CHAPTER FORTY ONE
anything for you
-
Natalie always avoided Valentine's Day. It wasn't some special occasion and she was a firm believer that if you loved someone, you should show it everyday. But she was secretly hoping Justin asked her to be his date to the dance.
And let's just say the two were on the same page. Something about dances had always made Natalie's heart beat faster and Justin knew that she would go all out.
But she had a few things to cover while she waited for her all out proposal. She walked up to Zach's locker for the first time since their campus tour adventure.
"What is wrong with you? You haven't answered any of my calls." Natalie crosses her arms, looking up at him.
"Sorry I've just been busy." Zach shrugged.
"I talked to Chloe yesterday." Natalie said, finally grabbing on to Zach's attention.
"Why?" He asked as he closed his locker.
"Because she's worried about you. And I can't blame her for that. Apparently you haven't been returning any of our calls. You know you can tell me anything." Natalie shrugged.
"I can't tell anyone anything, ever." Zach says clearly speaking on their ex friend group. "So we good?"
"Look, there's this workshop with the football team that Justin mentioned. He thinks you should stop by." Natalie says, trying to catch up to the tall boy who was already walking.
"What for? Justin's captain now anyways." Zach rolled his eyes. She didn't understand how they went from partying together to this hostility.
"He's co captain until you're back on your feet." Natalie corrected as Zach tried to pass by. "Look Justin and I both owe you a lot. Who knows how that stupid party had gone if you weren't there? And who knows if Justin would even be on the football team without your help?" Natalie used her puppy dog eyes.
"Fine. I'll go to the stupid workshop." Zach rolled his eyes.
-
Another relationship that had oddly been worked out since last year was Ani and Natalie. I guess seeing someone on the brink of death does something's to a person. And she was pretty good at playing a happy medium in between her and Jessica.
They say across from each other at the lunch table as they looked around the Valentine's day decorations. "So when do you think Clay is going to ask you to the dance?" Natalie raises an eyebrow.
"He already mentioned he is not interested." Ani shrugged, almost a bit sad.
"Uh uh. No way. Let me get a minute in that head of his and we will be double dating." Natalie said as the watches Clay approaching Zach from the corner of her eye. "Speak of the devil."
Natalie gasps as she sees Zach sucker punch his gift two times with almost no hesitation on either side of it. She makes up a quick excuse to get out of her conversation as she follows Clay out of the cafeteria.
"What the hell was that? Why are you limping?" Natalie helps him to walk.
"Natalie, someone's been calling me." Clay opens up. Natalie's eyebrows both raise.
"What do you mean someone's calling you? Who?" Natalie asks as they walk into an empty classroom.
"Asking me to pick fights, saying they know what happened with Monty." Clay days, sitting at one of the chairs.
"Clay, if there is one thing this past year has taught me, it is to live in the moment. Stop answering the calls, Clay. No one knows anything. Just ask Ani to the dance and be a teenager. That's my plan." Natalie shrugs as the bell rings.
"The fucking dance. I completely forgot." Clay says as they both walk towards the exit. "Also, don't lose hope on Justin. It's coming."
Sooner rather than later. When Natalie was walking out of the classroom, she notices Justin standing at her locker with balloons. She automatically throws her head down with a smile, a blush and a tad bit of embarrassment.
"Natalie Marie." He smiled as she walked up to him, falling into his arms. "Will you go to the Love is Love with me?"
"Well I think it would be pretty awkward if I said no." Natalie chuckles and takes the balloons. "So yeah, of course."
He returns the hug as he kisses her cheek slightly, on the other side of the hallway she notices Jessica looking at them. But for once, she didn't care about the stupid glances. She just wanted to savor the moment.
-
Natalie is walking out of school to her car as she gets a call from Tony. "Tony, I haven't heard from you in a while." She says in a confused tone.
"Could say the same for you, Natalie. I just was wondering if you would want to go to the mall with me." Tony offers earning even more confusion.
"The mall? With Tony Padilla? Okay Ashton Kutcher, I've been pranked. I get it." Natalie chuckles.
"I figured after your dance proposal was all over snapchat that you would want to find a dress and I want to keep an eye on Tyler." Tony states.
"What's wrong with Tyler?"Natalie asks quickly.
"Nothing yet." Tony shrugs over the phone. "So is it a plan?"
"Sure. Justin has a meeting tonight anyways." Natalie says, locking her car. "I'll be there soon."
When she met Tony at the mall, he was sitting across from the photography shop Tyler worked at. She looked at him with confusion. "Tony, you look super creepy right now." Natalie raised an eyebrow.
"Jesus, Natalie. Don't sneak up on a man like that." Tony jumps out of his seat.
"What are we looking for?" Natalie asks as she stares into the stop as well.
"Haven't you noticed Tyler acting different?" Tony asks.
"Tony, everybody acts different with me. Maybe he's just tired of everyone viewing him as a victim." Natalie speaks from experience.
"His mom said his shift started at 3 and it's almost 5." Tony says as he makes loops with his eyes around the mall.
"Tony, I love you but this is stalker level shit." Natalie said, lucky enough was cut off by Tyler finally arriving.
"Is everything okay? My mom said you called the store." Tyler shakes his head.
"Correction. He called your house. I'm not weird like that." Natalie smiled as she gave Tyler a hug from the lack of not seeing him in a while.
"I was just wondering if you wanted to DJ the dance with me." Tony offers.
"Why would I want to do that?" Tyler asks in a confused tone.
