{Chapter Eight}
"Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling"- Margaret B. Runbeck
"So why did you bring me here?" Nate asked for about the millionth time. I sighed, crossing you arms.
"I already told you," I answered. "I just want to spend some time together. We haven't actually hung out in a while."
Nate smirked. "You're trying to get me back."
If only he knew. "No. I was just...lonely. Some company wouldn't hurt, you know."
"Yeah I know," he replied back sarcastically. "So where we going?"
"It's where are we going," I corrected him.
He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. But seriously. Where are we going?"
"Umm...anywhere." I bit my lip, forcing myself not to think about 'the plan' I tried not to think of how much it'll hurt Nate when he realizes that I've just been using him to get Ben back.
God. I felt like such a horrible person. Why did I ever agree to Danielle's stupid plan?
"Great. How about we go to the beach?" Nate suggested.
"What day is it?" I wondered out loud. One of Nate's eyebrows narrowed.
"Saturday, duh."
Saturday. Crap. No this will not work. My head snapped up in an instance. "No! We can't go to the beach."
Now both of Nate's eyebrows knitted together. "Can I ask why...?"
"No," I said quickly. "How about we go bowling?"
"Okay..." He sounded so unsure. He took his cell phone out of his pocket. Without looking up, he said, "Do you want take Jalyn?"
I groaned. "Oh please. Not with that stupid car."
"Hey," Nate said, defensively. "Don't hate on Jalyn. She's pretty amazing."
I rolled my eyes at him. "Fine. But I drive if we're taking her."
He gave me a flat look. "You are so not driving."
I grinned. "But I so am."
"No."
"Yes." I gave him a sneaky state and jumped on him. He seemed so surprised about my attack that he dropped his keys. Perfect. I smiled even wider. This was just what I needed. I quickly grabbed the keys and kept them save in my hands.
"Give me back the keys," Nate ordered. All the amusement wiped off his face.
"Nah." I held the keys up in the air as f to torture him. But then I realized that in one swoop- he could take it. He was five inches taller then me after all.
"You know with one swoop I could easily take the keys," Nate said with a smile on his face. Told you.
"I know." I returned the smile. "That's why I'm keeping them safe."
A confused look washed over his face. "What are you-"
I opened my shirt and put the cold keys into my bra. Hehe. "Wanna get it now?"
A disgusted look spread over his face. "No thanks."
"Please," I say. "It's not like you haven't looked down there before."
As soon as I said that, I covered my mouth up with my hand. Shit. Did I really just say that out loud?
His jaw hardened. "That was a long time ago, Scarlet."
My heart still beat faster when he said my name. What's wrong with me? "I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."
I mentally slapped myself. Way to sound like a freaking robot, Scarlet.
"Uhh yeah. It's okay-I guess." Nate gave me a teeny smile. It wasn't hard to tell that it was fake.
"We should go now," I said, looking at the clock. "The bowling alley closes in two years-I mean, hours. Two hours."
Nate chuckled. "Two years?"
I playfully punched his shoulder. "Shut up."
"Make me," he challenged.
"I don't make people, I kill them." I slapped myself again. That was pretty stupid of me to say. I found that off of some website.
"What?" A bizarre expression sat on his face. I quickly replied back, "Nothing. Let's go now."
"Hey you said it in English," Nate said. "You gotta say it in Spanish."
I stuck my tongue out at him and got the keys out of my bra. "How old are you, three?"
"No." He smiled idiotically. "Vamanos!"
I started the car and said, "You watch way too much Dora."
"I know. But I'm only three," he said. Eh. He was right.
By the time we got there, the bowling alley was packed. People were everywhere. Neon lights flashed everywhere while the sounds of pins being knocked out droned out people's voices. I recognized a few kids from school, but no one I knew. The smell of pizza and old bowling shoes wafted through the air. My stomach rumbled a bit from the smell.
"You hungry?" Nate asked, reading my mind.
