A/N: I know the POV's are all messed up. Sorry. It originally used to be in first person, but I decided to mix it up so I tried to change as much of the 'I' to 'he'. I know I missed a few... or a lot... but yeah. The next few chapters are a little better. Hahaa. Thanks for reading. :)
"Your turn," Tish smiled at Nick with a devil grin. She adjusted her feet and flashed Nick a look of pure determination. She never did have a good poker face. Chuckling under his breath, his laid out the letters T and N.
"Tan," Nick exclaimed proudly. "5 points."
The group laughed out loud, knowing how horrible Nick had always been at Scrabble. It was almost a summer tradition to play Scrabble every Friday night. Surprisingly, Miley had decided to stay home. It was the first time they were all actually together. Nick nudged the blanked- out brunette with his foot. "Your turn, Miles."
She shook her head quickly as if waking up from a day dream. "What?"
"Your turn," Nick repeated.
"Are you alright, hun? You've been looking kind of exhausted recently," Tish quickly broke in with her worried tone. Everyone nodded in agreement, finally noticing the heavy bags weighing down underneath her pale eyelids.
Miley put in her best attempt at a smile, before shaking away their worries. "Just a little stomach flu. That's all."
"Remind me to give you a little something for that later, okay?"
Miley smiled at her mother, but it was easy to tell it was slightly forced. "Yeah, Mom." She glanced down at the row of letters in front of her, pausing for a good two minutes before finally making a move. Denise almost gasped when all Miley came up with was a four letter word.
"Late," Miley repeated as she set the wooden blocked words across the board. Everyone stared at her in silence, occasionally sharing a look with one another. Miley was the champion at Scrabble. If Nick had to tally who won each Scrabble game from every summer, Miley would have had enough lines to draw a mansion with a garden and an extra swimming pool. And now, all she could bring to the board was a score almost as low as Nick's?
"That's it?" Joe mumbled. Denise flashed him a warning look before quickly moving on to her turn. Nick and Joe shared another look of pure bewilderment, wondering what could have shaken Miley up so bad. Every time Nick would glance up at her, her eyes would always flicker left and right as if waiting for a storm she knew would be coming at any minute.
"So what are you planning to do for college?" Denise asked after she made her word.
Miley hesitated as she opened her mouth to answer, but Tish beat her to it. Her hand grasped over to layer over Miley's. "Miley is going to Virginia University, become someone great, help the world, make a few billion dollars, and take care of me when I get old and wrinkly," Tish joked around with a teasing smile. She nudged her daughter at the side, but Miley sat up straight and rigid as if she weren't even breathing.
"Miley. It's your turn," Nick suddenly continued, noticing how tense she had gotten with the subject. The 16 year old girl shook her head and stood up from her seat on the carpet. She brought a hand to her stomach and scrunched her face up in pain.
"Actually, I think that stomach flu is coming back. Do you think it's okay if I just go to bed?"
Tish seemed a little unsure on how to answer. It didn't take a genius to know that she was only making an excuse. "Sure, hun. Just feel better."
"Night, Miley," they all greeted quietly, their eyes trailing behind the slowly exiting brunette as she climbed the stairs and disappeared.
"Are you sure she's going to be okay?" Denise asked, worry filling her expression. She glanced at Tish with a raised eyebrow, wondering if they should go up to make sure Miley was really okay.
Tish shrugged off her worries tensely. "Of course she will. She's Miley… She's always okay," she explained, but everyone in the room could smell the doubts leaking from each lying word.