Aloha...or whatever it is they say in the Maldives :D So I managed to find a few spare moments to post this, but this really is the final chapter you'll be getting from me before next thursday so if you leave me a review quickly I might even be able to read it before I head to the airport tomorrow! :D Thanks for all the lovely reviews of the last chapter, keep 'em coming!
"So she just showed up out of nowhere after three years?"
Pete cast a sideways glance at Benjamin as they exited the school gates, walking briskly towards their cars so as to escape the bitter cold.
"Yeah, I know, it's a bit of head fuck, ain't it?" Pete laughed.
"How does Allie feel about it?" Benjamin raised an eyebrow, slowing down as they neared their cars.
"How'd you mean?" Pete frowned.
"Well, it's another girl in the house, isn't it?" he smirked. "I learnt the hard way that most women are more territorial than we think they are."
"Nah, mate Allie's sound," he nodded. "Besides, Natalie's not a bird bird anyway, she's family,"
"So there's no chance of them clashing over anything?" Benjamin countered. "From what you've told me it sounds like Allie and Natalie are polar opposites."
"Yeah but that's not bad thing, is it?" Pete shrugged. "I mean me and Allie didn't exactly 'ave loads in common when we first met and that turned out alright."
"Touché," the Scotsman laughed, fishing his car keys out of his pocket and starting towards the silver Audi, its rooftop glittering with the first signs of frost.
"So I guess I'll see you bright and early in the morning, brother," he breathed, unlocking the doors.
"Unless you fancy coming back to mine for some dinner?" Pete offered.
"Ah, I'd love to Petey Pie but I just ain't that kinda girl," he winked, making his friend laugh. "Nah, seriously cheers for the offer but I've got to get home and make sure Chris hasn't burned down my flat or anything,"
"Rebel without a cause, eh?" Pete snorted.
"Try rebel without a fucking job," Benjamin grumbled. "He's done nothing since shag about since he moved in,"
"Oh yeah because we were so different at his age, weren't we?" Pete lifted an eyebrow. "We were all about looking for jobs and settling down,"
"Fair point but that still doesn't mean I'm about to forgive the little bastard for changing my answer machine message to sound like one of those porno hotlines,"
Pete pissed himself laughing, his breath coming out as faint clouds in the night air.
"I'm serious, Pete," the dark haired man shook his head. "I don't know how the hell mum and dad did it for 21 years,"
"That's probably why they've sent him down to you," Pete winked and clapped him on the back. "I'll see you in the morning, yeah?"
"Aye," he waved. "'Night, brother,"
Pete watched as Benjamin walked the few yards ahead to his own car before unlocking the door to his own car and diving in to escape the cold.
"Fuck me its freezing," he muttered, switching on the engine and turning up the heat as high as it would go, holding his hands up to the vent and willing the coldness out of them. He waved to Benjamin as he pulled out of the car park and turned onto the road, leaving Pete sat in the darkness, the only noise coming from the faint sound of the Zutons CD in his stereo. It was the same album that Allie had bought for him when he was in his coma, both of them freaked out beyond belief a few months later when he realised that he knew the order of the tracks by heart.
So much for being brain-dead, he thought with a laugh.
Realising he wasn't going to get much warmer sitting there freezing his bollocks off, he started the engine the lights blaring out and illuminating Natalie who was stood in front of his car.
"Fucking hell!" he practically screamed, his heart pounding as she stood there staring at him. Shoving his door open, he shook his head at her. "Nat, are you fucking crazy or what? I almost shit my pants just then,"
She continued staring straight ahead, her eyes unwavering as they adjusted to the brightness of the high beams on his car.
"Oi," he nudged her. "You alright, love?"
"I need to go home," she told him.
"Alright, no worries," he frowned, knowing that something was obviously very wrong. "We better get you in the car though, before you fuckin freeze to death out here,"
"Might not be such a bad thing," she snorted.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Pete asked her, taken aback by her sudden glumness. "Come on, Nat this is me you're talking to,"
"Forget it," she shook his hand off of her arm and walked around to her side of the car, yanking the door open and scrambling in, sighing with relief as the heat enveloped her.
