The Other Is Gold [On Hold]

Chapter Eleven

“We enjoy warmth because we have been cold. We appreciate light because we have seen darkness. By the same token, we can experience joy because we have known sadness.” ― David Weatherford

{Chapter Eleven}

 Pain.

  That’s what my head was feeling right this second. Pain. It was throbbing through like there was no tomorrow. My head banged softly on the pillow underneath my bed. So many questions rose in my head. Where was I? How did I get here? Why does my head feel like it’s about to explode?

 Slowly, all of the memories slowly came back to me. I stretched my hand and felt around. It smelled like…boy. Nate’s room. Of course.

 “Hey, who are you?” A voice asked from across the room. I turned around to see a little girl in a white shirt. Her voice sounded like so sweet. It definitely matched her personality as far as I could tell.

 Her dirty blond hair was tied up into a tight ponytail with a bright red ribbon on top. She kind of reminded one of the twins from the Olsen twins. Her bright blue eyes were wide open, curious to see what I was doing.

 “Umm, who are you?” I pointed to her chest.

 “I’m Nate’s sister,” she said broadly. She held up two crayons as if to prove that she was related to Nate. I took a long stare at her and realized she wasn’t joking around. My god. She looked like a little girl version of him.

 This brought me back to reality. Since when did Nate have a little sister? Did his parents adopt her or something? She looked small enough to be under five years old, but old enough to be at least three. My attention snapped back to her face as she said, “So who are you?”

 “Oh. I’m just uh-you know, his girlfriend. Err, Nate’s girlfriend that is.” I felt really awkward around her now.

 “So why are you sleeping on his bed?” She sounded very curious. After a moment, she added, “Oh my god! Are you Goldilocks?”

 I smiled a little at her assumption. “No, I’m not Goldilocks. I’m Scarlet.”

 She smiled back. “That’s a pretty name.”

 I got up and started straightening out the pillows, almost knocking over a Gatorade bottle down. I was starting to like this girl. “Thank you. What’s your name?”

“Her name is Natalie,” Nate answered for the girl. He came into the room with a towel wrapped around his waist. His hair was spiked from the shower in a disheveled way. “Hey.” He turned to me.

 My eyes drew from Natalie to his abs. “Err, hey.”

 He walked into the room and opened one of his drawers. With his back turned to me, he mumbled, “So I see you’ve met the brat.”

 Natalie tightened her grasp on the crayons. “Shut up, Nate. You’re a meanie head.”

 “Yeah,” I agreed, smirking, “you’re a very big meanie head.”

 Natalie smiled wider. “See? Even your-what’s she called? - girlfriend agrees. I hope a dog eats you.”

 And with that, she left. Nate turned around and grinned. “Hear that? She hopes a dog will eat me.”

 I rubbed my head. “I heard.”

 He held up a pair of socks and boxers. “So I see you’re awake.”

 “No shit?”

 He rolled his eyes. “How are you feeling? You kept throwing up all night. Did I mention you were drunker then Snooki?”