Come to the mall with me?
Its a text from Bubbles. I reply quickly.
When?
Now.
Why?
I wanna buy you something for Christmas!
Ok, meet me there in ten?
Yup. I'm bringing Kate, Meghan and Chloe too!
I shut off my phone and stow it away in my bag, making my way out into the car park and driving to the mall.
When I arrive I see Bubbles and the others waiting against Meghan's car. I walk over, putting my keys back into my bag and waving. Meghan runs up to me first, followed by the others.
"NATALIE!" she screams, a foot away from me.
"Yes?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.
"Alex wrote a song for you!" she yells.
"What? No he didn't," I say, taking my phone out of my pocket when I hear a familiar buzz. I unlock it and see another text message from one of Amanda's minions.
Stay away from Alex, loser, he doesn't want you.
I shut my phone off again, not even bothering to block the person, I know Amanda will be using another account next time. Even though Amanda is only in my AP calculus classes, she's not in any of the other ones with me, though she does have the smarts for getting into people's heads.
"He so did!" Meghan brings me back to the present.
"He did not! It was our music assignment and the only catchy songs are the loved up ones so that's what he wrote," I say, shrugging and throwing my phone into my backpack again.
"HE!" Bubbles shouts, standing next to Meghan. "He wrote it about you! You'd be blind not to see that, Nat!"
I shake my head and we start walking into the mall. "So what are we buying today, my friends?"
***
"Try the red one."
"No, the blue!"
"What the hell? The ORANGE!"
We're all arguing about Bubbles' dress for homecoming. Bubbles turns to me. "You decide, Nat."
"I'd say either the yellow or pink," I tell her. She nods.
"I'm going with yellow," she goes back into the dressing room to take the sparkly yellow two piece dress off the hanger while the other girls complain about this decision.
We wait outside while Bubbles pays for the dress. When she steps outside we walk to the food court and plop down. I buy some sushi and a Fanta and sit down.
We begin discussing our Christmas plans when a large group of girls, mostly blonde, walks in. I roll my eyes immediately when I see Amanda at the front of the crew. She spots someone sitting in the food court at one of the tables. The groups stalks over to the girl seated. The person has their back to me and all I can see is the girl's dark hair and blue blouse from where we sit two tables away, hearing every word of the discussion.
"Hey nerd," Amanda smirks, stopping in front of the girl, who looks up from her laptop.
"Hi Amanda," the girl says. I recognize Glenna's voice.
"And where are your friends?" Amanda asks in a fake-sweet tone.
"Um..." Glenna starts but Amanda cuts her off.
"Oh, that's right, you don't have any," the queen bee says.
"Oh," Glenna says, not wanting to sit there looking vulnerable. Well, that failed. Amanda laughs evilly.
"Glenna, honey, go back to where you came from and get. A. Life," Amanda says, emphasizing the last bit, dragging it out.
"Well..Well.." Glenna says, searching for an insult. The next things she says will probably be the worst mistake of her life, "Well, you're ugly."
Amanda looks shocked for a few minutes, glaring at Glenna with a how-dare-you-look. She regains composure and snarls at Glenna, "I'm not a mirror Sweetie."
Glenna stays silent, though I think I see her jaw moving, trying to reply. Before I can stop myself I yell over to Amanda:
"If you looked in a mirror it would crack!"
Oh, why did I have to reply so lamely? Yay me. Flop my life.
Amanda turns to me, a fire in her light brown eyes. She narrows them and glares at me before walking over, her high heels click-clacking on the lino floor.
"How dare you!" she says. Well, at least my comment offended her. "You boyfriend stealing loser!"
"Was Noah your boyfriend?" I ask, confused.
"No, you dumb sl*t! Alex is," she sneers and I laugh.
"I didn't steal Alex from you," I say, tilting my head to the side and smiling at her sweetly.
"Yeah? Then how do you explain this?" she says, whipping out her phone and tapping furiously. Ten seconds later she shoves her phone right under my nose and I lean back to look at it. Its the picture of Alex and I at that model shoot when I was forced to kiss him.
