||Twenty||

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I always thought my mother was the most beautiful woman in the world.

She stood before me, looking the same as she always did, yet so different at the same time.

Her greenish brown eyes shone brighter than ever. The lipstick she wore on her lips was the same shade of red she always wore. Her skin was still clear and pale like always, tight over her sharp cheekbones and defined jawline

But her smile was different. Her hair was longer. Her skin glowed like she was a whole different person.

She didn't look like a mother.

It didn't help that she wore skinny jeans and an expensive looking leather jacket. Her hair fell in waves past her shoulders and reached somewhere right over her hips.

She smiled.

"Hello, Nathaniel."

I felt an angry tick form in my jaw at the sound of my full name.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

Her long eyelashes fluttered as she blinked, her smile faltering for half a second. "Can't a mother check up on her son every now and then?"

I scoffed.

Something flashed in her eyes but it disappeared so fast I couldn't catch it.

"Well, can I at least come in?"

"If you tell me what you're doing here, maybe."

"We need to talk," she said.

I frowned. Her expression was turning grim by the second and I felt the need to let her in despite everything.

I held the door at a further distance so she could walk in.

She nodded appreciatively before stepping in to the threshold. I moved to lead her towards the couch, but she was already ahead of me and it looked like I was the one walking into her home. I felt my teeth grit against each other in annoyance, as her high heels clicked loudly against the wooden floor.

She sat gracefully down on the couch and I sat facing her on another seat.

"Are you going to offer me anything to drink?"

I kept my face expressionless as I said, "Do you want anything to drink?"

"No."

I struggled to keep my mouth shut, my fingernails digging into my palm.

"Where's dad?" I asked instead.

"He's at a business meeting."

"At ten PM?"

"He's in Glasgow."

I sighed. "Why are you here?"

"There's something your father and I wanted to discuss with you."

"He's not here," I deadpanned.

She nodded. "Which is why we are inviting you over to the house on Sunday."

"He'll be back by then?"

"Yes."

"Wait, so let me get this straight," I said as I sat up in my seat. "You came all the way here to tell me nothing but to invite me over to your house."

"Our house," her expression softened. "I was in the neighborhood."

I scoffed, spotting the lie a mile away. "Of course you were."

"Make sure you arrive at eleven AM on Sunday," she said.

"What if I don't?" I asked stubbornly.

She held my gaze and raised any eyebrow, "You will do as your mother says."

"I'm not twelve anymore."

"You are still my son."

I bit my tongue and nodded stiffly, too tired to argue.

"Good," she said. "I should be going now. I'll see you on Sunday."

I didn't say anything but followed her as she got up from the couch and walked towards the door. She froze once she got to the door and turned around to stare at me.

I frowned, my eyebrows meeting at the middle of my forehead.

She smiled and I felt even more confused.

"What?" I found myself asking.

She shook her head. "Goodnight, Nathan."

Then she took a step forward and placed a kiss on my cheek before disappearing behind the door.

I needed tea and a really deep sleep.
~

I woke the next morning with questions I never thought to ask the night before.

Why did my mother come last night? What was going on? What was so important that my parents asked me to their home?

"Our house," she had said.

I couldn't think of anything that was so important. I knew my father wanted me to carry on the family business, but I was sure that after everything that happened between us, it wasn't something he wanted anymore.

So that crossed one option out a billion other ones.

I rarely saw my grandparents as a child. I only saw them a few times when they came over to visit, but we never visited them. My parents also married young, hence my grandparents weren't old enough to be in any severe medical conditions either.

That crossed out signing a will of some sort.

For the rest of the morning, as I got ready for the day, I wracked my brain to find anything that could be of use. I came up with nothing.

Around lunchtime, I gave up and ordered pizza.

Then I pushed all thoughts of my family aside and buried myself with work.

Until my phone rang and I was dragged into reality again.

"Hey, it's Jake."

I blinked, rubbing my eyes and turning away from the glare of my computer screen.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Can I come over?"

Curious, I said, "Sure."

"I'll be there in a bit."

"Okay."

We hung up and I smiled to myself. I was worried about Jake, he was acting odd the other day and I was curious to know what that was about.

With nothing to do but wait, I switched off my computer and got up from my chair.

