As Nick and I walked our way to his house, our speed had slightly increased along with the worry now etched across his face. Before you could only see it in his eyes if you looked hard enough, but now it was obvious to anyone who even drove past. I didn't understand why he was so worried, did he have somewhere important he needed to be at by a certain time? What if I'm crashing some sort of family event? Shit, I didn't think this through. I would ask Nick, but even if I could get any words through my heavy breathing I'm afraid I'd be yelled at, so instead, I just kept walking as fast as my short legs would carry me and kept my mouth shut. Soon enough we arrived at what was apparently his house, it was a different one to the one he used to live in before he moved, it looked smaller but it was still a double story. It seemed nice, it had a white picket fence surrounding the bright red-brick house, decorated with lots of greenery and flowers as such. Nick took a deep breath, rolling his shoulders back as if he were trying to relax them but they remained tense and I couldn't help but think that my presence wasn't helping. I put my hand on one of his shoulders, silently reminding him that I was here and whatever it was that he was worried about would be okay. He grabbed my hand with his own and spun around to face me, dropping it from his shoulders.

"You stay out here okay? I'll only be a minute." He said sincerely.

"But I wanna come in and say hi!" I whined. "Not to mention your house looks amazing from the outside, I bet the inside looks-"

"-Julia." He said sternly and I gulped. Looks like I'll be staying out here.

"Okay," I said quietly. He squeezed my hand before dropping it completely and walking towards the front door. I just sighed, feeling defeated. I hate losing, but Nick was nearly never that serious so I know he meant what he said. I sat down on the pavement, my back on the fence facing the road and just waited till Nick came back out. I took in my surroundings, the houses around looking relatively similar to each other. Some were double story, some were single story; they all looked like roughly 3 bedroom houses. Not too excessive but a generous amount of room. There was suddenly a loud crash which made me jump in my spot, sounding like glass breaking, coming from the direction of Nick's house. My head spun around to face the house and there was another loud smash making me flinch. I stood up, unsure of what to do. What the hell was Nick doing? There was muffled shouting coming from the house, along with another loud crash before Nick appeared out the front door with his little sister in his hands, the shouting getting louder due to the open door. Nick just aggressively slammed the door and put his sister on the floor and she ran straight to me with Nick jogging behind her.

"Julia!" She cried out in excitement and I squatted to my knees before she tackled me into a hug.

"Hey there Sophia," I said hugging her back. She was dressed in a pink puffy princess dress, wearing a tiara on her head to go with it. Sophia was Nick's little sister, and we were pretty close seeing as I was always over at their place before they moved. She was only 8 years old when they all moved.

"Woah you've grown!" I said pulling out of the hug.

"Yeah, only one year till I'm officially a big girl!" She cheered, referring to the fact that'd she'd soon be double digits. She'd grown a couple of inches taller, and her hair was a little longer than it was last I saw her. It was down to her shoulders now.

"C'mon now princesses, we gotta move," Nick said, interrupting our little reunion, putting his hand on her back, guiding her ahead. It was then that I noticed the scar above her eyebrow, a cut deep enough it would've needed stitches. I'd have to ask Nick about that later, hell I had to ask him what all the commotion was about too. Maybe he just dropped something, he was quite clumsy at times, however, something told me it wasn't a matter of his clumsiness. I stood up from my position and was immediately met with the usual rush of dizziness. I flung one hand to my head and the other went to hold the fence. Nick was immediately beside me, his hands ghosting around my waist.

"You okay?" He asked quickly.

"Yeah," I muttered out. He suddenly looked behind me at the house, his eyes slightly widening.

"Shit we really gotta go." He rushed out. "You okay to walk or do I have to piggyback the whole way there?" He joked, but his tone made it clear he was serious.

'Do you really want him to feel how heavy you are? He'll probably drop you anyway.'