I laugh again. "That was taken at the start of term, Amanda. And I was forced to do that!"
Amanda sniffles and glares at me. "Alex is mine. I see the way you look at him, as though he's your boyfriend. But you know what Natalie? He's MINE! HE'S MY BOYFRIEND!" she yells, furious.
"Ok, ok, Queen Boofhead," oops, shouldn't have let that slip. "I get it! He's your boyfriend and I have my own. I'd be more then happy to stay one hundred meters away from him at all times."
Amanda grunts. I swear she has blob fish in her blood. "Stay away from him. He loves me. He'll never love you. You're too ugly for anyone to ever love you."
And with that, she turns and walks through her minions to the other side of the food court, her minions scuttling after her before she sends one threatening glare in my direction and storms off in the direction of the toilets. I roll my eyes.
"She's just jealous," Meghan says. I turn to look at her.
"Its fine, she just wants to annoy me," I say then look over at Glenna who's whimpering at her table. I grab Bubbles and we approach her cautiously, drawing out chairs and sitting down with her. "Hey, Glenna?"
She looks up.
"You ok?" I ask.
"No! I am NOT ok, Natalie! First you take Noah from me then Amanda makes fun of me and then you think you can stick up to me like you're my friend? NO! YOU are NOT my friend. I never EVER want to be friends with you so leave it, b****."
And with that, she takes her laptop and satchel and storms out of the food court. I sit there, suprised. I look over at my friends who look just as shocked. "Does...does...does she like Noah?"
Bubbles raises her eyebrows curiously and says, "I think she must."
"Woah," I say. "That's too much drama for me in one day. How about we go and buy some Christmas presents?"
I hope to change the subject so we can all have a good time shopping and it works. But mostly... I just want to take my mind off what Glenna just said to me, so that I can stop feeling horrible about myself, which I have been since Amanda started texting me on Instagram.
***
After I've bought presents for all my friends and family we stop by the side of an escalator and talk. Bubbles bought me a bikini that she said I looked 'awesome' in. To be honest, I've never really worn a bikini and never planned to. But I didn't want to disappoint Bubbles by saying no, she was really exited!
And from Meghan and Chloe I got a dress that goes to my knees with pink purple and blue patterns on the skirt and a white long sleeve top.
Kate bought me a short white dress that she tells me I should wear on Christmas day. I dunno though, it seems a little too short...
"Where are we going next?" Chloe asks.
"I dunno," says Meghan.
"Lets go to the ice cream shop!" Bubbles says excitedly and we all roll our eyes but smile nonetheless.
"Sure," Kate says and we begin making our way to the ice cream shop. When we get there everyone orders a different flavor (Kate - lemon, Bubbles- bubblegum, Meghan - strawberry and Chloe - chocolate) I decide to get a vanilla cup with gummy bears and Oreos.
My phone has been buzzing non-stop for an hour. The first time I took it out there were messages from one of Amanda's minions. Just about all of them were swear words like the b-word, the sl-word, the mother f-worder, c-word, the p-word, the w-word and the h-word. I turned my phone onto silent but that didn't stop the vibrations in my bag. Now I scroll through the messages all from the same girl.
Get a life.
No one loves you.
Go rot in hell.
On the last one the color drains from my face and I quickly block the account and eat my ice cream after tossing my phone in my bag.
I eat the ice cream in silence, listening to the conversation my friends are having about pizza. When Chloe finishes her ice cream she turns to me and immediately frowns. "Are you ok Nat?"
"Mmhhhmm," I say, high pitched, nodding and looking down at my last couple of gummy bears.
"You sure?" Chloe says.
"Yeah," I say, nodding and smiling at her. She narrows her eyes at me and tilts her head as if saying 'really?' before turning back to the other girls. Bubbles is fiddling with her new squishy toys I bought her. Meghan is playing with a necklace I bought for her, too. I also bought Kate a new book and for Chloe a pair of sunglasses. I lean in and join the conversation. I love my friends.
