I apologise for the lack of updates over the past few weeks, mainly due to exams, but now my exams are over and I have a lot of free time on my hands, which means I can write more and start updating again. Which I am very happy about :D
The prompt for this one shot is this one:
I just would like to request a oneshot, something around chapters 4-6 of SALMLAS from Nathan's POV. I honestly think it would be cute if it was like something where Nathan starts to realise he has feelings for Sophie - NatashaTW, Wattpad
The oneshot, like the prompt asks, is set around the early chapters of SALMLAS, somewhere after their first kiss and before Nathan asks Sophie to sing with him.
"Dude, stop staring"
"I'm not staring at her" I scoffed defensively, turning to look at Jack who was sat next to me. He had both eyebrows raised and a knowing grin sat smugly on his face.
"I didn't even specify what you were staring at but you knew who I meant" he smirked. He'd got me there.
"Whatever" I muttered, scowling at him and turning back to Mr Matthews. I knew that he was saying something about women's suffrage in the twentieth century but I wasn't entirely sure on the specifics. What I was sure about was that Sophie's hair was in a messy high ponytail today, which really suited her, and the way she chewed on the end of her pen when she was thinking about what to write was kind of (extremely) cute.
And she was actually fascinating to watch. She had the most amusing facial expressions, particularly when the more... shall we say mentally challenged members of the class provided slightly stupid and superficial answers.
"You're doing it again"
"Piss off"
"She's gonna notice soon that you keep drooling over her, mate" Jack said, "and it's gonna creep her out"
"I'm not drooling" I scoffed quickly, "I'm not drooling over anyone!"
"Alright, no need to get so defensive"
"I'm not getting defensive!"
"Is there a problem, lads?" Mr Matthews asked loudly, causing both Jack and I to shut up, whilst the rest of the class turned to face our direction. Including Sophie, I presumed, but didn't risk a glance to see if she was.
"No" Jack replied.
"Good" Mr Matthews said, "be quiet then" before he went back to talking about... what was it again? Women? Voting?... Suffrage, women's suffrage, yeah, that. But you know, Sophie's a female also and she's way more interesting.
"So you planning on getting off with her again?" Jack asked quietly.
"I didn't really 'get off' with her" I argued, "we just kissed, like, once"
"Heard she was proper into you though, mate"
"Well, yeah" I smirked, feeling a little smug, "grabbed my shirt and practically forced herself on me"
"Yeah, heard you begged her to" he sniggered a little.
"No, no that's not what- I didn't" I began defensively, my voice going a pitch higher, "I didn't beg her, Jesus, its just... it wasn't- I didn't..."
"Yeah, okay" Jack laughed, as though he didn't believe my argument. Let's be honest, could you really call it an argument?
"I didn't beg her" I replied flatly, folding my arms over my chest.
"That's really quite sad, mate"
"I didn't-"
"... Lads!"
Jack and I shut up and turned to Mr Matthews again, his eyebrows were furrowed so tightly, it looked like he had a monobrow.
Guess we were pissing him off a little.
"Will I have to ask you to shut up again?"
It was more of a statement than a question.
"No, sir" Jack and I both mumbled.
"Yeah, I better not" he warned, before continuing on with the lesson, "carry on, Tasha"
"Well" Tasha began from her seat at the desk in front of Jack and I, flicking her hair with her hand, "I just don't see why I need to bother voting, it's a waste of time"
"Women starved themselves and one threw herself in front of a horse so we could have the vote" a distinctly northern accent from a few seats away argued in a frustrated tone.
"But I don't care about politics" Tasha shot back.
"How can you not care about who's running our country?" Sophie asked incredulously.
"It doesn't affect my life so..." Tasha shrugged nonchalantly in response.
Sophie pulled that face again, the one where she scrunches up her eyebrows and her mouth hovers open in disbelief. You could just imagine her face on one of those memes saying Seriously, are you that stupid?
"Of course it affects your life" Sophie breathed, "the governments decisions affects all of us, that's why women fought so hard for the vote"
To be fair, Sophie did have a point.
"I still don't see the point in me voting"
"God, it's like talking to a fucking brick wall" Sophie muttered, making myself and the few others nearby who heard chuckle. Tasha just scowled at her.
"I think it's just as well someone like Tasha won't be voting for our government" Jack piped up from beside me, making the rest of the class laugh. Sophie smiled at him, holding back her laughter. Her smile made her face light up in the most wonderful way. It was the kind of smile that made me want to smile when I saw it, and I'd never noticed before but she had a dimple in either of her cheeks.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Tasha seethed, turning around in her seat to glare at Jack.
"Well, knowing you, you'd probably just vote for the one who you thought was really hot" Jack replied bluntly, his voice going really camp at the end to try and imitate Tasha. The class laughed again and Tasha narrowed her eyes at Jack, before turning back to face the front again with a huff.
