"Hey, what's that noise?" Alfie asked from his position next to Amber on the sofa. All the residents of Anubis were currently in the living room and all was at peace again after the drama of their truth or dare game a few nights ago. Mara was satisfied with Jerome's apology and Mick accepted it begrudgingly, only to appease Mara. Currently, Amber and Alfie were sat together flipping through one of Amber's fashion magazines, Jerome was sat at the other end of the sofa watching tv while Mara sat on his lap reading a book, Joy was sat on the floor debating with Patricia the best rom coms of all time, Mick was sat at the kitchen table eating whilst occasionally sneaking jealous glances at Mara and Jerome, Fabian was on the chair playing chess against his laptop as Eddie was sat on the floor plaiting Nina's hair. After finding out he used to do his little sister's hair all the time back home, Nina forced him to plait hers.
"Erm, I think it's my laptop" Nina looked surprised sweeping her laptop up onto the kitchen table as everyone followed her into the kitchen.
Opening up the flashing window, Nina clicked Accept video call from Danny as the webcam switched on and an image of a tanned boy with short brown hair appeared on the screen.
"Danny, hey!" Nina grinned at the screen.
"Hey Nins, how's Hogwarts?"
"Danny? …As in your ex-boyfriend Danny?" Amber's eyebrows knitted together in confusion.
"And hello to the rest of the people on the camera who I presume are Nina's friends?" Danny stated to a mix of replies at the people currently gathering round Nina's computer.
"Hello!"
"Hey"
"'Sup"
"Danny, this is Amber, Alfie, Jerome, Mara, Eddie, Patricia, Fabian, Joy and Mick" Nina quickly introduced them.
"So Nina, how's the boyfriend? Still dreamy as ever?" Danny winked at the screen, obviously not being aware of recent events.
"Oh my god Danny, her and Fabian broke up!" Nina saw Danny's little brother Joey appear in the background racing into the room, obviously eavesdropping into their conversation.
"What? And how do you know?" Danny questioned suspiciously.
"Well when Charlotte and everyone came round earlier I heard her talking to Danielle about how someone had totally broken Nina's heart because she'd been on the phone sobbing to her the other day, telling her about how she'd been dumped"
"Go away lil bro, you know far too much" Danny shoved his little brother out of the room before returning back to the computer screen. Everyone back at the English side of the video chat were a little uncomfortable and awkward: Fabian was looking very guilty hearing about how Nina had cried on the phone to her friends back in America, and Eddie wanted to know how close Danny and Nina still were oceans apart.
"Okay, whose ass do I have to kick? Is it that Patricia again?"
"No" Nina laughed rolling her eyes at Danny, "me and Patricia are good friends now, I've told you this".
She'd told him? How often did they video chat? Had they always been in touch since she left America?
"Okay, I'm here if you need me Nins" Danny smiled.
"Really Danny? She's been broken up from her boyfriend for five minutes and you're already making a move? There's this thing called tact you know, you might wanna think of using it sometimes"
"God damn it Joey, STEP AWAY FROM MY BEDROOM DOOR AND QUIT EAVESDROPPING!" Danny turned around and yelled at his bedroom door. "He likes to think he's funny…he's not"
"Aw come on Dan, you know you had a crush on me in the fifth grade and sent me that valentines card" Nina teased making Danny blush.
"That wasn't me, it was DANNY WEST!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say! Anyway, was there a reason you called? Not that I don't want you to just you always video chat when everyone else is round, not on your own" Nina asked.
"Yeah, well, I've got some bad news…Jess' mum died" Danny paled as he announced the news to Nina.
Jess' mum had been diagnosed with cancer about a year ago and had been fighting a losing battle which ended about an hour ago and Jess had texted all her friends letting them know. Danny knew that this would hit Nina particularly hard; since the death of her parents, Jess' mum was like a second mum to Nina, she virtually spent her time split between her Nan's and Jess'.
"I'm sorry Nina, I know how close you were after your parents and everything, I'd give you a hug if I could"
"I'll hug her for you!" Amber intervened and captured Nina in a bone crushing hug while Nina held back tears for about the third time that day.
Everyone from Anubis crowded round for a big group hug which made Nina smile a little but she was literally stunned to silence; why did every adult she got close to die? How could they all leave her like that? How could they all be…gone?