My phone buzzes and the group turns to look at me. I raise my eyebrows and they gesture for me to take out my phone. I feel myself going red, hoping they won't read the message, as I get out my phone from my bag. Its a message from Noah. I sigh with relief mentally.
I read the text.
Will you go to homecoming with me?
I raise my eyebrows and show my friends. They all frown and its silent for a moment until Bubbles yells, "We have to get you a dress, pronto!"
I smile and text Noah back.
Sure.
:)
We gather our things and walk into the nearest dress shop. Kate is also searching for a dress for homecoming because she's going with Leo. I run my hand along the racks. All of these are so revealing!
Kate brings a black dress with her to the change rooms but I come back empty handed. Bubbles frowns at me before turning her attention to the change room Kate's getting changed in. When she's finished she comes to show us the outfit and she decides she should buy it given that she has our approval.
I see a dress on a mannequin that catches my eye. I walkover to the dress and look at it. Its a red color with spaghetti straps and a long skirt. Its not too revealing so I take one my size off its hanger and bringing it over to the change rooms with my friends. They look at the dress and scrunch up their noses but I try it on anyway.
It fits perfectly and when I step out of the change room even Chloe can't stop herself from liking the dress.
"Well, I think I'll get this one," I say and they all nod. Walking into the change room I get dressed and step out. Walking over to the counter, I feel my phone ding in my pocket and I take it out because its an imessage, not an Instagram text. It's from Alex.
What did you do to Amanda?
I raise my eyebrows at the text. Alex is a jerk face but he's never been rude, or defensive over Amanda, for that matter. I text him back after I place the dress on the counter.
I didn't mean to annoy her! Actually, yes I did. Your girlfriend is a strange person.
I pay for the dress after being told it is only $300 because of 50% off. Bargain.
A/N:
I just had to include that. See you later my little marshmallows (I don't know why i wrote that. But marshmallows are SO SQUISHY and yummy)
Alex texts me back.
She's p*ssed
I don't care.
Woah, Nat, calm down. What did she do?
She was bullying Glenna
And so what'd you say?
That she has blob fish in her blood.
To her face?
I doubt that if I said that to her face she'd understand. She probably doesn't even know what a pufferfish is (her cousin).
:)
I smile - thankful Alex didn't mean it in a protective boyfriend way - and click off my phone, shoving it into my bag. I suddenly realize I've forgotten something when I see my friends standing outside the shop, waiting for me. "I need to buy Alex a present!"
Kate walks over to me with the others and says, "We were wondering when you'd remember."
I roll my eyes. "And one for Michelle, Liam, Felecia and Jackson as well."
"I'll come with you, the others have to go home," Bubbles says, smiling brightly at me.
"Me too," says Kate.
The others say goodbye and walk away. "So what do I buy for Felecia?"
***
We've been trying to find a gift for Alex for ages. The others have been suggesting things but its too hard to find a gift for him, I don't really think he'd like a flat cape or a watch. We've looked for cologne but I couldn't find one that smelled like him. When I said this Kate and Bubbles looked at me strangely. Along the way I found a NFL jersey for Noah, because I kind of forgot him... Oops.
Just when we're about to give up, I spot something in a store window.
"I'VE FOUND IT!" I yell, and the few people around us turn to look at us with either surprise, confusion, amusement or annoyance. I point to the electric guitar in the window and we walk in.
After I've bought the guitar for Alex we walk back out to the carpark. I drop my bags in the boot of my car and walk bac over to Bubbles and Kate, who're going home together.
"Well, I hope the moving goes well," Kate says. I nod and smile.
"Thanks for the hoodie Bubbles," I say. Taking a deep breath, I pull off the jumper, stuff it into Bubbles' arms, call out a goodbye and sprint to my car. When I get in I pull the blanket around me and drive off, waving at Kate and Bubbles as I go. The pants annoyed me today, but I felt alright with the hoodie on.
