Thank you @dash-of-clarity for all your grammar correction  and your reviews ☺

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Mark didn't say anything after the whole not trusting Xavier comment but he seemed to be in thought. We were almost at my house when I remembered I had a commitment with Mark I had to honor. 

"Are you free tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah." He turned his attention to me briefly. He looked shocked I was still talking to him. It's like he expected me to ignore him till we reached my house or something.

"Well, I remembered we had movie plans we couldn't go through with. So we can go tomorrow if you want." His face lit up with a smile.

"Uh, yeah. I can uh pick you up early and we can grab something to eat before we go." He sounded and looked so happy. His gloomy expression long forgotten.

"Great. I have to go to church with my family in the morning and we should be back by 11. We can meet at 3 and catch the movie at 5  since we have school tomorrow. This allows us to get home early."

"Cool." We'd reached my house so he parked and looked at me, "I'll pick you up at 3 then."

"Ok. Thanks for the ride." I got out of the car and waved him goodbye as he drove away. I reached for my phone and texted Xavier.

At home.

Zave: Good. I don't trust that Mark guy. Was about to call you. He texted back. 

Wait till he finds out I will be going out with him tomorrow. I can just see him throwing a fit worse than the one Elliot did. I walked towards our front door while texting him.

Me: Are done with the event?

Zave: Kinda. He's visiting the patients in the hospital now with his photographer. You'll see it tomorrow in the papers.

Me: I don't read the newspapers. But if you make an appearance I just might. 

Zave: Highly unlikely. It will make my father too happy.

Me: Gotta go. Talk to you later.

I turned my phone's screen off and since I was already at the door I opened and entered to see Aiden on the three-person couch with a book in his hand and Nina sitting on the single-person couch that faces the door looking as uncomfortable as ever. I saw the relief on her face as she approached me.

"Thank God you're here." She whispered. The television had discovery channel on. I see why Nina looked bored. My guess is Aiden totally ignored her and hijacked the tv even though he wasn't watching. Typical Aiden.

"You're back," Aiden said looking up at me. "Where's mum?" He asked when he realized I was alone. I just realized I didn't even meet my mum when I was at the event.

"She'll come later. I had to leave early because I had plans with Nina." He nodded.

"Did you eat yet? I could whip something up for you."

"It's fine. We'll order pizza." I motioned to Nina.

"Mmmm." He hummed then left us to his room.

"Seriously your brother is so intense," Nina commented and  I just laughed at her. I took in her appearance. She had her black hair tied into a bun on top of her head and she had on a stylish purple tie-dyed cotton joggers with a hoodie.

"Not really," I contradicted.

"Yes really," she opposed strongly. "The only words he said to me was 'Evie is not around' when he opened the door and, 'Do you want water?' when I sat down after he left me at the door. Then he just turned on the tv and read his book for like the whole 30 minutes I was waiting. It was torture."

"But he did stay here with you didn't he? That was him being nice and hospitable. He could have just left you here alone. I wouldn't put that past him." 

I'm actually shocked he didn't leave her or ask her to come back later when I was around.

"Honestly I think I'd like it if he left me here alone."She said with all seriousness. I shook my head at her.

"I'm going to change. Order the pizza and you know where the popcorn is." I headed to my room after. I rinsed my face and put on my pink onesie and joined  Nina after. She was sitting on the floor munching on a bowl of popcorn on her lap as she browsed through Netflix for a movie for us to watch. 

I sat down beside her. She offered me her popcorn when she noticed me. She turned her attention back to her movie searching. 

"Yeah, who did you come back with?" She asked.  I heard the car outside. I knew it couldn't be Allen. He's too much of a coward to face your brothers." 

"Mark. Surprisingly, he was there at the event, with Xavier's dad." She turned to me, remote forgotten.

"Mark Brandwill?" Her shock was evident on her face.

"The one and only."

"And he met Xavier?"

"Yep," I chewed on the fistful of popcorn I put in my mouth.

"Let me guess, Xavier had on the possessive, 'I own you' attitude he has with you when you're around others boys," she said sarcastically.

"He doesn't have that attitude towards me."

"Oh please. How many times did you have this fight with Kyle became of that?" She rolled her eyes at me.

"On to more important news. Mark, spill." She said excitedly.

"There's nothing to spill. He just offered to drop me off at home." I intentionally left out Zave's opposition. "And we decided to go to the  movies tomorrow."

"Yay! Is my Markvie ship finally sailing? About time, she hollered. When is she going to stop treating my life like a teen drama?

"Calm down Nina. We are just friends." I chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"It has to begin somewhere." she shrugged. " If it wasn't clear already. I am team Mark so please give my ship a chance and don't sink it before it can sail." This girl is crazy. The doorbell rang. 

"Yay pizza's in." Nina ran to the door with her purse. I wonder where all this enthusiasm comes from. She's always like a child on a sugar rush. She put the boxes on the floor beside me and headed to the fridge to get us drinks. I wonder why she bought two boxes of pizza. I picked a movie for us to watch as I waited for her.

"Julie and the Phantoms. Nice." Nina commented and put the drinks by the pizza while she took her seat. Nina and I love musicals and we had been waiting for this to come out for months. Can't believe we forgot when it actually came out.

"Can you promise to let me listen to the songs from the movie as it plays?" Nina always downloads musicals soundtrack before we watch the movie then she totally murders the songs with her offkey notes.

"No promises." She smiled smugly. " I bought one box of pizza for your brothers in case they wanted some."

"Aiden I doubt but Elliot I'm positive will eat some. Max is a maybe." She shrugged and turned to watch the movie.

"Will you sleepover?" I asked.

"No my mum will come for me at midnight. One of her friends is hosting a gala. She said she'll pick me up after." Nina's mum was a single mother. A very rich single mother. She doesn't know who her father is because her mother refuses to talk about him no matter how much she pried so she just gave up. Her mum must be busy all the time but she makes sure she isn't alone and calls her like every hour to check up on her. She doesn't even allow her to have sleepovers.

By the time we were on the fourth episode, our pizza was all gone as well as our drinks and we were back to our popcorn. Nina, not disappointing, sang every song that had come up so far but a bit lower than normal because she didn't want to disturb Aiden. I laughed at every wrong note and wrong lyric she sang into her empty can of cola.

Max and Elliot arrived around 10 pm, thankfully, sober.

"Hi Nina," Max greeted when he entered and saw her. He sat down on the couch that we were leaning against. "You good?"

"Yeah." She answered softly. She hasn't grown out of her shyness around my brothers. Elliot entered with a bang. 

He turned on his goofy smile when he saw Nina. "Hey, beautiful." He threw the car keys at Max who caught it effortlessly. He sat on the couch Max was on too at Nina's side so she and I sat between them.

"Oh pizza." He exclaimed when he saw the unopened box and tried to reach for it but I swatted his hand away.

"Go wash your hands." He pouted and went to the kitchen. Max followed.

"How was the party?" I asked Max when he got back with a can of ginger ale in hand.

"Loud." He answered. " I went mostly for Elliot and also to keep an eye out for my team. I don't want them doing anything stupid like drugs or something."

"Totally not needed if you ask me. He gets one bad case and suddenly he turns into the father of the team." Elliot tsked.

Zave's story comes to mind. This makes me wonder if that was the 'bad case'. I turn to Max and he has a ginge ale in hand and looks kinda tired. Judging by his mood it will be a bad idea to ask about Zave.

I look at Elliot and wonder if I should ask about him so I could get their point on the whole situation. He was already eating his second slice of pizza and quietly flirting with Nina. I guess this is the end of my movie night.