All Four Of Me

Chapter 34

KENZIE

"Ok Nathan, you win." I declare as I walk into the kitchen area.

Nathan and Chris are both sitting at opposite sides of the island bench, neither of them looking even remotely aware of their surroundings. Chris has his face stuck inside his laptop, the glow of light from the screen washing his skin with a faint white tint, while Nathan looks to be scrolling through something on his phone. At the sound of my entrance both men look up from their devices in surprise, not expecting me to be so lively at this time of the morning, especially on a day like today.

"Well, that's good to know, but what exactly is it that I won at?" Nathan asks, tucking his phone into his pocket to give me his full attention.

"The funny game we've been playing where you tell everybody that we need to go to the store and I find a way to not go." I answer with a nonchalant shrug.

"Are you saying that you want to go shopping with me?" Nathan's smile practically lights up the room and for a split millisecond I almost regret conceding in the first place. He is just way too happy about the thought of going to the shops and I don't understand where his energy comes from.

"Maddie's party is this afternoon and I still haven't got her anything." You're supposed to get somebody a gift if they invite you to their birthday celebration, right?

I've never had to buy gifts for anybody before, mostly due to the fact that I didn't have any friends or family that I knew long enough to warrant the necessity of giving presents, but it also didn't help that I have never been given my own money to spend on things like gifts and other luxuries. It might sound selfish, but If I had been provided an allowance at any of my previous foster homes the money would have been spent directly on food, clothes that fit me properly and personal hygiene products.

This whole custom of gift giving has me completely out of my element and I know that if I am going to do this right, then I am going to need some help from someone who knows what they are doing. As hard as it is to shop with him, Nathan is more than qualified to provide the type of assistance I require in order to find the right gift for Maddie. After all he does know her better than I do.

"I can definitely help you with that." He nods in response, barely able to conceal his excitement at my suggestion.

"Are you sure you don't want to do this with Ben instead?" Chris asks from his spot at the island, while shutting the screen of his laptop. I'm sure he is only saying that to get a rise out of Nathan, and when the older male responds with a firm whack to Chris's shoulder I am proven correct by the playful chuckle Chris releases in return.

"I would go with Ben, but his parents just got back from China last night and he wanted to spend the day with them to catch up on all the family drama that's been going on."

It has been a week since the EMU excursion and Ben's cryptic text message was received. It took him two days to respond to my messages, and when he did it wasn't so much as a simple text message in return as him showing up at our house with a container full of steaming hot spring rolls and two days' worth of backlogged conversations cramped in his brain.

As it turned out, Ben's family emergency was not as close to home as everyone was expecting. Tao and Ming were both perfectly safe and healthy, however the same couldn't be said for Ming's father who had suffered a catastrophic stroke in his sleep and later died in hospital that same morning. Obviously, not having spoken to her father since before Ben was born the sudden unexpected contact from her mother came as a shock for Ming, and within twelve hours of ending their phone call both she and Tao were on a flight to Shanghai.

Ben doesn't know exactly what was mentioned during their phone call, but whatever it was must have been serious enough to warrant both of his parents dropping everything and heading back to their mother country. As a result of their sudden departure, Ben was required to stay with a family friend in the city until they returned to Australia, and due to the lack of time to prepare he spent the first two days without any phone credit, hence why he was unable to respond to any of my messages.