89.
It was bound to happen at some point.
Natalie had felt her concentration slipping. She spent more time reading and fantasising than reviewing her study notes these days. And with everything that had been happening with Leon, and her recent encounter with Tyler, school had been the last thing on her mind. It was inevitable.
But now, with that paper in her hand, the number 89 scrawled across the top of the page—it was worse than she could have ever imagined. Her stomach turned and she thought she might be sick.
She buried her face into her pillow, letting it soak up the tears that spilled freely from her eyes. Her entire body shook with silent sobs. The initial dread that had flooded her body when she first saw her mark had quickly been replaced by pure devastation, giving way to tears and heartache.
What would her father say when he saw it? What would her teachers think? Her classmates?
What was Natalie without her top marks and never-ending 100's? Medical school had become her entire identity. Since she was a child and first decided she wanted to be a doctor, school had consumed her life.
Except, now she had gotten an 89. She couldn't even remember the last time her grades had slipped below 90.
She hadn't been disciplined enough. That was what it was. She needed to set a screentime limit on her phone. She needed to throw out her Ophelia novels. Most of all, she needed to stop thinking about Leon so much.
It was time for her to focus again.
Natalie swiped at her eyes with the fleshy part of her palms and picked up her exam again. She sniffed hard. There'd be no more crying. She needed to talk to Mr Pham. She'd convince him, somehow, to give her the marks she needed. She'd beg if she had to.
Whatever she needed to do, it would be worth it in the end.
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It had been a few days since Natalie last saw Leon—since Tyler and his little gang appeared at her school gates and chased her and Nyra down the street.
Today, however, she had a feeling she'd be seeing him. Mostly due to the fact that Lucas Morton was once again waiting outside of her school, alone and leaning against his fancy car.
Girls surrounded him, but once Natalie stepped out of the school building with Nyra, his eyes shot straight to her.
She watched as his lips tilted, his brows raising.
And, just barely, he lifted his head in a tiny nod at her.
She felt stunned, unsure if she was supposed to nod back. No, that would be too obvious. And it wasn't like she'd ever spoken to him before.
"I'm starting to realise now why Lucas keeps appearing here now," Nyra said. She laughed, rolling her eyes at herself. "I'm so dumb. How did I not realise something was up earlier? Oh God—That time when I told you Leon Hughes is trouble. Were you already talking to him back then?"
Natalie's blush was all she needed to see for an answer.
"Oh, my God! Nat! I mean, sorry for dissing your man, but I guess I wasn't wrong, was I?" she teased.
"Nyra!" she exclaimed, nudging her friend.
"Hey! His little enemies came here looking for you. I'd call that trouble, personally."
She wasn't wrong. The pair walked together, Natalie keeping her eyes down as they passed Lucas and his gaggle of girls, while Nyra stared at him right in the eyes. Lucas seemed to frown at her stare—borderline glare—before grinning at the attention.
It wasn't until they reached the crossing that Natalie realised Lucas wasn't the only one here on a visit.
She was just about to say goodbye to Nyra when movement caught her eye.
She had to look twice before she realised Leon was standing there, back pressed against the wall, watching her.
Nyra followed her gaze. "Holy—"
"Leon?" Natalie said, her voice like a whisper.
It felt unnatural seeing him here, especially after trying not to think of him since she got her latest results back. Mr Pham had refused to budge on the 89. The thought of it loomed over her. First 89, then what? How far had she slipped in the days since she started getting distracted?
But seeing Leon, it was like a breath of fresh air. It felt like she'd been holding her breath since the last time she saw him, and now that he was here again, her lungs were finally working right.
All thoughts of school vanished from her mind.
She paused, realising how terrible that really was. No wonder her grades had been slipping. And this close to the medical admissions exams? She had to refocus.
That was a problem for later.
"What are you doing here?" Natalie asked.
Leon stepped forward, unsure. His eyes moved to Nyra, then back to Natalie. She realised what he was worried about.
