Hi! Remember me? You probably don't. I am so so so so so extremly sorry for the delay. I was busy building a robot. I am not kidding. I actually was building one and it took so much of my time that I was unable to write. But I promise there won't be any more such long breaks between the future chapters.
So anyway, please click the external link to see the totally amazeballs cast banner Effat made for this story. I tried to post it on the side but it's not working so I'll try again in the next one but I still loved it a lot! Thank you so much Effat. I love you♥
I apologize for the errors in the chapter. I was in a hurry to post but I'll edit soon.
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In the previous chapter-
My eyes were droopy, opening and closing after every few seconds. I wanted to sleep and maybe wake up to a better reality.
"I-I don't wanna lie anymore," I kept repeating, wishing to just fall asleep quickly.
"I-I," the words were now getting hard to form and just as I was about to fall completely on the ground, I felt two arms enclose me in them, holding me up again.
"Shh, it's okay. Don't cry," a voice whispered.
"Nathan?" I tried to open my eyes, fighting the sleep that was taking over.
"Yeah, it's me, little bird. I'm here. Go to sleep."
Nathan's presence somehow always had a calming effect on me and within a matter of a few seconds I was slipping into a peaceful sleep.
Nathan was here. Everything was going to be alright now. He would make everything all right.
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"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today..."
If it would have any other morning; I would have loved for that song to go on. Trust me, I would have. Really, but right now, it was a nuisance because my head was spinning like a wheel and the voice of the singer was, to put it bluntly, just terrible.
"Why are you trying to make the soul of John Lennon cry so early in the morning?" I commented, peeking out of my warm comforter, trying to let in as less of the bright sunlight to reach my eyes.
"This is how I wake sleepy heads in the morning now," Nathan answered, walking to my side of bed. "Rise and shine, little bird. You've already missed half of the periods."
Since I was in a half delirious state, I was still dubious if Nathan actually was there. I took a few seconds to register his appearance. His dark brown hair was pushed back which had grown a little since the last time I saw him. He was wearing pale blue hoodie over black denim which made him look younger than he actually was.
I closed my eyes again, covering my face with the comforter again. "No, thank you. School has been fun but I think I am done with it now. Like forever."
"Either you're going to school or I am gonna start singing again. I swear to Lord Vishnu."
"Just let me sleep in today, you wicked witch."
"I would but then what would be the fun in that?" Nathan almost sang in his way-too-happy-for-this-early-in-the-morning-voice. "Now get up. Aren't you excited to see me, little bird?"
"I am." I yawned and threw the comforter off me, rubbing my eyes. "But I am really really tired and I need some sleep. Anyway, when did you get here last night?"
Nathan's left eyebrow quirked up. "You don't remember?"
His reply made my eyebrows to knit together instantly and it was a few seconds of me blatantly staring at him when it finally hit me.
Last night.
Daniel.
Oh no.
And that was the first time that morning I noticed my destroyed room. It would have been a miracle if someone would have been able to found anything even semi-intact in those ruins.
"Tell me what's wrong." Nathan plopped down on the bed beside me. "What exactly is happening?"
Is there any way I could forget everything from last night?
"No, it was just another bad day. Nothing more," I answered, running my fingers through my tangled mess of a hair, using at a distraction from the way Nathan's dark brown eyes were scrutinizing me.
If there was a list of people to whom it was difficult lying to, Nathan would be on the top of it. Lying to Nathan was like lying to a priest in a church. It will make you feel guilty, no matter how much of a badass you are.
"You know I could tell difference between having a bad day and looking...well..the way you did," Nathan dropped his voice an octave.
"It's nothing." I shook my head.
Defiance was really my strongest suit, other than lying of course.
"What's his name?" I whipped my head around to give Nathan a surprised look.
"What?"
How could he tell everything so easily? I had never mentioned about Daniel whenever I had talked to him recently, so how could he have guessed exactly correct?
"Ahaha," Nathan let out a small laugh of victory. "I was right. This is about a guy. Tell me all about him. Is he a nerd, a jock? How does he look? Tall? Is he fat? Is he smart, because let's face it, I won't like him if he's one of those too dumb to read a book. And please don't tell me he's a red head because no body likes them either. Does he wear braces because I don't know but whenever I imagine the kind of guys you would like, I always imagine them with braces?"
I blinked.
"It's like a button," I spoke after another yawn. "Press it and enjoy Nathan talking non-stop."
"Available at all Walmart outlets at only seven ninety nine," he sang in a infomercial lady voice. "So back to the topic, who is he?"
"Told you, it's no one."
"Tell me. I won't tell anyone I promise."
"It's no one," I denied again and then stormed my brain to think of something else to terminate this discussion. "And anyway, what brought you here?"