"No, of course not." I lied. But my stomach spoke out the truth, making Nate laugh out lied.
"Uh yeah, okay." He pulled me towards a table and started flipping through the menu. "So what pizza do you want? Is it still pepperoni with pineapple?"
My heart did a double flip. He still remembered my favorite pizza toppings. More guilt built up in me when I realized that I forgot his.
"Yes," I answered. "I can't believe you still remember."
He shrugged with a smile on his face. "It's not that surprising. We went out for like, a year."
"One of the best years in my life," I blurted out. Crap. Did I just say that out loud. Quickly, I added on, "I mean with all the crazy adventures we had it wasn't boring."
He smiled. He looked so damn cute when he smiled like that. "Yeah, I know. It was pretty crazy."
Suddenly, I started to laugh uncontrollably. A memory had just passed me. That seemed to happened a lot when Nate was around. One of his eyebrows went up.
"What's so funny?" He asked. I covered my mouth with my hand, trying not to draw any attention.
"Remember...the...the" I stumbled over words as laughter escaped my mouth. "Remember that summer?"
"What are you..." His eyes went distinct. Then something flashed over them, making him smile. "Oh my god. You're not talking about-"
"Yeah," I interjected. "That summer of 2010."
Long story short- Nate and I did really stupid things that summer. Stupid enough to make me crack up. I was referring to the time when we pranked our History teacher. Yes, it was a very stupid prank. It involved a bra, a strange phone call, shaving cream, shredded cheese, and a wild cat. No, I'm not joking. We were really stupid back then.
"Oh my god," Nate repeated. "That was freaking hilarious! Remember his face?"
He did a imitation of our history teacher's face, making me laugh even more. I smacked across the table. "Shut up. Stop. Making. Me. Laugh."
This only made him do a more overreacted imitation. I couldn't help myself- I burst out into loud, long laughter. Nate soon joined me and we both were starting to crack up like idiots.
This did being a lot of attention to us. A family playing near by started to look at his strangely.
"Oh, we're fine." Nate called out to them. "Just a taaaad bit high."
I elbowed him. "Shut up."
The family gave us even weirder looks. The grandma muttered something like, "Stupid teenagers in love."
My face flushed deeply. "Oh we're not a-"
"Like she cares," Nate whispered, cutting me off. "She's just jealous."
"Jealous?"
"Yep," Nate said, popping the 'p.' "She doesn't have anyone to share jokes with. She's just a sad, sad old loner lady."
I elbowed him again. "You're rude."
"I know." He grinned. Suddenly, I had to go pee.
"I need to go pee," I announced. I mentally slapped myself for saying that out loud. Talk about TMI.
Nate just smirked. "Want me to come with?"
I grabbed my sweatshirt and phone. "Ha ha. You're funny. But no thanks, I think I could go by myself."
He put his arms up in a surrender way. "Hey, you said it."
I rolled my eyes and headed towards the bathroom. The bathrooms at the bowling alley were always clean and smelled like fresh lavender. I headed into the stall, dragging my sweatshirt with me.
"Oh my god, I can't believe you two didn't have it yet!" A voice from outside the stall exclaimed. I frowned and listened in.
"I know." Another voice said with a sigh. "I don't think he likes me enough."
The voice sounded very familiar. Perhaps too familiar.
"Are you kidding me?" The other voice responded. "He loves you! I mean, it's pretty obvious. The only thing that's stopping him from doing it is that girl."
"You mean Scarlet Caraway?"
My whole body froze when the girl mentioned my name. I instantly figured out from there that the girl was Alison.
"Yeah, that chick," Alison's friend said with a disgust in her voice. "I don't even see what he sees in her. She tries way too hard to fit in."
I heard the water run for a little bit before Alison replied, "You mean saw. What Ben saw in her. They already broke up a week ago when Ben saw her cheat on some other guy."
I heard Alison's friend gasp. "What a little bitch! She's such a player. I bet that Scarlet girl cheated on him with a whole lot of guys. She probably even fucked half of them."