"Listen," Pete shook his head, climbing in beside her. "I know that maybe I ain't the easiest person to talk to 'cos I'm a bloke…"
"It's not that," she mumbled.
"Then what?" he asked her exasperatedly. "What the fuck is going on? Am I supposed to guess or something? Because last I knew you were headin' back to the house to stay with Allie while I…"
He stopped suddenly and narrowed his eyes at her.
"Did something happen at the house?" he asked her. "You can tell me,"
"It doesn't fucking matter, Pete, alright?" she shouted.
"Look," Pete shouted back. "You turn up at my school going for the over-dramatics and scaring the shit outta me and you're telling me all of that's for nothing?"
"Why don't you ask your precious little wife?" Natalie snapped. "Or would it actually kill you to think for one second that Little Miss Perfect is capable of setting a foot out of line?"
"Allie?" Pete frowned. "What's any of this got to do with Allie?"
"I was helping her," Natalie sniffed, looking down at her worn jeans. "We were in the kitchen making dinner and we got talking, I was trying y'know, like you told me to?" she looked at him with wide, innocent eyes and he nodded. "And then we got onto the topic of why I left," she felt the tears well up in her eyes. "She just started shouting at me," she sobbed lightly. "I didn't do anything wrong, Pete but she flipped saying that she didn't want me in the house and…"
"And what?" Pete asked her, his teeth gritted together so hard he was waiting for them to snap.
"She said it would have been better if I'd died,"
Pete felt his heart turn to ice and then drop down to his stomach; no…there was no way Allie, his Allie would ever say anything like that.
"Natalie…" he shook his head.
"See I knew it!" She screamed, slamming her hands against the dash board. "I knew you'd side with her, that's why I didn't want to tell you, that's why…"
"Shhhh," Pete pulled her to him and hugged her. "Shhhh, I'm sorry alright? I just…I can't believe she'd…" he shook his head, holding the shaking girl tighter and rubbing her back. "Let's get you home, yeah?"
"I don't want to go back there," Natalie whimpered. "I can't…I'm sorry Pete, I know I promised you that I'd try but…"
"No," he shook his head. "You're staying with me, ok? I'm sure this is just a big misunderstanding, we can fix this yeah?"
Natalie nodded mutely, returning the small smile he gave her as he ruffled her hair just like he used to when they were kids. He pulled away, allowing her to sit back on her own seat so he could drive, pulling out of the car park and into the blackened night.
The faint sound of the radio continued to fill the small car and Natalie could practically feel the anger pouring out of him in waves; she settled back in her seat, pulling the sleeves of her worn sweater down over her hands.
And turning slightly so that he couldn't see her face, Natalie Dunham looked out of the window at the passing traffic and smiled.
Allie stirred the huge cup of fruit tea she had made, laying it down beside the plate of toast on the counter. Funnily enough it turned out that clearing up a mountain of spilt food didn't actually make you that hungry. Wrinkling her nose, she realised that the kitchen still smelt of red wine and onion, the floor still wet from where she had been mopping it.
She'd tried calling Pete a moment ago just to see when he was coming home but he hadn't answered so she figured he must have been driving back. Not that she was particularly looking forward to explaining what had happened.
Suddenly the kitchen door flew open with enough force to make it hit the wall behind it, causing her to jump and almost drop her tea as she stared up at her husband.
"Jesus, you scared me," she laughed, pressing a hand against her chest and smiling at him. "How was the meeting? Did you get everything you needed?"
Tossing the spoon into the sink, Allie looked up at Pete, the smile bleeding off of her face when she saw the cold, hard look in his eyes.
"Ok, what's wrong?" she narrowed her eyes. "You didn't get stuck chaperoning with Cassie again, did you?"
"Natalie's outside," he told her darkly.
