with his penis, then the rest followed. He would never intentionally backstab me but sometimes the boy just doesn’t think things through. He’s used to talking his way out of situations, using his charm to get around people to get them to forgive him.

I don’t know why the thought even crossed my head. It was ridiculous. I knew he would never go there with Mia. I mean yeah he wouldn’t do that to me, but they had basically grown up together as well. I don’t think he would go there in general.

He knew how protective I was of the girl. I didn’t mean to be the overbearing parental type but it was hard. With our dad being away the majority of the time, it was my job to look out for her. It was bad enough knowing she had a sex life with that douchebag Garry, but at least she was in a relationship with him.

No brother wants to know their little sister is doing the dirty with any guy. If it was up to us, the chastity belt would go on as soon as they hit puberty and would stay on until their wedding night. Maybe even after that.

Drake was like my brother. If he said nothing happened, then I believed him. He wouldn’t lie to me. Especially not about Mia. I was stupid to even let that thought cross my mind.

--

“Oh look, Whitney and Bobby Brown are home.” Lacey greeted Drake and Mia as we walked through the front door. How she got in I have no idea, but I stopped questioning that girls abilities a long time ago.

“Hey Lace.” Mia smiled at her weekly, walking straight past her and up the stairs clearly heading for bed.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook Missy, we were up all night worrying about you!” Lacey yelled up the stairs, and I had to stop a laugh as I saw her go all protective mother on Mia.

Drake slaps my shoulder “I’m hitting the sack too man. Thanks for coming to get us, and sorry for doing a Houdini on you last night. You really didn’t need to worry though; I wouldn’t have let anything happen to her.” Drake apologises, and I can hear the sincerity in his voice as he reassures me about Mia.

I nod “I know man; if there’s one dude I can trust her with it’s you.” I let out a laugh.

Drake doesn’t laugh with me, instead I see him give a half-hearted smile. He then turns and walks up the stairs, clearly passing out until tomorrow most likely.

And that left me alone. With Lacey.

The silence in the room was deafening as we both look around, clearly neither of us could come up with anything to say. She rolls her tongue across her top teeth as I can see her thinking of anything to break the awkward silence.

“So…” she drifts off, before pointing at the stairs “…I’m going to go and join Mia for a nap. Clearly neither of us are going to school today.”

As she begins to turn and walk up the stairs, I sigh.

“Lacey wait.” I call out and she stops at the bottom step “She’s going to be dead to the world for a few hours yet, just stay down here. We can watch a film or something.”

She turns to look at me, her brows raised in amusement.

“A film? What are we on a date?” She jokes, and I resist the urge to smirk.

I shrug “First time for everything.”

She steps down, turning to look at me with a serious glare “Well apparently not. You looked pretty chummy with your date last night.”

And there it was.

I knew it was coming, I just didn’t realise how fast it was coming. I sounded like I was referring to the apocalypse. And for all you dudes out there, you know that arguing with a woman is the equivalent to the end of the world.

Give me zombies and rising oceans any day over having a confrontation with a girl.

“Pot calling the kettle black there Lace, I wasn’t the one offering myself to Tyler in a public toilet.”

“Why the hell do you think I was doing that you asshole? I don’t give a shit about Tyler!” she replied, and I feel the pang of relief as I heard her confirm this.

What the hell was wrong with me?

“So very mature there, ambush me on a date to make me jealous with some douchebag who wears boat shoes.” I snort a laugh. “I mean it’s like seriously, you are not a sailor. You work in Burger king. Take the fucking boat shoes off.”

“You lied to me!” Lacey almost screams, and I stay quiet as I realise she had a point there “I asked you to do something, and you point blanked lied to me because you’d rather hang out with poster child for breast implants.”

I let out a breath “I am sorry Lace; I know I shouldn’t have lied. It was a shitty move on my part and I admit it, but I didn’t know how you would react.”

“Probably the same way you would if I told you I was going on a date with another guy.” She replied in a flat tone, her eyes cold.

And she had me there. I saw her with Tyler last night and I was so angry words couldn’t describe it. I didn’t want her touching another guy even if it was something as small as a handshake, let alone making out with them.