"I'm really sorry but I've got to go, we all said we'd go round to Jess' and see how she's doing. Talk to you soon Nina, bye everyone" and with that, the laptop screen went blank and everyone glanced around the room, no one quite sure what to say.
"Nina…are you okay?" Amber asked worriedly at her best friend.
"Yeah, I think I'm just gonna go up to my room for a bit"
Nina made her way up the stairs, hearing nothing but silence in her wake. Once she got into her room, she just completely broke down. Tears raced down her face, stinging her eyes as she just started being angry. Furiously launching the chair that was in her way across the room, she yelled in frustration. Sobbing so hysterically, she stepped onto her bed and started ripping down the posters she'd hung up on her wall. She was angry.
How dare her parents leave her when she was just a little girl! She had little to no memories of them, and only half of the ones she did have were happy.
Rip.
How dare the only people who could understand her agony be continents away! Only her American friends could understand the hole ripped through her right now, and they weren't even here to grieve alongside her.
Rip.
How dare Fabian break her already so fragile heart! Hadn't she suffered enough in only the short period of time she'd lived?
Rip.
How dare Joy come and take away her very first love! He loved Nina, until Joy came and dug her little claws into their relationship.
Rip.
And how dare God take away one of the few people who she could call family! She treated Nina like she was her own and as a repayment, she had to suffer for years from cancer to just die?
"Hey Nina, I just wan- woah" Eddie entered the room as Nina flung her bedside table across the room whilst she screamed in frustration.
Eddie immediately ran over to Nina's side, wrapping his arms around her while she struggled to get out of his grip, first pounding her fists against his chest screaming 'let me go' before fully breaking down and sliding to the floor in Eddie's arms sobbing uncontrollably.
Why me, Nina thought.
They stayed like this for what must have been an hour, Nina sobbing deeply into Eddie's chest while he sat on the floor keeping his arms wrapped around her, whispering occasional words into her ear and gently rocking them back and forth.
"Why does he have to take everyone I care about? Was the death of my parents not enough? Who's next, Amber? Patricia? You?" she whispered once she'd finished crying. She'd simply run out of tears; there were too many things to cry about.
"Hey, I'm not going anywhere, always remember that" he closed his eyes and just breathed in, her hair smelt of strawberries.
"Nina, are you okay?" Amber entered the room obviously worried about how Nina was taking the news. But upon entering and seeing her wrapped up in Eddie's arms on the floor, her face changed from one of worry to one of surprise.
Letting herself out of Eddie's grasp, she stood up and tried to give a smile to Amber.
"No, but I will be. I think I'm just gonna go freshen up" And as soon as Nina left the room, Amber closed the door and narrowed her eyes at Eddie.
"How long have you liked Nina?"
"Wait, wh-what? I don't, we're just good friends"
"Nooo, Alfie and Nina are good friends, you and Nina are a lot more than what she and Alfie are" Amber explained, and when it seemed like she wasn't going to say anything else, Eddie spoke up.
"Listen, I care about Nina, a lot, but we're nothing more than friends. And besides, she's still hung up on Fabian, they only broke up a few days ago. She's still not over him"
"Like you're not over Patricia?" she questioned raising her eyebrows.
"R-Right" he stuttered, even he didn't believe him. Was he really over Patricia that quickly? Well he guessed that they were always arguing, they weren't ever like a normal couple. And he guessed he never really was that cut up about their break up, at least not how cut up Nina was about her and Fabian.
"Look Eddie, I know you like Nina, even if you don't. I've predicted every single couple in this house before it happened, with the exception of me and Alfie, and I'm not going to start being wrong now. All I'm saying is, don't break her heart. She seems so strong and so happy about everything, but that's only to hide the pain from everything she's been through. And I know that this whole thing with Fabian has hurt her much more than even she knows. When she first got here, she had no friends. She'd left her old life back in America and the first real friend she'd made was Fabian. He gave her something else to think about, she didn't have to worry about any problems she'd left behind because he built a wall between then and now. And she fell in love. So now that Fabian's gone, she feels like that wall is being torn down brick by brick and after this afternoon, she's even more fragile than she was before. So don't hurt her, I'm warning you now" and with that, she went downstairs leaving a bewildered Eddie in Nina's bedroom.
Had Amber Millington just said all that to him? The simple minded, sweet yet slow pretty blonde who had to have live TV explained to her? Okay, the world really had gone mad.