I hurried around the kitchen and prepared two cups of tea. One just incase Jake wanted something to drink, and another for myself because I was always in the mood for tea.

The doorbell rang when I was halfway through scrolling down the messages on my phone. I wasn't sure what I was doing on my phone since I barely ever used it let alone did I receive any messages unrelated to my work.

I walked over to the door and pulled it open and had to blink twice to make sure I was seeing straight.

In front of me stood both Ian and Jake.

Together.

Looking like they were doing so willingly.

"Hi?" I was surprised I spoke at all.

"Can we come in?" Jake asked.

I nodded, stepping aside for the two. "What's going on?"

"I need to talk to you. Alone first," Jake said.

I glanced at Ian, but he only shrugged in response. "I don't have a clue either."

I sighed. "He can go in my room and wait there."

Jake nodded in agreement. Ian raised his eyebrows.

"Wait, right now?" Ian asked after Jake and I stared at him expectedly.

"Yes."

I felt uncomfortable with Jake's short response, and Ian must have caught on because he shot me a quick smirk and asked me which door led to my room.

I pointed at the right one and he walked inside before shutting the door behind him.

I turned to Jake. "I made tea?"

For a second I thought I saw the corner of his lips lift up in smile but it easily could have been a wince as well.

Jake didn't say anything, but took a seat on the couch and waited for me as I walked to the kitchen and brought the pre-made cups of tea over to the living room area.

"It might be cold a little," I said as I set the cups down.

"It's okay," he said, and lifted the cup to his lips.

After he took a few sips I realized that the tea was probably not too cool to drink, so I drank my own.

"Does this have to do with you missing a lesson the other day?" I asked.

"Yeah. I made a mistake."

My stomach felt heavy with dread. "What kind of mistake?"

"I may have lied to you," he said.

I frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Jake took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. "I'mstillnotoveryou."

He talked too fast, I couldn't hear anything he said. "What?"

"I'm still not over you," he muttered.

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Huh?"

"Do I really have to repeat myself a third time?" Jake groaned, running his fingers through his hair.

I felt my self swallow hard. "I don't...I don't understand."

"What?" Jake looked just as confused as I felt.

"How can you still...?" I trailed off, too confused to carry on a proper sentence.

"You don't give yourself enough credit, Nate. You're...more than you think you are."

I shook my head. "Please stop."

He shut his eyes and took a deep breath before releasing it slowly. "I'm sorry."

"What now?"

"I need a break."

"From me," I stated.

Jake nodded.

"Okay," I nodded slowly. "That makes sense."

"I just want you to know...if I find, you know," his face was red.

"If you find someone else? That's only human."

"Right," his face was still red.

"So what does this have to do with Ian?"

"I'm taking a semester in Europe for a change. I thought he could be your tutor temporarily."

"Ian?"

"Yes, the man who's in your room," he said.

I was still thinking about it when Jake added, "I feel bad for taking your parent's money-"

"They won't miss it," I said.

"I still feel bad. So instead of telling them, and creating all this hassle, I'll be transferring the money over to Ian in advance."

"But why Ian? He's not as experienced in teaching as you are."

"He might as well be. He took a few advanced classes while he was still in high school. He'll know what to do. Plus, you already know him. You two are practically friends so it won't be so bad. Besides, if anything goes wrong you can always text me."

I nodded slowly. "Okay. But you still don't know if he'll say yes."

"Oh, he will."

"How do you know?"

"Have you seen the amount your parents pay me?"

He smiled when he saw my despair. "Exactly."

"I'll go get him now," I said, getting up from my position.

"Hey," Jake called after me, and I turned to face him. "I hope this isn't getting in between our friendship."

"It's not," and I meant what I said.

He nodded, but didn't seem reassured and I couldn't think of anything that could change his mind.

I left him in the living room and walked into my room, letting the door shut close on its own.

"I like your room," Ian said, turning to me since he was originally staring out my window.

"Thank you."

I didn't know why he was complementing my room. It looked like almost any other bedroom.

"So what was that all about?" Ian asked, leaning back against the large window with his arms crossed over his chest.

I sat on my bed and explained everything to him. He wasn't too eager at first, but I mentioned the sum and that seemed to do enough.

