"Nina! Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" Fabian noticed his mousy brown haired girlfriend making her way down the stairs and saw his chance to do the thing he'd been dreading for the past couple of weeks.

"Yeah, sure" she grinned at her boyfriend, reaching the bottom of the stairs and standing in front of him.

They'd been back at Anubis house for a few weeks now after their summer break and they'd just returned to the school for their first day of school, all ten of them: Nina, Amber, Mara, Patricia, Joy, Fabian, Eddie, Alfie, Jerome and even Mick had permanently returned from Australia. His Dad had been reinstated back in England with double the salary he was on before, and Mick was more than happy to make the move back with him. Suffice to say, the house was pretty full these days.

"U-umm, N-Nina, you've been my b-best friend ever since y-you first came to A-Anubis. And y-you're one of the nicest p-people I've ever met…" Fabian closed his eyes in an effort to give his jittering stomach a chance to calm down, before finding the right words to do this.

"Why do you sound so nervous Fabian, now I see why they call you stutter rutter" she teased, but after seeing his petrified expression, she started to worry about what this conversation was. "Okay, you're scaring me now, this is starting to sound like a break up speech" she continued, but this time she was only half joking.

But this was Fabian, and sure he seemed to be getting along with Joy a lot better lately since they'd come back for the new term, but they were friends before Nina even arrived here. Besides, he was Nina's best friend and her boyfriend after all.

Surely, he wasn't about to break her heart, was he?

"W-Well…" he began, but couldn't quite find it in him to continue. And besides, that one word alone was confirmation enough.

"Oh my god…" Nina sank down onto the bottom step of the stairs.

"I'm so sorry Nina, I nev-

"Why?"

"W-what?" he gulped.

"Why, Fabian? We were so happy, well at least that's what I thought" Nina spoke with her eyes closed the entire time, for if she looked at him while he delivered these next heart-wrenching words, she didn't think she'd be able to hold back the tears.

"We were, I was!" Fabian joined her on the step, "I really did like you Nina!" the way he said 'did' broke her heart into even tinier pieces than it was shattered in already. "Ever since we first met I knew I had a crush on you. But now, it just seems like we're better off as friends. And besides, now that you've been hanging around with Eddie so much more recent-

"Eddie?! Is this what this is about?! The only reason, Fabian, that I've been hanging around with Eddie so much is because you're always with Joy! And after everything that happened last year, I just couldn't deal with being around you whenever Joy was there. And Amber has been spending so much time with Alfie, which is great don't get me wrong, but I don't wanna be the third wheel in their relationship. So yeah, I've been with Eddie but we're just friends! We've just been figuring out the whole osirion thing" Nina breathed quickly, wondering if this was the reason he'd decided to end their relationship.

It was true, her and Eddie had been spending a lot of time together these past few weeks. But like she said, she felt uncomfortable being around her boyfriend while his old flame was constantly hanging around, her best friend was with her boyfriend twenty four seven, Jerome and Mara were spending so much time together it seemed as if they were now joined at the hip, Mick was either out running or staring longingly at Mara, and Piper had been visiting up until yesterday so Patricia spent all her time bonding with her sister. So yes, her and Eddie were around each other a lot and she did enjoy his company, but even if she didn't, she didn't have much choice.

If anything, that's what she hoped was what made him break up with her. If it was, then that was fixable; she could easily explain that there was nothing going on between Eddie and her. It was if it was because of something else that scared her.

"No, no, it's not because of Eddie. A-actually, it's b-because I've been spending more t-time with Joy. I know she was r-really mean last year, trying to b-break us up, but at the end she kind of a-accepted us. She always speaks highly of you now and it kinda-

"-makes you remember what you used to like about her in the first place" Nina finished off for him.

"Yeah, exactly" Fabian flickered his eyes to her, eyes loaded with guilt, hurt and even a little fear. Maybe he thought she was going to go after Joy now, but if he thought that, then he obviously didn't know her very well at all. Maybe the break up was for the best.

"Don't look so worried Fabian, I'll be fine, really" she laughed at his expression. "It's just gonna be a little weird you not being my boyfriend anymore" she whispered, hoping she masked the longing and hurt in her voice well enough. He seemed to buy it.

"Friends?" he smiled, sticking out his hand for her to shake. She didn't realise how much it would hurt hearing him say that.

"Friends" she replied attempting what she hoped was a convincing enough smile, before he had a genuine smile on his face, knowing that Nina wasn't mad at him, at least not too mad anyway.

Thinking that there wasn't much left to say, Fabian quickly said bye to Nina before going off in search of Joy; he couldn't hide anymore just how much he really liked her. He hoped his calm break up with Nina would mean that she was okay with them, even if she did still have feelings for him.

Remaining on the bottom stair in Anubis House, Nina hid her head in her arms as she hugged her knees close to her chest. She couldn't find the will to move from that spot, and she felt that if she did, the floor would just swallow her up and take her away somewhere. And she kind of wished it would.

"Hey there sleepy" Eddie joined Nina on the step, taking a seat next to her.

"I'm not sleepy…just upset" Nina admitted as she laid her head on Eddie's shoulder, "what were you doing upstairs anyway? In Patricia's room, making up after your last fight?" she asked, feeling the need to be cheered up by someone else's good, happy relationship.

"I just got dumped"

"Ouch, that sucks"

"Yeah" he chuckled, glad that she hadn't apologised or something stupid like that. He hated when people did that, it's not like it was their fault, so why apologise? "So what's got you so down in the dumps?" he asked.

"Same as you" she sighed, resting comfortably on his shoulder.

"Patricia dumped you too..?" he raised his eyebrows in an attempt to make a joke, and it seemed to work as Nina laughed.

"Nooooo, not Patricia, Fabian" she replied smiling in spite of her negative mood.

"Really? Wow, I thought you two were all loved up and stuff"

"Yeah, well, so did I" she admitted, back to her glum expression she wore before Eddie had come and had actually cheered her up slightly.

"You know what? You're too good for him" he stated.

"Yah, right…" she scoffed, mentally listing all the perfect things she liked about Fabian. She'd bet his list was twice as long as hers.

"No, I'm serious! You're gorgeous, he's average. Sure he's smart but he's too nerdy" Eddie crinkled his nose as Nina laughed at the face he was pulling, "but you're just the right amount of smart, the sexy kind" he winked at her while she tried to hide the blush rising to her cheeks.

"A-a-and he a-always t-t-talks with a st-stutt-tter" Eddie stammered, poking fun at Fabian's inability to get out his words when he was particularly stressed or nervous.

"Shut up!" she playfully shoved his shoulder, laughing genuinely at Eddie's impression that was surprisingly realistic.

"It's true! Plus, he can't be that smart"

"Why not?" she puzzled, a bit confused by his statement.

"Because he let go of you" at his words, Nina felt the happiest she had since they returned for the school year. Even though she didn't anticipate the break up with Fabian, she hadn't felt all that good about being pushed aside whilst he hung out with Joy. Eddie was making her feel the best she'd felt about herself in weeks.

"Thanks Eddie, that really means a lot. Why can't all boys be like you?" she looked at him, hoping to portray just how much she meant what she was saying.

"Stick with me kid, the two poor dumpers together" he joked, throwing an arm around her as he did so.

Nina laughed out loud again for the fourth time in only five minutes, just from talking to Eddie. At that moment, Trudy announced that supper was ready. Did that mean tea? Nina was never going to get the hang of these English phrases.

"You coming?" Eddie asked standing up and gesturing for her to follow him.

"Yeah, just a sec. I think I'm gonna go clean myself up first" she half smiled as she quickly jogged to the bathroom, cleaning herself up.