Ode to Bree

Clementine

Unedited Chapter Six [1]

       Throughout the rather long drive, Nathan had resorted to reading Hamlet, which he was supposed to be reading in his English Literature class. His earphones were pressed into his ears, but it wasn't the loud music that was helping him take his mind off of things this time. It was the classical stuff: Mozart, Chopin, Bach—all that while reading something Shakespeare wrote? He was in peace, and for a short amount of time, he forgot where he was and whom he was with.

       His eyes lifted from the book and looked ahead, watching all the green pass him by. The sky looked a little darker than before, if it was going to rain any minute now. He sighed, closed his book and took out his earbuds.

       "We're almost there," Kat stated, as if she knew what he was going to ask. It was obvious by the annoyed look on his face.

       He was getting car sick, too.

       "Ki- I mean, Neil," Nathan smirked to himself, "How come I've never seen you at school? Do you skip a lot?" he decided to ask. He glanced up at the rear view mirror and got a good look at Neil, with his arm around Bree. He looked bored.

       "I don't go to your school," he answered.

       "Neil goes to St. Patrick's, on the other side of town," Bree jumped in.

       "So you go to a Catholic school?" Nathan asked, arching a brow at him.

       "Yea, so? My parents are religious," Neil shrugged.

       "But you aren't?" Nathan's voice, for some reason, was filled with so much conviction, it was making Kat worried and annoyed. She knew that he didn't like Neil, and she knew why.

       "Nathan," Kat interrupted his stare-down with Neil. "Do you mind?" she asked, throwing the aux cord into his lap.

       "Kat, you do know we have completely different tastes in music, right?" Nathan wasn't sure about her request.

       "Just play something road-trippy, I don't know! I trust you," she said with a smile. He looked at her smile, and it kind of looked pretty. Maybe if she rubbed off that red lipstick, it would have been prettier.

       Nathan sighed and plugged his earphones out, and connected it to the aux cord. He scrolled through his library until he found something, and the moment it begun playing, Kat's smile got wider, until he was biting her lip to stop it from getting any bigger. He saw Bree's smile, too.

       Then Neil leaned over, and Nathan looked away.

       "Oh come on, don't be such a Debby-downer. We're going to have fun!" Kat said when she saw him frowning a bit.

       "Yeah Nate," Bree leaned forward until the back of Kat's seat and smiled at him. "It's going to be one of those days that you just might not want to forget."

        "You have two beautiful ladies begging you not to be a sore thumb, man," Neil joined in, kicking the back of his seat lightly.

       Nathan sighed and nodded; he was already miles away from home and school. There was nothing else he could do but enjoy the ride and whatever they had planned ahead. Who knows, maybe he was going to have fun, but there was part of him that didn't believe that. The same part that didn't want to see Bree kissing Neil in the backseat. The same part that was telling him that he couldn't really trust Kat next to him.