This Girl

Chapter 36: Two-Year-Old Puppy Dog Eyes

I wake up at around ten-thirty in the morning. Alex is already up and he's playing Candy crush on his phone. My head is resting on his chest and my legs are off to one side and dangling off the bed. The doona cover only covers me from the chest to my knees, my feet poking out of the end.

"Good morning, sleepy head," Alex says, his voice a little bit croaky from not talking for a while.

"Good morning," I say sleepily and he smiles at me, turning off his phone and chucking it to the side, pulling both his hands behind his head and leaning on the bed head. I pull myself off him and sit up next to him.

"What're you doing today?" he asks. I shrug.

"Dunno. Probably seeing Bubbles or someone," I say.

"Oh," he says and moves his hands from the back of his head.

I shove his shoulder slightly and smile. "You disappointed?"

He grins at me and pushes me in return. "Very."

I laugh and he hops out of the bed. He grabs my hand and drags me off the mattress with him. We walk into my bathroom and I grab my brush, running it through my knots. He leans against the counter. "So..." he hesitates. I raise my eyebrows at him and continue brushing my hair. "The wedding..."

I put the brush down. "Alex-"

"C'mon Nat, please! Amanda will be fine with it!" he says, interrupting me.

"I doubt that," I say. He opens his mouth to retort but I hold up a hand. "If you're so sure she'll be fine with it, why don't you just call her?"

"I... Alright, fine," he agrees and takes out his phone, starting to call Amanda. He clicks on her name and raises the phone to his ear, but I stop him and pull his arm down.

"Speaker," I whisper and he rolls his eyes but clicks speaker anyway.

"Hello?" Amanda answers on the other line.

"Hi Amanda," Alex says nervously.

"What do you want?" she snaps, and I recoil, I didn't think she'd speak to her boyfriend like that. "I'm in the middle of something."

"Hey, babe! Come back to me, who you talkin' with?" a muffled voice says in the background. There's a series of shuffling before we hear:

"Its my boyfriend. Just wait a few moments, ok, Henry?" she says, still quite as muffled. There's more shuffling and she pulls the phone back closer to her. "So, what d'you want, Alex?"

I look up from the phone. He's not even the slighest bit shocked. At least, if he is, he's hiding it pretty well. He just speaks into the phone like we didn't hear anything. "Can I take Nat to my cousin's wedding?"

"Who, that sk***?" Amanda asks. Alex looks up at me and a muscle in his jaw clenches. I smile back at him and he turns to the phone.

"Yes, Amanda," he sighs.

"Well," she sounds like she's chewing something. "Don't go cheating on me with her, OK? But you can go with her. As long as you come with me to Virginia."