Heartstrings (Prequel) Forbidden Heart Series

70| Making something outta nothing

The weeks flew by after Nick and I crashed the girls little camping weekend. School was in full swing and that wasn't really a good thing. News about the whole New Year's Eve fight with me and Brian spread through our school like a fucking STD. Everyone knew about it. Karma and I were the center of attention. Naturally, I didn't give a shit what people thought or that they started. But I knew my girl and she didn't like it. Once we got into February, things started to mellow out a little and I was grateful for it.

After telling my mom that I was going to apply to college, she's been on my ass. Obviously, she thought I lied just so I could see Karma that day. But when she walked into my room one night and saw me writing college essays, she was stunned into silence. She finally believed me. Hell, she even teared up right then and there. But I understood how she felt. Going to college was something my mom never though would happen for me. Now she kept raving about how proud she was of me and the man I was becoming. But now there was the added pressure I was putting on myself.  I just hoped I didn't let her down.

Then there was Karma. I definitely didn't want to let her down in the college department. Naturally, she had absolute faith in me, but still. . . College was something I never thought of before. Now not only was I planning on going, but I wanted to go. I had a list of a few colleges I was planning on applying to. NYU. Columbia. Hell, even community college. But I couldn't keep the doubts out of my mind. What if I didn't get in? What if I got into a different school than Karma? What if I got in and then failed? All that shit was just rattling around in my head and I couldn't get it out.

Karma wasn't fucking blind, either. She knew I was stressing and she's been trying nonstop to figure out why ever since we got back from the camping trip. I kept telling her that nothing was wrong --- which was kinda sorta the truth -- but she didn't believe me. Truth was that there wasn't anything necessarily wrong. I was just going a lot of overthinking. And there was no way in hell I was going to admit to my girl that I felt inadequate. What kind of pansy-ass shit was that?

But times like this was when it was great to have a best friend you could trust. The morning that I picked up Nick and we started driving up to crash the girls camping trip, he asked me how I managed to pull that off without getting in trouble with my mom. So I told him the truth. I told him that I had decided to go to college and that was my trump card in order to get my mom to keep our secret about me visiting Karma up north.

Thank God I was driving and had my eyes focused on the road at the time, because the surprise expression on Nick's face probably would have had me swerving off the road and crashing. Just like my mom's first instinct, he thought I was kidding about wanting to further my education. But after a little bit of explaining, he realized that I meant what I said.

So ever since then, he was the one I've been confiding in about my anxiety with the whole college thing. Nick had always planned to go to school. After all, his dream was to own his own marketing business one day. He's been walking me through everything needed to apply to school. He's also been making sure that I understood that I had just a good chance as anyone to get into college. Even though my main focus was trying to get into the same school as Karma, it would be an added bonus if my best friend was there too. If that were the case, the one school all three of us applied to was NYU. I submitted my college application yesterday, so all I could do now was sit and wait by the mailbox with my fingers crossed.

Suddenly Ms. D's voice interrupted my train of thought and brought me back to the reality that I was sitting in the middle of my photography class. "Now, don't forget that this assignment is worth half of your grade. I want you to pick a partner and travel around the city. Find a unique location to take a few pictures. The goal is to capture different angles. Make something from nothing." I clicked my pen over and over again as she wandered around the room. "Find something someone might think is ugly or unattractive and capture It in a way that makes it beautiful. Have fun with it. You'll have two weeks to find and capture the picture and two weeks to develope it here in the dark room. It needs to be clear." The bell rang and everyone started shoving their books into their backpacks before making a beeline to the student parking lot. "If you have any questions," Ms. D called out, "feel free to come by and see me."

Unlike the rest of the student body, I didn't rush out of class. Sure, I had my books in my book bag already and was totally ready to go, but the love of my life was in this class with me, and I would wait til sundown if that's the amount of time she needed to get her stuff together.

"This project sounds pretty cool." I said to her as she got her stuff together. "We should pick a day this week to try to find a spot for our pictures."

Karma didn't even look up at me when she said, "We? What do you mean, 'we'? I already have a partner."

Pushing my book bag to the floor, I sat on the desk and rested my feet on the seat. "Yeah, okay. Very funny, gorgeous."

She smiled and threw me a wink before swinging her book bag over her shoulder. "Sounds good to me. What day should we do it?"

"What about tomorrow? I don't have anything planned." Sliding off the desk, I grabbed her bag from her shoulder. She knew better than to carry her own bags around me. "Unless you have something."

Karma took my hand when I offered it to her and we made our way out of the classroom and towards the parking lot where I parked my jeep. "Tomorrow sounds good. We can go after school. Maybe we can take advantage of the sunset if we find something."

I gave her a little twirl before pulling her flush against my body. "Maybe I'll just take a picture of you, gorgeous. I'm sure that'll get me an A+++."

She tested her hands on my chest while a giant smile formed on her face. "I don't think you were listening when she explained the project."

"Sure I was. She said to take a picture of the most beautiful thing in the world and then develop it."

"Most beautiful thing, huh." She murmured in a throaty voice.

I traced her bottom lip with my thumb. "Absolutely positively the most beautiful, stunning, gorgeous girl in the world, baby. No doubt about it."

Unable to resist her, I leaned into her, fully intending to give her a deep kiss. That was until a group of seniors caught my eye. They were standing behind Karma, staring at us as they whispered to each other and pointed at us. My first instinct was to walk over there, break up their little party, and tell them to cut the bullshit or else. But that wasn't me anymore. Now I was a guy who was halfway through finishing his one hundred community service hours and had no intention of standing before a judge in a court room again.

"Nathan? What is it?"

Before Karma could turn around and see the group, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and started ushering her towards my jeep. "Nothing, baby. Let's get outta here. I wanna take you to the treehouse and spend hours making love to you."

The love in her eyes was something I would never forget. Neither was the way she mumbled my name in her sleep. Or even better, when she moaned my name as she came for me. Then there was the way she kissed me like it was the last time every time.

"Sounds good to me," she said softly, her eyes shining with an erotic light. "If I didn't know any better, Nathan, I would think you were addicted to me."

The grin I shot her was full blown. "Oh, baby, I'm super addicted. Heavily addicted." This time I finally brought to her lips to mine. "Believe mine when I say gorgeous, there's no patch or amount of cold turkey in the world that would ever get me over you."