Allie turned to look out the window, squinting into the driveway where she could just about make out the sole figure sat in the passenger seat of Pete's car. She gulped her heart pounding as it dawned on her that Natalie had probably told Pete everything. No doubt putting her own little spin on it in the process.
"I just spend the last half hour doing everything I could to convince 'er not to get on a train and fuck off back to Bath." He spat.
"Pete…" Allie shook her head.
"No, don't fucking 'Pete' me," he shouted, making her jump. "What the hell were you thinking, Allie? How could you actually say that to 'er?"
"She provoked me," Allie snapped.
"Provoked you?" Pete snorted. "And what the fuck did she say that was so bad you 'ad to turn around and tell 'er to go kill 'erself?"
"Hey, I did not say it like that," she pointed at him. "And just for the record, I'm going to hazard a guess and say that she didn't tell you any of what she said to me, did she?"
"I don't care about that," Pete shook his head.
"You don't care that she had a go at me?" Allie stared at him in shock. "Pete, she basically tore me to shreds,"
"Yeah, and you're 25 years old Allie, why the fuck didn't you just walk away from her?"
"Because why the fuck should I?" she screamed. "This is my house damnit! And I'm not about to sit here and let some rehab dodging little shit with an attitude problem talk to me like I'm something she scraped off the bottom on her shoe!"
"You know what she's like," Pete shook his head. "You know how unstable she is,"
"That's not my problem," she laughed bitterly. "And it's not yours either because in case you've forgotten, you've already got a family to worry about. Or do Poppy and I not factor into the Natalie and Pete show?"
"She's just a kid, Allie," Pete told her.
"No, Pete she's 21 years old," Allie shot back. "She's knows exactly what she's doing here, she's taking you for an absolute mug, why the hell can't you see that?"
"Oh, y'know what?" Pete frowned, shaking his head. "I don't need to listen to this right now,"
He turned to walk back out, stopping only when she called out his name.
"Where are you going?" she asked him.
"To Bov and Matt's place," he muttered. "I'll be back later,"
"When?" Allie asked him, cursing herself when her voice shook slightly. "Pete?"
He ignored her this time, carrying on into the foyer and stepping back through the front door out into the bitterness of the night.
Hearing the front door slam, Allie closed her eyes and leant on the counter, taking deep calming breaths.
"Fuck it!" she cried, dropping her head into her hands for a short moment and fighting her urge to cry. She hated fighting with Pete, even worse when he was so angry with her that he actually stormed out. The last time that had happened had been back when the whole Matt fiasco had kicked off last year.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath Allie decided that the best thing she could do was to go to bed, if she stayed up waiting for him to come back she'd end up going nuts and chances were that they'd only end up fighting again anyway, especially if he came back with her.
Sighing, Allie grabbed her mug of fruit tea began the arduous task of climbing the stairs not looking forward to sleeping alone. She made her way down the hall, peeking around the door of the nursery to check up on Poppy who was still fast asleep oblivious to her parents shouts.
Closing the door quietly, Allie found herself slowing down as she neared Natalie's room, biting her lip when she saw that the door was temptingly ajar.
"Oh for fuck sake you're just being stupid now," she muttered to herself, though made no move to walk on.
All she had to do was poke her head in and look around, just to put her own mind at ease. It would only take a second.
Not giving herself another moment to think about it, she practically ran into the room, leaving the door open to she could hear approaching footsteps.
The large room which had formerly belonged to Richard smelt distinctly of honeysuckle shampoo, the odd articles of clothing strewn about the floor and pack of freshly opened face wipes on the bed side table emphasising that the oldest of the Harding boys no longer occupied the space.
Stepping over a pair of abandoned jeans complete with the underwear still scrunched up inside, Allie tip toed over to the open duffel bag which lay on the bed, biting her lips as she peered into it, half excepting some sort of alarm to go off.
A quick nose through it confirmed only that Natalie only bought clothes in one of two colours: black or green and that she used Tesco's own brand toothpaste.
Letting out a sigh, Allie sat back on the bed and caught her reflection in the mirror opposite.
