Coming Back Home

Chapter 8

"Come on Natalie, just talk to me," I said as I sat up from the wall and leaned forward.

Not even thinking about what I was doing, I put my hand on her leg. Her head jerked up and she looked at me, and I quickly pulled back.

"Sorry," I said quietly, "but you know that all of this is killing me."

"Why would it be killing you?" She asked.

"Oh come on," I said, "we were inseparable for years, you don't think it bothers me that we don't speak anymore?"

Natalie looked down at the floor again, but she didn't say anything.

"Especially now that I have to see you every day," I continued.

"That you have to see me?" She said as she looked up at me and narrowed her eyes.

"No I didn't mean - you know that's not what I meant," I said, "I meant that it just makes it that much more painfully obvious that you want nothing to do with me."

Natalie's eyes softened and it almost seemed like a look of guilt came across her face. Maybe we were actually getting somewhere.

"I suppose I could try to be less of a bitch to you," Natalie said quietly.

"Oh really?" I asked as I raised my eyebrows, "yeah I think that would be very nice."

She tried to hide her expression from me, but I was pretty sure that I saw a small smile spread across her face.

"Would've been even nicer if you just wouldn't have been a bitch in the first place, but I'll take what I can get," I mumbled under my breath.

"I heard that," Natalie responded, "don't push your luck."

"Well I just don't understand why you were like that towards me to begin with," I said.

"You've gotten enough out of me that I didn't want to share, I'm not talking about this anymore," Natalie said.

I sighed and watched as she put her head back down and wrapped her arms around her knees.

"Fine," I said, "at least talk to me about something else then, I can't just sit here in silence."

I waited for a few minutes, but Natalie wouldn't budge.

"Okay well...how about your boyfriend, Eli, right?" I asked.

She looked back at me with a slightly annoyed look on her face.

"Yes," she said, "what about him?"

"Oh um, I don't know, how did you meet? How long have you been together?" I asked, trying not to get too personal.

I wasn't sure if Natalie was going to answer me or not, but it was worth a try.

"We met in college, but we didn't date then. We've been dating now for a few months," she said.

"I'm jealous of him," I said under my breath.

Oh fuck, had I just said that out loud? I froze for a second and tried to hide the embarrassment on my face.

"What did you just say?" Natalie asked me with a confused look on her face.

"Nothing, I um - I just said I was jealous of um...of you guys being in a happy relationship, you know. Yeah...that's what I said," I fumbled over my words and did my best to sound believable.

"Oh...okay," Natalie responded.

"Yup..." I said as an awkward silence fell between us.

We sat there for a while longer, I had no idea how much time had passed. I had my head leaned back against the wall and was looking up at the ceiling when Natalie spoke again.

"What about you?" She asked, "are you seeing anyone since you got back?"

I think I was just as shocked as she was when I had asked about her relationship.

"No," I quickly said, "well, I don't know actually, I kind of met someone, but it's only been a few days."

The fact that I didn't want Natalie to know that I was sort of seeing Theo made me feel like an idiot. I'd had a crush on this girl years ago, and now I didn't want her to know that I had been with someone else? What was I doing?

I watched as she nodded slightly, and that was the end of that conversation.

"Alright," she said a few minutes later, "let's try to make more noise again or something, this is gong on way too long."

"If you say so," I said.

She stood up in front of me and held her hand out for me to grab. I guess this was going much better than I ever thought it would.

I took a hold of it and she helped me up to a standing position. We stood there facing each other in the small room, and I let my hand linger in hers for longer than I should have.

Natalie opened her mouth to say something, but was stopped by the sound of the keypad beeping on the other side of the door.

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