The Movies Make It Look Easy

Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Shannon's P.O.V:

When we finished eating, the rest of my family slowly drifted away from the table. My mother began to clean up, dad went back outside and both Adrian and Ryan sauntered out of the room, until Nick and I were left sitting slumped in our chairs.  

I laid my head down on the table and groaned. Nick sat back and clutched his stomach, "why can't you cook like that?"  

I poked him. "I'm a good cook" I said, "I just choose not to use my vast range of skills most of the time."  

He smiled feebly, "It's probably a good thing. We'd both be rolling in and out of the apartment if we ate like this all the time."  

My mother had continued to fill his bowl and hand him fresh slices of bread, saying that he was a 'growing boy' - whatever. "You two, out!" my mother's voice roused me from my thoughts.  

I raised my head to see her making shooing motions at us from across the room. "I need to clean."  

I managed to pull myself with great difficulty out of the chair. Swinging my hair over one shoulder, I grasped Nick's hands and helped him stand. He looked faintly green and I couldn't help but smile - my mother liked to feed people and the rest of us had long since learned the beauty of the word no, so she tended to pounce on unsuspecting visitors like Nick. No wonder Adrian had said that we didn't get visitors often, I thought with a slight chuckle.

I led him back out the door into the hall, both of his hands still in mine behind my back as we made our way to the stairs. "If I ever become like my mother, you have to shoot me" I told him over my shoulder.  

"Do you think we'll still know each other?" he asked.  

I was silent. Did I think I'd still know him? I hoped so. I just awkwardly shrugged as best I could with my hands stretched out behind me. "I don't know" I told him honestly, "but if we do, you have to shoot me. Promise?" I asked earnestly.  

He chuckled as we reached the bottom of the stairs and we both looked up. I grimaced. The stairs had never seemed so endless. "Your mum's lovely" he said, and I sighed as I tugged my hands forward, jerking him closer to me as we began the trek up the stairs. "You've gone over to the dark side already, shame on you." 

He laughed, "She fed me."  

"Oh yes" I sighed, "the way to a man's heart, there's no way I can compete." He was silent. 

We finally made it to the top of the stairs. Adrian's bedroom door stood straight ahead and I pulled Nick to the right, down the hall; past a bathroom on the left, Ryan's room beyond and my parent's room on the right. The walls were painted an off white and beneath our feet was a long rug covering the polished wooden floor beneath it.  

My room was at the end of the hall. I let go of Nick's hands to open the door. I immediately walked to the bed and collapsed face-first onto it, moving only to pull the small stack of towels my mother had left neatly in the centre of my bed, out from under me. I heard the door click shut and I rolled over onto my back. Nick was standing just inside the door with his hands shoved in his pockets as he looked around him. I sat up and pulled one leg beneath me.

Directly opposite the door where Nick stood was a big bay window with a view over the fields to the barn and the hills beyond. A mound of pillows was piled onto the window seat. To the right stood two doors - one went into the bathroom and the other led to a small wardrobe. My double bed lay along the left wall and a table and chair sat pressed against the wall opposite the foot of the bed. It was cluttered with bits and pieces - books, random sheets of paper and old art supplies. The walls were painted a cream colour and there was a plush golden carpet on the floor.