Nathan’s POV
The day after Trent visited, Mark told me that I could go to their house next week if I’d like. I beamed at him and agreed, just holding myself back from squealing in joy. Nicole’s been such a bad influence. Or maybe I’m just becoming less withdrawn. Whatever it was, It didn’t affect my mood as I skipped to my lessons for the day. Then I realized it was Sunday and I had no lessons. I went back to my room and picked up the book I’d been reading, settling for a relaxing morning for reading.
Throughout the day, I found out more about the new clone. It was going to be a girl and her name would be Katrina and she would be five years old. She would be created in two weeks, if preparations went well. Katrina would also be living with the girl she was cloned from. Her name was Rebecca and they would be compared to see how successful the cloning process. I felt slightly envious when I heard that she wouldn’t have to live at the research center, but I guess they don’t have time here to do their work and take care of a five year old at the same time.
The week passed by quickly with only a few run ins with Chris. Several new bruises on my body were evidence to that. Chris had gotten increasingly more violent as I stayed longer at the facility and I couldn’t decide if the reason was because of my presence or the stress of creating a new clone. Either way, it didn’t benefit me and I had to make excuses when people saw the bruises.
I was nearly jumping for joy when Saturday came and Mark picked me up to go to his house. It felt like I hadn’t seen my friends for an eternity and I was even excited to see Nicole, despite how much she annoys me. As Mark opened the door, it burst open, slamming him against the wall comically. I would have started laughing, but the wind was knocked out of me as I was tackled to the ground by Nicole.
“OH MY GOD. NATHAN!” she screamed in my ear. I winced.
“Hello, Nicole,” I greeted her in a normal tone.
“I missed you so much… Hey!” Nicole protested as Trent pulled her off of me.
“Hello,” he said, helping me up.
“Hi,” I responded shyly, hugging him. I wish I’d stayed to see his reaction after I’d kissed him last week. I didn’t want to scare him off. My worries were eased when he hugged me back tighter and glared at Nicole.
“You could have hurt him,” he scolded. She stuck her tongue out at him.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry,” she apologized, rather unapologetically. Trent rolled his eyes and pulled me into the house.
“So what do you wanna do?” he asked when we were sitting in his room, then grunted in annoyance when his phone started blaring,
“I'M SO FANCY! YOU ALREADY KNOW!” I watched as he picked up and yelled,
“Claire, why would you do this to me?” There was a pause as he listened. “No, I don’t Nathan’s over and… Claire? Wait!” Trent sighed and hung up. “Claire and Daiki are coming over,” he informed me.
“Okay,” I replied. It would be nice seeing them after so long. Then I thought of something. “Trent?” I asked.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“What does blowing someone mean?” I watched as his face changed from shock to amusement to horror in the span of three seconds.
“Nope. No. Nope, I refuse,” Trent replied. He looked up at Daiki and Claire who had arrived impossibly quickly. “You guys explain, I’m out.” Trent made a speedy retreat, leaving Daiki and Claire looking confused. Is the meaning really that bad?
“What are we supposed to explain?” Daiki asked curiously.
“What does blowing someone mean?” I asked again. He and Claire were both silent as the stared at me.
“I think Daiki has more expertise in this area. I’ll let you do the honors,” Claire declared, patting Daiki on the shoulder and making a quick exit.
“Hey!” he protested, but she was already gone. Daiki sighed and turned to me tentatively.
Less than a minute later, I was running out of the room yelling,
“NO! I’m becoming straight!” Daiki was chuckling as he followed me downstairs.
“It doesn’t really work that way,” he informed me.
“Yes, it will. I’ll make it work,” I assured him. Trent and Claire looked up from the TV screen as we walked into the living room. I stared at Claire, wondering if I could somehow become attracted to female. Probably not.
“Hello, Nathan. How’ve you been?” Claire asked cheerfully.
“Good,” I answered, “You?”
“I’m good,” she replied. Daiki exhaled deeply.
“Thank god she got over her boyfriend. That’s all she would talk about for weeks!” Claire glared at him. “And Trent was super depressed,” Daiki continued. I frowned. Why was Trent depressed? I was about to ask, but Daiki was still talking, “Hey, you guys want to come over and swim?”
“Okay,” Trent agreed immediately. He looked at me, “You can borrow one of my swimsuits.” He went upstairs and Claire left to go pick up her things from her house. I shifted uncomfortably as Daiki gazed at me contemplatively.
“You like to read, right? I can give you some books,” he offered. I looked at him suspiciously.
“About what?” I asked.
“Things,” he started and I rolled my eyes. So descriptive. “About what you were asking about before. Basically gay romances,” Daiki finished.
“People actually write those stories?” I asked in surprise.
“Yep,” he replied, “I think you’ll learn a lot from them. I’ll give them to you at my house.”
