8 Drinking stars

As I enjoy each and every bite of my breakfast, I see Nathan flicking his eyes open. He lazily goes into the washroom and I continue to enjoy my sandwiches. He comes back, takes his clothes and re-enter the washroom. I finish my sandwiches and open both my suitcases. I was rearranging my stuff when I heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?"

"David,"

"Come on in."

"Good morning, Mrs Walsh!" David smiles at me.

"Morning," I smile back, "You look happy!" I notice.

"Just excitement of going back home." he smiles again.

"Ohh!!! Someone is waiting for you, huh?" I raise my eyebrow, teasing him.

"Kinda," he shrugs his shoulders, "So where do you want to go today?"

"Shopping!" I answer, "I want to buy loads of things for friends and family."

"Sure. When do you want to leave? Mr Walsh is free today so you two can go anytime you want."

"Uh, okay, then after lunch sounds good?"

"Great," he says, "Bye!"

"Bye!" I smile at him. God, he really is very excited. I on the other hand is not at all excited to go back and deal with my boring life. I sigh and continue to rearrange my clothes and stuff. I have to make space for today's shopping. Nathan comes out of the shower and his phone rings.

"Hey dumbo, what's up?" he smiles and throws himself at the bed.

"Shut up!" I hear Venessa saying on the other side of the phone, "You are the dumb one! Where is my darling sister?"

"She is here. You know you are right calling her your sister, she is as dumb as you." Nathan teases her again and I throw my dress at his face and he gives me a glare.

"Wanna say that again? Cause I have plenty of these!"

"Haha, well done, April!" Venessa grins from the phone, "Gosh, I miss you, April come back now. The list of 'things to do with you' is getting seriously long."

"Aww, I miss you too. We are leaving tomorrow." I chirp.

"Yeah, Nathan told me! Nathan what did you buy for me?"

"I'm sorry I wanted to buy some brains for both of you but couldn't find it anywhere!" he teases her again. And this time I aim right at his nose.

"Ow! What the hell!" he cries, "This one hurt!" he complains.

"Told ya, I have plenty of.... Shit!"

"You have plenty of shit?" Venessa laughs.

"No! Freak, I'm so sorry! Nathan your nose is bleeding." I point out. He keeps the phone aside and looks at himself in the mirror.

"How can my nose bleed from a cloth?" he asks.

"The sequence must have cut your nose." I say apologetically, "We need first aid!"

"It's alright! I'll wash it. Alright dumbo, I'll call you back." He says to Venessa and hangs up the phone.

"No, we need first aid!" I demand.

"Alright, call David. Speed dial 2 on my phone."

"Okay!" I pick up his phone and dial David's number. "Hey david, it's April!"

"Hey, April, what can I do for ya?"

"Bring me a first aid, please."

"Okay, what happened?"

"I kinda cut Nathan's nose."

"Oh, I'll be right there." he hangs the phone. Two minutes later I hear a knock on the door. David is here with first aid.

"Okay, come here, lemme do your first aid." I say to Nathan

"Never in a million years I'm letting you touch me." he looks up from his laptop.

"What you didn't notice here Mr Walsh is that I'm not asking you!" I approach him and move his laptop away. I dip the cotton with the antiseptic. As soon as I reach out for his face he moves away.

"I don't bite you know," I say to him and try once more, "Nathan! Don't be such a kid!" I scold him.

"Just give the cotton to me." he grabs my hand to stop me. I finally give up and give him the cotton. He gets up and moves in front of the mirror.

"Ouch, damn!" he says as he cleans the cut. He quickly cleans it and throws away the cotton.

"Here," I offer him a bandage.

"No, I don't need it." he says.

"Nathan, it will get worse."

"No, it won't!" he argues. As I was about to fire back at him, my phone rang.

"Hi Venessa, thank God you called. Look Nathan is not putting a bandage on his cut." I complain to her.

"Oh yeah, he won't." she says, "He has this weird thing with bandages. He never put bandages on him. Apparently, his 'soft' skin gets damaged."

"What? That doesn't make any sense."

"That's Nathan Walsh."

I start to laugh like anything and Nathan gives me a death glare which makes me laugh harder. He snatches the bandage from my hand and applies it on his nose.

