Enjoying the Chase (30 page)

Silence.

“Rose, you okay?”

More silence.

Confused, I looked at my phone, only to see
that the screen was black. I tapped my screen a couple of times, but nothing
happened. My eyes widened in horror.

My battery. My battery had died at the
worst time possible.

“
Nooooooo! No, no, no,
no, no!
” I shouted, sitting up and holding down the
power button, trying to turn it back on again.
This cannot be happening to
me! Right now? It has to be right at that very moment? Damn it, can
’
t a guy catch a break? I hate karma!

I threw my phone on the side and jumped out
of the bed, streaking across my room and yanking the door open.

“Mom, Dad, I need to borrow a cell phone!
It
’
s an emergency!” I shouted, not
caring if I woke the whole house.

Chapter
Seventeen

Unfortunately for me, I had forgotten
about the secret smiles my parents were shooting each other before bed, so I
had no idea I would burst into their room screaming about a cell phone
emergency, while they were in the middle of, what can only be described as,
‘the worst sight I have ever seen in my life’. No child should ever have to see
parent sex. Ever. The image of it seemed to be burned on the inside of my
eyelids, and I couldn’t shake it off. Even now, two hours later, it still just
kept popping back in there, making me shudder and wince.

It was all incredibly embarrassing. I
’
d stood there practically screaming “Sorry,”
over and over again, with my hands pressed over my eyes, while they both tried
to cover themselves up with the sheets. It was, hands down, the most awkward
moment of my life. If a bolt of lightning had come down and struck me at that
exact moment, I would have been grateful.

My dad had just thrown my mom
’
s cell phone at me, ordering me to leave,
while I just stood trying not to picture what I had just seen so I wouldn
’
t heave. Then, to top it all off, by the time
I had called Rosie back and explained what had happened, we just spent the next
half an hour laughing about it, so I hadn
’
t had my phone sex after all. I had, however, arranged to cut my
trip short and go home tomorrow afternoon so that I could get a little physical
attention from my girl instead. That would cheer me up no end.

For the hundredth time since it happened, I
glared at my phone that was sitting on the side. “Worthless piece of crap!” I
muttered. What was the point in paying all that money if you couldn
’
t use the damn thing in a life or death
situation? I
’
d missed out on
probably the best phone call of my life, all because of a stupid piece of
plastic and glass, and instead I was scarred for life and will probably never
be able to look my mother in the eye again.

I glanced at the clock. It was now after
two in the morning; the last of the girls had only gone to bed about half an
hour ago, so I needed to be sure that they were all asleep before I exacted my
revenge. Smiling, I pushed myself out of the bed and crept downstairs into the
kitchen. Rifling through the drawers, I found what I was looking for; Dad
’
s digital watch. When I was back in the safety
of my room, I lay back on my bed with a smile on my face. I was tired, of
course, but this was going to be worth it.

When I was finally convinced they would all
be asleep, I grabbed the toothpaste from my bathroom, unplugged my alarm clock
and carried everything out into the hall, wondering who I should get first. I
decided to go for Hannah. She and Paige would get off a little lighter than
Lisa considering they
’
d used
washable markers.

Silently, I slipped into Hannah
’
s room and grinned, trying not to laugh.
Hannah and Paige were both getting the same treatment. I grabbed her hair
mousse from the side table and, as quietly as I could, squirted a large blob
into my hand before teasing it into the top of her hair, making it stick up.
Chuckling quietly at my handiwork, I set to work putting a blob of toothpaste
on each of her fingers, before tickling her nose and cheeks with a piece of
tissue paper. The whole time I recorded it on her cell phone as evidence, then
sent it to myself after so I could keep a copy.

I looked down at her sleeping form, grinning
at the toothpaste on her cheek, nose, forehead and neck. Perfect. Now I would
do Lisa because her room was right next door. Before I slipped out of Hannah
’
s room though, I pulled the black sharpie from
my pocket and headed around to her other side, smiling smugly as I wrote
‘Nate
was here
’
on the back
of her neck.

I let her hair fall back down and silently
congratulated myself for thinking of this. All three of the girls had long
hair, and usually left it down. By writing on the back of their necks, it would
mean that they wouldn
’
t be able to
see it in the mirror. It could be days before anyone noticed.

Picking up the rest of my supplies, I
headed into Lisa
’
s room next door.
After giving her the same mousse to the hair treatment, I decided to skip the
toothpaste prank in case it ruined the other thing that I had planned.

I grinned as I found her cell phone,
setting her alarm to go off for 3:30 and then again for 5:30. I set her alarm
clock for 4am, then I plugged in my alarm clock and set it for 4:30, but I hid
it under the bed so she
’
d have to
get out and look for it. The last thing I had was my dad
’
s digital watch, which I set that for 5am and hid under her pillow.

“Payback
’
s a bitch, Lisa,” I whispered, laughing as I snuck out of her room;
just Paige to go now.

When I pushed on her door, it wouldn
’
t open. I frowned and tried again. The handle
turned, but it didn
’
t open. Had
the little sneak barricaded her door knowing I was going to seek revenge? I laughed
quietly; trust Paige to think of that! She was definitely the one most like me.
She
’
d won for the night. I
’
d just have to find some way of punishing her
in the morning instead.

I headed back to bed with a grin on my
face, pushing a chair up under my door handle, knowing that Lisa would be in
here to throw water at me or something in a couple of hours when the alarm
clocks started to wake her every half an hour. Sighing contentedly, I drifted
into a peaceful sleep thinking about my girl.

