Adopted By The Shaytards

Chapter 39 - Resilience

It was a few nights after Christmas I was back to work. It had been a long day making milkshakes and counting change. I was glad to be closing up shop, I was tired and weak in the knees.

"So are you going to the towns New years party?" Natasha asked as she hung her apron up by the door to the office, her dad had left early.

"I don't think I have a lot of choice, my family is dragging me along" I moan

"I'm going to be there" she pipes up. I raise my eyebrow at her.

"Cool, so I guess I can have someone less snobby to talk to then." I laughed.

"Hey asshole, I'm very high class" she says as she puts her hand on her hip. I chuckle and continue to mop the floor.

The Greenwood new years party was organized by the rich business man of the village who was Mr.Greenwood. I hadn't been forced to go last year as I was not old enough but now I am 16 I could go, not that I really wanted to. The new years party was like no other, very stuck up people talking about their business accusations in the coming year, to be honest I had no idea why Shay would go. He said it had something to do with meeting new people to use some of his money to invest in a company.

This doesn't bother me at all about going, this year the thing that bothered me the most was Mr.Greenwood. He knew me as the guy that had been picking his daughter up from school the last 8 months or so. Mr.Greenwood just happened to have a daughter named Katie who I had been dating.

"So how come you're going?" I ask Natasha curiously.

"Same reason every other kid goes, dad's trying to invest in a new business, eventually he wants to sell this place and find somewhere else" She begins to groan as she cleans the counter top.

"Your dad wants to leave?"

"His big dream is to move to New York and play a big game of monopoly, but I don't think it will ever happen" she sighs

"Have you moved about a lot?"

"When my mum past away we moved from Florida to Texas to Colorado to Idaho. It was a big mess really" she admits to me, I never even knew her mum was gone.

"I think you should stay here" I say, speaking my mind by accident.

"I want to stay here too, but I can't be too sure what my dad wants." She goes into the back and I take off the sky blue apron and grab my baseball cap from under the counter and wait for her to come back with the keys. She flicks her long brown hair over her shoulder as she turns off the lights and heads towards the front door with me.

"Got everything?" She asks holding up the key and gently gesturing me out of the shop, I nod and watch her lock up the shop. I pull down the security shutter and she thanks me.

"You can leave now you know" she says chuckling at me just standing there in silence.

"I know but I..." I awkwardly rub the back of my neck.

"What?"

"Do you want to get some McDonald's or something?" I ask, I just wanted something to do. I hadn't been out with any friends for a little while and I just wanted someone I knew to sit down with me and talk.

"Are you asking me out on a date?" she asks, I look at her in shock.

"Of course not" I smile and rub the back of my neck again.

"Good, because you don't ask a girl you like out to McDonald's" she laughs and stands walking towards McDonald's and stops when I don't follow.

"So are we going to McDonald's or what?" she calls over folding her arms and smiling. I jog over beside her.

When we get inside it isn't as busy as I expected and Natasha went to order.

"Tell me what you want and I can get it" I say as I pull out my wallet.

"I have my own money Harry" she laughed

"Yeah but I invited you, you shouldn't have to pay. Now tell me what you want else i'll buy you a happy meal" I laugh at my own joke and she smirks.

"Fine, a chicken legend with a diet coke. I'll find us a table" I make a mental note of her order and watch her walk away. She was wearing the converses she wears for work with skinny jeans and a jumper that said LA. She had a shoulder bag hanging off one of her shoulders and it knocked against her hip when she walked.

I came over with a tray full of fast food and sat down opposite her. She reached into the bag and pulled out her chips and the sandwhich. I did the same.

"Thanks for coming out with me" I say to her as I pop a chip into my mouth.

"It's free food, I can't turn that down" she smiles at me before taking a bite out of the sandwhich.

"Lately I haven't really had any friends to talk to" I admit

"How come?" She asked curiously.

"I just, things happen you know?" I wasn't ready to tell Natasha what had happened between me and Katie, she didn't even know about Katie.

"I know, my friends are like that as well" she takes a sip from the straw of her drink.

"Are your friends sluts and players?" I ask, not realizing I could of just given the plot away.

"The girl that was practically humping your leg at that party the other day, that's Sky. Now she is probably the biggest slut in the world, I'm 35% sure she has an STI" she whispers to me. I give her an uneasy look.

"Really?" I say looking concerned.

"Bloody hell, I'm kidding. You're so gullible. She can't get guys to save her life" she chuckled and I awkwardly laughed back.

We spent the next hour sitting and talking about our pasts. We have a good laugh and some of her stories were similar to mine.

"I kind of want to meet my biological parents one day" I blurt out mid coversation. She stayed silent for a second before replying.

"It must be hard" she gives me a sympathetic look and looks into my eyes.

"Not really, I just want to call them assholes for ditching me" I laugh and she smiles back.

"You have a good family now though, right?"

"I love my family, I love being a Butler" I take a sip from my drink.

"Well I best be getting home, dad will wonder where I am" she gets up and tucks her chair under swinging her small brown bag over her shoulder.

"I could say the same thing" I give her a large grin and adjust my cap.

We walk out to the parking lot and stop before we part ways.

"We should do that again sometime" Natasha said after fishing around her bag for her car keys.

"Yeah, I'd like that" I simper and reach into my pocket for my keys.

She stands on her tip-toes and kisses me on the cheek.

"See you tomorrow for work, don't be late" she turns and begins to walk away. I stand there watching her leave.

"I'm never late" I shout back at her, it echos through the parking lot.

She just turns her head and waves as I watch her go around the corner and into the elevator. I walk back to my car with a smile that stretched from one ear to the other. I sit in my warm car and realize my heart was racing, I must of been nervous about something.

I put my hands on the black and red steering wheel cover I had gotten and took a deep breath through my nose in which I smelt the vanilla air freshener. I started up the car and put a Kings of Leon CD on in the car. I drove home singing.

It was the first day in the last couple of weeks that I had ended smiling. It was a good feeling.