"Whoa!! This is my brother, right?" Venessa squeals from the phone.

Nathan gives us both an irritated expression and then surfs through his phone. After talking to Nathan I continue to make space in my bags for today's shopping. We spend the rest of the time in complete silence. Nathan listens to some songs while I look for good shopping malls. We don't realize till David knocks on the door that it's lunch already. Nathan and I watch the TV while having lunch.

"Will you come with me for shopping?" I ask him.

"I think I would rather stay and have the day by myself." he says.

"Alright, I'll see you in the evening." I say and go in the washroom to change. When I come out, I see a credit card lying along with my purse.

"What the hell is this?" I ask.

"It's my credit card. You can shop all you want." he says without even looking at me. I take a deep breath to control my anger.

"Seriously, Nathan?" I begin, "First you taunt me for being a gold digger and then you give me your credit card! What in the world are you trying to do?!" I involuntarily raise my voice, "This is absurd. You are absurd! And what the hell makes you think I would even accept this?! I am a big girl, I can take care of myself financially! I mean its 2019 for God sakes, women don't need their husband's credit card to shop!"

"Are you done?" he says and moves closer to me, "Listen, I have no interest in giving you my credit card and let you spend my hard earned money! But you are my responsibility here and if something happens my parents would be the one to face the embarrassment!" he grits his teeth and confines me to wall, "So, for the last time April Grey," he moves towards me and pins me to the wall with his hands on either side of me, "I hate you and I will always hate you for what you have done to me! And why have you done it hardly matters, maybe you are not a golddigger but you were selfish enough to marry me for your own benefit, be it financially or not!"

His words dig in my soul and it hurts. I look up at him and see his dark eyes. I'm not that bad of a person. I look down and Nathan moves away. I'm still not able to raise my head. Those words really hurt.

"Just take it and go." Nathan opens my purse and keeps the card in there. I take my purse and get out of the room. In the lobby, David is waiting for me, he gives me a concerned look. I wipe the unwanted tears from my eyes and ignore his questions. We reach the hotel entrance and at some distance I see Nathan coming towards us. What happened now?

"I'm coming with you." he says and sits beside me in the car. I don't respond. "There is a video game launch today at the mall." he explains. I don't why but this makes me laugh so hard.

"What's so funny?"

"You."

"What about me?"

"You can actually keep... How should I put it... You can actually keep your ego aside and come to shopping with me just for a video game." I reply.

"Well... Video games are nice. And I bet you haven't played them ever in your life."

"Yeah, so?"

"Nothing, just pointing out how boring your life is."

"Hey, my life isn't boring!"

"Really?" he looks at me with suspicion, "Name one adventurous thing you have done. If ever."

"I have done adventures!" I defend.

"Cool, then name one."

I think about all the incidents that has happened to me in my mind. I don't know why but I am not able to think of a crazy incident. I think and put more pressure on my precious mind.

"What happened? Couldn't think of anything?" Nathan says, chuckling.

"No, just not able to select. There are just too many to choose from." This makes him laugh harder. While I'm busy rewinding my life, we reach the mall.

"I kissed a stranger!" I point out as we climb out from the car.

"Yeah, the stranger with whom you are now stuck for the rest of your life." he replies.

"So, that doesn't count. You were a stranger to me back then!" I grin on my triumph.

"Okay, okay! Agreed!" he says as we go up the escalator, "So you are saying that in these 23 years of your life you have done "one" adventurous thing. That's very cool." My smile fades away. I am an adventurous person. At least I used to believe so.

"I hate you!" I puff my cheeks.

"And I think what you mean by that is you hate truth. Sorry, but truth is bitter." he chuckles and enters the video game store.

Nathan gets completely lost in the video games that the manager was showing him. I roam here and there in the shop to pass my time.

"Good evening, ma'am!" a French guy says to me in his unfamiliar accent.

"Evening." I smile.

"Would you like to taste our new drink?"

"Yes, sure!"

"Here," he offers me a glass, "It's one of finest drinks, I'm sure you'll love it!"

I taste the drink and it's really very good. So, I decide to buy a whole bottle. I look around only to find out the Nathan is still busy in his video games. Roaming around the store I couldn't resist the urge to drink the drink in my hand. It's so damn tasty! At last I give up and open the bottle and gulp it down.