Chapter 6 - "I hate drinking games."

My timetable for Friday's lectures was great. I had one hour of Italian in the morning and then nothing for the rest of the day; so effectively, by eleven o'clock on a Friday morning, my weekend had begun. This was particularly useful today because I could start to prepare myself for Nathan's visit.

I tidied my bedroom and then cleaned my bathroom. At one point I considered changing my sheets, but they were only a few days' fresh and they'd probably be filthy by the end of the weekend anyway. Hopefully.

Should I add a bit of romance to the room? It would be the first time we'd be properly together since I started university. Did I actually possess anything romantic? It wasn't like I could buy him flowers, and I certainly wasn't going to scatter rose petals everywhere. Jack would never let me live that one down if he found out.

Maybe I should just wear sexy underwear. Did that count as romantic? Or just seductive? I didn't want him thinking that I only wanted him here so I could jump his bones.

Sighing to myself, I wandered out of my room and let myself into Shaun's. He was sitting at his laptop, typing something up. Jack was sitting on the bed, tapping away at his phone.

"Hey," Shaun said to me. "You alright?"

"What kind of gestures do boys find romantic?" I asked him.

"Sex," Jack replied instantly.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm being serious here."

"So am I," he said, glancing up at me so I could see he was being serious. "Guys love sex. They don't want anything else."

"Ignore him," Shaun said, swivelling in his chair to face me. "Is this for Nathan?"

"No, it's for one of my other boyfriends."

Jack chuckled at that. "I knew you were a dark horse, you filthy minx."

"So?" I prompted Shaun. "Any suggestions?"

"How long have you been with him for?" Shaun asked. "A year, is it?"

"Almost, yeah. Shit. That means I need to consider our anniversary too!"

Shaun laughed. "Don't panic."

"Izzy, if you've been with this guy for almost a year, then how come you don't know what he finds romantic?" Jack asked me, seeming genuinely puzzled.

"Well, he's always the one doing the romantic stuff," I answered awkwardly. "That's why I want to do this. I want to make his visit special."

"You could always take him somewhere romantic," Shaun suggested. "Or meaningful. Something special between the two of you."

"That's a good idea," I replied, my mind already considering the possibilities.

"We're ordering pizza for tonight," Jack said. "So how about you think about it over dinner?"

"Sure," I said. "Hawaiian for me, please."

Whilst we waited for the pizza to arrive, I started rooting around in my room for objects that would inspire me. With every one of Nathan's gifts I found, I became more consumed with guilt that I wasn't able to come up with a decent romantic idea for him.

Why was Nathan the one always doing things for me? Our whole relationship was based on his desire to make me happy, everything from distracting me from Matt to taking me away to Italy. I wanted to give something back. I wanted to show him how much I appreciated having him in my life.

By the time the pizza arrived, I still wasn't much closer to finding out what the trick to being a romantic girlfriend was. Credit to them, Shaun and Jack did make some helpful suggestions as we ate together but I knew this was something I should do alone, and the key to it being especially romantic was if it was something personal to Nathan that meant a lot to him.

At some point, I must have fallen asleep while lying on my bed and flicking through photos of Nathan and me. I wasn't sure how long I slept for, but it was dark when I opened my eyes. Something was different. I was lying with my head nestled into my wall but I could also feel another wall against my back.

Frowning in sleepy confusion, I rolled onto my right side and I didn't so much have to see Nathan before I realized that he was lying next to me. Maybe it was his scent, or maybe it was my own senses being able to detect when he was near.

Content again, I shuffled closer to him and hooked my leg over his own, closing my eyes.

"Don't doze off again," he said his voice loud and clear. He seemed wide awake, unlike me. "You need to get ready to go out."

"I wanna just stay here for a minute," I murmured into his chest, draping my arm over his body.

He chuckled, making his chest vibrate. "And I thought I'd be the tired one."

"I've been busy. My brain is frazzled."

"Busy doing what? Sleeping all day? You're such a student already..."

"No. I've been busy trying to be a good girlfriend."

"Well. Mission accomplished. You're a good girlfriend. Now, chop-chop."

I sat up and swept my bed-ridden hair out of my face so I could look at him properly. "I'm not really, not if you think about it. I mean, you do so much for me. I don't do anything for you."

He raised his eyebrows. "You think you don't do anything for me? Are you crazy?"

"No. Just hopeless at romance."

"Boys are supposed to romance the girls. That's how it works."

I snorted. "Two hundred years ago maybe."