"I need to keep busy anyway," he said.

I shot him a curious look and his expression turned grim.

"Never mind," he muttered.

I brushed off his strange behavior. "I'm sure you still have some questions and I think you should talk to Jake about those."

Ian agreed and pushed himself from the glass wall before following me out the room.

Jake and Ian sat together in the living room area as they discussed technicalities. Meanwhile, I decided to cook a quick meal for myself and a little extra incase either or both decided to stay a little longer.

Soon enough, Jake had to leave for something important in the university. I let him out the front door, but before the door closed behind him, I slipped through so I was outside in the hallway with him.

He turned to look at me curiously. Since he was a bit taller than me, and we were standing so close, I had to raise my head a bit higher to really look at him. His eyes softened as he looked at me, and I swallowed hard.

"Why me?" I blurted out.

His hand cupped my cheek, and he stared at me so intensely I was sure he didn't hear me.

"Because," he said, like that was enough of an answer.

I frowned and he smiled lightly down at me. "I'm sorry."

He let his hand fall back to his side. "It's not your fault."

"Still," I muttered. "You deserve much better than this."

"Why?" he asked. "I'm just like everyone else."

"No, you're not," I said.

He winced and moved a few steps away from me. "I need to go."

I chewed at my lower lip before nodding. "Have fun during your trip."

"I'll try."

With that he turned around and left.

Was I making a mistake? I shook the thought away, no.

"Can I stay for a while?"

I turned around to see Ian with the front door open and his head tilted in question.

"Uh," I said, still trying to shake Jake's voice out of my head. "Yeah, of course."

Ian nodded his thanks, and I followed him in the apartment.

"Do you want anything to eat?" I asked.

"If it's not too much trouble."

I rolled my eyes. "You should start getting used to this."

"Right," he said.

He followed me through the kitchen as I heated the food.

I sat down across from him, pushing the plate and silverware towards him before picking at my own food.

"This is good," Ian said.

I shrugged, "It's microwave food."

"Which is surprising since it's usually not this good."

I brushed his compliments away. "So when are we starting our lessons?"

"As soon as you'd like."

"Is tomorrow too soon?"

"Not at all," he shook his head.

"Okay," I said.

He took a sip of the tea I'd prepared for him. "Can I ask you something?"

I nodded.

"What's up with you and Jake? You seemed to like him a lot."

"Weren't you warning me about him?"

"I think I was wrong about him."

I frowned. "What happened?"

Ian's eyes turned to ice and I felt even more confused. "Let's just say he was a douchebag and I was too young and stupid to realize it. But I was wrong about Jake, he's different. So, if your decision to break up with him had anything to do with what I said, you should rethink some things."

I shook my head. "It wasn't solely based on that. And I'm sorry you had to go through that."

He shrugged, a small smile played on his lips. "Isn't that what life is about? I made a mistake to trust someone I shouldn't have. The only difference is that I had no one to tell me what I was doing was wrong, and even when I did, I was in too deep to listen."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For warning me even if it was unnecessary."

He chuckled. "So, any other potential boyfriends?"

I snorted. "Incase you haven't noticed, I don't see a lot of people everyday."

"Maybe you should."

"I'm trying."

"Oh, yeah?" he asked, not sounding convinced.

"Yeah. I hung out with Tom and his boyfriend the other day."

"Those are people you already know. Maybe you should do things outside more often."

I scrunched my nose. "Can we skip this conversation and move to something at least a bit more interesting?"

"What do you want to talk about then?"

After giving it a thought, an idea hit me and I grinned.

"What?" he asked. "You look creepy. Please stop doing that."

I laughed at his horrified expression. "Are you busy on Sunday?"

"What time?"

"Around lunch."

"Then no, I'm not. Why?"

"Would you like to meet my parents and have good rich people food?"

"Free food? Sign me up!"

I smiled. "Great. I'll pick you up around eleven."

He raised his eyebrows.

I chuckled at his expression. "It's an early lunch."

"I see," he said.

I grinned.

My parents were going to freak.

Helloooo!

That was kind of an eh chapter. Oh well. It's been a while though, so I felt that you guys deserved an update xp

Question: what do you think of Nate's parents so far? Are they anything like your own?

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net