My cereal was all mushy. Sighing, I moved my spoon around a bit disgusted at it. A moment later, I stared pointedly at my father who was pretty much ignoring me behind his tablet reading his newspaper. "Dad?" I'd been asking him the same question three times already and I knew that he was playing dumb.
The twitching lips and the small smile on his face was evident proof of it.
"Sorry. What?" his blue eyes sparkled mischievously as I crossed my arms completely peeved at him.
"What did you think about Nathan?"
He shrugged and resumed scrolling on his tablet. "He's nice."
Utterly annoyed, I took a deep breath, trying not to snap at him. "That's it?"
"Yup."
"Could you elaborate?"
"Why?" his blue eyes gazed at me mischievously. "Because you like him?"
My shoulders sagged and I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "You know? It's not even important." I huffed as I took my bowl to the sink feeling a little bad for wasting food.
Dad chuckled before taking a bite off his bagel. "Are you going to Amanda's?" I nodded. "Maybe I can pick you up and take you there. I have a meeting tonight and I'm afraid you'll have to eat dinner by yourself. Well, that is if your boyfriend is not driving you."
"He's not my boyfriend." I shook my head completely discouraged.
"Yet." He smirked. "Take care honey" he smiled as I took the stairs to brush my teeth.
The walk to school seemed pretty short since I started to jog. It didn't take me more than ten minutes to get there. I saw Farah's van on the other side of the parking lot and I waited for her at the entrance. My peers passed next to me glancing from time to time. Ignoring them, I took out my cellphone and started to scroll down through the news.
"Hey" a girly voice said in front of me.
"Farah, you take forever." I looked up to found Anne tilting her head watching me curiously.
"Farah is the new girl, right?" I nodded before glancing across the parking lot. Farah had stopped to greet her boyfriend. That was why she was taking forever. Figures.
"She seems nice." Anne trailed with a sad smile on her face.
"She is." I paused for a moment before adding hesitantly, "you could hang out with us in recess or something." Anne's green eyes widened for a fraction of a second. "So you get to know her." I shrugged.
"Ok." She answered rather reluctantly.
I smiled reassuringly, "great." It did work since her lips tugged up on a small smile.
"See you later, then." She added as she smiled at me and walked away.
Rather confused at her sudden approach, I stared after her wishing to be friends with again. We used to have so much in common.
I was glad that even though things were not like two years ago, we were trying to be in better terms. My smile turned into a disgusted gesture as I turned to look at Farah and saw her and Chris pretty much eating each other. Shaking my head and scrunching my nose, I decided not to wait for her.
As usual, I walked to my locker to grab my things. But something was going on because people stared at me. Some whispered as I passed making me feel self-conscious. Approaching my locker, my steps faltered as I took in the view.
Someone had scribbled slut along my locker door. I had a good guess that Marissa was behind it.
Ignoring every stare and whisper, I opened it and took out my books as if nothing had happened. It was childish of her to think that I would be affected by this. After getting my books I walked to the office to report it to the principal.
The school supposedly had strict regulations for bullies and such. It wasn't really there since Marissa pretty much did whatever she felt like and the guys had their fight club that was officially off-school grounds, but everyone knew about it. Still, I wanted help to clean up the door. All the attention I was getting was making me tense.
Brooding, I made my way to the office. Luckily, Mr. White was right there. Taking a deep breath, I greeted him and told him about it. I kept the fact that I knew who had done it for myself; I didn't have real evidence that Marissa was behind it.
"We'll deal with the bullies, Ms. Taylor." His stern eyes were genuinely concerned. "Do you want us to call your father?"
I shook my head, "no, thank you. I'll just get to class."
"If you learn who's behind it, don't hesitate to tell us."
"Okay." I walked out of the office and saw Marissa sneering at me while clasping her books tightly in her arms. In a way, I felt bad for her. She had to do this sort of things to feel better with herself. Nonetheless, it was irking to see all eyes on me as I walked down the hallway. That had been her doing. But I couldn't let her know that she was getting to me. So, I smiled as I passed next to her.
Her own smile faltered for a fraction of a second but she composed herself. Gloomy, she turned away by taking her cell phone out as if to check her messages.
I reached my classroom and Farah, Chris and Nate were waiting for me at the entrance. As soon as my best friend saw me, she trotted to reach me. "Are you all right?" Her blue eyes glowered.
"Yeah."
"Seriously? Because that bitch is going too far and I'd like to give her a piece of my mind."
