Because I'm a Nerd.

Chapter 14- "Hey... How You Doin'?"

"Honestly, Nate. There's nothing wrong. I'm going to tell if there's anything wrong. You know I wouldn't miss a chance to see you flex those muscles, don't you?" I flirt.

"Oh, yeah. My muscles. Now they're some treat for them eyes." He replies.

I don't know why I lied. I was desperately waiting for someone to talk to, and now that I finally have someone, I don't even want to talk about it. I generally never want to talk about it. I hate talking about it. Talking about stuff makes it worse. When you talk about stuff; you revisit stuff. You revisit memories you had tucked away.

You have to recollect what's bothering you. You have to go through it all over again, just to talk about it. Keeping it inside is a lot better that way. You don't have to go through the pain of remembering everything. All the same, it still hurts. I wish I could be upfront about what I'm feeling too. I wish I could talk about what I feel too. I don't know why, but talking about it hurts. I want it to stop hurting. I want to be able to talk about anything anytime I feel. I want the pain to go away.

I want to be normal. I don't want to hide my feelings. It's just that sometimes circumstances leave me with no other choice. Circumstances can make you and break you. Sadly, the ones in my life have left me broken. Nate's come around and we're trying to fix me, but it won't be easy.

Especially because no one knows how broken I really am.

"Scar, come down, right NOW!" Hazel screams.

I shudder. I don't think I have done anything to make Hazel this mad. Nathan just looks at me knowingly. I think he's guessed that I'm hiding stuff.

"Coming!" I holler back. Nate and I get up to go down. I don't know why, but something in me makes me want to tell Nathan that something's wrong; even if I won't divulge what is.

"You were right. Something's happened." I say.

"I know. I just didn't want to push it." He says, knowingly.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because it was pretty clear you didn't want to talk about it. I'm in no hurry to get to know you, Scarlett. Hopefully, we'll have all our lives for that. I don't want to push you. All the same, I'm always going to be there for you. Always." He says.

"Yeah and putting a Harry Potter reference into your support speech made it a thousand times better. Thanks, Nate." I reply. He just smiles in return as we make our way downstairs.

I see Hazel skyping with them. Now I know what's made her so mad. Hazel hates Skyping them. It's a chore to her as well. We both hate it, but we pretend we don't. We just carry on for the other sister. It's some sort of mutual understanding we reached the last time we discussed our parents.

"Scarlett, your sister tells us that you have a boyfriend. We would like to meet him. " Mom says. I send a scowl Hazel's way. They weren't supposed to know. They can embarrass me despite the fact that they're seven seas away. That's my parents for you.

"Yeah, well. He isn't home right now. He just left." I lie, hoping that Nathan gets what I'm upto. Luckily, he catches on and slams the door shut.

"Okay, well, dear. We want to know him. Why don't we arrange for a dinner date the day after?" Mom asks.

"Over Skype?" I ask, rather skeptically.

"Well, Yeah. Isn't that how we met Matt?" Dad asks, referring to the fact that my parents have hardly seen Matt in person. All their talks with Hazel's boyfriend have been over Skype.

"Fine. Bye now. I'm busy." I say, before hanging up on them. I don't want to talk to them; not after I've cried so much over them.

They don't call back. They never do. I guess they just don't care.

"Thanks for telling them about Nate, Hazel." I say.

"I had no choice, I'm sorry. Really am." She replies, and she does look sorry. Maybe they trapped her into revealing it. Just the way they tricked me into telling them about Matt.

"It's okay. Nate, I'm sorry but I guess you'll be dining with the Woods' on Friday evening." I say.

"That's fine, my girlfriend. Anything for you. I should be going now, Lauren's waiting." He says.

I nod. "Goodnight, Nate." I say.

"Goodnight, my princess." He replies, smiling. Then, he walks away, out of the house.

"Isn't your boyfriend a little too cheesy now?" Hazel asks, clearly teasing me.

"With Nathan, it's never enough!" I reply, before shutting the door and getting ready for bed.

A/N:

Sorry guys! I know I've been real tardy with the updates. It's just that my exams were complete disasters. They just got over on the 16th. They were bad; I'm pretty sure I'm failing.

Thanks for not getting fed up of BIAN. It means a lot to me. Thanks for taking me to 1K. You guys don't know how awesome it feels. Thanks to each and every person who read, voted, commented and shared my story. None of this would've been possible without you guys.

I hope you all are liking how it is going.

Now there are some people without whom all of this would clearly have been just a dream:

a. @JacksonChase4Ever- This is one awesome babe. She's the one giving me constant feedback and always encouraging me, no matter what!

b. @pehalagarwal00- She is my only other source of constant feedback. And boy, what a source! Brainstorming has never been this fun!

c.@ AwesomenessDefined90- This girl has advertised my book so well. Honestly, I owe more than half of my readers to her!

d. @tithiruia- She's helped me through cases of writer's block!

e. @BiscuitButt- Her comments made my day and encouraged me to write when I thought I was useless!

f. @justcreativelyinsane- You rock girl! Your comments were awesome too. You guys are the best readers I have!

On a different note, I can't wait to see how the Skyping session will go. I hope it goes well! :D

Vote, Comment, Share & Make Me Happy! :)