As Robert and I strolled through the school parking lot, a riot of girls came surging towards us and swallowed Robert, shoving me onto the dirty asphalt plastered with smashed gum. I staggered off the ground and blew the hair out of my face, arching a brow at Robert who exited the crowd with faded lipstick stained on his face. He heaved a dreamy sigh and smiled into outer space while I dragged into the high school where he was jumped by girls again.
"Didn't know that the school musical would make me a bit popular with the ladies." Robert did his trade mark smirk.
"A bit?" I questioned, annoyed. There was this unfamiliar feeling erupting in the pit of my stomach and was trying to claw out of my throat to choke that smug smile off of Robert's face. "Guess I didn't miss much from the school musical, huh?"
"Yeah, but you should've came." Robert pegged. "I was there."
"Probably getting mugged by girls." I snorted. "Shouldn't jocks be popular? Not dramatics."
"Yeah, but actors are more famous." Robert elbowed me in the ribs before pausing when he saw that the frown had crawled onto my face again just like the day that I failed the audition.
I stormed away from Robert; a part of me was glad that he didn't follow me and another part was a bit glum that he didn't bother chasing me off. As I passed by the janitor's closet, I heard a disturbing moan. Feeling concerned, I leaned my head against the door to listen to what was going on. I was about to ask if anybody was hurt inside until another moan interrupted me.
"Please," A female's voice said before moaning loudly again. "Please go faster, babe. Faster."
"Uh huh." A familiar voice said. My heart dropped like an anchor sprawling down from my throat. A gasp escaped my trembling lips, but I quickly covered it, gulping down my cries. It couldn't be him, could it? I could've been imagining things because of my slight anger with Robert, right? "You'd like that wouldn't you? Want it harder too?"
"Yeah," the perky voice said. "Does your girlfriend do this to you? Does she pleasure you like I do, babe?"
"Nah," Logan said. "But this is just a friends with benefits thing. She's still my girlfriend."
"You know," the female's voice had a seductive tone to it. "You could dump her and be with me and this wouldn't just be a one time thing. You could get this everyday."
"I'll think about it."
I pulled away from the door, feeling the tears brimming my eyes. Robert was right; I should've dumped Logan. My legs quivered as they carried me up the staircase to bring me to my first period class. I entered the classroom just in time before the bell rang; Emmaly stared at me from across the room but I looked away from her concerning stares.
"Hey," Robert tapped me from behind. "What's wrong?"
I ignored him and just buried my head in my arms but Robert kept poking me and just wouldn't stop shooting me questions. I bit my lower lip to bite back any cusses that I wanted to just yell out in the classroom at the moment. Then I heard shuffling next to me. I lifted my head up from my damp sleeves to look at Robert in the vacant seat next to me. His brown eyes lulled me over to him and I lifted my arms to give him a hug before I remembered we were in class so I just brought my fingers to his palm and started tracing things on it. I continued doing that for the rest of class knowing that he was staring at me the whole time, still concerned.
The next to periods of class were hell and I couldn't have let myself ache even more for fourth period since it was my free period with Emmaly and Robert. During Spanish class, Logan was next to me sending me his signature smirks and rubbing his hand on my knee and trailing up my thy but I kept smacking it away. But apparently, that wasn't a big enough of a hint for him. He kept inviting his hand back to my thy running his fingers up and down as if that was supposed to turn me on. Well it doesn't anymore.
I smacked it away and my voice got the better of me. "Stop it, Logan!"
His big blue eyes widened with surprise and he repelled with his cheeks burning red since all the attention was dragged towards him. He arched a brow at me and I just let my eyebrows slant over my angry, bulging eyes. I huffed a sigh and the teacher cleared her throat.
"Is there a problem, Ms. Hayes?" She said annoyed.
"Yes," I snapped at her, whipping myself around to glare at her. I didn't want to be mad but my anger just couldn't be kept in control. "Logan keeps touching me."
I heard gasps sprout in different parts of the room and a nervous gulp came from Logan. The teacher asked him to step outside of the classroom and I sank in my seat, trying to ignore all the stares that was literally piercing me to the desk. I just gawked at the clock anxiously waiting for the clock to strike 10:30 so that I could bolt out of here and eat my problems away at Baskin Robbins with my wondrous chocolate chip-cookie dough ice cream.
The teacher came back inside without Logan which calmed me down a bit but then she peered at me and opened her mouth to say something to me. I was saved by the bell when that annoying ring echoed throughout the whole building and I leaped out of my seat, hurling my bag over my shoulder and headed for the door.
"Free period, sorry. Bye Ms. Esteban!" I howled, sprinting down the halls.
