How to Destroy a Rich Boy

Chapter Thirty-Six

 I looked back and forth between Nathan's hurt eyes in confusion. "Explain fucking, what? I didn't do anything?"

"Are you kidding me? You were standing half-naked in the corridor with Noah. The same brother, I distinctly remember you promising me that you weren't going to go after. What the hell, Sophie? Is this the only reason you agreed to come with me? So, you can live out your sick fantasies with one of the guys on your stupid 'man, I want to fuck' list, huh?" he scoffed.

I recoiled back at his rapid accusations. "Would you stop jumping to conclusions and listen to me. I bumped into him when I was heading out of the shower, and he grabbed my waist to steady me," I explained.

He stared at me in silence, then slowly he averted his gaze to the floor as though embarrassed. "Oh," he said simply as he backed away from me.

 He rubbed the back of his neck over and over before turning to face me. "Sorry for snapping at you; it's just seeing him with you. It just..it just.. never mind," he trailed off.

Moving to his bed, he flopped down onto his back before letting out a long, frustrated groan. "I didn't even know he was going to be here," he grumbled.

Retightening my grip on my towel, I slowly made my way over to him and softly took a seat by where he'd laid his head. "Come on, it might not be that bad. Maybe he's changed and will apologize for whatever the hell he did," I piped in optimistically.

Nathan let out a bitter laugh. "Trust me, the last thing on earth he'd do is apologize," he muttered as he stared aimlessly up at the ceiling.

We sat in silence, and the room deafened to an uncomfortable degree. Soon, my eyes wandered around his room. It was quite similar to my guest room but was more cluttered with random knick-knacks and photographs that he had collected over the years. 

My eyes then drew to his nightstand and I took notice of a picture of a little boy about ten or so in age. He looked strangely similar to Nathan and was pulling a funny face at the camera. 

"Aww, is that a picture of you when you were ten," I smiled.

Nathan sat up a little to see what I was talking about, and as soon as his eyes caught the picture, his whole body went still. His eyes, empty and cold stared aimlessly through the picture as though it wasn't even there.

"No, it's not. It's just a picture," he murmured. His reaction took me by surprise, and I was smart enough not to probe further. 

My eyes drifted away and soon found something of interest on his top shelf. There were trophies, tons of them.

"Hey, what are those for?" I asked as I nodded my head up to them. 

"Nothing," he said rather quickly.

 This only spurred my curiosity, and before he could object, I hopped off the bed and made my way over to the shelf. I squinted my eyes to read the engraving at the bottom of one rather large trophy. "First place, Maths junior tournament," I read out slowly. 

"Sophie," Nathan hissed warningly as he made his way over to me. I niftily dodged his hands as he tried to pull me away. 

"Oh my god, Chess tournaments? Spelling bees? Academic contests? You were totally a nerd," I said with a disbelieving chuckle as my eyes flickered over more and more engravings on his collection.

"I wasn't a nerd. They're my brother's trophies, not mine," he stammered quickly. 

"Nathan, they've literally got your name on them," I snorted.

He remained silent as his eyes rapidly darted around the room. "Well, whatever, fine. I did a couple of chess tournaments, big deal," he grumbled with the roll of his eyes.