20 I'm Your Bestie

"Uh…" I moaned, still tucked into my bed.

"How are you feeling now? Has the fever gone down?" Nathan sat beside me and patted my head.

"I think so. But I'm still dizzy and nauseous." I groaned and rubbed my eyes.

"Brad came over to check on you this morning, but he had to run off to a meeting." Nathan explained seriously. "Apparently, the school board's been running an investigation on him."

"What?" I shot out of bed, mouth gaped open.

"Just kidding," He chuckled. "But he really is at a meeting."

"Fuck you, Nathan." I fell back to bed, facing the ceiling. "You know he might get fired if the school finds out about us."

It was eleven a.m., and the sun beamed brightly through the see-through curtains.

After spending the night with Brad and Kaito, I felt ill the day after. I had even vomited my lungs out several times. Kaito suspected it was the seafood and Brad concurred. Now it had been two days and I was still feeling a bit sick.

"You can nap some more if you want." Said Nathan.

"What about you then? Do you have anything to do?"

"Not really. I visited my sister this morning, and now I've nothing to do. I can just stay here and take care of you."

"Thanks, Nathan. I appreciate it."

"Why you thanking me Ped? I'm your bestie!" He rubbed my hair and walked away.

Brad had taken me to the clinic the day before and I was still on medication that made me drowsy. Thankfully it wasn't the weed because I'd actually like to try it again sometime. That was really fun.

Now I was laying helplessly ill on my bed, and Nathan had come over to my place earlier to check on me. He was sitting on my black desk chair checking his phone, his back facing a large window. So much had happened that day, I thought. I met Brad's ex, smoked weed for the first time, and fucked my boyfriend's chest all in the same day. Life's funny, huh?

I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep.

-----

"Ped? You awake?" Nathan called.

I stretched my arms and turned to look at him.

"Yeah. What is it?"

He sat next to me.

"I just wanna talk." He said. "I'm curious. What did happen at the beach that made you sick?"

"Oh, it wasn't that. We saw his ex and had dinner at his place."

"And you came out sick. Wait, are they both sick then?"

"I don't think so…"

"Bitch, his ex probably poisoned you! That's really sick, man. You should tell Brad."

"Why would he poison me? He has a girlfriend, and for fuck's sake it could've been the weed."

"You smoked weed with them?"

"Yeah, so it could be a weed hangover for all I know."

"I still think there's a slight chance that he poisoned you, Ped. You better watch out."

I shrugged. I wasn't in the mood to blame him for accusing Kaito of doing something this vile and wicked, or did he? I was too tired to care anyway.

"So how was weed?" Nathan sat on the bed again.

"It felt so weird. Man, everything was so soft and floaty, do you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I've been high like once."

"And then we had sex while we were high." I boasted.

"Ooh nice. What about his ex?"

"He fell asleep next to us."

Nathan stared at me with his mouth wide open. "What? For real? You just met his ex and you guys already had sex in front of him?"

I nodded.

"What the fuck?" He moved his head back in disbelief. "Was it worth getting sick then?"

I shrugged again.

"Probably not." I sighed. "And he had actually planned for us to head to the club again tonight. Now I guess we'll just go another time."

"You mean the one where you saw Christian the other time?"

"Yup. I think he's back in London now, judging by his Snapchat stories."

Nathan thought for a moment.

"So you just wanna see guys strip, right?"

"Maybe." I laughed.

"Well, I can strip for you."

"What? Like now?"

"If you want me to." He held my hand.

"But why?"

"Do you not want me to?"

"No, but… you know how to strip?"

"I've never told anyone this, but I've taken strip dance classes before. So yes, I do know how to strip."

I looked up at him in surprise. Nathan was suggesting to basically do a striptease in front of me. Part of me felt guilty because I was now in a relationship, but part of me also felt really aroused. Nathan, my hot best friend, was about to strip in front of me. Wow.

"But Brad…" I mumbled.

"It's okay, I understand." Nathan squeezed my hand. "It was a stupid suggestion anyway. I mean, I was just kidding- "

"No, it wasn't stupid." I interrupted. "Like- "

I paused for a moment.

He tilted his head, brows furrowed in concentration.

I subsequently gave him a stare that meant I was too embarrassed to say yes to his offer.

Nathan seemed to have understood as he smiled at my shy response.

"Okay."