So if I felt like this, why was it so freaking hard to just admit I didn’t want her with anyone else but me?

Because I was an asshole. I admit that. The idea of settling down with a girl at the age of 18 scared the shit out of me.

I started this whole thing with Lacey as a hook up, we had mutually agreed it would be a no strings attached thing and for a while we had managed it. But over time, spending more time with the girl made my feelings for her grow. Judging by the white trash reaction she had last night with throwing the beer on my date, I think it was the same case for her.

I can safely say, even as a male, friends with benefits ends up in disaster at least 80% of the time. And unfortunately for me, my penis and my life, I fell into that statistic.

“Do you even like me?” she asks me, her voice breaking slightly and I have to physically hold myself back from going over to her and taking her in my arms.

 Jesus, I think I just grew a vagina right now.

“Of course I like you. Too much. I think that’s the problem.” I finally admit.

I see her face take in my words, before the look in her eyes tells me she agrees.

“So much for no strings attached hey?” she lets out a strained laugh, and I raise my brows in a ‘tell me about it’ gesture. She looks at me seriously “Look Nate, I like you. Like really like you. I get it, you're a young lad who wants to live his life and doesn’t want to settle down with a girlfriend. I completely understand and in a way I feel the same way. I'm only 16.” I stay silent as I listen to her words, waiting to see where she was going with this. I see her struggle to get out the next words “But I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep hooking up with you then pretending like nothing happened. For the sake of our friendship, it needs to stop. We can’t keep doing this, it’s not healthy.”

I am literally speechless as I hear her say these words. I knew she was right, but actually agreeing to never do this again with Lacey is something my mouth was finding hard to let me do. The idea of not being with her, if that’s what you can call it, laughing with her, sleeping with her. I'm not even talking about the sex, just generally lying in bed next to her and talking about random shit until we both fell asleep.

It wasn’t the sex that made my feelings for Lacey grow; it was all the bits in-between.

I can have sex with anyone. It’s only her I can actually stand to be around after.

But I knew she was right. We couldn’t keep hooking up and then going back to normal, getting with other people and pretending this was no strings attached, because there were so many strings attached right now I felt like part of a fucking hammock. It wasn’t fair on her, it wasn’t fair on me and it was only a matter of time before it fucked up our friendship.

That’s one thing I couldn’t lose with this girl.

I nod my head slowly, not knowing how long it took me to finally do so “I know.”

I actually see her clench her jaw slightly as she hears me agree, and I feel like shit again as I realise I think a part of her hoped I would disagree. I wanted to, but I wasn’t ready for a relationship. I was a fucking moron. Sooner or later, probably sooner, I would mess it up.

She suddenly lets out a long breath, composing herself “Holy crap, a year later and we’re actually stopping this?”

I nod again, clenching my fists by my sides “Yeah looks like we are.”

Another silence passes before she is the one to break it.

“Goodbye sex?” she jokes, and I can’t help the breath of laughter that comes out. Reasons like this is why I adore this girl so much.

She grins at me; her eyes still red from where she was trying not to cry.

“Still wanna’ watch that film?” I ask hopefully.

She smiles before nodding “As long as it’s nothing with a happy ending. Blood and guts, that’s what I want to see right now.”

“Saw it is then.” I reply with a grin of my own, and she laughs before agreeing.

I grab the DVD off the side and put it in the DVD player. While I'm doing this Lacey goes over to the sofa, sitting down on it. From the corner of my eye I see her wipe her face with the sleeve of her hoodie, then quickly composing herself before I grab the remote and turn back around.

I walk over to the sofa and sit next to her. As the DVD loads up she looks at me with a sad smile, and I don’t know why but it was a look that basically said we had to be okay. I mean we had just greed to stop a yearlong hook up and we were now sat here watching a film.

I lift my arm and place it on the sofa behind her, getting closer to her until she lifts her legs up on the sofa and snuggles closer to me, placing her head on my shoulder as the film begins and in silence we watch it.

Watching a guy saw his own foot off right now has never sounded more appealing.

Even as I thought this, I suddenly realised the guy probably felt less shit than I did right now, and I still had both feet.

Go figure.

..