"It's okay. This is Nyra. She was there when Tyler... She won't tell my dad about you," Natalie recovered.
Leon nodded, realisation hitting him, and held a hand towards Nyra. "Nice to meet you. I'm Leon. Hughes. I go to Sierra Grammar."
Nyra took his hand, her face lighting up as she glanced back at Natalie. She was smitten.
"I'm Nyra, Nat's best friend," she replied.
"I was going to walk you back to Sierra's," Leon said to Natalie.
She nodded. She'd almost forgotten that he said he would do that. It had been days since he made that promise. She thought for a moment that he had forgotten too.
Now that he'd stepped forward into the sunlight, she could see him properly. She scanned him over, looking for any fresh bruises or cuts.
When she didn't find any, she asked, "Are you hurt?"
"Hurt?" he echoed. He frowned, thinking for a moment, before blinking and releasing a light chuckle. "I'm fine. I just wanted to walk you in case Tyler showed up again. And—I just wanted to walk with you, honestly."
Nyra looked at Natalie, her eyes wide. Natalie warmed.
"Oh," she muttered.
"Well, I have a kid's cello class to teach," Nyra said, grinning. "Leon, it was lovely to meet you. Tell your friend Lucas to stop blocking the front gates. It seems like a fire hazard. Nat, I'll see you tomorrow."
Natalie nodded, waving as Nyra practically skipped across the road and out of sight.
"So, that's Nyra," Leon said, grabbing her attention again.
She nodded, beginning to walk. "I told you she doesn't hate you."
He laughed, following. "Maybe not me, but it sounds like she hates Lucas. It's not really his fault, I asked him to drop me off here."
The thought of Leon asking his friend to drive him to Natalie's school just to walk back with her made her heart skip a beat. The idea of Leon thinking about her in general when she wasn't around made her pulse quicken.
"Well, he didn't have to stick around," she remarked.
"I guess not," he said. "He probably just wanted to see you again."
Natalie warmed at the thought of this random boy parking outside of her school and waiting to catch a glimpse of her. She was nothing special. "Me? Why?"
He shrugged. "I probably talk about you too much."
If she wasn't blushing already, now her face was definitely red. She stayed silent for a few minutes, her mind repeating those words over and over, until she remembered what he'd said earlier.
"What did you mean about Tyler, the other day? About him never bothering me again?" she asked. She hadn't even registered his words until she got home that night, and by then it was too late to ask.
"Oh, that," Leon said. He chuckled, running a hand through his short hair. "It's not a big deal."
Natalie frowned. Usually, she would take a hint and let it go, but this felt big to her. This felt important.
"I want to know," she replied. "Even if it's not a big deal."
He looked at her and noticed the seriousness in her eyes.
"Okay," he started, "well, Tyler's been sending his little posse to me for months now asking for a rematch. He can't handle the fact that I beat him."
"Why doesn't he just go up to you himself?"
Leon shrugged. "Power play? Intimidate me? Who knows what's going through his mind? Doesn't matter anyway. I'm not fighting him again. If he wants to fight, he'll have to take it up with my boss."
"Has he?"
"No clue," he said. "I haven't asked. My boss would probably say no anyway. Not many people are interested in two teenagers fighting. They prefer to see me up against some massive bloke, double my age. Makes it all the more satisfying when I knock him down."
Natalie glanced at his face to find his smiling to himself. "You really like boxing, don't you?"
He blinked, meeting her eye. His smile faded slightly, and he shrugged bashfully. "Yeah. I do. Not when you're dragged into it, though. I don't want him to scare you."
Now it was Natalie's turn to smile. She looked away, turning silent, but she couldn't fight the smile that tugged at her lips.
This was bad. There was no chance she'd get him off her mind now.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
By the time they reached the nurse's office, Natalie had gone through every possible scenario that would result from all these distractions.