"Alright guys" Mr Matthews said loudly, reigning the class back in, "back to the women's vote please, now in 1914..."
His monotonous droning continued on for another ten minutes, and my subconscious mind went back to slyly looking at Sophie.
She really was so pretty. Not hot, pretty. Maybe even beautiful.
But I don't like her. Not like that. I just like her face. And her hair. And her singing. And she is just naturally quite funny and therefore enjoyable to be around.
But I'm like, 99% sure that I don't like in that way.
Well... maybe 83%...
But seriously, I don't even know her. Not really. You can't love someone- I mean, like someone - who you don't even really know, can you? It's illogical. She has a nice face but that doesn't mean I wanna, you know, date her and stuff. Or kiss her. Again.
I haven't forgotten about the kiss. I've thought about it a lot since Saturday night. She must think I'm a total bellend for asking her to kiss me like that. Still not sure what part of me thought it would be a good idea, but she didn't stop it, something which I hadn't ignored. In fact, she went along with it. Most likely, she just felt sorry for me though. I must have come off a bit desperate.
Still, she kissed me back, which for some reason makes stomach feel all weird and mushy.
But I don't like her like that. I'm 74% sure I don't.
"Fuck's sake" Jack muttered, pulling me from my daydream. A few people were starting to get out of their seats and move around the room.
"What?" I questioned, totally lost as to what was happening.
"We're doing group work" he replied flatly.
"Oh..." a small glimmer of excitement and nervousness flickered up in me as I realised that there was a chance - a very small chance, but still a chance - that Sophie would be put in our group.
Just because she's a laugh to be around. That's why I like the idea of her being in our group. Not because I like her face.
A bit because I like her face but not because I like her.
68% sure.
"We're stuck with the bloody Barbie twins" Jack informed me.
Oh.
I looked ahead of us where Jack was staring, seeing Tasha and her friend who were both moving from their seats in front of us and pulling their chairs up to the other side of our table.
Wonderful.
"Hi Nathan" Tasha said, giving me a flirty smile. I nodded in reply and gave her a measly half-smile in return. She then glared at Jack, who just rolled his eyes at her.
"Hi Nathan" her friend said too, before proceeding to glare at Jack in the exact same way that Tasha had done before. It was quite amusing. The girl, whose name I couldn't actually remember (Charlotte, or Chenice perhaps?) was one of Tasha's closest friends and basically just followed Tasha's every move. It was rather pathetic.
Mr Matthews began to explain the group task to us and I tried to listen, but it's hard when Tasha is smiling and batting her eyelashes at you.
I'm 100% sure I don't like Tasha.
"Who wants to write?" Jack asked, before pushing the piece of paper we'd been given and a felt-tip pen towards me, "thanks mate"
I gave him a sarcastic smile but picked up my pen anyway and began to write down question one.
"God, I hate that Sophie" Tasha sneered, glaring over at Sophie.
"Yeah, me too" Tasha's friend agreed.
"I mean, who does she think she is?" Tasha scoffed, "she's the fucking new girl, she has no authority to be talking to me like that"
"Mhm, I know"
"She's just waltzed into this school and acts like she fucking owns the place" She continued, "she's such a slut"
How the hell does that make someone a slut?
"Yeah, total slut"
"Chantelle, do you ever add your own informative input to conversations?" Jack asked Tasha's friend seriously, "or do you just agree with everything Tasha says?"
"I mean, she has this horrible accent" Tasha continued before Chantelle could reply, "and she isn't even pretty"
"Yeah, she is" I argued, before realising that I'd actually said it out loud.
Oops.
I glanced up to see Tasha glaring at me with the most scornful expression I've ever received in my whole entire life.
"But anyway" I continued quickly, looking down at the paper again, "question one-"
"What?" Tasha seethed, "Nathan, seriously? What the hell?"
"Jesus Christ, Tasha, he's allowed a fucking opinion" Jack tutted.
"Nathan, I can't believe you!" She scoffed, "god, next you'll be saying that you like her accent as well"
"I do like her accent..." I shrugged. Tasha scowled and narrowed her eyes at me.
"Well, Nathan is more of a 'brunette' kind of guy so..." Jack smiled patronisingly at her. I kicked his leg under the table. Comments like that will not help Tasha's temperament. Which is probably why he said it.
"Anyway, question one" I said quickly, trying to steer the conversation back to the work, "what year did the suffragettes begin their campaigns-"
"Well, you know" Tasha began quickly, completely ignoring me, "I heard that she kissed like, half of the guys at your party"
"No, she didn't" Jack countered.
"I heard she had sex with like, eight guys too" Tasha added, with another flick her hair, "in your little sister's bedroom"
"I'm pretty sure that's just some bullshit story you just made up" Jack snorted, shaking his head. I had to let out a small involuntary laugh at how ridiculous that idea was.
