The Best Mistake

”You’re like an angry crowd, I’m a riot in the streets. And you’re a cheap little whore!” I felt around on the night stand beside me, trying to reach my phone. I was laying on my stomach and Nash had his wrapped around me tightly with his head buried and my shoulder and I didn’t want to wake him up; especially since it looked like the sun was barely coming up.

“Hello?” I finally answered the phone, coughing to clear my voice.

“Uh, ew,” I heard Susie’s voice say in disgust.

“Susie?” I asked in confused. I guess I should’ve put two and two together because of the ring tone, but why is she calling me? I checked my phone for the time- 6:32. Am. Susie was calling me at 6:32 am. “Why are you calling me at 6:30 in the morning? Nobody’s alive at this time of the morning during the summer.”

“Some of us are interested in exercising early to keep in shape, you should try it sometime.” I snorted. “Anyway, you need to come into work today.”

“It’s my day off. No,” I said, my thumb floating over the end button.

“Yes, you do,” she said. “I ran it by the manager yesterday. She said you need to be at work by noon, or you’re fired.” I growled. “Aw, how cute. You’re sounding like what you look like.”

“Aw, how cute,” I mocked. “I’m hanging up now. Don’t trip into a lake or get hit by a bus. That’d just be awful.” I clicked the end button and groaned, closing my eyes.

I felt Nash kiss my neck lightly. “You okay?” he asked tiredly.

I turned my head to look and him. I saw how exhausted he looked and immediately felt bad. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” I apologized.

“Mm, it’s fine,” he mumbled. “Who was on the phone?”

“Susie,” I said nonchalantly.

“Susie?” he asked.

“She’s like… assistant manager at my job? I don’t know, but she gets away with telling me what to do,” I said, shrugging. “Anyway, I’ve gotta work today.”

He yawned. “Alright. Is there any more time to sleep?”

I shook my head. “Not in the same room. It’s 6:30 and I’m pretty sure I hear the shower running. So I should be getting back to my room,” I said, kissing his lips before moving to get up, but Nash’s grip only tightened.

“Don’t go,” he whined. “Just tell your mom you sleepwalk.”

“It won’t work.”

“You never know until you try.”

I sighed, before leaning over and grabbing his face, kissing him hard on the mouth. He kissed back immediately. I slowly moved one of my hands down to where he was holding onto my waist, and peeled them off before lacing my fingers through mine. It was when he bit down on my bottom lip that I pulled away, standing next to the bed with a goofy grin on my face.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re a bitch, did you know that?” he asked.

“You wouldn’t like me if I was any other way, though,” I said. He scoffed. I rolled my eyes, smiling. “I’m probably gonna try to go back to sleep, you can do whatever. I’ll see you in a few hours.” I quickly tip-toed out of the room, before hurrying to mine.

“Ashlyn?”

I froze, turning around to see my mother in her pale green robe and a pink towel in her hand as she dried her hair. “Mom, hi,” I said, smiling.

“Where were you?” she asked, looking at me suspiciously.

“Oh, you know,” I said lamely. “The bathroom.”

“Oh?” she asked in a tone that said she didn’t believe me. “Funny, because I was just in the shower and the temperature of the water never changed. Not even a little bit.”

“I told you flushing the toilet didn’t affect the water,” I said, shrugging.

“Huh, strange,” she said. “Well since you’re already up, how about you keep me company while I drink my coffee? I don’t have to leave for another half hour.”

I forced a smile- all I wanted to do was to go back to sleep. “Okay,” I said, following her down the steps and into the kitchen with a frown. I sat down at the dining room table with a loud yawn.

“So,” she started, as she poured the coffee into a mug. “How long have you and Nash actually been dating?”

“What?”

“Surely you’ve two been dating longer than just a couple days,” she insisted.

“We’ve been dating one day, actually,” I corrected. She gave me a blank look. “Seriously, mom. Nash is… a pretty stubborn guy. It took him a little bit to decide he wanted to date me.”

“Whatever you say, dear,” she said, sitting at the table. “I must say, though. You guys are adorable together.”

“Are you sure you don’t mean you and him would be?” I teased.

She waved her hand at me, laughing. “That, too,” she said. “But I see the way you guys look at each other. Heck, I noticed the first time I met the boy.”

I laughed. “When you first met him, we were hardly even friends,” I said.

She shook her head, taking a sip of coffee before continuing. “Ah ah ah, I disagree. You two just had the look in your eyes,” she said.

“What look?” I asked. “We didn’t have any look.”

She smiled. “The look of love and admiration,” she said. “It was adorable to see my daughter finally looking at a boy that way.”

I coughed, uncomfortable with the conversation. “We don’t love each other,” I told her.

“Maybe not,” she said. “But you look at him the same way I looked at your father.”

“Really?” I asked.

She nodded. “Mhm,” she said. “And I love Jeremy with everything in me, but it still doesn’t compare to your dad. So you look at him pretty strongly.”

I forced out a nervous laugh, standing up slowly. “Mom, I think all that caffeine’s getting to you,” I said. “But I’m tired, so I’m gonna go back to sleep. Love you!”

And with that, I hurried out of the room and upstairs, before my mom could make another uncomfortable comment.