“What are you giving him?” Trent asked as he entered, “You better not be giving him drugs.”
“Of course not! I’m just giving him some books I think he’ll enjoy.” Daiki told him.
“You can read?” Trent asked incredulously. Daiki punched him playfully.
“Yes! I wouldn’t be this fabulous if my intellect was that bad,” he flipped imaginary hair back and winked at Trent who chuckled.
“You ready to go?” Trent asked me.
“Yup,” I replied and we set off to Daiki’s house. It was surprisingly close- only a fifteen minute walk. Daiki led us into the house where Claire was already waiting and pointed to the bathroom for me to change. Trent handed me a swimsuit and I changed quickly to come out and discover that no one was there. I sighed and headed in a direction that I guessed lead towards the backyard. My prediction was right and I went through a sliding door to join everyone by the impressive inground pool.
Daiki turned to me as I approached them and his eyes widened as he took in my torso covered with scars and bruises.
“What happened to you?” he asked in bewilderment. My eyes dropped to the ground. I really didn’t want to answer these questions.
“Things,” I mumbled incoherently.
“What?” he asked predictably. I looked up to see Trent staring at me with worry in his eyes.
“A bunch of things,” I finally answered honestly. I pointed to a small scar on my shoulder, “This is from when I got a scalpel stuck in my shoulder.” Then I indicated another just under my right rib, “This one's from fixing some kidney problems.” I shrugged, not intending to explain all of them, “They don’t hurt or anything.”
“Cool,” Daiki said, seeming to lose interest, “So who’s going in first? I forgot that the pool heater wasn’t on.”
“What’s the temperature?” Claire asked.
“74 right now,” Daiki answered, “I turned the heater, but it’ll take a while to warm up.” I felt hands on my waist and turned quickly to see Trent grinning at me evilly as he started tugging me towards the pool.
“No!” I protested when I realized what he was doing. He ignored me and we reached the edge of the pool. “Trent I will-” my threat was abruptly cut off as Trent pushed me into the water. I instinctively grabbed onto his arm and we both tumbled into the pool. I shivered as I hit the water. It was COLD! Staying under the water for a few moments to orient myself, I located the surface and swam up, bursting out of the water with a large breath. Trent was treading water a few feet away from me and I turned to glare at hit.
“I hate you,” I told him. Trent pouted.
“Forgive me?” he asked.
“No,” I replied irritably.
“Fine,” he concurred, looking at me with an evil grin. Oh no. What is he going to do now? My question was answered when Trent moved towards me and began tickling me.
“Stop it!” I gasped. He ignored me and continued tickling my stomach and sides. I couldn’t stop laughing. Trent finally stopped when Daiki and Claire jumped into the pool, narrowly missing us.
“It’s cold!” Claire yelled.
“Don’t be such a wimp,” Trent teased her. Claire retaliated by splashing him in the face. I giggled at his expression as he sputtered.
“Let’s have a chicken fight!” Daiki shouted. What ‘s that?
“Okay,” Claire and Trent agreed and I asked,
“What’s a chicken fight?” Daiki explained the rules to me quickly and then kneeled in the shallow end so I could climb onto his shoulders.
“I get Nathan!” he exclaimed triumphantly. Trent looked slightly annoyed, but he shrugged and let Claire crawl up onto his shoulders. The muscles in his arms flexed as he held her legs securely. I ripped my gaze away as soon as I realized what I was thinking about. No Nathan, Trent’s straight!
“Three… two… one… GO!” Claire counted and we were charging at each other. Wait is this really safe? I didn’t have time to protest as Claire came pushing at me. I fought back and couldn’t help but grin as we battled. This was pretty fun. Suddenly we both leaned too far to the right and we both toppled over into the water.
“I guess that’s a tie,” Trent said when I surfaced, “This time I get Nathan!” I climbed onto his shoulders and when he held my shins I could feel tingles running up my legs. I frowned. That was weird. I shrugged it off and we started another fight.
A while later, everyone was exhausted and we all floated lazily in the water. Then Trent’s phone rang and he groaned, before pulling himself out of the pool to pick it up. He talked for a few moments and then hung up and looked at me. “We have to go back to my house now.”
“Okay,” I agreed, getting out of the pool. I stared at the droplets of water running down his back and sighed when I realized what I was doing again. Bad Nathan! Trent handed me a towel and I dried off. I said goodbye to Daiki and Claire and went back to the bathroom to change. As we were leaving, Daiki stopped us.
“Wait!” he called, running down the stairs. We stopped and he handed me a stack of books. “Here, read these. You’ll find it… enlightening. Bye!” Daiki hurried away, probably back to the pool and Trent and I continued back to his house.
A/N: Okay, so I'm going camping again and won't be able to update. The next chapter will come on Tuesday. Thanks for all the votes so far :)