"Well you helped me set the computer up." Tony shrugged, obviously just trying to make up an excuse.
"Sorry. I have plans." Tyler said quickly. "I gotta go to work for the next five hours. Natalie, nice seeing you. Tony, I'm sure I'll see you soon."
Tyler walks away quickly as Natalie can't help but to chuckle. "Wow, TyTy has some sass." She smiles earning an eye roll from Tony. "Now, I was promised dress shopping. So that is what we will do."
-
Natalie zipped up the back of her pink sparkly knee high dress as she heard a ring on her doorbell. She saw Justin at the door wearing their matching colors and she flashed a smile.
"Beautiful as always." Justin looked down at her as he rubbed her cheek as she blushed.
"We should get going before my mom hears you are here and pulls out the camera." Natalie smiled but they were too late.
"Oh, Natalie. Justin's here!" Nora yelled as she pulled out her brand new iphone Natalie got her for Christmas and searched for the camera app.
"Hi Mrs. Walker." Justin looked up at her from the porch.
"Oh please, Justin. You've always been family to us. Call me Nora. Plus I do not want to be associated with that name any longer than I need too." The woman smiled.
"Do we seriously have to do this mom?" Natalie asks as Nora began to take pictures.
"You only have one more high school dance after this. I have to take the pictures while I can get them." Nora nodded as they smiled for a few pictures before finally being let go.
Natalie let Justin drive her jeep because safe to say, she was not a fan of the prius. "How was the meeting?"
"Interesting." Justin nodded. "Coach was there."
"Like Coach Kerba that told you to go to the meeting?" Natalie raises an eyebrow.
"My thoughts exactly. It did feel nice to have him there though." Justin nodded.
"I'm really glad to hear that, Justin. I am. I'm really liking how things are looking for us." Natalie looked over at him. "I mean is this what it feels like to be happy?"
"It's a good feeling, isn't it?" Justin rests his hand on her thigh where it usually was while he was driving. In the spirit of Valentine's Day, being with Justin made Natalie feel alive. She had many hookups and relationships before him but this was going to last forever if he could put up with her that long.
"I love you, Justin." Natalie whispers. She couldn't remember the last thing she had said it and it had been so natural. It even took him by surprise.
"I love you too." Justin replied and she just wanted to kiss him right there but she was worried she second things got too comfortable, it would be gone.
Justin and Natalie arrived to the dance late as usual. When they walked in, it felt tense. The first thing they saw was Zach and a blonde girl from the cheerleading team drunkenly falling over while making out. They both reached to help grab them up.
"You good?" Natalie asks Zach as he stands up, pulling out a flask, offering her some. "Zach, there's like two chaperones with their eyes on you right now. You couldn't wait for another time?"
"Damn, Natalie. Since when were you the party police?" Zach asks as Natalie sees Justin looking over at Jessica and Diego.
"What's so interesting?" Natalie asks, crossing her arms.
"Nothing." Justin shrugged, honestly. Natalie hated the fact that she brought Justin in on her fued with Jessica because it had nothing to do with him. He had been nothing but loyal to Natalie.
"Then let's go dance." Natalie suggested as she took his hand with her.
Natalie paid close attention to the conversation happening behind her as eavesdropping was one of her specialities. She could tell they were talking about her and today was just not the day for that. She shouldn't have let it ruin her good mood but she did.
"You got something to say?" Natalie crosses her arms quickly to them as Justin follows behind her. He knew she couldn't be controlled but he could keep her from doing something she would regret.
"So what if she does?" Diego asks as they also separate. "Not saying anything no one else is thinking."
"And what's that?" Natalie asks without a hesitation.
"I've seen your boy passing glances at us. Sad to see he got the low end of the deal." Diego said as he passed a glance up and down on Natalie. The statement angered both Justin and Natalie but she holds him back as it was her battle to fight.
"Funny for Jess to say that after she tried to make moves on Justin while I was in a fucking mental hospital." Natalie rolls her eyes as people were starting to watch now.
"Seriously, Nat. This doesn't have to happen." Jessica shakes her head and Natalie stares at the ground.
"I felt terrible every time I hurt you. I didn't think there was anything I could do to makeup for it. Looks like we're even. And I want nothing more than to stay out of your way so keep both of your big fat shit talking mouths shut and I'll keep doing my thing." Natalie rolled her eyes as she grabbed Justin and kissed him quickly and passionately for a hint of dramatic flare.
Diego and Jessica walk away in the opposite direction and Natalie was happy to realize she won this argument. Despite being a bit of a toxic event, it actually brought Natalie and Justin closer. They could barely keep their hands off of each other as she felt nice to have the ability to say he was hers and he loved when she went ballistic on people.
They were so off in their own world, neither of the two noticed Clay or Ani slip off, or Winston, or Alex, or Tyler, or Diego. Just as they were about to slip back to the keep, Natalie and Justin see Clay walk back into the gym with a knife covered in blood just like his clear white shirt.
"Holy shit." Natalie says as Ani walks over to him. The whole gym stopped in silence as they stared at him. Well there goes that happy feeling Natalie wanted.
A/N: How badly I just want to have a fully fluffy chapter of only happy Natalie and Justin but these two characters are just so beaten up, its so difficult. A little bit of calm before the storm when things get even crazier. What are your predictions as I've already seen people commenting on them and I really do like to take them into account? Thank you guys again for all the support. Don't forget to leave feedback, comment and vote!!
word count - 2263