Careless and Reckless — Chapter 16

My morning so far has consisted of homework, sounds fun I know. It's now twelve and I've done all of my work, a job well done if you ask me. I don't have to go over to Wyatt's until four so I've got some time to kill. So what better to do than read?

About half an hour later Hugo walks into my room. "Have you ever heard of knocking?" I ask, sarcastically as I turn the page.

I see him roll his eyes from over my book. "Nope. Is that a foreign concept because it sounds totally new to me?" he replies also very sarcastically, he learnt from the best.

"Ha ha, very funny."

"Oh, I know," he smirks. Oh come on, even my own brother does that now, what has the world come to? "Anyway, get your lazy arse up, you've got a visitor." After saying this he walks out without another word.

Strange. I'm not expecting anyone. I close my book and hop out of bed before going downstairs to the lounge. Low and behold sitting on the sofa is none other than one of my best friends, Maxwell Rivers.

I slowly tiptoe to where he is sitting and scream in his ear. He jolts in his seat and flips the bowl of popcorn and the glass of coke in his hands so it goes all over him. At his reaction, I burst out laughing. He clutches his chest in his hand before turning to glare at me. "What the hell, Ari?!" He screeches.

I just laugh in response, clutching my stomach from doing it so hard. "I couldn't resist," I choke out between laughs.

"Jeez, is this what I get for wanting to hang out with my friend?"

"Yep," I say, still smiling, at least I've managed to control my laughing.

He shakes his head at me, a grin forming on his face. "Damn, I can't stay mad at you, come here," he says just before he lunges at me and tackles me into a bear hug.

"No!" I scream whilst laughing. "You're covered in popcorn, butter and coke, stop!"

"Never!" He calls, rubbing his dirty clothes all over me. "This is payback."

"Fine, fine," I start, trying to squirm out of his hold, still laughing. "You win, I surrender."

"What was that?" He asks, rubbing his hair on my face.

"You win, I'm sorry," I say, still laughing from the whole situation.

"Good," he grins letting go of me. I sit up, gasping for air. I haven't hung out with Max in a while, I forgot how much fun it was. I miss this, I miss spending time with him.

"So what brings you here?" I ask, trying to dust down my clothes.

"Can't a guy want to see his friend for no reason?" He asks, widening his big grey eyes to emulate a puppy, it's very effective.

"I don't know," I say in a sing-song voice.

"Fine, I wanted to hang out. We haven't hung out as just the two of us in forever and I miss it. James always got in the way, he didn't like us hanging out alone so we barely got to do it. Now we can so I thought we could watch a movie, probably Disney because that's all you'll watch."

The mention of James makes me wince but I hide it and smile at Max. That's too sweet. "Well I'd love that Maxi," I say ruffling his hair as I do.

He groans but plops himself down on the sofa. "How many times have I told you not to call me that?" I shrug. "Urgh. Anyway, since it has to be Disney can I at least pick which one?" I nod. "Great, let's watch Aladdin."

"Okay," I say, putting in the movie. I lie down on the sofa with Max and put my head on his lap, readying myself for the movie, god I love Disney.

~*~*~

After the movie, Max had to leave. He said he still had to do about two weeks worth of homework, honestly he's so unorganised, to be fair I was last year as well.

I jump into the shower to rid myself of the butter and coke before getting in the car to go to Wyatt's house. I hope I can remember the way. After roughly twelve wrong turns; three car scrapes; four uses of the wrong lane and one almost hospitalised civilian I make it to Wyatt's house. A pretty successful car ride if you ask me.

I knock on his door and Anna is the one who answers it, Cat by her feet. I'm still not over their dog's name by the way. I greet Anna but she completely ignores me and walks away, Cat hot on her heels. Thank god he left, I doubt I would've made it very far with him around.

Luckily, I've been here enough to be able to find Wyatt's room so I don't need to run after Anna and ask her, that would be embarrassing.

I walk up the stairs but as I turn the corner I feel something collide with my legs. I look down to see a little blonde girl with big doll-like blue eyes. It's Wyatt's sister. "Oh I'm sorry," I say, bending down to her height.

"Don't worry, it was my fault, I'm sorry," she replies in a small, soft voice.

"Okay. What's in your hand?" I ask, gesturing to the toy she's holding.

"It's Mr Caterpillar's chew toy, have you seen him?" She asks, her eyes wide.

"Mr Caterpillar?"

"Our dog," she tells me.

"Oh, is Cat short for Mr Caterpillar?"

She nods, smiling. "Yep, I named him. Do you like it?"

"Yes, it's a very...inventive name," I reply. Interesting. I can tease Wyatt about this later. "What's your name sweetheart?" I ask when I realise that I can't actually remember, I'm not the best with names.