"Why are you so worked up about this?" He frowned. "I do romantic things for you because I like to see them make you smile. I like making you smile."

"I just want to give something back." Heat warmed my cheeks.

"Bella," he said quietly, taking hold of my hand and staring into my eyes with a seriously stern look. "You have done so much for me already and you don't even realize it. I couldn't ask for anything more. Sure, romantic gestures are nice, but I don't need them. You don't owe me anything at all. All I want is your love."

"You've already got that. But this is the point. You even speak to me romantically. I feel so useless at being a girlfriend."

"You give me so much love, Bella. The fact you do it without realizing just makes it mean more. Trust me."

He leant to give me a quick kiss on my lips, one that I didn't even have time to return. After all my worrying about being a good girlfriend, I'd completely forgotten about how much I'd been looking forward to having some alone-time with Nathan, in a private place where we could do whatever we wanted.

"Now, are you gonna get changed?" he asked me.

For the first time, I examined what he was wearing. The dark jeans and black shirt certainly weren't his work clothes.

"You got changed," I stated.

"Yeah. I had to do something while you were snoozing. I also had a shower and watched some Netflix."

Scowling, I grabbed my phone. I'd been asleep for two hours. What the hell was I doing with my life...?

"Oh, and I ate the rest of your pizza," he added casually.

My eyes snapped onto him. "You did what?"

"Well, it was sitting there unclaimed so I ate it. I was peckish and you were asleep. Soz."

"That was my pizza! I had claimed it!"

He grinned. "Well, you were too asleep to fight your case. I'm afraid that won't stand in court."

I scoffed. "You owe me a pizza."

"Oh, come on! There were only three slices left. Stop whinging and put something pretty on."

Luckily I'd already decided on what to wear so at least I didn't waste more time by trawling through all my outfits. I'd settled on a skirt and halter-neck top, then sat down to top-up my make-up. I couldn't be bothered with straightening my hair so I just left it as it was, cascading in loose waves over my shoulders.

"Your shower is rubbish by the way," Nathan said. He was lounging on my bed, flicking through his phone.

"Take it up with the shower, not me," I said, concentrating on my mascara application.

"Seriously though. It goes from freezing cold to scorching hot. It took me about fifteen minutes before I could find an acceptable temperature."

"You'll get used to it," I told him. "There's a specific section on the dial and if you go just a fraction outside that section then the water is extreme."

"Ah. Maybe we can take a shower together later and you can teach me?"

I glanced at him through the mirror. He hadn't even looked up from his phone and I wasn't about to heighten tensions between us just before a night out by picking up on a potential innuendo.

"Maybe," I said instead.

There was a knock at my door and I called for whoever it was to come in. The door opened a fraction and Gemma stuck her head inside.

"The taxis are booked for twenty minutes," she told me. "You almost ready?"

"Yeah. Just need to get a bag together and then I'm done."

She smiled and then headed back out, letting the door swing shut again. Immediately I began to gather belongings and drop them into my bag.

"How was work then?" I asked Nathan.

He patted the space on the bed next to him and, after making sure everything was present in my bag, I headed over and took a seat by to him.

"My assistant was fired," he said.

My mouth dropped open. "That's good, right?"

"Yeah. She must have been really shit 'cause they were only reviewing her for a few days before they made the decision."

"So do you have a new one?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied. "I sat through the interviews today."

"Did anyone stand out?"

"Sort of," he told me. "Basically, one of the interviewees was a girl who I went to school with. And she was super organised at school, always in charge of arranging things, and she was on the prom committee and stuff. Everyone interviewed well, but I know that she'll do a good job. So I chose her."

"That's great." I grinned. "So at least now you know you'll be able to rely on her. And if she knows you from school then she's even less likely to let you down."

He smiled softly. "Exactly."

When the taxis arrived, Jack and Shaun shared with Nathan and me. For the whole journey to the club, Jack was twisting around from the front passenger seat so he could maintain a conversation with Nathan. Or perhaps a more accurate description of the conversational exchange would be a round of one hundred questions.

I couldn't exactly berate Jack for it, because I remembered how curious I'd been about Nathan's life in Italy too when we'd first met. I, however, had been too proud at the time to show any interest in it. How times change...

As per usual, the queue to get into the club was huge. I groaned, already shivering in the cold, as we joined the end of it. From behind me, Nathan pulled me back against his body and rubbed his hands up and down my arms in an attempt to warm me up.

"Drinking games when we get in then, yeah?" Jack asked.

"No," I whined.

"Oh, don't take that tone." Jack sighed, rolling his eyes.