Too much time with Leon, too much time thinking about boys, too much time reading trashy romances—they all had the same result. Failing the medical admissions test. Not getting into medical school. Her father's disappointment. All those years of studying going to waste.
She spent five minutes going through the stock in the office, checking that nothing had run out. Leon wasn't injured today, so he busied himself with sitting in his chair and watching Natalie the entire time.
When she was satisfied that nothing was missing, she pulled out her notebook and for the next hour, she studied.
Natalie crossed out her sentence with a huff, her pen scratching loudly against the paper. It was no good. She couldn't write anything that sounded half-decent—any sentence that sounded like a future med student wrote it.
"What's wrong?"
A voice came from her left and she turned to find Leon waking from his nap. He rubbed at his eyes, releasing a yawn as he propped his chin on his folded arms, looking up at her from the desk that he called his pillow.
Eventually the room had become so quiet that Leon began to drift off.
Natalie didn't mind. Really, she liked his company. She wanted to spend her time talking to him, asking questions, tracing his scars—but she couldn't. She had grades to keep up. She had to study.
And it didn't seem like Leon minded. At least, he didn't voice any complaints.
But in moments like this, Natalie felt stiflingly boring beside him. Surely, when he hung out with other girls, girls like Veronica, they didn't spend their time studying in silence together. Surely, he didn't fall asleep around them, the way he did with her.
But she wouldn't let herself think about it for too long. She didn't have the time for it.
"Nothing," Natalie said, realising she'd been silent for a while. He stared at her, waiting for her to continue, so she did. "I'm just having trouble writing."
"What are you writing?" he asked.
"An essay on The Tempest." He blinked at her and again, she felt so impossibly boring. She suddenly hated The Tempest and Shakespeare and medical school with her whole being. She quickly added, "It's just a dumb play."
His stare felt like it was boring into her skin. She looked away.
Before she could re-focus on her notebook, he said, "My class is doing Hamlet. It's pretty interesting."
Natalie looked up, stared at him—waited for him to crack a smile or let out a laugh, some kind of sign that he was joking. He wasn't being serious. Couldn't be serious. Leon Hughes enjoying Hamlet? It had to be a joke.
But his eyes stayed steady on her, and she finally had to say, "Really?"
He nodded. "Death, revenge, madness—what's not to like?"
Natalie laughed. "I guess, when you put it that way..."
"What?" Leon asked.
Natalie glanced at him. "What?"
"What, what? You didn't think I'd know anything about Shakespeare, huh?"
She shrunk into her chair, her face feeling hot. "No—Yes. I don't know. I just thought, with all the classes you skip—I mean, why would you skip them if you liked them?"
"I like them," he said. "But I like paying my school fees more."
Natalie's heart sunk. "Right. Of course. Sorry. That was really dumb of me."
"It's fine." His fingers brushed over her knuckles, and she met his eyes. "I can see why you'd think I don't like school. Life would be a lot easier if I didn't."
"So, you don't want to be a boxer?" The question slipped out before she could stop it.
She couldn't deny it, how much she wanted to know about him, about that mind of his. No matter how many essays she wrote and rewrote, he'd be living in the back of her head. She couldn't stop thinking about him.
"I don't know," he said. "I just kind of want that option, you know? Work a job that my dad would've approved of. Why else would he put me into this school?"
"I know how you feel," Natalie replied. Fatherly approval. She'd spent half her life working towards it.
"I'm guessing that has something to do with why you're studying so much all of a sudden?"
She frowned. Was that disappointment she heard in his voice? Guilt flooded her. She shrugged. "I've just been falling behind. My grades are slipping. I might even—I might stop coming here after school altogether."
She paused, glancing at Leon before continuing quickly.
"I mean, I only stay because it's what I've always done, since I was a kid. But if I started catching the bus, I could study on the way and get home a lot earlier. Or if I just started walking, you know, I could get home earlier and study in my room. Get work done..."