"Brooklyn," she grins "but I like you so you can call me Brooke."

"Well I like you too Brooke," I say and tap her button nose. "And I did see Mr Caterpillar, he's downstairs with Anna," I tell her.

Suddenly, she's off running. "Thank you!" She calls, scurrying off in the direction of the stairs, fumbling slightly but she catches herself before she falls. If I'm honest it's absolutely adorable.

"No problem!" I call back, continuing my journey to Wyatt's room. I think she's my favourite King.

As I'm walking down the corridor I hear strange noises coming from one of the doors. I choose to ignore it, seeing as it's none of my business but as I'm about to turn the corner I hear crying. It sounds like a baby. Now that is something I can't ignore. It's strange though because I don't recall Wyatt mentioning any babies in his family.

I knock on the door but get no reply so I choose to slowly open it. When I do I see Nathan cradling a crying baby in his arms, trying to calm it down but it's not working. Now, this is a sight I never thought I'd see.

"Nathan?" I question softly when he doesn't notice I've entered.

He turns around and almost drops the baby in shock when he sees me, thank heavens he doesn't. "Jeez Aurora, you scared me half to death. What are you doing here?" He asks, a confused look on his face.

"I was coming over to tutor Wyatt when I heard crying and thought I should check it out," I answer truthfully.

"Right. Well," he pauses, thinking over his next choice of words. "I guess there's no point hiding this. Meet my daughter, Olivia."

Wait. Wait. Hold the phone. Nathan has a daughter!?!? Immature, childish Nathan. What the hell?!

"You have a child?" I ask flabbergasted.

"Yeah," he sighs. "I'm sure it's no surprise to you that I'm not a virgin. Word of advice use more than one form of protection unless you want your own little Olivia," he chuckles. "Her mum and I aren't together, just a drunken hookup but I ended up getting this adorable little thing out of it. Her mum and I both look after her because neither of us wanted to cut her out of our lives but looking after a baby is difficult. Don't get me wrong, I love this little angel and she's probably the best thing that's ever happened to me but I've no clue how to look after a child, heck I can barely look after myself."

Now I chuckle, I don't doubt that. This goes to show that not all parents chose to be parents even if they're fine with the outcome. At the end of the day, parents are just people who've had sex, nothing more.

"I see. Well, do you need a hand in getting her to sleep? I'd be happy to help," I offer.

He nods gratefully and hands Olivia over to me. "Thanks, Ari, I'm not the best with kids."

I gently rock her in my arms, walking around as I do. "No problem. How old is she?" I ask, genuinely curious.

"About five months," he tells me.

"Wow, no wonder she's so small. How come she hasn't been broadcasted in the media?" I ask yet another question. It's quite strange that she hasn't, the Kings are a well-known family so even though they aren't always front page news if something like this happened it would be bound to get headlined.

"Ah, well we've kept this on the down low. Only family knows and now you. It was just easier this way, mother and father didn't want a public scandal, especially considering I'll be taking over the family company soon." Oh yeah, Nathan is the oldest so, naturally, he'd take it over, it crazy to think someone as childish as him already has a kid and is next in line to a huge multinational company.

"I'm the only one you've told? I'm touched," I say in a mock voice.

"Yeah well you know, circumstance is a crazy thing. That reminds me, Ari, you can't tell anyone outside of this family about Olivia, not even one of your best friends."

That makes sense, I mean no one knows and besides, it's not my secret to tell anyway. "Don't worry, my lips are sealed," I tell him.

"Good," he smiles, gazing at his daughter who is now sound asleep in my arms. I lay her down in her crib and put a blanket over her. "She's so cute and sweet," I say softly, watching her move a little whilst she sleeps.

"Yeah she is," I hear Nathan whisper back whilst he too watches her, a peaceful and content look on his face. It must be so strange to be a parent, I can only imagine the feeling.

"Well, I best be off," I say, snapping out of my trance. "I shouldn't keep Wyatt waiting so long."

I get up and move to the door and as I'm about to leave I hear Nathan say, "right, see you and thanks, Ari, I owe you one."

I laugh. "I'll hold you to that, Nathan." After saying this I close the door quietly as to not wake the baby.

Now onto what I actually came here for, tutoring Wyatt.

As I'm walking down the now vacant corridor it dawns on me, I can't remember which room his. I have always been rather shitty with directions. I think I've narrowed it down to three doors. I open the first door but it's not his room, it's a private gym, I repeat, a freaking private gym. Seriously, how much money does this family have?

Onto door number two. I open it and let's just say that I should've knocked. Before me is a very shirtless Zackary King.