Chapter 4 - "Obviously he thinks I'm a threat..."
"Do you actually have any friends? You're always sitting alone."
I looked up from my lunch and found myself staring into a familiar pair of blue eyes. After my afternoon with Matt yesterday, I'd forgotten all about Nathan and how he was joining the school. Sure enough, here he was, standing right in front of me with that same playful expression on his face.
"Yes, I have friends." I furrowed my brow and then broke his gaze to concentrate on my food again.
I thought I'd made it obvious that I had no interest in communicating with this boy, and I sincerely hoped that his confident attitude would allow him to make friends easily and therefore he wouldn't latch onto me.
Irritatingly, though, Nathan sat down at the seat opposite me. My cold attitude obviously wasn't bothering him in the slightest.
"Well, I don't, so I'm sitting with you."
"Great," I said in a monotone. I sliced off the end of my sausage with my knife, a little harsher than was necessary.
"So, where are your friends?" he asked, glancing around the cafeteria in a way that was much more exaggerated than necessary. "Oh, let me guess! They're...on their way? Stuck in traffic?"
I looked up briefly. "You were correct the first time. They're on their way. Kat is always late to lunch on a Monday because there's someone in her English class who she always stays behind with. Jess has chemistry on the other side of the school so it takes her a while to walk over."
Nathan shrugged. "Ah, well. Looks like it's just you and me for the time being, Bella. We can spend the precious time bonding and getting to know each other."
"Fantastic," I mumbled.
"So which one's your boyfriend?" Nathan asked lightly, his eyes scanning the cafeteria. "I bet I can guess..."
"Go on," I said dryly. "Amaze me."
"Oh, there are so many ways I could do that," he shot back, his lips curling upwards as his eyes raked over my body, making my hairs stand up on end in discomfort. I couldn't quite work out if he was doing it in a flirty way or a creepy way, and part of that was because nobody had paid my body so much intense attention before.
I scowled. "Do you mind? You're putting me off my lunch."
Nathan's eyes turned back to the hall of people, scanning it quickly. "I've found him. He's that one there."
And then he not-so-subtly pointed at Matt. I didn't say anything, mainly because I was so shocked that he'd been able to pick out Matt from a room full of people he'd never met before.
"I'm right, aren't I? Actually, you don't have to confirm it. I know I'm right."
"What gave it away?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"The way he keeps shooting glares at me, mostly. Obviously he thinks I'm a threat..." Nathan raised an eyebrow at me, obviously waiting to see how I'd react to that.
I snorted. "Yeah because I'm quite obviously smitten with you."
"Exactly. You're doing the whole 'playing hard to get' move. It's a classic. And we love it."
"Get over yourself, Nathan." I sighed and pinched at the bridge of my nose. "I've not got the energy for this."
He laughed. "Okay, you wanna know how I could tell? He's never seen me before. I'm sitting with you. You're talking to me. And I'm hot. He's jealous, insecure. He can't tell you're giving off cold vibes. From his eyes, you're happily chatting away to me. Well, perhaps not happily, but chatting all the same."
"Hmm," was all I had to say. "Well, if he was that bothered, he'd come over here."
"Yeah right. I'm twice his size. He wouldn't dare. There's one thing I'm confused about though. One little thing that made me doubt my own skilled ability to pick out your boyfriend."
"I'm intrigued," I said wryly.
"You're so much hotter than him," Nathan said. "What's that all about?"
I met his eyes again. I'd been doing a good job of concentrating on my food, hoping he'd get bored and move away, but his latest comment captured my attention again. The reference about me being hot wasn't said in a flirtatious way; Nathan had simply stated it, as though it was an undeniable fact. Somehow that felt like more of a genuine compliment than his smarmy flirting.
"Matt's hot," I stated, mirroring his factual tone of voice.
Nathan shrugged. "He's all right, but why would a girl as hot as you, settle for that?"
I scowled. "God, you think so little of people! Maybe because I like him? Not everything has to be about looks. You're so superficial—!"
He held up his hands in surrender. "Okay! Okay! I'm sorry. I was only teasing...well, sort of."
I frowned and looked back down at my lunch, no longer hungry. "It's just nobody understands what Matt and I have."
"Ah, is that like what your friend was saying on Saturday?"
I nodded. "We're really close."
"I understand that." His head tipped to the side in contemplation. "Maybe it's just that Kat's never been with a guy she's felt so naturally comfortable with."
"She's not one for relationships," I said. "And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with being single if you want to be."
Kat did once have a very serious boyfriend, and it had been an extremely traumatic break-up for her. Maybe that was part of the reason she wanted me to break up with Matt—not because she was jealous, but because she could see he might end up hurting me and she didn't want me to go down the same path as her.
"It's definitely one of those things where if you've never experienced it yourself then you can never imagine what it feels like," Nathan said.
"That's one of the wisest and most serious things you've come out with so far," I told him with a small smile.
Maybe this was the key. Maybe Nathan was one of those guys who thrived on the chase and sparring. If I just chatted normally and refused to rise to the bait, then we'd be able to have more conversations like this one. I hoped so, anyway, because if he was planning on sticking around then I needed to find some way of tolerating him.
"I can be wise and serious when I want to be. I'm sure I'll have plenty of chances to demonstrate that over the course of time we'll spend getting to know one another."