"No, no, I can walk." I rushed out. "Just stood up too fast," I explained. Besides, a piggyback wasn't gonna burn any calories. Nick started walking up the pavement and I jogged to catch up with him. We walked a little slower this time, probably due to the fact that Sophia couldn't keep up but I wasn't complaining. Before we even made it out of his street, Sophia stopped and called out, bringing both of our attention to her.

"Nickyyy." She whined out, making grabby hands in his direction. He sighed and nodded before dropping to his knees facing away from her, sticking one of his hands in the air with his wrist flicked back, the other on the ground stabilizing himself. Sophia grabbed his hand with one of hers, her other hand going to his head and she hopped on top of his shoulders, her legs resting on either side of Nick's head. She let her hand wrap around his neck before he stood up, his hands resting on her calves with her giggling from being so high up. We resumed our faster pace walk now, to a location I realised I had no clue about. Where were we even going? It was a Saturday so it wasn't like she had to go to school or anything. My questions were soon answered after a 10-minute walk to yet another house, not that it helped answer my question at all. Nick squatted down so Sophia could get off his shoulders safely and an older woman opened the door before we even had the chance to knock.

"Katie!" Sophia squealed out, running to the woman and hugging her legs.

"Hey there, pumpkin!" The lady; Katie; spoke out, wrapping one arm around Sophia.

"Hey Nick," She said looking up. "Nice to see you again." she smiled warmly. She looked in her mid 40's, early 50's at max. She was dressed in pretty colours, a white and green floral skirt that flowed to the floor accompanied by a white tank top and a cardigan. Unlike Nick who was dressed head to toe in black; a black graphic hoodie, black ripped jeans and black docs, along with his; apparently; now-signature sunglasses.

"Good to see you, Katie." He spoke, lifting his sunglasses to rest in his fluffy hair. It looked so soft. I want to run my hands through it. 

"Is 6 alright to pick her up?" He asked and I just stood there clueless. Sophia suddenly bolted inside of the house, squealing when another voice accompanied her, sounding to be roughly the same age as her. Maybe she was just having a play-date with a friend, so why was Nick so worried earlier?

"Yep, just come by whenever, as long as it's no later than 8." She spoke. Nick nodded, acknowledging her words.

"Alright, I'll be here at 7, the latest." He stated. "Thank you, again." He said sincerely.

"Happy to help." She replied before they exchanged goodbyes and we were off walking again. I had so many questions I wasn't sure where to start, hell I wasn't even sure if it was a good idea to ask. I mean it wasn't any of my business, I don't want to push into his personal life. But at the same time like, what the actual fuck? Before my mind could continue arguing with itself, Nick spoke up.

"Sophia normally spends the weekends at her best friends house, I pay Katie to babysit her when I'm not around." He explains. So it was technically a play-date then. But that doesn't explain the worry on his face earlier or all the noise at his house. I didn't push it though, just nodding in understanding and accepting his explanation for what it was.

"You alright to walk home on your home?" He asked, stopping to look at me. Wait, what?

"Huh?" I said confused.

"I need to go home and help my dad with some stuff." He explained looking away from me. "There's nothing for you to do so you'll be bored anyway." I nodded in understanding, disappointed that I'd have to spend my day alone like usual.

"Yeah, yeah I'll be good," I said, trying not to sound disappointed.

"Message me when you get home yeah?" He told me.

"Yeah" I confirmed. We said goodbye and he turned off down the street. I huffed out a breath of air. I shouldn't be disappointed, just a week ago he didn't want anything to do with me. And who am I to complain, I have the whole day to make up for the exercise I didn't do yesterday, the number from this morning still fresh in my brain. I don't get it, I've barely done anything. I just ate a little bit when I was around Nick but that was it. Then it realised.

Nick.

Things started going backwards for me since he got here; because he's here. I wanted to be friends with him again, but is it really worth ruining all my progress over a friendship?

'You've been fine on your own this whole time he's been gone. You don't need him. Once you're perfect you can go back to him. Right now, he's in the way.'

