It's About Time

Now You Care About Us

Natalie drove her own car to school, per Grayson's bitter instructions.  It had been more than a month since Natalie had driven herself to school and she had to admit that it felt nice to ride along by herself with the music turned up.

She entered the parking lot, spotting Grayson's jeep almost instantly, and made the decision to find a spot as far from it as humanly possible.  Driving around to the other end of the parking lot, she found an empty space next to a beat up Chevy.  She exited the car, careful not to hit the other and made her way into the building and towards her locker.

Natalie caught a glimpse of Sabrina and Scarlett standing by their lockers and hastily made her way over.  

"Hey guys", she greeted as she arrived.  Closing her locker, Scarlett brushed past Natalie and made her way down the hallway without a word.  Natalie stood in shock for a moment before moving to stand in front of Sabrina.

"What's up with Scar?" She asked with concern.  When she met Sabrina's stony expression, she froze.  The usually bubbly girl was standing stoically, eyes like ice.

"Now you care about us"  Sabrina muttered bitterly.  Natalie's eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"What do you mean?  Of course I care about you guys."

"Oh really?  Then why have we barely spoken to you in the last month?"  The ice in Sabrina's eyes turned to fire.  "Oh, that's right.  Because you spend every waking minute with Mr. Grumpy Pants!"  Sabrina's outburst had drawn a few eyes and Natalie kept her head, trying to shy away from the attention.  

"So now it bothers you?  People have been looking at you and talking about you for months, but of course, you only care that people are watching you when you're with me", Sabrina snapped. Natalie took a second to process all of Sabrina's accusations before responding.

"What are you even talking about?" Natalie hissed.  "Who was talking about me?  And what do you mean I spend all my time with Grayson?"  Natalie was doing her best to wrap her head around everything Sabrina was telling her but it was a lot of information and she was struggling.  Sabrina let out an aggravated sigh."You've spent so much time in the last few months with Grayson that we literally never see you!  We've hung out like twice because you're always with him!  You sit with him at lunch almost everyday, you spend weekends with him, and even when we do see you, you just text him the whole time!  I get that you're happy to have a boyfriend, but you've completely forgotten about your friends."  

The shrill sound of the warning bell flooded the hallway and people started making their way to their classes, but the girls did not move.

"Okay, let's get one thing straight; Grayson and I are not dating.  Nothing is going on between us.  We're friends.  I don't spend weekends or after school hours with him.  I don't spend them with anybody!  I stay home and do homework or watch Netflix or do anything other than socialize with people because that's what I do!"  Natalie was getting frustrated and her voice was slowly getting louder.  Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself that she was trying to make things better, not worse.

"I'm sorry that I haven't spent much time with you guys.  I didn't mean to ditch you guys for Grayson or anything, I just really like spending time with him.  I'll sit with you guys at lunch today and try to talk to the others", Natalie said gently.  Before she had finished Sabrina was shaking her head.

"No, you know what?  Save it.  You can sit with your boyfriend since he seems to be so important to you.  Why don't you get back to me when you actually care about us."  Sabrina spun on her heel and walked to class.  The bell had rung at some point during Sabrina's speech but it had fallen on deaf ears.