"Oh fuck, what am I doing?" she shook her head, looking up to the ceiling for a moment.
True, Natalie hated her but the feeling was mutual so she had no right to hold that against the girl. And as for everything that was said in the kitchen…Allie rubbed her forehead thoughtfully. It wouldn't have happened at all if she had managed to keep her trap shut last night instead of talking to Lara.
Flopping onto her back, she groaned out loud wondering how the hell she had gotten to this point. Snooping around a 21 year old girls bedroom looking for drugs.
"I am one sick pup," she told herself, draping an arm over her face and then moving to push herself back up.
Her hand slid under the pillow and something cold and cylindrical touched her hand, making her frown. Wrapping her fingers around the object, she pulled it out from under the sheets, her eyes widening when she realised what it was.
Mr Peter J. Dunham
500mg Co-Codamol(A)
One to be taken every four hours
Why the hell did Natalie have Pete's painkillers under her pillow? He hadn't taken these for over a year since his leg last played up right after the wedding when he'd finally stopped taking them they still had three bottles left which she had kept in the bathroom cabinet.
Remembering that Natalie had taken a shower last night before she went to bed, Allie ran out of the room and down the hallway to the main bathroom, yanking open the cupboard door and taking count of what was inside. Painkillers, some anti-histamines, her birth control, Poppy's baby calpol and a half empty box of plasters. Sure enough, the two other bottles of drugs were missing.
"Lying little bitch," Allie hissed, slamming the door shut and walking back towards the room, flicking the light on this time and not caring if anyone saw her. She emptied Natalie's bag onto the bed, sifting through the clothes and toiletries, knowing that the pills must be in here somewhere. Her eyes narrowed when she picked up Natalie's make-up bag, unzipping it quickly and shaking her head in disbelief when she saw the two bottles of pills lying at the bottom, covered in a faint sheen of powder and spilt lip-gloss.
She was so caught up in what she had found that she completely missed the approaching footsteps, realising all to late that someone was behind her when they grabbed hold of her shoulder, forcing her to drop everything she was holding and turn to face them with a small scream.
"Whoa there Nancy Drew," Lara frowned. "What the hell are you doing?"
Allie stared at her open mouthed for a long moment, seeing Harry stroll past the bedroom and then stop, peeking his head in and raising an inquisitive eyebrow at her.
"Hey, Allie," he told her, walking into the room and picking up Natalie's toothbrush which had been thrown to the floor in her hurry. "You know when some people get bored then just watch TV or something…"
"What's going on?" Lara asked her again. "You said to come around for dinner,"
"I know I did," Allie nodded slowly. "But that was before Natalie went crazy and threw all the food on the floor,"
"Yeah ok, no offence sis," Harry winced. "But you're hardly in the current position to be labelling other people as crazy,"
"I'm serious guys, she flipped," Allie shook her head. "She…"
"Allie," Lara snapped, grabbing hold of her shoulders and forcing her to meet her eyes. "Honey, you're looking too far into this, ok? I get that you and Natalie aren't the best of friends but this," she gestured around the room. "Is a step too far, don't you think?"
Allie frowned, suddenly feeling bad but then she remembered the bottle of pills in her back pocket and opened up her mouth to speak, slightly annoyed that Lara got there first.
"And besides, you didn't find anything, did you?" she shrugged. "So at least now you know it really is nothing after all."
Allie held her breath for a second, silently weighing up her options; if she were to show Lara the pills then everyone would end up knowing what was going and she knew in her heart that somehow Natalie would turn this on her, making her look like the bad guy.
No, she had to bide her time with this, make the little bitch sweat.
"No," she shook her head. "I didn't find anything,"
"See?" Lara nudged her shoulder gently.
"I didn't mean for it to get to this…" she shrugged.
"Hey come on," Harry threw a pillow at her head. "Which philosopher said that we'd never survive unless we went crazy once in a while?"
"Uh, Harry," Allie smirked. "That's a line from a Seal song,"
"Oh yeah," he clicked and pointed at her. "Man, that guy was deep, wasn't he?"