"I can hardly wait." I lifted my drink to my lips to take a sip, maintaining eye contact with him.
Nathan looked like he was going to say something else but we were then joined by Kat and Jess, which cut the conversation short.
"Oh! Hey," Kat grinned, smoothing her hair and sitting down next to Nathan. I was about to say hello back when I realized her greeting hadn't been directed at me. Nathan simply smiled politely at her in reply and then introduced himself to Jess.
"How was Tommy?" I asked Kat.
She kept her eyes on Nathan. "Getting better every day. You know, he does this thing with his tongue where he—"
"I don't think we really need to know, Kat," Jess interrupted.
As Kat engaged Nathan in conversation, I caught up with Jess. It was nice to have a normal chat that didn't result in someone pressuring me to dump my boyfriend. Jess didn't ask about Matt much unless I brought him up. She knew how touchy the subject could be and she was sensitive enough to avoid it.
"Alex has got some poker night thing this evening," she said.
"Poker night?" I frowned in confusion. "I didn't know Alex played poker."
"Oh, poker nights are so much more than that," Nathan interjected. "All boys need a poker night every once in a while. It's a way to express your masculinity through betting, let off steam, and talk about things that shouldn't be discussed in public."
"Things like what?" Jess asked, looking wary.
Nathan either wasn't fazed by her discomfort, or was simply too obtuse to notice it. "Well, girls mainly." He smiled.
"I don't think Alex really talks about me to his friends," Jess said, to nobody in particular. "At least not in a bad way, you know, a derogatory way. I don't think he's the type."
"Yeah. I'm sure every poker night is different," I said, shooting a glare at Nathan to emphasise my point. "Maybe they just want to play poker."
"There's nothing wrong with being talked about, Jess," Kat told her. "I'm sure he's only got good things to say."
She looked like she was going to say something else, but then quickly decided against it and snapped her lipstick-stained lips back together again. For someone who spoke their mind more often than appropriate, it was quite the restraint on Kat's part.
"Hey, Bella, how about a tour?" Nathan asked, finally realising that the conversation was becoming awkward and needed diverting to a different topic.
"You've got a map, haven't you?" I replied.
Kat rolled her eyes. "Jess and I will give you a tour, Nathan. It's no trouble at all."
I sighed and collected my things, downing the rest of my drink. "Fine. We'll all go on the tour."
And Nathan shot me a small smile of victory.
-
As Nathan and Jess walked ahead, talking about science, Kat hung back with me. "Hey, I'm sorry about Saturday," she apologised. "I didn't mean what I said. You and Matt have been together nearly a year...obviously he—"
"It's fine, Kat," I said, cutting her off before she could say something else that would inevitably hurt me. She had a bad habit of not knowing when to stop talking. Often, whenever she was trying to dig herself out of a hole, she just ended up digging deeper. "Let's just forget about it, yeah?"
"So, you're not upset with me?" She pouted, giving me her notorious puppy dog eyes.
I smiled, succumbing to it just like I did every time. I couldn't stay mad at her; it was too hard.
"We're good."
Nathan glanced over his shoulder, catching the end of our conversation. "Have you two kissed and made up? Because I missed the kiss, so if it's not too much trouble—"
"Sorry," Kat interrupted, with a sweet smile. "One kiss only."
We arrived at the library, which was one of my favourite rooms in the school. It was a tall room with wooden panelled walls and hundreds of shelves. Bookcases lined the room, towering over any students studying in there. They weren't just school textbooks, but fiction too, and I'd often spend lunchtimes or free periods reading in the library when I had nothing else to do, or when all my friends were busy.
Nathan leant down to whisper to me. "Ever had sex in a library?"
Warmth flooded my cheeks. "No," I said through gritted teeth. "You shouldn't ask me questions like that, Nathan."
"Sorry," he said. He turned to Jess. "Ever had sex in a library?" he asked in the same casual tone of voice.
I rolled my eyes and elbowed him as hard as I could in the ribs. Kat giggled. "These two? You're kidding, right? They have the most boring sex lives ever."
"Thank you, Kat," I said under my breath. "Just because we don't share them with you doesn't mean they're boring."
I wasn't really sure what constituted as a boring sex life, anyway. Different people had different tastes but that wasn't to say some were more exciting than others. Unfortunately, Kat didn't let it drop.
"Go on then," she challenged. "Where's the most interesting place—?"
"Kat, we're not having this conversation," I snapped, cutting her off. "It's private, okay?"
I didn't understand why she was pushing the matter. Usually she couldn't care less about the physical side of my relationship with Matt. In fact, she didn't really care about any aspect of my relationship with Matt unless it was something she could pick fault with. My only assumption was that she was bringing up the conversation in order to show off her sexual prowess in front of Nathan and divert the attention back to her.
Kat gazed up at Nathan. "So have you ever done it in a library?"
He chuckled to himself. "Sorry, that's private."
I bit back a retort at his obvious mocking of me. Nathan clearly didn't have any qualms about offending me, but I took that as a compliment in a weird way. Being a relatively quiet individual, many people took me too seriously and didn't think I was capable of having a laugh. I wasn't confident enough to make jokes in the classroom, and my friendship circle was small, so needless to say that a lot of people had no idea what my personality was actually like.
"But I'd take a library over an empty English classroom any day..." Nathan trailed off quietly.
And Katrina Townsend actually blushed.
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Thank you for reading :)xx