I grabbed her arm, "I'm fine. Thank you, Farah. That's exactly what she wants," I whispered as we walked to her boyfriend. Farah stared at me for a moment and nodded her head stiffly.
Nate's grey eyes examined me for a moment before he nodded at me. "All right?"
I shook my head. "I'm just pissed, that's all."
He smiled nodding his head. A moment later he asked, "Do you guys want to skip school?"
I rolled my eyes at the same time Farah answered excitedly, "That's a great idea! I've never skipped school in my life!"
Nate smiled mischievously as I glared at him for a moment. "I don't think that's a great idea, Farah." I thought about her parents and how they might blame Chris for this.
"Are you serious?" Chris blinked at her. "We have to." He stated seriously as he looked at me.
Sighing, I shook my head. "No. I don't want to get anyone into trouble."
"Come on Taylor, don't be such a party pooper!" Nate raised one eyebrow making my heart flutter like crazy.
Trying to ignore that, I murmured shyly, "my father is picking me up later." Not to mention that Farah's parents are probably going to flip.
"Call him." Nate shrugged, "Just tell him about Marissa's stunt and you're probably going to be off the hook. Even with school."
"What about you?" I turned to Farah who was beaming at me completely hyper about the whole idea. "What about your parents?"
"Oh, I am going to tell them about it!"
Chris shook his head, "that kind of blows the whole skipping thing."
"Well I don't want to get grounded for this! I'm blaming you" she smiled at me, "it's the perfect excuse for everyone!"
I rubbed a palm across my face completely discouraged, "guys, you might get in trouble."
Nathan snorted. "We skip all the time." Farah started to giggle like crazy. "It's fine."
"You're a bad influence." I stared pointedly at Nate and Chris. They both were smirking. I rolled my eyes as Farah shrieked excitedly.
"How do we do it?" she whispered while looking at both sides of the hallway. Since there were still a couple of minutes left, there were a few students milling around.
"We just walk out." Nate stated unfazed as he grabbed my hand and lead me outside. My lips parted as little tingles played where he was touching me. Swallowing hard, I turned to look at Farah, who was following us close by, with a panicked expression on my face. She was smiling knowingly at me.
He led us to his truck. As the car's alarm went off, Chris and Farah sat on the back while Nate opened the door for me.
"Where are we going, anyway?" I asked them as he hopped in.
"Who cares?" He shrugged as the car's engine roared to life. "You might want to text your father soon, Cassie."
"Why?"
"Because Mr. White is looking at us." He answered unfazed as my eyes widened and I turned to the school's grounds. And yes. Mr. White was right there in the parking lot watching us ride away. Shit.
"Maybe you should feign crying or something." Farah suggested from behind. But we'd already left the parking lot, so it would have been pointless. So, I took out my phone and texted Dad while the stereo blasted with Coldplay. I stopped typing and turned to Nate.
"What?" he asked without looking at me, with a lopsided smile on his face. The lopsided smile that made my heart skip a beat.
"I didn't know you like Coldplay. It's one of my favorite bands."
"There's a lot you don't know about me, Taylor." I scrunched my nose. He was right. I really didn't know anything about him.
"And you seem to know everything about me," I trailed disheartened.
Nate turned to look at me for a second smiling broadly. I shook my head with a small smile on my face and finished typing Dad's text. He answered me a minute later asking me how was I feeling and stuff like that. I reassured him that I was ok but that I needed some time off.
Farah and Chris were too silent on the back. I had a good idea what they were doing, so I didn't even try to make conversation with them.
"Guys" Nate groaned, "My car is not a room!"
I burst out laughing as Chris kicked Nate's seat. "I can kick you out, dude!" Nate added as he took the highway.
"Where are we going?"
"Curiosity killed the cat."
"Come on, Nate!" I elongated the e, making me sound whinny. He chuckled. And ignored me. I rolled my eyes and stared outside enjoying the view.
Minutes later, he parked in front of Fenway Park. "Seriously?" I raised an eyebrow.
He shrugged. "I like baseball." I gazed at him for a moment, taking his greyish eyes. They were alight and carefree.
Nate looked at the entrance and turned to me excited. It was a fresh thing to see. I liked this side of him. Smiling back, I followed him as he approached the main entrance.
He greeted the old guard with familiarity. The old man shook hands with him and let us through. Since it was a weekday, the park was pretty much empty.
