Perfectly Dysfunctional

“So tell me what happened,” Nathan said as he wandered in to Tom and Max’s and I closed the door behind me and Jay.

“I was driving back here, and it was about ten minutes before we got here, this asshole undertakes me and his back end bashed into the front end of mine. No one was hurt or anything, just shook up,” Nareesha explained.

“I wanted to drive after that, but-”

“But you were angrier than anyone in the car,” Nareesha cut Siva off, “So we stopped in here and got carried away with the time, sorry we didn’t call.”

“But it-” Tom started.

“Don’t sweat it,” Nathan cut Tom off taking a seat beside Nareesha, “As long as everyone’s alright...” he paused for a moment for clarification and Max tried to speak this time.

“But Nath-”

“Max, Tom, it’s fine,” Nathan said in a tone that told them to drop it. Tom rolled his eyes, “Like I already said; no one got hurt, and my child is okay!” he rested his head on Nareesha’s stomach. She tutted and punched his shoulder, “Oh shit...” he said whilst covering his mouth, acting as if he’d let out a huge secret.

“I swear Nath, if that kid comes out with big eyebrows, I will kill you,” Siva said with as much seriousness as he could muster before punching Nathan in the crotch and swooping in to steal his seat when Nathan buckled out of the way.

“Not cool, Seev,” Nathan said from the floor. I laughed and walked over to Tom who was pacing by the window.

“What’s up Tom? Are you alright?”

“No, because I’m telling you that was Dave’s car.”

“Tom...” Nathan sighed. He sounded tired.

“No, Nath, I’m not going to drop it, because that idiot could’ve killed us. Granted maybe not this time, but in the future, because he’s clearly not giving up until someone’s either dead or lying seriously fucked up in a hospital bed!” Tom’s temper was rising and I took a step back when Max pulled on my elbow.

“Tom!” he exclaimed, shocked at his outburst – as were we all, “No one’s going to end up in a hospital bed! Stop thinking that way,” he said as he made his way towards him. I took a couple more steps backwards then sat with my back against the sofa as Max took Tom outside.

“Oh, did Jay text anyone?” Nathan asked as he crawled towards me from still lying on the floor after being kicked off the sofa.

“I text him,” Nareesha said, “What?” She exclaimed when Nathan stopped crawling across the floor to raise his eyebrow, “No, he hasn’t text back,” she said when she saw me about to speak.

“Well then shouldn’t someone call him?” I said as Nathan finally sat next to me.

“Probably...” she trailed off as Siva jumped up and grabbed the phone before dialling Jay’s number and waiting. After a few moments he hung up.

“No answer... I’ll try the house...” He dialled quickly and waited a few more moments before hanging up again. By now, Nathan had pulled out his phone and was texting, so I pulled out mine and tried calling him again – but with no answer.

“He could just be asleep...?” I suggested, “I mean, won’t he be a little jet-lagged and stuff?”

“Not really – well, he’ll be jet-lagged, but he’ll just sleep-in tomorrow. He was in the middle of getting ready,” Nathan said as he glanced at the time.

“Or...” Nareesha started but I stopped her.

“Don’t... Please...”

Nathan nudged my right side and spoke quietly, “Wanna take a drive back home just to make sure?” I nodded and stood up. As I stood up, Nathan’s phone chimed indicating he had a new text. He quickly grabbed at it and sighed with relief, “It’s from Jay.” I joined in his relief silently along with Nareesha and Siva but soon stopped as I saw the frown on his face. “That’s not Jay,” he soon said.

“What?” Siva, Nareesha and I all asked in unison before surrounding Nathan’s phone.

Hey Nathan, I’m fine, all is well. You and Jenny can come and get me.

“I’m gonna go ahead and say that Jay doesn’t text that way?” I said.

“Not now, not ever,” Nathan said. “Besides, we weren’t to go and get him. Right, well Jay wants us two to go and get him,” Nathan said but Siva cut him off.

“Are you sure that’s the best idea?”

“If this is one of those ‘she’s a girl and therefore can’t hold her own in a fight’ speeches, I’m taking your keys and I’ll go alone,” I said before Siva could get his say in. He kept quiet after that with a hint of amusement in his eyes. “Nathan c’mon,” I pulled on his hand.

“If either of you don’t answer your phones within the first five rings, or answer any texts within five minutes, we’re coming out too.” Nareesha said quietly, glancing back at the kitchen where Max and Tom were. I knew she was thinking the same thing as me: if either of them knew, they’d try and stop us from going.

“Can I just say,” I started as I was being pulled from the door, “You’re going to make a fantastic mother.” I grinned and she flashed me a dorky smile before I ran to Nathan’s car and climbed in the passenger side. I sat in silence with one general thought running through my head for the first ten minutes of the ride before I couldn’t take it any more, “Nath...”

“Yeah?” he took his eyes off the road a few times to glance at me.

“He’s got to have used some force on Jay if he managed to get his phone and still has all his fingers to text...” I bit my lip and let the worry and anxiety eat away at me. A pained expression flashed across Nathan’s face and his foot inched down further on the gas pedal as we hit the motorway.

“Well there’s only one way to find out, really.”