A couple of hours later, as I thought, I
was woken to the sound of angry pounding on my door and Lisa screaming at me
because she couldn
’
t find the last
alarm and it was apparently driving her insane. I had just smiled triumpantly
and pulled the pillow over my head and went back to sleep with a grin on my
face.

In the morning, I headed downstairs early.
I needed to come up with something quick so that I could get Paige back in some
small way. The only thing I could think of at short notice was to poison her
coffee. I knew she had a lot of sugar, so I dumped the sugar into a bowl and
replaced it with salt. Boring payback, but at least she would get something.

Ten minutes later, someone walked into the
kitchen behind me. I smiled, expecting it to be one of my sisters; instead, it was
my mom. I dropped my eyes to the floor and tried not to picture the sight from
last night.

“Morning, Nate,” she chirped in her overly
enthusiastic morning voice. She was always a morning person, the same as I was.

“Er, hey,” I mumbled, wishing the ground
would open up and swallow me.
What the hell do I say? Sorry for bursting in
last night and interrupting your… Wow, I can
’
t even finish that thought without heaving!
“Sorry about last night,” I choked out.

She waved her hand dismissively. “No
worries, we
’
re all adults now.”

“I thought I was until last night.” I
swallowed the lump in my throat and shuddered as my mind wandered there again. Slapping
my forehead with the heel of my hand, I tried to actually knock the image from
my head. With my other hand, I pushed her phone across the counter in a bid to
change the subject. “Thanks for the loan.”

“Sure. What was the emergency?” she asked,
making coffee. When she reached for the sugar, I briefly considered letting her
put salt in her drink as payback for the horrifying sight I was subjected to
last night, but then I figured I couldn
’
t do that to my mom.

I put my hand over the top of the pot and
shook my head. “You might want to go without today.”

“Payback?”

“Payback,” I confirmed.

“You
’
re mean to your sisters, Nathaniel,” she scolded, but smiled at the
same time.

“Oh, come on, they deserved it! I scrubbed
it again this morning and it still won
’
t come off,” I whined, rubbing my stomach absentmindedly.

Mom giggled but stopped when I glared at
her. “Okay, it
’
s not funny,” she
stated, hiding her smile. “So, what was the emergency with the phone?”

Phone sex. Dirty, slutty, nasty phone sex.
“My battery died and I needed to speak to Rosie about something. As
it turns out the situation kind of fizzled out, so what I wanted, didn
’
t happen anyway,” I grumbled, frowning and
stabbing my cereal with my spoon.

Her eyes lit up as she snatched her phone
from the counter. “So now I have Rosie
’
s number?”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. I
’
d already anticipated her reaction and had
deleted Rosie
’
s number from the
last dialled list.

“I can
’
t find it.” She scrolled through her phone, frowning.

“I removed it. I
’
m not letting you call her up and tell her all of my secrets, you
’
ll scare her away from me with your
craziness.” I waved a hand at her in example of said craziness.

She pouted at me and put her cell phone
down. “Aww, I
’
m just taking an
interest in your first girlfriend. And, of course, I can
’
t wait to meet her and her little boy!” she gushed.

“Well, like I said, it
’
s early days.”

“But you really like her?” I could hear the
hope in her tone.

I sighed. “Yep.”

“You
’
re crazy about her?”

“Yes, Mother, I
’
m crazy about her!” I replied.

She squealed and clapped her hands like a teenage
girl. “
Then I
’
m a nanny in spirit, at least. I can wait for the actual title to be
handed to me when it
’
s official.”

I rolled my eyes and ate my cereal,
ignoring her ramble on about how she was going to start buying toys to keep at
their house ready for when he came to visit. The more excited she got about it,
the more excited I got about it too. I couldn
’
t help but wonder how long it would take Rosie to trust me enough to
become part of their lives for real.

Half an hour later Paige came down the
stairs, smirking at me cockily, obviously pleased with herself because she
’
d managed to escape the payback last night.

“Morning,” she greeted. “How
’
s the stomach today?”

I frowned at her and pulled my T-shirt up,
showing her the pen that was clearly still there. “I can
’
t believe Lisa did that. I got her back good last night though.” I
chuckled to myself, remembering her banging on my door in the night.

Paige chuckled darkly. “I heard her
screaming at you. Alarm clocks in the bedroom?”

“And mousse in the hair.”

“Nice!” She held up her hand for a high
five.

My mom poured her a coffee, setting some
toast down in front of her. I watched with a satisfied smile as my sister
heaped three spoonfuls of salt into her cup. Sighing contentedly, I leant back
in my chair and waited to enjoy the show. Karma didn
’
t seem too bad when it wasn
’
t directed at me.

That evening, I headed over to Rosie’s
place. By the time I’d skipped up the stairs to her apartment, she was already
waiting for me with the door open, leaning against the doorframe.

Two days of not seeing her felt like a
ridiculously long time. I walked straight up to her, grabbing her and hoisting
her over my shoulder, laughing as she
squealed.

“Nate! What are you doing?” she cried
breathlessly as I
walked
into her apartment and closed
the door behind me.

I grinned and spanked her behind gently. “I
missed you, so I thought we could just dispense with the pleasantries and skip
straight to the…” I trailed off and dropped her carefully on the sofa, smiling
at her excited face.  

“The…?” she prompted when I didn
’
t carry on.

I sighed and sat down onto the sofa next to
her, taking her hand and bending forward, kissing her cheek. “Skip to the
movie?” I suggested, trying to look innocent.

“And there was me thinking I was in for a
hot make out session, caveman style. Now I
’
m kind of disappointed.”