The voice was right, yet again. This is all his fault, I don't need him and he sure as hell doesn't need a fat cow of a best friend. He made it clear when he got here that he didn't want to be friends, I should've just left it at that. I'm so fucking stupid. Lucky for me I noticed early, or else this could've ended worse. Okay, so I'll just pull away for a bit; until I'm skinny. That'll be easy. I take the long way to my house, trying to burn as many calories as I can whilst doing something that requires minimal effort. I spot a giant moving van in the driveway of the house that I knew had previously been for sale. Guess they're finally moving in. I see a girl come out of the house, her hair dark brown hair tied back with a claw clip and a pair of glasses resting on her head.
"No, no, no!" She yelled out, as the movers tossed a box out of the van. "Can you not fucking read?! It has 'fragile'  in bold on the box, that means it's fragile not 'toss it like it's any other box'!" She exclaimed, running over to the box in question, getting down on her knees and aggressively trying to open it and failing. She gave up, whining and picking it up before moving it to her doorstep and sitting down next to it, pulling out her phone. The movers just muttered a half-assed apology and continued with their job, seeing unphased as this girl was just about to throw a tantrum. I walked over to her.

"They seem like dicks." I said to her. She looked to be around my age, her brown eyes looking up to meet mine. "Want me to try and open it?" I offered.

"That would be nice, seeing as these jack-asses are blind. Maybe they could use my glasses sometime, seeing as I never actually use them." She joked. I sat down next to her and carefully picked up the box in question, giggling at her joke.

"I'm Julia," I said, inspecting the box.

"Mia." She offered her name.

"That's a nice name," I told her, trying to rip off the tape on the box and failing. I swear they super glued this shit. I thought fast, taking out one of my piercings and using the sharp edge to cut through the tape, handing the box to Mia.

"There you go," I said, smiling sweetly and putting my earring in my pocket. I need to clean it when I get home now. She eagerly opened up the box like a little kid on Christmas morning, inspecting the items inside for any damage. I didn't look inside, not wanting to cross any boundaries. We did just meet, after all.

"Thank god, I would've cried if they broke." She said breathing out a sigh of relief. I just laughed.

"They don't really give a fuck, as long as they're getting paid," I told her. She folded the lid of the box back into its previous position. Looking up at the movers, they were shutting the van doors, signifying that they had finished, a pile of boxes lazily dumped on the nature strip.

"You need help with those?" I offered, nudging my head in the direction of the boxes.

"That would be great, thank you." She says. We both get up, picking up two boxes each before heading inside her house.

"You can just put those on the kitchen counter." She tells me. "I'm just gonna put these in my room, I'll be back." She walked up the stairs and I put the two boxes on the kitchen counter as instructed. She came jogging back down the stairs not too long later, her hair out of its ponytail.

"You want a glass of water or something?" She offered.
"Yes, that'd be nice thank you," I told her. She opened one of the boxes on the counter, fragile also in bold in that box.

"Oh, you're fucking kidding me." She exclaimed, pulling out a broken champagne glass. I laughed, not surprised. She pulled out another champagne glass, this one intact, and went to the tap and filled it up with water before sliding it across the island bench to me.

"Sorry, I have no clue where the normal glasses are." She apologised. I took a sip of the water, it being the first drop I've drunk all day as I had coffee with breakfast.

"It's okay," I tell her after I've swallowed. "It makes me feel all boujee." She laughed, agreeing before going through the box and placing glasses in a clear cupboard. Once she was done with that box she sighed, placing her hands on her hips.

"Alright, I'm bored." She voiced and I nearly choked on my water due to my laughter.

"You seem to have quite the short attention span." I pointed.

"Yeah," She replied. "I really do." I just smiled. "You wanna get high?"

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Hey besties! 5K views? Holy shit thank you so much, if you're still reading this then just know I really appreciate you. So what do we think of Mia? She's actually based off one of my mates irl, so that's where the inspiration for her character comes from. Take care of yourselves <3

- J 

:D