My lips parted as we walked through the aisles. There was so much history written there. As we reached the field, I looked around me imagining all the place packed with people shouting and having fun while the players nervously concentrated on the game.
"This is awesome," I murmured breathlessly.
"It is, right?" Nate smiled at me. The lopsided smile.
"I didn't picture you as a Red Sox's fan." He shrugged. He admired the view as I stared at him. My mouth felt dry and I willed myself to look somewhere else.
Farah and Chris's laughs were heard all over the place. He was tickling her and she was trying to get away from him. I smiled at them. They were such a cute couple.
Most importantly, they both seemed really happy with each other.
"They're disgustingly cheesy, aren't they?" Nate asked beside me shaking his head.
Chuckling, I shoved him playfully. "You wish to be corny as them!"
Nate's grey eyes bored into me. My heart raced as my stomach churned. "Maybe." The lopsided smile made his appearance making my heart skip a beat. Or two.
I swallowed hard as I gazed at him. His eyes were so dark and my lips parted as he leaned closer to me. But he was shoved away as Chris tackled him. They both fell to the ground and they started to wrestle playfully.
Farah leaned on her knees breathing hard from running all over the field. "Sorry to interrupt." She said a minute later with a smirk on her face. I passed a hand across my face embarrassed and kind of annoyed at the same time.
She chuckled and shoved me playfully with her arm. "Besides, if you end up kissing or something, it's best if you two are alone."
"We're were not kissing" I murmured self-conscious as my cheeks flushed.
Farah rolled her eyes as Chris and Nate walked to us. All sweaty and dirty from rolling around in the grass. They were both still shoving each other playfully and laughing.
The guardian borrowed us a bat and a ball and we fooled around trying to play ball only the four of us. After a few hours, we were all thirsty and hungry from running around the field.
"I wish they were selling hot-dogs every day," Nate trailed as we stepped outside the park. I chuckled as Chris commented that he was always thinking about food.
We hopped in the car and Nate drove us to what he called, the best restaurant in town. It was a small place that specialized in sandwiches. The owners were attending the place and since it was almost noon, it was packed. We waited in line and ordered what Nate recommended. Which was a feat in itself, since he was drooling at every plate in the menu.
With our sandwiches and iced tea, we walked to the nearest park and sat on the grass to eat. He'd been right. The food was out of this world. The bread was definitely home-baked as well as the mayo. It was really good.
While we were finishing our food, Farah asked Chris about Tom's party. Her boyfriend looked at her like she'd grown a second head or something like that. "We've never been to one." He answered warily.
"Well, there's always a first, right?" she turned to me. "We're all going on this weekend."
Nate snorted. "With that ass?"
I tilted my head. "Tom's not an ass."
Chris shook his head, "Oh, oh."
Nate narrowed his eyes at me. "He is."
Ignoring Chris, I shook my head. "He's ok."
Nate crumpled the paper bag on his hands. "I can't believe that your standing up for him." His grey eyes stared at me for a moment before he gazed at the distance. "He is an asshole."
"You don't know him, Nate."
He huffed. Scowling, he turned to me. "And you do?" I blinked at him. He was angry, because of Tom. I opened my mouth to say something when he stood up. "I don't want to hear it." He stomped to a trash can to drop his trash. I looked quizzically at Chris who only shook his head.
The drive back home was pretty silent. We were listening to music but nobody talked. Nate was clearly mad at me and pretty much ignored me all the way.
Granted, I didn't try to make conversation but he didn't even look at me. And his hands were clasping the steering wheel tightly all ride long.
He dropped Chris and Farah first. The ride alone was even more tense. Despite being angry at me, he walked me to the front door. As we reached it, I glanced at him. "Nathan, I'm really sorry, I didn't know. "
"What?" he seemed hurt somehow, "that I hate him?"
I bit my lip. "Hate is a strong word."
"I do. I hate him." He ran a hand through his hair. "But you obviously don't know anything about it. You've been living in your fucking little bubble ignoring everyone else."
My heart sank and I was left speechless. His words cut through me.
I really didn't know what to say to that. It was true.
I had ignored everyone around me but I knew that despite everything, Tom had been nice to me. I distinctly remembered the time I got drunk and pretty much threw myself at him. He didn't take advantage of that. I had to give him some credit.
Nate clasped his lips tightly and shook his head. Breathing out, he turned around and walked away while my eyes brimmed with tears and my stomach plummeted to the ground.
Why was he so mad at me?
Sorry for taking ages to post this :S