Bruised

17.

It was another two days before Natalie was finally feeling well enough to go back to school. Which meant she had a total of three days' worth of schoolwork to catch up on.

She hadn't seen Leon again since the day he crawled through her bedroom window. She wished she could say that she was getting over her attachment issues with him and didn't excruciatingly miss him after a whopping 48 hours of distance, but then she'd be lying.

She did miss him. She hated how pathetic she felt (really, 48 hours?), but she did.

Every black-haired male that passed her, she would whip her head around so quick in the fear of missing him, only to realise it was decidedly not Leon Hughes but rather one of the other 85% of people on this planet with black hair.

Could she get anymore whipped?

"Okay, no," Nyra said from beside her, pointing at the sentence Natalie was in the middle of writing. "That's not it. It's not aerobic, it's anaerobic."

Natalie sighed, crossing the word out and fixing her sentence. The pair had a free period together and they'd decided to spend it studying outside on one of the metal picnic tables around the school. Really, Nyra was the one studying for her exam, while Natalie was copying all of Nyra's notes that she'd missed out on.

"You're distracted," Nyra pointed out. "Why are you distracted?"

"I'm not distracted," Natalie said.

"Yes, you are, and I think I can take a guess as to why. Should I guess?"

"Please don't guess."

"Is it something to do with a certain someone taking care of you while you were sick?"

"Nyra!" Natalie chided, furtively glancing around them to make sure no one had heard her. "I told you, that's a secret!"

"Oh, come on, no one's around," she said. "So, how is Mr Boxer?"

Natalie pursed her lips. She hadn't told Nyra about him boxing—it wasn't her secret to tell—but that was the most popular rumour at the moment.

"I don't know. I haven't seen him since," Natalie said.

"But you've been thinking about him." Nyra giggled, poking her in the ribs, and Natalie squirmed out of her reach.

"Yes, okay! I have! I can't help it. He's just—I can't make sense of anything. Like, why does he come visit me when I'm not around? Why does he do anything?"

"Oh, come on, girl. It's so obvious."

"What?"

"It's because he likes you!"

"What?" Natalie repeated, her face lighting on fire. She looked away, placing her cold fingers on her hot cheeks. "No, he doesn't. I mean. Does he? Do you think?"

"Why else would he be all Natalie, I love your name. Natalie, I think you're cute. Natalie, I love you."

Natalie batted a hand towards her friend, but she dodged out of the way, snickering. "He never said that!"

"He might as well have!" Nyra sighed, retaking her seat next to Natalie. "Look, I may not know much about guys, but I've seen him around you, and if those aren't love-heart eyes, I don't know what is."

"I just don't want to get my hopes up," Natalie admitted.

She liked to think that she knew Leon, but did she really? She didn't know anything about his love life; had he had a girlfriend before? Was he just a massive flirt? How was she supposed to know?

"Nat, it's our last year of school. This time next year, you're going to be living it up at uni. Hell, this time in two months, you'll be taking your UCAT. Get your hopes up while you still can."