As I raced down the staircase to go to the fourth floor, I caught my breath in short, hesitant gasps while walking to my locker. I pried it open with my trembling fingers and hauled my jacket out, replacing the vacant area in my locker with my backpack stored with big fat textbooks. I slammed the locker shut and turned around to bump into him.
No, not him. The other him.
I laced my arms around his neck, sighing into his chest thankfully. Robert looked surprised and chuckled but hugged me back anyways, rocking us back and forth while stroking my hair into place. He pulled back and held my face in his hands, identifying my face as if I had a disease.
"Did something happen?" Robert asked. "Cause last time I checked into your feelings department, you kind of hated me."
"Yep, something did happen." I said. "No need to worry about it."
He smiled invitingly and I felt as if I was under a trance as I leaned closer to him, tilting my head and pressing my lips to his. Robert didn't pull back but just cupped my face in his hands while letting his eyes flutter close. I leaned against my locker and he leaned into me, closing the unwanted gap between us and molding our bodies together perfectly. He moved his hands so that one was wrapped around my waist and the other was behind my head while letting his fingers run through my hair. I let my hands press against his chest and I could feel the pace of his heartbeat match the racing of mines. He bit on my lower lip earning a delightful moan from me. I pulled away breathless but alert of the familiar figure to my far left in my peripheral vision.
"Natalie?"
"Can I help you?" I veered my head to glare at Logan.
"Yeah," He said, strutting towards us. "I just came here to break up with you cause you told on me for touching you. Do you know how embarrassing that was?"
"Oh, what are we in? Middle school?" I exclaimed. "You were supposed to get a hint when I was swatting your hand away as if it was a mosquito!"
"I thought you were playing hard to get. Plus, you usually like my touch."
"You don't get it!" I groaned."And you aren't breaking up with me because I am the one who's breaking up with you!"
"And why's that. huh?" Logan asked annoyed. "Cause you found another play toy?"
"Nope. Cause you did in the janitor's closet!" I screamed, not caring if anybody else could hear me. "You didn't think I knew about you and the head cheerleader giving each other hand-jobs in that closet? She was bragging about it all morning."
Maybe I exaggerated a bit.
"She promised she wouldn't tell." He mumbled under his breath.
"Well, we're officially broken up. Alright, so bye. Get out of my sight. This is supposed to be my free period."
"Yeah, well whatever. You won't find another guy like me." Logan said, backing away and flexing his muscles.
"That's the point, Logan." I put on my jacket and walked back to Robert, linking arms with him and down to the other side of the hall to go to the opposite staircase.
"Nice wits you got stored inside there," Robert poked the side of my head, making me smile.
"Yeah, well I have some in store for you later." I said, stopping in my tracks and bringing my face close to his. His breath tickled my lips and smelled like mints. I was about to lean in for another kiss but he brought a finger to my lips and looked down.
"I can't."
I huffed and narrowed my eyes. "But when I'm in a relationship, you can?"
"No, it's not that." Robert's voice got hoarse by the second. "It's just that I can't become too attached or it'll hurt more."
"What? Am I too clingy or something?" I asked, annoyed.
"No, it's just that.. I can't."
I seethed and shook my head, storming down another flight of stairs but a pair of hands held me by the shoulder and turned me around.
"You seriously can't be mad that I don't want to kiss you." Robert scoffed. "I tried to do everything for you, okay? I let you stay at my house when your Dad went out of town, I literally climbed up your window just to deliver you expensive Christmas presents secretly, I brought you ice skating when he forgot your anniversary, I got you an audition for a movie, I fucking fixed the stupid gap between my front teeth just cause you said you liked guys with perfect teeth! And now you hate me cause I won't kiss you. Trust me, I want to so bad but if I become too attached, it's gonna hurt more for me because I'll have to go so soon. I even bothered with trying to make my Dad stay here, but he won't listen. So don't be mad, okay?"
"Wait, what do you mean you have to go soon?" I asked.
Robert's eyes widened and he sucked his teeth, cursing to himself.
"Robert?" I asked concerned.
"My Dad wants to move." He said stiffly.
"To San Francisco? Where?" I tried so hard to keep my voice from breaking.
"To New York."
Robert bolted down the rest of the stairs while I just stood there letting tears well up the cliffs of my eyes. The bell rang and I almost forgot that I was still in school, but thankfully Emmaly came out of the second floor and saw me standing there with a tear dripping down my cheeks.
She came over to me and enveloped me in her arms, patting my back and shushing me slowly. Once I had rid my eyes of tears, we went outside for lunch instead of staying at the cafeteria cause I didn't want to see Logan.
"What happened?"
I hesitated on telling her the truth. "Logan and I broke up."
"Oh." Emmaly said, expanding her arms for another hug.
"That's not why I'm crying though," I mumbled. "Robert is moving to New York."