“I hate action, Zayne, be fair,” Natalia’s whine echoed through the living room area. “Why are you so mean to me?” Sometimes I asked myself why I hung out with her, but I knew she wasn’t always like that. She could be a great friend sometimes but right now she was having trouble reading the room.

Zayne didn’t respond, but I knew he was dying to.

Natalia gestured to me once I reentered the living room. “Nina, come. I need to talk to you while we let the boys pick the movie. Follow me upstairs will you?” Flopping down on the bed, she looked at me pointedly. “You never mentioned the blond guy to me. He’s hot.”

“I know he’s hot.” Austin was good-looking. I would never deny that. Sadly, my new British friend was taken by my best friend.

“No, he’s not just hot. But it’s like he has up some resistance to me.” She groaned and I tried so hard not to laugh. “Ugh, I’m going to go help Leanne make lunch. Coming?”

“Did you really call me up here just to tell me you find Austin attractive?” I asked, hands moving to my hips as I stared at her in disbelief. I thought it was going to be something important.

“Well…” Natalia pursed her lips, her brows furrowing. “No. I wanted to ask about Zayne. Does he hate me or something?” she asked, her voice a bit softer than before.

‘Hate’ was a strong word. I wouldn’t say Zayne hated her, but I knew he sometimes got annoyed with her because of her flirting. But it was just how she was. Natalia was flirtatious and playful and joked around a lot. It was how she dealt with tough situations but it was also a big part of her personality. “Maybe dial down the flirting a bit,” I said, mostly for Austin’s sake. I could tell he had wanted to tell her to stop without embarrassing her or outing himself.

Natalia nodded slowly. “So, he’s not interested in me?”

“You’re interested in Zayne?”

Her eyes snapped to mine, an incredulous look on her face. “Uh, where have you been? I’ve been obsessed with him since freshman year. Then you came along and became so close with him without even trying. I thought you two were dating until you started going out with Jack.”

I coughed, choking on air. “Zayne and I are not and will most likely never date,” I told her slowly, making sure she understood every word. I loved Zayne but I had looked at him as more than a friend. Now that I knew he liked guys I could confidently say he had never thought of me as more than a friend either.

Thinking about it, Zayne and I would make a good couple. We knew each other like the backs of our hands and were so comfortable around each other that we occasionally slept in the same bed. But even if I had the option, I wouldn’t risk dating Zayne. If we broke up, there was no guarantee that we would fall back on our friendship.

“I don’t know, Nina,” she said, side-eying me. “You two seem awfully close. You’ve never kissed? Slept together? Even seen each other naked?”

“No, no, and no,” I answered honestly. Natalia wasn’t aware of just how close Zayne and I were, but she didn’t need to. I definitely wasn’t going to tell her now that I knew she was interested in him. “Zayne is a relationship kind of guy though. I thought you hated relationships.”

“I’d try it if I got to be with Zayne,” she said without hesitation.

Maybe she really did like him. It was a pity he could never feel the same way. “Let’s go help Leanne set the table for lunch.”

With a groan, Natalia agreed, and we made our way downstairs. After setting the table, I helped Leanne share the food, and we all sat down to eat.

After lunch, I asked Natalia if she was going to sleep over, but she said she had to start packing her things. All the new things she bought had to be packed away and her old things needed to be cleaned out. I only reminded me of my own closet crisis.

When she left, I decided to get to work on working out. It had been put off all morning and my muscles were aching to be used. Austin offered to join me, and I smiled because I always preferred working out with someone else to working out by myself. I let him know I was going to head to the gym, but he didn’t mind and tagged along.

By the end, my arms and legs were so sore, I was sure my knees would buckle on our way back to my car.

“You have a really nice car,” Austin murmured, admiring the leather seats.

“You want to drive?”

Austin laughed shaking his head. “Not this car. I feel more comfortable in Zayne’s car and I’m still getting used to driving on the right side of the road.”

I had momentarily forgotten that he would have been used to driving on the left side of the road, but I did make it clear that he could borrow my car when he needed to.

It was getting dark out when we got home. I was tired to the bone and nearly fell asleep on my bed after showering and getting dressed. If Leanne hadn’t come up to get me for dinner then I would have dozed off early. I only got up because the level of hunger I was feeling made it seems as if my stomach was trying to eat itself.

Staying to clean up after dinner without falling asleep on my feet was a struggle. My weeks of not having slept well then exerting all my energy into exercise was catching up to me. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light.

He crawled through the window and stumbled into the room, holding his side. I rushed to his side and caught him when he was about to fall, feeling his wet jacket at the side he was holding. When I pulled my hand away, blood coated my fingers.

“Help me,” he rasped, bloody hands grasping her own. When I reached for my phone to call the ambulance, he knocked the phone from my hands. “No police. No ambulance,” he begged.

I was about to argue with him but stopped when I realized I was running out of time to help him. I brought him over to my bed and helped him out of his jacket. There was a hole in his white, bloody shirt that clearly looked as if it was sliced through.

“I can call my aunt. She works at the hospital. She will know how to help you.”

“No. No one else. If you can’t help me, I’ll find someone who can.”

There was no way he could even get back through the window on his own, but I was afraid that he would disappear if I left him alone to wake Leanne. Instead of doing what I knew I should do, I ran to my bathroom to wash my hands and get the first aid kit.

After returning to the bedroom, I cut his shirt off to take a better look at the wound seeping blood into his clothes. There was a shard of something sharp protruding from his abdomen just above his right hip. I knew how to safely remove a piece of glass from a foot, but I had never done anything more than that. With a sterilized tweezer, I tried my best.

He groaned and fisted his hands in the sheets of my bed as I tried to remove the shard of glass from his skin. He tried his best to keep quiet to not alert the rest of the house, clenching his teeth together and keeping his moaning to a minimum.

My hands were shaking, but I tried to move quickly. I dropped the glass on the bed and immediately held a piece of his shirt to the wound to help stop the bleeding. “Hold this here,” I told him. Once his hands replaced mine, I got out the alcohol and an appropriately sized bandage to clean and cover the wound.

I worked quickly but efficiently, my heart hammering away in my chest and my slightly shaking hands the only tell that I was anxious about the situation. Once I secured the bandage in place, I sighed and rested my messy hands on my bloody sheets.

“Can you sit up?” I asked after my heart began beating at a somewhat normal pace again. His clothes were messed up from the blood. He sat up and stared at me as I helped him out of his clothes. I flushed when I realized the waist of his pants were also stained with blood. “I think we need to remove your pants too.”

“Thank you,” he said softly, shifting to make undressing him easier. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know who else to go to.”