It was really hard to maintain the nerve to rip the damn toilet seat of the ground and throw it in both of their faces.
"Yeah, I bet she did." There was a smirk in Alison's voice as she said that. "Oh my god so guess what!"
"What?"
"I got invited to Zach Websters party! Well, technically Ben got invited but since I'm his date I get to go too!"
"No way." Her friend squealed. "Maybe you could have it there with him. How romantic would that be?"
I pressed my back against the blue stall and tried not to gag.
"It would totally be romantic. As long as that Scarlet chick won't be there."
It took a lot not to throw the toilet seat in Alison's face.
"Yeah," her friend agreed. I heard the door open as the two of them got out. "As long as she's not there."
Then they both walked out. I realized that I was holding my breath the whole time. I let it out. For a while, I just stood there. All the things they said absorbed into me.
Then I got a plan.
I quickly turned my phone on and composed a text to Danielle. My fingers shook while I typed in the words, but I managed to type in-
I'm going to the party.
"Hey. Are you feeling okay?" Nate said when I came back.
I forced a fake smile in his direction. "Of course I am. So did the pizza get here?"
"Yeah, it came just a few seconds ago. The guy said..." He trailed off and looked into my face. "Are you sure you're okay?"
I wondered if he could read the guilt on my face. I wondered if he knew about my plan. My whole brain told me to shut up, but I still worried. I nodded quickly. "I'm fine. Really."
His eyes stared into mine. I looked away, not wanting him to see the truth that was written all over my face. "All right. Well I didn't get the pizza for nothing. Start eating."
I laughed and picked up a slice. "Thanks."
He smiled at me before digging in. I rolled my eyes at his bad behavior. Halfway through his second slice, he caught me staring.
"What?" he asked with his mouth full.
I wrinkled my nose. "Swallow before you talk."
He swallowed before he asked, "What?" again.
"Oh nothing," I said, picking up a napkin. He gave a look.
"It's obviously not nothing. You were staring at me. What is it?"
Just ask him, the voice in my head said.
"Uh well...there's a party," I started to say, "at Zach Websters house."
"Oh that rich kid? Doesn't his family own some real estate company or something?"
"Yeah, him. So anyways I was wondering if you wanna come with me there...?" My fingers gripped the napkins and I prayed that he'll say yes.
"So...like a date?" There was a hint of amusement in his voice.
I swallowed hard. "Yes."
He leaned in closer. "Does this mean we-we're on again?"
All the pain, confusion, frustration, and guilt started to make a tornado out of me. It was like my body was mad at me for lying. It's only for a few days. That's it. Only a few days.
"Yeah." I nodded. I needed to change the subject. "So how's the pizza?"
He looked at his pizza, then me, then back at the pizza. "You're joking right?"
At first, I thought he was talking to the pizza. But then the dumb Scarlet moment struck me when I realized he was talking to me. "What?"
"There's not going to be even a simple boyfriend-girlfriend hug, is there?" I was stricken by his words.
Then I laughed softly. "Come here."
He got up and stared at me. I smiled and wrapped my arms around him. I smelled in that familiar Nate smell as I embraced him. I could feel his strong hands wrap around my waist, bringing me closer to him.
For a moment, I forgot about all the lies I was hiding from him. I forgot that this is a plan to get Ben back. But when I rested my head on his shoulder, I remembered.
"I think I'm falling for you again," He mumbled into my hair.
Half of me was cheering with joy. The other half was feeling extremely guilty. But both sides knew one thing:
Step one was complete.
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A/N-
Hihi!(: Next chapter's the party! Whoo!
Like I said before, I write this on my phone. NOT the computer. And my phone's spell check thingy just broke. Yeah. Preeety weird. But anyways- I know this has grammar mistakes. And for those of you who write on your phone, you'll notice how hard it is to edit & revise this. Soo please point out any grammar or spelling mistakes that are bothering you.
VOMMENT and thank you for reading!<3