Her voice trailed off. She'd been thinking about this ever since she got that 89 on her test, only she'd never voiced it, never actually wanted to stop coming to this little room, even if all she did was do her homework alone. Just the thought, the hope, that Leon would be there—that was enough for her.
"Don't." Natalie looked up at the sound of his voice. He frowned at her, and said, "Don't stop coming here."
She watched him. He watched her back. The air seemed suddenly hotter, and she couldn't help but look away.
"Okay," she muttered. Her face felt flushed. Of course, it felt flushed, Leon Hughes had just asked her to stay, to keep coming back. Back to him. The thought made her pulse flutter.
If she tallied up all the things Leon had said to her—had done to her—she could feel certain that he liked her. She wasn't stupid. After all, how could he ask her not to stop coming unless he truly enjoyed her company?
Except, it felt like there was a line drawn firmly between them and Leon never seemed to cross it.
No, he'd brush his fingers across hers, he'd murmur sweet words, he'd beg to learn the sound of her name, but he wouldn't ask if she had a boyfriend. He'd never ask her to go on a date.
Maybe it was her own fault. Maybe she'd mentioned her parents too many times. Maybe she'd looked away from his piercing gaze too quickly, too often.
But she couldn't be blamed! When she was around him, she felt more nervous than she'd ever felt before. How did he expect her to react? She certainly wasn't going to be the one to cross the line.
And so, all there was to do was wonder why he hadn't made a move yet. Maybe he never intended to. Maybe he just liked to hang around Natalie, to tease her and get a reaction. Maybe he wasn't looking for a relationship. Maybe his mind was set on someone else.
Not for the first time that week, Natalie's thoughts drifted back to Veronica and her claims of texting Leon. Veronica's word couldn't be trusted, but maybe Natalie was ruling her out too soon.
"Do you know Veronica Garner?" She winced the second the words left her lips. Not only was the question cringey and embarrassing to ask, but a big part of her didn't want to hear his answer.
"Veronica Garner?" he echoed.
Natalie nodded, feeling awkward in her skin. "Yeah. Tall-ish. Auburn hair?"
"Yeah, I know who Veronica is," he said, a slight laugh in his voice. He looked away, shaking his head with a smile. Natalie's chest tightened. That smile could mean anything.
"I thought so. She—uh—she mentioned you in class. The other day," she said.
"Mentioned me?"
"She said that she was texting you. I didn't realise you were friends." She said the word friends with particular spitefulness that she couldn't quite keep out of her voice.
Leon shrugged. "Yeah, I mean, I've known her since we were kids. We did swimming together after school for like three years."
"Oh." She couldn't imagine a primary school version of Leon. She wondered if he still attended classes back then, with no boxing-related responsibilities. Was he the type who wore his uniform perfectly, or did he slack off even then? Even the stupidest questions seemed to drift into her mind like was he a good swimmer? Did he win races at his school carnival?
"What are you thinking?" His question interrupted her thoughts, and she met his eye. "Tell me. I'll answer your questions."
"I was just thinking if you were a good swimmer or not." The question sounded even stupider out loud, but Leon didn't even laugh.
"I am," he replied. "Top swim group in the class. Came first in all my races."
"Of course, you did." Natalie laughed.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means of course you did." And then before she could chicken out, she added, "Of course you came first in all your races. Do you have a single flaw about you?"
"What?" he sputtered. He laughed and rubbed at his eye as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing, as if he'd had one black eye too many. "I'm full of flaws. Don't give me that look. I never go to class, for one. And I'm literally part of an underground boxing ring. Tell me that's not a flaw."
"It's far from a flaw," Natalie said. "I mean, come on. The girls at my school would probably die if they found out that's the truth."
He rolled his eyes. "Please, you're the one with no flaws."
"Me?"
"Of course. I haven't found one bad thing about you."
