All Four Of Me

Chapter 16

KENZIE

"I thought old mate was going to say no for a minute there." Ben sighs in relief as we round the corner, leaving the house and it's five male inhabitants out of sight. He is pushing his bike so that we are walking together and I don't really understood why he rode it to my house in the first place.

"They had already said yes before you even rang the doorbell, then again, if you would have opened your mouth and said something dumb to rile Nathan up then he would have taken back his acceptance for sure." I respond, glancing around the street in an attempt to memorise some of my surroundings. The last thing I want is to get lost trying to find my way back to the house later on.

"Were they surprised when you asked them to hang out with a frie- with someone from school?" he asks, correcting himself before he could drop the "F" bomb in front of me.

"Why would they be surprised?" I shoot back with my own question, feigning hurt at his open assumption.

"Well, I don't mean to offend you or anything, but you aren't exactly the most outgoing person on the planet and with the way that you have dodged just about everyone in our year at school it just leads me to believe that you don't hang out with people very often." He replies, choosing his words carefully to minimise the chances of him saying something that could hurt my feelings.

"You're right. I don't hang out with people. I don't even really like being around the guys at home, so there is no offence taken. I was just playing with you." I hold my hands up in surrender, showing him that I wasn't being serious. "And to answer your question, they were more excited than surprised."

A half smile involuntarily makes its way onto my face as the memory of Nathan's reaction resurfaces and the fact that he practically did a full one-eighty within a minute makes my smile widen even further even though his contradicting actions are confusing. One minute he is scolding me about not making any friends and then when I finally tell him that I am going to hang out with someone my age he loses the plot and practically tries to scare said person away.

If it hadn't been for the scathing look James shot him while Ben wasn't looking, I'm sure that Nathan probably would have rescinded his permission in a heartbeat. Mostly though, I think it was the silent plea in my eyes that I directed his way that made him crumble. He may be protective and not want emotional harm to come to me at the hands of some stupid teenage boy, but not at the price of my happiness.

"They did look excited for you, especially when I told them that I was going to teach you how to cook like a chef from the Wonky Chopstick."

"I swear sometimes they don't think of anything but food." I reply, lightly shaking my head at their silly behaviour.

"Actually, the Wonky Chopstick has a bit of a reputation around here. I wouldn't be surprised if they had tried our food before and were totally star struck by how excellent it was, leading them to believe that anybody who can cook as good as the chefs at the Wonky Chopstick is good enough to teach their super shy little sister." Ben says cockily, not even bothering to look at me as he speaks, instead he continues to steer his bike across the bitumen as we continue walking.

"Right, because that is totally what they would be thinking when a random teenage boy walks into their house wanting to spend time with their introverted sister." I retort, my voice thick with sarcasm.

"I'm serious. The Wonky Chopstick has been voted by the public as the best restaurant in Melbourne under all of the award divisions." Ben puffs his chest out in pride while doing his best to convince me that his earlier comment was the more likely scenario.

"Including the delivery service?" I deadpan, raising my eyebrows in question.

"I'll have you know that we have the best delivery service in all of Sunbury Hills."