"I hate drinking games."

"You only hate them because you're so bad at them. If you actually participated more, you might find that you improve," Jack said, raising an eyebrow at me as if he was giving me serious advice. "You'll play, won't you, Nathan?"

"Sure."

"See, Izzy?" Jack smirked. "Your boyfriend isn't boring."

Our time spent in the rest of the queue was taken up by Nathan and Jack discussing various drinking games they knew and the variations on the rules. By the time we stepped inside the club, I was fed up of hearing the phrase "two fingers".

Even though we'd only been at university for a couple of weeks, we'd already visited this club three times. It was especially good because there was an outdoor space, covered by a tarpaulin roof so you could sit on benches and tables to talk without being deafened by music or drenched by rain. Our routine was to buy drinks, sit outside and chat for a bit, before going inside to dance once the club had got busier.

Sitting down at a table outside, I placed my double vodka-lemonade onto the table and slipped my bag underneath. Nathan took a seat next to me and his hand immediately strayed to my bare thigh.

"Twenty one to begin with, then?" Jack asked.

"Twenty one?" I repeated. Was this a game we'd played before? I'd learnt so many new games recently that they all blended into one.

"Yeah. It's just counting, Izzy. I'm sure you can count, can't you?"

"Yes," I said through gritted teeth.

Jack quickly launched into 'recapping' the rules and I just hoped it wasn't too complicated to pick up quickly because everything that he was saying was just going straight over my head.

"One," Jack said.

"Two," Nathan said.

Everyone looked at me.

"Three," I said hesitantly.

The eyes turned from me to Shaun, which I took as meaning that I was doing alright so far.

"Four, five," Shaun said.

It was a few seconds before I realized that everyone was back to looking at me. I frowned in confusion and Jack smiled.

"Too slow. Drink, Izzy." He gestured to my drink.

"But I had my go." I lifted my drink to my lips and took a small sip.

"Yeah, but Shaun said two numbers and that reverses the order. Did you listen to the rules?"

Nathan squeezed my knee. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll pick it up soon."

He was wrong. Two drinks later I still hadn't gotten to grips with any of the games we were playing. It was official: I sucked at drinking games.

"Down it, Fresher!" Jack's booming voice had several people at nearby tables glancing over.

"This is my fourth drink! I've had, like... Four double vodkas. I've had eight vodkas, Jack!"

Jack winked. "Never seen you drunk before. I'm enjoying it. Now down it! We like to drink with Izzy, 'cause Izzy is our mate..."

I shuddered in embarrassment as the whole table started chanting along with Jack, including Nathan. Having never been very good when it came to peer pressure, I reluctantly lifted my drink to my lips again.

"...And when we drink with Izzy, she gets it down in eight...seven...six..."

I tried to swallow the liquid as fast as possible, but I already felt tipsy and didn't want to make a fool of myself.

Just as the chanting countdown got to two, I managed to finish the last drops and slammed my cup down onto the table. I misjudged though and it bounced off the table and clattered onto the floor, proceeding to roll across to the ground. I watched it go with mild fascination until Nathan's hand nudging my leg snapped me back to my friends around the table.

"You're a good sport." Jack smiled at me.

"And you're a dick."

He started chuckling to himself and winked at Nathan. "I think maybe she's had enough. She's slurring her words."

"Wanna go dance, Bella?" Nathan asked me.

Dancing was suddenly a lot more appealing than sitting here losing at drinking games. When I stood up, everything swayed and I immediately reached out for Nathan. I missed, but it didn't matter because his arm wound around my waist, steadying me.

It was only half past eleven, and so the dancefloor wasn't as busy as I'd seen it before. This wasn't a bad thing because when it was heaving you often got pushed around or trampled on. In my current state, I wasn't too fussy about the population of the room; I was more focused on Nathan.

"It's so good to see you," I told him, standing on my tiptoes so I could talk down his ear. His palms slid down my back, holding me gently against him.

"It's so good to see you too," he said, his hand now rubbing circles into my lower back.

"Are you drunk?" I asked him.

He laughed and kissed my cheek before moving his mouth to my ear again. "Not as much as you."

It was so good to be near Nathan again and I lost track of how long we'd been dancing before the rest of the flat joined us. Within seconds Hayley was kissing some random guy and Jack was trying his very best to flirt with nearby girls, yet to no avail.

When Nathan suggested we head back, I more than happily agreed and we hopped into a taxi. My mind was already racing with thoughts of what we could do. I was feeling sexy and confident. Maybe tonight was the night that we tried something new. So, needless to say, I was surprised when Nathan chuckled against my mouth as I launched myself at him back at my room.