Lara and Allie stared at him for a moment, shaking their heads.
"What?" he frowned.
"You're related to him," Lara laughed at Allie.
"You're dating him," she shot back.
"So I take it there's no lasagne?" Lara pouted.
"Not unless you want to dig through the bin," Allie smiled sadly at her. "Its not that late though, we can order in or something,"
"Sounds like a plan," Harry nodded, pushing himself off of her bed and wrapping his arms around Lara, dragging her out into the hallway and making her squeal.
"Allie-Cat!" he called back. "Are you coming or not?"
"Yeah," she nodded to herself, grabbing the three bottles of pills pocketing them before putting everything back as she had found it so that Natalie would be none the wiser. "Yeah, I'm coming,"
Allie looked up from the book she was reading as the unmistakeable sound of footsteps on the stairs broke her out of the world of Doris Lessing, her hands trembling slightly as she lay the book on the bedside table.
She could hear voice in the hallway and took in a sharp breath, knowing that Natalie had obviously come back with him. Her eyes drifted over to her wash bag in which she had hidden the three bottles of pills underneath her Chanel face wash and she felt butterflies break out in her stomach.
Had she done the right thing? What if there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of it and she'd gone and made it a million times worse?
Her train of thought was interrupted when the bedroom door opened slowly, stopping when Pete saw the light was on.
Allie watched as he stepped inside, closing it behind him and not even bothering to look at her as he walked over to his dresser and took off his watch, ignoring the way he could feel her eyes on him.
Realising that she wasn't going to get anywhere with him tonight, Allie sighed and simply peeled the covers back on his side of the bed, waiting for him to climb in.
"Tell me you didn't say it,"
The words made her blink in confusion, his voice was so soft she had barely heard it but when she looked up into his deep blue eyes, seeing the trust there hanging on a thread, she hated herself.
"Tell me that Natalie got it wrong and I'll believe you," he told her again.
Allie stared at him for a moment totally unsure of herself. She wanted to deny it, of course she did and she had no doubt in her mind that Pete would believe her but she couldn't. Not for Natalie's sake but for Pete's…there was no way she was going to lie to his face; she loved him too much.
"It just came out," she told him, wincing when he hissed 'fuck' under his breath and shook his head, turning away from her again to grab t-shirt out of his drawer. "Pete, I was angry ok? You should know better than anyone that shit you don't mean tends to come out when you're angry,"
"You told a girl who tried to slash her wrists not even five years ago that she should do it again," Pete hissed at her. "I know I've said some fucked up shit in my time, but I can't ever remember telling someone to off themselves,"
"I'm not denying that it was really wrong of me," she protested. "God, if I could take it back then I would but I can't…" she got up onto her knees and watched as he tugged off his jeans and shirt, her stomach tightening as she let her eyes drift over his body. Ok so they were fighting, but she was only human.
"Pete, I swear to you I didn't mean it," she told him. "I hate myself for saying it, I really do,"
"You're saying this to the wrong person," he told her, yanking his t-shirt on over his boxers.
"I know," Allie nodded. "I'll go and speak to her in a second but I just, I need to know that you don't hate me,"
Pete chucked his jeans onto the chair in the corner of the room and snorted.
"You're a complete dick," he told her. "But we both know I don't hate you,"
He moved to get into bed but she crawled over and knelt in front of him, her light green eyes meeting his blue ones and holding them.
"I mean it, Pete," she shook her head. "Baby, I'm so sorry. I never meant for this to happen, I just…" she looked down and took a deep breath. "Please just tell me that we're ok,"
Pete met her eyes for a moment, seeing the guilt there and knowing that he couldn't stay mad at her. He couldn't deny this woman anything, least of all his forgiveness. She had fucked up but she knew it and that was enough for him.
"Come 'ere," he mumbled, pulling her to him and hugging her tightly, burying his face in her hair and running his hand down her back.
