"Cass?"

"Hey, Dad," I said, cradling the phone against my shoulder as I rummaged through the fridge.

"Hey, kid. Are you all settled in yet?" he asked.

I turned to survey the mountain of packing boxes that sat in front of my bedroom, and spread out around the common areas. "Not exactly," I replied, grinning as I imagined him rolling his eyes.

After my mother's recent lapse in sanity, and her subsequent marriage to – to use a clinical term – a total jack hole, I'd recently made the decision to move in with my father for the remainder of my school life until I could move away to university. Conveniently, this was only about seven months, not factoring in holidays. Inconveniently, however, I'd chosen a moment when my dad was overseas to move, meaning I had to do all the moving and organising on my own, not that I really minded. Which brought me back to the convenience that was my father's frequent and occasionally extended business trips, meaning I was more or less living on my own.

"Cassidy, if my house is still a mess by the time I get home, so help me – "

"Dad, please," I said around a mouthful of yoghurt. "You're not back for a few weeks. It'll be done by then. How's things over there?"

"Freezing," he said. "And boring."

"Better than boiling hot and boring," I told him, leaning against the fridge.

"Well, on the topic of boring, there's something that I wanted to talk to you about," he said, sounding almost hesitant. "At the moment, it's looking like we're going to be here a little longer than we first thought, maybe a few weeks."

I shrugged to myself. So I was going to be alone for a few more weeks, it wasn't anything new. I was still contemplating why he sounded so hesitant, when the doorbell rang.

"Hang on, Dad, there's someone at the door."

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about – " he was saying as I swung open the door to reveal a black haired nightmare.

"Where do I put this?" he drawled. "It's heavy."

"What are you doing here?" I asked, eyeing the duffel bag hanging from his shoulder suspiciously.

He smirked happily. "Hasn't Papa Leigh told you? We're housemates."

"I – you – what?" I demanded as he pushed past me and into the house. "Dad? Tell me he's lying."

"I'm sorry, honey," Dad's apologetic voice flowed through the phone. "That's what I was trying to tell you. Nathan is stuck over here for a while too, and, well, Oliver's having some issues with his mother – "

"You mean she got sick of him," I interjected, glaring at the boy who'd hoisted himself up on to the kitchen counter to watch me. "Understandable."

"Cassidy," my father scolded me, though I could hear him trying not to laugh. "Nathan doesn't want Oliver on his own in his business apartment – "

"Probably afraid he'll burn the place down," I muttered.

" – and he knows you're responsible," he continued on as if he hadn't heard me. "To be honest I think he's hoping you'll straighten him out a bit."

"Fat chance of that," I said, glaring at the boy who was grinning at me like he owned the place.

"It won't be for too long," he told me plaintively. "I promise. As soon as this deal's done I'll be on the first flight home."

I sighed deeply. "Do I have to feed him, or can he manage to do that himself?"

I could hear the smirk through the phone. "Do the shopping together. Nath and I will sort out the money side of it all, so just take him along when you do the groceries, and that's as much as you have to do, although I do think it would be nice for you to have meals with," he said.

"Yeah, I think I'll pass, thanks," I told him. "Is that it?"

"I'll email you if I think of anything else," he said.

"Alright," I said, resigning myself to my fate.

"It really won't be that long," he tried to reassured me. "I'll be home before you know it."

"If you say so."

"Love you, kid."

I sighed. "Love you too, Dad."

"See you soon, okay?"

"Sure."

I hung up the phone and replaced it on its cradle.

"So I guess you're staying," I said, turning to face Oliver, who was now smirking at me.

"You could at least pretend that it's not killing you inside," he said, jumping down from the counter. "You're hurting my feelings."

I rolled my eyes. "Like I care. Take one of the empty rooms down the hall and stay out of my way."

"You're not very welcoming, you know," he said, following me as I headed for my bedroom.

"I'm not trying to be," I retorted. "You're a delinquent, and I don't want you in my house, but seeing as there's nothing I can do about it, I'm going to have to deal. That doesn't mean I have to like it, and it doesn't mean I have to be nice to you."

"Ouch," he said, feigning hurt. "I'm beginning to think that you don't like me."

"What gave it away?" I muttered as we reached my room. "By the way, I'm having company tonight, try not to be around."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Company?" he asked. "Wouldn't be your boyfriend, would it?"

I rolled my eyes, and his grin widened when I didn't answer. "It is," he said, his grin getting so wide I wished it would actually split his face in half. "You want me out of the way so the two of you can get…freaky."

"You're disgusting," I told him, shaking my head as I opened my door.

"Should we sort out some sort of sock-on-the-door system?" he continued. "I'd hate for things to get awkward so soon after moving in together."

"Go away, Oliver," I sighed tiredly, stepping into my room.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'll make myself scarce tonight. You won't even know I'm here."

"I'd prefer it if you actually weren't. Like at all," I said meanly.

"Well, we can't always get what we want," he told me lightly. "But in your case, tonight you and your boy-toy can. You'll get plenty of alone time, time to really get to know each other – "

I slammed the door in his face, and threw myself onto my bed, cursing the day my father ever decided to become friends with Nathan Smith, and cursing Nathan even more violently for making the decision to spawn offspring.

Hola!

Okay hello so I'm back with new cliche romance goodness (at least I hope it's goodness oh boy) and I muST SAY i'm very excited about this story, I have some things planned and written out already and I'm really happy so far with how it's working out so that's good!

This is sort of my side-project from doing ~super serious writing~, so the updates probably won't be too regular (although I dont update regularly anyway so there's no change there really) but I will trY to have at least one chapter per fortnight hopefully depending on life and what not so ya!

Sorry this chapter is so short, I couldn't really find a way to make it longer without including everything that's planned for the next chapter, but most chapters should definitely be longer than this and hopefully the Cass/Oliver banter has given you a good taste of things to come.

I think I'm rambling now, so, adios until next time!