"No, I saw her coming out of the bedroom with some guy from the year above like, right before she went outside and kissed Nathan, I'm telling you" Tasha insisted.
"No, Sophie was in the kitchen" Jack smirked, "because I was in there talking to her right before Nathan kissed her"
"Well, it was before that then"
"Just stop, Tasha" Jack sighed, "it's embarrassing"
"Whatever" she grumbled.
"Why don't we ask her then?" Jack grinned, before turning in Sophie's direction, "hey So-"
"Shut up" Tasha hissed, smacking Jack's arm violently.
"Eugh, don't touch me again" Jack muttered, wiping his arm in disgust.
"Can we please do the work?" I sighed. The conversation was just stupid and ridiculous and Tasha was really starting to annoy me with all this stuff about Sophie. It was rude to be talking about her when she wasn't sat here and it was horrible for her to saying things like that. I'm fairly certain that they weren't true, but even so, I don't wanna hear about stuff like that.
But not because I like her in any way more than a friend. And we're not really even friends.
Or maybe we are. I don't know. Can you be friends with someone you've only spoken to, what, less than five times?
Whatever we are, I don't like her like that... like, what was it? 55%? 55% sure.
"It's 1903"
I looked up at the sound of the voice, "what?"
"The suffragettes started their campaigns in 1903" Tasha's friend, the one whose name I still can't remember, told me quietly, pointing to question one on the paper.
I blinked, "right", I mumbled, before scribbling down the answer. I was a little taken aback. The last thing I expected from one of Tasha's friends is that they actually listened in school. I thought they were all airheads. I thought that's why they were friends with Tasha.
Whatever-her-name-was and I actually finished off the rest of the questions between us. Tasha spent the time talking about her hair. Jack spent the time glaring at Tasha in disgust and looking over at Gabby with a huge grin on his face.
After a short period of time, Mr Matthews asked us to swap our answer sheets with another group. Jack grabbed ours, folded it up into a paper aeroplane and launched it across the classroom. It hit Gabby on the side of the head.
Her head whipped around almost instantly, glancing around until her eyes landed on Jack's and narrowed into terrifying slits. But Jack just grinned and mouthed something to her which I didn't catch. I didn't miss the smile that she tried to hide, before she handed her group's answer sheet over to us.
Sophie just happened to be in her group, in case you were interested. Gabby seemed to have befriended her last week the day she first arrived at school. I'm not entirely sure how that happened but in a way I'm grateful. My best mate's new girlfriend is friends with the girl I'm, er, 47% sure I don't like as more than a friend, which, for some reason in my head, is a good thing. It means I get to see her more often. And have a reason to hang out with her.
Mr Matthews started to go through the answers and we marked the answers as we went along. Sophie and Gabby's group got fourteen out of fifteen correct. Not really surprising given that Sophie probably listened to everything Mr Matthews was saying about women's suffrage. Her debate with Tasha earlier suggested it was something she seemed interested in, unlike a lot of the girls in my year like Tasha, who only seem to care about their make-up smudging. It was refreshing to see someone care about important things.
Once the scores were all added up, we swapped the sheets back to the right tables. However, we received ours a little late, with Gabby laughing quietly to herself as she handed it back to us. I wasn't sure why until my eyes noticed some unfamiliar loopy handwriting in the corner of the paper that wasn't there earlier. A rather loud, involuntary laugh left my lips as I read what was written.
Tasha,
Next time you wanna talk shit about me, you'll probably want to do it when I'm not sat three metres away and can hear every word.
P.S. go fuck yourself
Jack took the sheet of paper from me to see what I was laughing at, and then proceeded to start laughing himself. Tasha then snatched the paper from his hands and read the message; it was intended for her, after all.
"What the fuck?" Tasha scoffed in annoyance, though it was most likely just to mask the embarrassment of being caught out, "who's written that?"
"Obviously the girl you were talking shit about before who is sat three metres away"Jack snorted.
Tasha turned her whole body in her chair until she was facing Sophie's direction and glared at her. Sophie noticed someone watching her and glanced in Tasha's direction, before smiling sweetly and waving innocently at her. I bit my lip to stifle another laugh.
In a sudden fit of rage, Tasha grasped the sheet of paper and scrunched it up tightly into a ball, before hurling it in Sophie's direction. Unluckily for Tasha, it hit the wall about a metre to Sophie's left.
"Aw, you missed" Sophie replied in a patronising tone.
"I hate you" Tasha seethed, "I actually hate you"
"Oh no!" Sophie breathed dramatically, feigning sadness, "how will I ever go on?"
In that moment, I realised exactly why Gabby befriended her.
And as I caught the glint of mischievousness in Sophie's eyes as they met mine for just a second, I realised that I was 100% sure that I liked this girl as more than a friend.
Thanks for reading, please tell me what you think, the more comments and votes I get, the quicker I'll upload :)