beautiful
chapter 6: homecoming part 2
"Tell me all about Fabian."
I felt my face flush, and Courtney gave me a knowing look. Her iridescent periwinkle eyes glistened, and her freckles seemed to twitch as she squinted at me.
"He's definitely more than a friend," Courtney concluded, "You're blushing."
"Blushing?" I had certainly done enough of that lately, and tried to steer Courtney in a different direction, "Why would I be blushing?"
"Are you dating him?" she blurted, and I attempted to splutter an answer, but Courtney's piercing gaze never faltered, so I gave in.
"Yes," I squeaked, then cleared my throat to try again. "Yeah, we're kinda dating."
"Oh my gosh‼" Courtney sounded just like Amber as she grabbed my hands, jumping up and down, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!"
"Calm down, Coco!" I said, pulling her back to the ground, "You haven't heard the whole story."
"Uh-oh," she muttered, grabbing my wrist and swiftly pulling me to the sofa, demanding, "Tell me."
"Well, okay…" I began, and then recounted everything – minus the whole "Chosen One" mess. When mentioning our late night meetings in the attic, I used the excuse that we wanted to explore the history of the house. I might have to tell her eventually, but for now, I focused on the romantic aspects.
"…And there's this girl, Joy," I continued, "It seems like she and Fabian had a thing, and I'm afraid that while I'm here she'll try to rope him back into her grasp, or something. We aren't officially together or anything, just…romantically involved."
"You make it sound so complicated," Courtney remarked, and I just looked at her.
"It kind of is," I replied, laughing a little. She just patted my shoulder.
"Well, whatever, I'm taking you to the beach. Let's go!"
"Okay," I agreed distractedly, making sure I had my phone and other necessities.
"Be back later!" I yelled to Gran as Courtney dragged me out the door.
"Everybody's so excited to see you," Courtney said as we walked together down the street. Gran's house was a couple blocks away from the beach, and even though Baltimore isn't exactly known for its beaches, this one was nice. My friends and I hung out here all the time.
"I bet they are," I replied, laughing, "I'm excited, too. I wish you could meet my friends from England, though."
"Tell me about them," she asked, "I only got to hear about Fabian so far." I giggled at the inflection she used whenever she said Fabian's name.
"Well, my roommate's name was Amber," I began, "We became really close throughout the school year. She actually reminds me a little bit of you."
"There had to be more than two people at this school."
"Okay, I had other friends in Anubis House," I continued, "Mara and Patricia are the other girls…and Joy, too, but she was ki—I mean, gone, for most of the year. The other guys are Alfie, Jerome, and Mick."
"What were they all like?"
"I can't tell you much about Joy, besides what I did earlier; I don't really know her that well. Mara's super smart, but we aren't that close, either. Patricia hated me in the beginning, but we're cool now. We hung out a lot more often as the year progressed, and she's awesome. Alfie has this weird thing with aliens, but he's funny. Jerome is downright devious, and he and Alfie pulled pranks and started food fights all the time! Mick is this big sports guy, and he was actually in California a while back competing for a scholarship. I don't know Mick all that well, either, but he seems cool."
"It sounds like fun," Courtney sighed, "I wish I could go to that school."
"Aww, don't be sad," I replied, trying to cheer her up, "Maybe next school year you can come visit. I'd love to have someone around that knows all my American-isms."
Courtney laughed, and by this time, we had reached the shore. I heard someone calling my name, and turned to see a sandy-haired, lanky boy waving to me. I smiled and waved back, walking his way.
"Nina!" he shouted, "You're back!"
"Yeah!" I shouted back, walking faster. Once Courtney and I got to him, I gave him a big hug.
"Hi, Evan," I said, gripping him tightly. Evan and I have been friends for pretty much our whole lives; he's like my brother.
"Why, hello, stranger," Evan joked, pulling away. I looked up into his big brown eyes and laughed.
"You got really tall," I observed.
"It happens," he shrugged, taking me by the hand, "C'mon, we were just about to go swimming."
Courtney and I followed him further down the shore, the sand squishing beneath our feet. It was hard to run, but I tried as hard as I could once I caught sight of my other friends. Veronica, a brunette whose demeanor reminds me slightly of Patricia, met me halfway to give me a hug. Jake and Julie, strawberry-blonde twins who could never seem to stop bickering, practically tackled me when they caught sight of me.
We all talked for a few minutes, catching up, when my phone rang.
"Sorry," I said, digging it out of my beach bag. When I saw Fabian's name, I blushed.
"Oh, answer it!" Courtney teased, "I'm sure Fabian is dying to talk to you!"
"Fabian?" I faintly heard Evan ask as I walked a few paces from the group to answer my cell phone.
"Hi, Fabes," I said, smiling.
"Hey. What's up?"
"I just met up with some of my friends at the beach," I explained, "We're going to go swimming."
"Nice," Fabian replied, "I don't want to interrupt…call me when you get home?"
"Sure," I answered, "Talk to you later."
"Love you, Nines."
"Love you too. Bye," I sighed happily as I hung up the phone, returning to my friends. I feel like this is going to be a good summer.
A/N: Phew! It's been a while. Yes, I'm still here...and alive! My last final exam of sophomore year was yesterday, so now I have two months (give or take a few days) of unrestricted writing and Simming time! Hopefully I can write as much of this story as possible this summer, but write ahead; that way I don't update every couple hours and then not update for another month. Maybe I can figure out a schedule. I don't know, but anyway, I put up a oneshot last night which got a surprising amount of reviews within, like, a few hours, so yaay! Mkay, well, I don't own House of Anubis, so yeah. kthxbai.