"I have plenty! I mean, all I do is study. That's pretty boring," she said.
Leon frowned. "That's not boring. I like that about you."
Her face turned hot. She looked down at her notes without reading the words there. He'd rendered her speechless once again.
The room fell silent for a moment.
Leon's hand inched towards her, his finger grazing the edge of her notebook, grabbing her attention.
"Tell me what you're thinking now," he said.
Natalie couldn't stop herself.
"I'm wondering what you and Veronica text about."
She glanced at him, feeling shy at her own words. He blinked at her, his face unreadable, until a small smile began to tug at the corner of his lips.
"What we talk about?" He hummed, resting his chin on his hand and gazing at the ceiling in thought. "Usually it's just things like how are you? How's school? Happy birthday. That sort of stuff."
Natalie nodded. She felt partially relieved. If he was being honest—and she trusted him to be honest with her—it was basically all small talk. Nothing serious. Nothing deep.
But then, a part of her deflated a little. Of course, Veronica knew his birthday, and he knew hers. They were basically childhood friends, but definition. They knew a side of each other that Natalie would never know.
"So..." Natalie paused. She didn't want him to have to ask to hear her thoughts every time, she needed to take some initiative. She took a deep breath and forced the words out. "Did I miss your birthday?"
Leon laughed. "Only the past eighteen of them. But you can catch the next one on December twelve."
"December twelve," Natalie repeated, as if committing it to memory. "I'll be there."
She didn't think about the implication the words had until they'd left her mouth.
"And yours?" Leon asked. His hand crept even closer. "So I won't miss it either."
"September nine."
He nodded with his crooked smile and Natalie's heart jumped into her throat.
"I'll be there," he said.
If her blood wasn't pumping before, it certainly was now. Before she could think of some witty response, the door began to creak open.
Natalie's heart stopped.
Leon's hand jumped away.
"Nat, let's go, your dad called—"
Her mother couldn't finish her sentence before Natalie was at the door, grabbing it and stopping her mum from opening it beyond the slightest crack.
Her mum looked at her with a wrinkled brow. "Nat?"
"I'm coming," she said, smiling as casually as she could. She shifted so that her body hid the room from her mum, and she hoped Leon had the sense to hide. "I'll meet you at the car?"
Her mother groaned, checking her watch. "Nat. I'm not kidding. We need to go now."
"I know, I know, I just..." She couldn't think of an excuse. Could she just use the same as last time—would that be too obvious?
Before she could decide, her mother spoke.
"Natalie, are you hiding something?"
Her stomach dropped. She answered too quickly. "No. Of course not. What would I even be hiding?"
Her mother narrowed her eyes, glancing beyond Natalie's shoulder. She resisted the urge to tug the door even further shut.
"Alright, five minutes. I'll bring the car round to the front. Got it?"
Natalie nodded quickly. Her mum looked one last time over Natalie's shoulder before she turned and left. Closing the door, Natalie let out a heavy sigh.
Leon peaked out from under the desk, barely fitting under there with his long legs and broad shoulders.
"Is she gone?" he asked.
Natalie couldn't help but laugh.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hi! I hope you haven't forgotten about this story!
I'm so sorry for vanishing but I will hopefully start writing more now that I'm near the end of my semester!
Rant below, if you're interested in my state of mind!
I know it's been forever but I'm going to be so so honest, I haven't written ANYTHING in over a month! IDK Wattpad is just kind of uninspiring to me now? IDK!!!!!! Don't get me wrong, the only reason I write anything at all is because of everyone's kind comments and messages but Wattpad as a platform is just ehhhh
I'll probably snap out of this funk when my semester ends in a few weeks and ALSO I recently watched XO Kitty and it kind of got me back into the romcom mood sooo hopefully I'll stop overthinking this Wattpad stuff and comparing myself to others and just focus on the writing and you guys again!
thanks for listening to my silly rant, see you soon!!! sooner than last time i promise!