I reflect on what I've bought for my family and the Collins'. For Lucas and Paul, I got them new X-box remotes, one blue and one green. Mum and Dad just got a new set of tea cups. Michelle and Jackson got a box of chocolates and a set of candles for Michelle and a dart board for Jackson. For Felecia I got a whole heap of things including necklaces, pens, notebooks, a water bottle, some sparkly spray stuff for her hair, a headband and a new hat. For Liam I got a picture book and a couple of cars. Alex, obviously has a guitar.
When I get home I pull the blanket around me and walk into the house. Mum and Dad are both at the new house and Lucas and Paul are taking turns with the ipad, sitting with the few stools and ornaments left to go to the new house. I take a walk around the place and see that every room is spotless. My room's curtains and walls look so bare and the whole room looks white and spacious.
I go back downstairs and see Mum and Dad chatting to the boys. "Ready to go sweetie?" Dad asks me. I nod and take a few ornaments to the car and chuck them in the back. We drive off and Lucas and Paul wave goodbye like toddlers. I roll my eyes.
"Seriously, Nat?" Mum turns around. "You just left our house and you're rolling your eyes as a goodbye?"
"Yup!" I pop the 'p' and plug in my headphones, turning them up so that "lips are moving" is on full blast.
We arrive at the new place and I still have the blanket tight around me when we step out of the car in the driveway. The house is bigger than the old one, but not quite as big as the one next door. The garage is white with steel storage shelves on which many of our belongings are piled high. Mum and Dad have been very busy sorting out the home. I offered to help but they told me to focus on my exams. Lucas and Paul weren't much help either.
I walk into the house's main open living space. Mum has styled it well in a couple of days and mostly everything is already in place. I walk up into my new room.
Its got whitewalls and a small platform in one corner with a long, thin cushion on it next to the window sill. I think that'll be my reading nook. Yay! My bed is up against the wall and on its right is a door leading out onto a platform looking into none other then Alex's room. I sigh and jump onto my bed, sketching up a plan before starting to unpack my boxes.
I start to lift my desk up into the corner but I don't pick it up even a few inches before I put it back down and sigh, gosh, its heavy.
My phone buzzes with a text message and I walk over to the newly decorated bedside table. I pick up my phone and read the message.
Need some help?
I whip around and look out the glass door. Alex is holding his phone, standing in front of his identical doors and smirking. I roll my eyes and toss my phone onto the bed, walking over and unlocking the doors. Alex does the same. When I step out my hair whips around my face and I hurriedly re-tie it. Suddenly I feel the cold on my stomach, legs and arms. The blanket must have fallen away while I was unpacking things but I mustn't have cared because I obviously didn't think anyone was watching me. Now I wrap my hands around myself and stare grumpily at Alex as he walks out onto his platform.
"Hey dude," he grins.
"Hello, babe," I say, still glaring. He comes to stand a meter away from me, leaning forward off the railing just like I am.
"Why're you being so salty?" he says, raising his eyebrows.
"I hate this," I say.
"Hate what?"
"My outfit."
"Oh, come on, its not that bad," he says, looking over my outfit.
"Yes it is!" I say. "Actually, I unpacked some clothes so I'll go and get them on."
"I'll be watching," he winks. And I glare at him . "Waiting! I meant waiting! I'll be waiting."
I roll my eyes and walk back into my room closing the doors and curtains and grabbing a set of jeans and a baggy beige woolly jumper. I chuck them on and throw my hair into a messy high ponytail. I step back outside onto the patio, half expecting that he isn't there. But he is, waiting patiently and looking at the full moon, his hair blowing in the wind and his blue eyes reflecting the light of the stars. I shake the image out of my head when he turns to look at me.
I walk over to the railing and lean over it.
"I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack!" I say and he grins.
"I can see that."
"Really? I thought your ego was too big for you to see over, as I have said before, obviously," I say, tilting my head to the side and raising my eyebrows before tipping it upright and smiling.
"Sorry, I can't help having such a big ego, bruh, anyone who looked this good would have one."