"I'm sorry," she whispered against his ear, her breath making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
"I know," he told her, pulling back just enough so that their noses were touching. "I just…I need you to understand that she's my family too, Allie,"
"I know," she nodded, her hands resting on his face. "Ok, I know and I'm going to do whatever it takes to make it up to her." She smiled softly. "Your family is my family, right?"
Pete nodded and closed his eyes as she leant in to kiss him, her lips retreating much faster than he wanted them to, forcing him to pull her back in and kiss her properly.
"Hmmm," she smiled, pulling back from him as his tongue ran along her lips. "How about after I go and talk to Natalie we pick up where we left off this morning?"
Pete moaned in her ear as she pushed her body flush against his, nipping his earlobe playfully as his hands moved down to her behind.
"I say hurry the fuck up," he growled against her lips, fighting the urge to just rip her shirt off and take her.
"I'll be quick," she promised, kissing his nose and hopping down off the bed, grabbing her toiletries bag and slapping his arse playfully as she left the room, giggling as he threw his trademark smirk at her along with a raised eyebrow and a mutter of 'cheeky'.
The smile bled off her face as she stepped into the hallway, her fingers tightening on the bag as she strode down towards Richard's old room, her eyes focused on the shattered light coming out from under the door.
Without bothering to knock Allie pushed it open, a slight smiled pulling at the corners of her mouth when she saw Natalie stood over her bed, covers flung to the floor looking confused and distraught.
She kicked the door shut behind her, not loud enough to wake anyone else but loud enough to alert the brunette to her presence.
Natalie turned and smirked at Allie, her arms folded over her pale blue pyjama top.
"So you didn't drown then?" she asked the blonde, watching the confusion pass over her face.
"What?" she frowned.
"In all that self-pity," Natalie shrugged. "I'd 'ave thought a pretty thing like you would 'ave been done for,"
"Look," Allie sighed. "I know that tonight was…" she shook her head. "I don't know what tonight was about, all I know is that I'm genuinely ashamed of the way I spoke to you."
Natalie stared at her in horror; surely the bird wasn't that dumb that she hadn't clocked on to the fact that Natalie had blatantly lied to Pete about what had really gone down.
"Oh I get it," she laughed. "Is this so I'll go tell Pete what a good little girl you were?" she raised her eyebrows. "Add another layer of glitter paint to that halo of yours?"
"Its got nothing to do with Pete," Allie shrugged. "I'm here because I want to be, because I don't want this family to get torn apart over something as stupid as me not knowing when to shut my mouth,"
Natalie regarded her sceptically, one hip jutted out to the side as she swept her eyes over the petite blonde before her.
"Look, you win ok?" she shook her head. "You got Pete to take your side, you've more than proved your point and I don't want to have to go through this again," she conceded. "So there you go, you win Natalie."
"Christ, you really are thick aren't ya?" the brunette laughed, peeling her bed covers back and nodding to the door. "If that's it then you can leave,"
"Ok," Allie nodded, her eyes taking on a look of hurt that made Natalie want to laugh out loud again.
Walking over to the door, Allie stopped with her hand on the doorknob, turning to face the annoyed looking girl once again.
"One question though," she tilted her head to the side. "If I'm thick, then what does that make you?"
"Come again?" Natalie narrowed her eyes, watching as Allie stepped closer to her until there was only a foot or so between them, at which point Allie reached out and mimicking Natalie's own actions from earlier in the evening, grabbed the girl by the collar and pulled her so close that their noses were almost touching.
"Now you listen to me you little bitch and you listen hard because I am only saying this to you once," Allie hissed, her voice low and dark. "You talk about me pulling the wool over Pete's eyes? Take a look at yourself," she snorted. "He might not be able to see through you but I sure as hell can. See I may not have been through rehab or had someone stitch up my wrists after I decided to play noughts and crosses with a Gillette blade but I've been around enough to know when someone's bullshitting me and you sweetheart are pure, unfiltered bullshit,"
Natalie's eyes widened unable to believe that this was Allie talking to her; Pete's little Barbie doll had a back bone…who knew?
