Don't Get Too Close (Justin Bieber Love Story / Fan Fiction)

Fort-Nine: Instinct

Chapter Forty-nine: Instinct

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Song of the chapter:
This Love by Taylor Swift

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Have you ever been trapped in an elevator with what seemed like thousands of people surrounding you? For some reason, everyone thought they could fit in the elevator and they were too impatient to wait for the next one because as usual, everyone is always in a hurry. You were left to suffer standing in the middle and eventually, your claustrophobia started to kick in. You could feel the anxiety cutting through your bones. You could feel yourself growing unbearably warm. You could feel yourself wanting to do whatever you can to get out, but there's nothing. There was nothing you could do to get out of the tight little box you were closed in.

That was what I was feeling. Natalie was all of the people in the elevator surrounding me and causing me to be overwhelmed with a state of panic. Just like all of those people in the metaphorical elevator, she was closing in on me mentally and physically. And there was no way of getting out. In fact, there never was.

The winter wind pushed her dark blonde hair over her shoulders, causing some of it to land in the hood of her jacket. The cold air lead to the slight pink flush in her nose and cheeks. The bitter chill caused her green eyes that I both fell in love with and hated to generate a glossiness. Then, her light pink lips parted as if she was about to speak. It was going to be the first time I had heard her voice in almost four months and as badly as I craved hearing it before, I was by no means ready to hear her in that moment. She caught me off guard.

She appeared different. There was little paleness in her face, her eyes were very lively, and overall, she appeared so bright. All of the dullness and sadness looked as if it was washed away and there she was, looking happier than I had ever seen her. She seemed to be doing just fine without me. A part of me wished I could say the same.

"Hi," her voice sounded like an exhale, making it seem as if she was relieved to see me at the door. As relieved or happy as she may have been, I was anything but. I was ultimately mortified. Her simple greeting cut through me like a knife, but I didn't move. I didn't say a word, either. It was completely hopeless to even attempt to pull my eyes away from her. She wasn't something my mind just generated to make myself feel better, she wasn't some dream, and she wasn't some nightmare. She was all real. She was standing at my front doorstep for whatever reason, and it was more than unexpected. "I, um-- Mark must've accidentally locked me out of the house. I don't have a key on me, and the spare is lost in the snow somewhere. I understand if you don't want to, but would it be okay if I came in? It's, um, kind of cold out here and I don't really have a place to go."

I couldn't bring myself to move or say anything for a few seconds. She made me feel sick to my stomach. It was a shock that I even managed to nod a few moments after she spoke, giving her the okay to come inside. Mindlessly, I stepped aside and she walked past me almost as hesitantly as I had opened the door. Us seeing each other again was most definitely not on our list of predictions.

She unzipped her coat and allowed it to slide off of her shoulders, she then slung it over her arm. I held my hand out to take it from her, then I hung it up on the hook by the door. As I did so, she slid her boots off and left them by the mat next to the door just like she always had done. And then it fell silent. It was just as muted as it was before she came in. Everything I was doing in that moment was completely mindless. Of course I had been mentally checked out for a very long time, this was a different kind. Instead of being drowned in my thoughts, I barely had any. My mind was blank.

"Enjoying your snow day?" she questioned, breaking the heavy silence.

I nodded, incapable of producing any kind of words.