Till the End of the Line(Book One)

Chapter Six

     It was late when we returned. And everyone was asleep. Well, so I thought. Johnny went to his room and I got dressed in some pajamas. But I was just a little hungry so I went into the kitchen to, quietly, go find something to eat. We did get some groceries for myself but not that much. I had just opened the box of Honey Buns (those were one of my favorites) when I heard someone. "Where have you two been." I jumped and the light came on. "Jesus!  Why did you have to scare me like that Steve!?" I whispered taking a deep breath. "I asked you a question Natalie." He said coming closer to me with an angry look on his face. "Um well we went to the store and then lunch." I said with a nod. He just stood there crossing his arms waiting for me to continue.

   "And later that afternoon...I ran into one of my friends, Stacie; yes, I do have friends believe it or not...Then she asked us if we wanted to go to dinner with her and some of my other friends. And of course we agreed. So after that, it was about late 6 maybe 7 o'clock...and she asked us if we wanted to follow her and everyone else out to this club party thing..." his expression had become calm. Then he brought his face closer to mine which confused me a bit. After a couple of seconds he pulled away then said, "You've been drinking. I can smell it. That means you must have had lots of fun."

   "Actually, I did!" I say very sarcastically causing him to become angry again. "You could have gotten yourself captured or even ran away."

"Well....yeah but Johnny was literally glued to me. I mean I know that's not really much supervision but..."

   "Yeah. But you still shouldn't have went anywhere like that." He said. "Well I'm sorry for having friends I haven't seen in a while that I care about." I said mirroring his expression. "Whatever. You still have training in the morning too so be ready. And if you have a friend, why don't you just invite her over or something?" And with that he walked out not caring to hear my answer. I shrugged and ate my Honey Bun.

   When I finally got into bed it was about 11:30. And for once I was actually excited for training tomorrow. And the next day and so on. What has happened to me?, I thought to myself as I drifted off to sleep. Maybe you like him. I widened my eyes at that thought. No way. I did not like him more than a friend. Maybe not even that. I shook my head before finally drifting off to sleep.

         *                      *                     *

    The next morning I woke up at 3:00 and couldn't go back to sleep; so I got up and dressed in a pair of comfortable stretchy shorts and a T shirt,  then I went into the training room. In there I hopped on one of the treadmills Stark had put in here and did that for a good 45 minutes. Then I began punching the punching bag. That may help prepare my self a little more. After about an hour, almost two, Steve came in. "Your up early." I ignored him as I continued punching. "How long have you been up?" He asked. After a moment of silence I answered. "Since about 3."

     I turned away from the punching bag and looked at him, and he just happened to be behind me. "Are you ready?" He asked with a smirk. "When aren't I ready?" I retorted with a smile. And our daily training began.