"Now as I'm a nice girl, I'll let you have this one, think of it as a courtesy victory but just know this," she reached into the wash bag she was carrying and pulled out one of the bottles of pills, smirking when Natalie's eyes widened. "I'm watching you and I'm going to be on your arse every minute of every day for as long as you're in this house,"
"You went through my room," Natalie hissed at her.
"No, I went through my room," Allie corrected her. "You're nothing more than a fucking lodger here, don't forget that."
"You silly little cunt," Natalie spat at her, watching as Allie wrinkled her nose at the vulgarity of her language. "Do you have any idea what Pete will do when…"
"What?" Allie lifted an eyebrow. "When you tell him? Oh sweetie," she cooed, tapping her finger against Natalie's temple. "All those drugs really must've fried your brain…see it would be my absolute dream for you to tell Pete I went through your stuff because if you do that, then I get to tell him what I found," she held up the bottle and shook it.
"And which one of us do you think will come off worse in the end, honey bunch?"
"Fuck off," Natalie spat. "You reckon I'm afraid of you?"
"I reckon you should be," Allie shot back. "Because I love Pete, I love him more than anything else in the world and he and Poppy are the only things that matter to me," she stepped even closer, meeting the other girls eyes with a dangerous stare. "And if you do anything to put either of them in danger, if you step one foot out of line, if you so much as look at me in a way that I don't like then you can kiss all this goodbye," she gestured to the room.
"I love my family," Allie told her again. "And regardless of what Pete says, you are not a part of this family. So believe me when I say that if you do anything to damage it, if you try pulling another little stunt like this again or if you start taking drugs under the same roof as my daughter," she shook her head and leant forward so that her lips where against Natalie's ear.
"I'll fucking kill you,"
Pulling back, she saw the anger mixed with fear in the young woman's eyes and smiled smugly at her, stepping away and straightening out her shirt which was wrinkled from where Allie had grabbed her before making her way back over to the door.
"Oh and next time you feel like raiding our medicine cabinet," she looked at her in disgust. "You might want to be a bit more discreet than swiping three bottles at once, but then druggies can't be choosers, can they?" she winked, sending her one last smile before stepping out into the hall. "Night, night, Nat,"
The door shut firmly leaving the brunette staring after her in shock, still trying to get her head around everything that had just happened. The blonde was smarter than Natalie had given her credit for; instead of telling Pete about the drugs, she was using it against her.
Slowly sitting down on the edge of the bed, Natalie didn't have to look in her bag to know that Allie had taken every last bottle.
"Fuck," she whispered, curling up into a ball and lying on the bed, knowing that she had lost the first round. But this wasn't the end of it, she thought with a smile. And if the Sloaner thought it was, then she was very much mistaken.
Pete smiled at Allie as she padded back into the bedroom, dropping her was bag on the dresser and smiling back at him before doing a run up and jumping onto the bed so she was above him.
"All sorted?" he asked her, his hands already working the buttons on the shirt of his that she was wearing and peeling it off of her, lifting his head to kiss along her naked shoulders.
"Yeah," Allie smiled, biting her lip to keep from crying out as he rolled them over and cupped one of her breasts, kneading it in his hand as he kissed her deeply. "It's all ok now,"
"Told you, didn't I?" he pulled away, pushing himself up onto his arms and stared down at her with a smirk on his face.
"Told me what?" she asked, shivering happily as he trailed his fingertips down over her taut stomach.
"That you'd get on with her in the end," Pete kissed her bellybutton and then made his way back up to her mouth. "You might even turn out to be friends,"
"Yeah," Allie smiled at him, kissing him back and wrapping her body around his. "Never say never,"
"So that's one Dunham you've made nice with," he teased her, pinning her hands above her head. "What about me?"
"You?" she laughed as he brought his head down to hers and kissed her. "You I can think of plenty more interesting ways of saying sorry to,"
So, I worked extra hard on this chapter and thought it was pretty good when I read it back but then I could be horribly mistaken. I'm relying on you lot to let me know! :D See you in a week! xxxx