"Ha! You admit it!" I grin.
He rolls his eyes. "Did you need some help?" he points to the desk in my room behind me.
"Oh, um, yeah. Thanks," I say. "How will you get over though?"
"What do you mean?" he asks, confused.
"I mean... that there is no stairs or a bridge for you to cross. And I doubt you'd come all the way over here to help me?"
"Oh, no of course I wouldn't come over to help you," he says jokingly but I hear something else in his voice that I cannot place. I look at him strangely for a moment before he looks away and jumps onto the railing.
"Woah! Alex what're you doing?" I say, bewildered.
"What do you think? Coming over!" he says, shouting at me through the howling of the wind. My hair blows widely around my face and before I can flick it away Alex jumps the two meters from his railing to my small veranda and dusts himself off. He's standing upright! Holy Jesus! He didn't even crouch when he landed.
"Have you done that before?" I ask, amazed.
"No," he says before walking into my room. I stand outside still, looking after him with shock. He turns around and looks at me. We stand there, just looking at each other, my hair whipping around my face. He's looking at me with expression I can't place.
I snap out of my gaze and walk in after him.
***
"Ready? One two three!"
We lift up the chest of shelves and put it over near my closet.
"I think that's it!" I say and flop down on my bed. He follows. We lie there in silence for a few moments before I wipe the sweat off my brow before turning my head towards Alex. Even when he's sweaty he still looks like a Greek God. "Thanks Alex."
"You're welcome," he says and smiles. I grin back and look towards the ceiling again.
"You know, Amanda can be a little.... um, what's the word?" he says.
"Annoying, salty, rude, mean, selfish, stupid, dumb, idiotic, physcotic-"
"Arrogant," Alex decides. "She can be a bit arrogant but once you get to know her she's OK."
"Really Alex?" I say, shaking my head at the ceiling with disapproval.
"Yes!" he says. My phone chooses that moment buzz. I don't get up to check it. I know its from Amanda based off the notification noise.
"You're not gonna get that?" Alex asks and stands up. I sit up and stand when he walks over to my phone. I push him away.
"No, its not important. Probably just a text from my mum or something," I say hurriedly. He looks at me suspiciously.
"Really?" he says and keeps walking towards the phone. I grab his hand and turn him around.
"Really," I say, my eyes pleading. He gets the point and takes one more look at my phone before giving up. I walk with him to the balcony. He's about to leave when he hooks an arm around my waist after eyeing me from the side. I'm too surprised when he does this to do anything but look into his blue eyes that are staring at me so intently. I put my arms around his neck and hug him back when he puts the other arm around my waist. I put my head in the crook of his neck and inhale his scent deeply. What am I? A mole?
Even though the wind is howling around us and my hair is blowing furiously behind us, I don't feel as cold as I usually would.
We stand there for a few moments before he whispers something into my hair. "You know you can tell me anything, right, Nat?"
I nod my head into his neck. "Yeah," I say, even though it sounds muffled. He pulls away and I almost pull him back into me just to smell him. Oh, God, I'm a maniac.
"Goodnight, Nat," he says and jumps easily onto the side of his house and walks back into his room. I walk over to my bedside table where my phone lies and read the text.
Go kill yourself.
All the color drains from my face and I quickly block the account and put my phone on silent. I take a deep breath before I feel someone's eyes on me. I turn and look at Alex. Quickly I grab my phone and rush out of the room.
Yeah, Amanda sure is a nice person, Alex.
______________________________________________________________
Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy everyone!
Hope you liked it!
Who is your favorite character in the story so far? Comment and tell me!
What colour should Natalie's eyes be? I don't know... Blue or brown? Blue is kind of overated but it would be nice to have the two main characters with the same colour eyes (but different shades) for once.
What do you think?
VOTE!
Also, thank you for 8.5K reads in less than 6 months! yayayya. Zoe says we needto have a party when I get to 10k. Hope that'll be after christmas because that's when my no added sugar competition is over!
bye!