"Bella, you're so drunk."

"So drunk and so horny," I told him. "It's been so long, Nathan..."

"I think that last drink has finally made its way into your bloodstream..."

"Did you know that if you pour vodka into your eyes then you get drunk quicker because it goes straight into your bloodstream?"

"That's fascinating..."

I couldn't tell if he was trying to be funny or not because, quite frankly, I was more concerned with having sex than making conversation. Pressing my mouth against his again, I pulled him down onto the bed and moaned into his mouth as he kissed me back. But only shortly later, my moan of pleasure turned into a moan of disappointment when he broke off the kiss and sat upright.

"You're so drunk. You're probably gonna pass out in five minutes..."

"Keep me awake then." I grinned, sitting up too and starting to undo his buttons. He sat there and watched me do it, and then allowed me to take the shirt off his body.

"Thank you," he said.

I tilted my head to the side and then laughed. What a hilarious thing to say. Who says thank you to another person for taking their clothes off during foreplay?

"You're welcome," I told him, and then I got to work on his jeans. The button was tight though and my fingers were slipping all over the show, unable to grip properly.

"It's fine, Bella. There's no need to help me get ready for bed. I'm capable of undressing myself."

I frowned. "What's the fun in that?"

"I do it at home. Are you gonna help me put my pyjamas on too?"

Then, somehow in my drunken state, I understood what he was saying. He wasn't going to sleep with me. He was just getting changed ready for bed. For going to sleep.

"Oh," I moaned, pouting as I watched him wriggle out of his jeans. "Since when do you sleep in pyjamas anyway?"

"Since I'm staying in a flat full of other people," he told me. "Do you need help getting changed?"

"No," I muttered, pretending to be mad at him. "I can manage by myself."

But I still succeeded in tripping over my skirt as I took it off. I lay there on the floor, my eyes closed. Suddenly I was sleepy and getting changed seemed like too much effort. So I curled up in a ball and waited for sleep to take over.

*

Despite falling asleep on the floor, I woke up in my bed.

"How's the hangover?" Nathan asked. He was sitting at my desk, watching me with an amused expression.

Touching my head, I realized that I felt absolutely fine.

"Non-existent. That's weird."

"Not really," he said. "I forced some water down your throat before you went to sleep and then I gave you a slice of toast."

"Did I eat it?" I frowned. "I don't remember that. I just remember falling asleep on the floor."

"You wolfed it down like you were starving."

"I probably was starving. You did finish my pizza after all."

Nathan laughed. "Trust you to remember that."

"I remember everything up to falling asleep on the floor."

"I think that last drink hit you pretty hard," he said. "It took a while for the alcohol to get into your bloodstream. Although you did tell me a really interesting fact..."

Last night I'd briefly wondered if Nathan had been joking when he said it was interesting. In my now sober state, I concluded that he had in fact been joking from the way his lips were curled up in amusement.

"Why are you laughing? I'm pretty sure it's true."

"It was the way you randomly came out with it. You made it sound as if people do actually pour vodka into their eyes."

"I'm sure some people are stupid enough to do it."

"I'm sure they are."

My mind wandered back to last night. When had I last been that drunk? Had I ever been that drunk?

"Did I do anything stupid?" I asked Nathan quietly.

"Nah." He smiled. "You were just a little unsteady on your feet and you were slurring your words and giggling a lot. I wouldn't have let you do anything stupid. You may be a little drunkard, but you're my little drunkard."

He even made a teasing comment sound tender and affectionate. Glancing at the time, I saw that it was only nine o'clock. I doubted anyone else would have risen yet.

"So, what are our plans for today?" Nathan asked, noting that I was looking at the time. "You gonna sufficiently entertain me all day?"

"Hopefully," I replied.

He laughed and got up from off the chair and hopped into bed with me, snuggling under the covers. I melted into his body immediately, shuffling closer and resting my head on his chest. One of Nathan's hands settled on my hip whilst the other gently caressed my hair.

"It's fine," he told me, his chest vibrating in sync with his speech. "We'll do something this afternoon. Let's just lie like this for a while."

And even though I'd moaned last night that it'd been a while since we'd slept together, I realized that it seemed even longer since Nathan and I had cuddled like this. It wasn't longer, of course, but it felt that way.

Every second I spent away from him felt like a year. And there was nothing I appreciated more than the relaxed comfort of snuggling close to him. Right now, there wasn't a single place that I'd rather be.

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