"You know a person doesn't need to have an ulterior motive to come see their favorite girl in the world," he said, acting offended.
"I know they don't but you do," I retorted, placing my hands on my hips. "Or let me take a guess. Dad thought that crazy little Norah was going off track again and to stop her from going complete cookoo, let's call over the mighty Nathan to play the role of savior."
Nathan was listening to me carefully and I thought he was actually going to reply with an actual answer but then he cracked a smile and said, "Cookoo is such a funny word."
Idiot.
"Nate, be serious," I said with a straight face.
"Okay, okay, I'm serious now," he said, without even a little bit of actual seriousness. "What did you wanna know?"
"That what's the real reason you're here," I repeated.
"Because he'll be coming with us to New York for this weekend," Dad answered for Nathan, entering the room dressed in his work clothes. Once inside, he sighed at the look of my room, but didn't say anything about it. Thankfully.
"What?" I exclaimed horrified. "What do you mean he is coming with us to New York? When did the plan of going to New York ever come up in the first place?"
"Yesterday," dad coolly replied, not affected by the disbelieving look I was staring him with. "I thought we all needed a break."
"And this break just had to be in New York?" I argued back, calling his lie off. "Just a random choice?"
"Yep," Nathan replied this time.
"Do I need to show my SAT score to the two of you, because I am not as much of an idiot as you think I am!" I yelled, rolling off the bed. "I know what's going."
"Really? You do?" Dad carried on with his act. "Because we don't. It's just a plain ordinary family weekend trip. Correct me if I'm wrong, Nathan."
"I don't need to," Nathan shook his head and played the dumb card too, "because he's absolutely right. Just a normal weekend in the city."
"Right, like I don't know what cahoot-ing is going on in here," I muttered angrily, pacing towards the bathroom and then locking the door after me.
"That's like a good girl. Get ready quickly and then I'll drive you to school," Nathan shouted from the other side of the door.
"Just so you know," I said loudly. "I hate you!"
"I love you too, little bird," Nathan simply replied. "We're gonna have so much fun this weekend!"
"Whatever," I mumbled and then turned on the water, drowning the sound of what Nathan said next.
"No, I didn't run away to Minnesota and yes, I am still in school," I spoke into the phone as I walked down the hallway to get to my locker.
"How do I know you're not lying?" Nathan asked with fake suspicion in his voice.
I rolled my eyes. "Can't you smell my misery from here? Isn't it enough of a proof?"
"Well...yeah, there's that too." There was a noise which followed after. "Okay, have fun. I'll pick you up when the last bell rings, little bird. Bye!"
"What? N-no," I tried to stop him from ending the call but it was already too late. I sighed and then spoke in the phone even though there was no one to listen. "Don't bother."
I slid the phone off my ear and then into my pocket.
Okay, so here was the plan. I had already missed half of the day, so that meant I just had the rest half to avoid Daniel and Anya. Sounded easy. I mean it wasn't like it wasn't something I was an amateur at because if facts were to be faced, I did that a lot. In fact, there were now more chances that I would be avoiding somebody than not.
So, retracting back to the task in hand, I just had to go through another four hours safely and then the day would be over, and the weekend would come and I would have time to plan my strategy for Monday on Sunday while in New York.
Why was suddenly New York City seeming like a legitimate plan to escape everything?
Well in a way it would act as my escape from everything. Anya, Daniel, Emma, these nightmares and this constant feeling of being followed...
But then again, did I deserve the escape?
Probably not.
Actually, definitely not.
"Whoa, look where you're going." There was a tug from behind, stopping me from moving ahead.
I looked up to see I was about to run into a locker in a matter of seconds.
Well, now that would have been fantastic to watch. For everyone else I mean.
"So lost in my thoughts that you can't even walk functionally?" Mike clicked his tongue like actually felt bad. "Poor girl."
"Thanks," I mumbled as I turned to face him, and intentionally ran my fingers through the hair so that it can fall in front of my face. One could never tell with Mike. He might be able to tell anything just by a proper look.
"No problem," he replied looking down at me. I could tell he was thinking something but then the goofy smile came back on his face. "Hey, you're coming to my birthday party, right?"
"This Sunday?"
"Yep."
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I don't think I would be able to make it."
"Aw, why not?" Mike whined as we rounded a corner.
"I have this family thing this weekend," I answered in an apologetic manner. "Kind of unavoidable."
"But-but-," he searched for something to use as an argument. "But what about my plan of getting you drunk as hell and taking advantage of your state?"
To put it simply it was a wrong thing to say. So wrong. But this was Mike and he had said it like he was telling me the ending of a fairy tale.
A tiny smirk tugged at the corner of my lips. "Now, there's no need to get me drunk for that."
A surprised chuckle fell from his mouth and he was just about to say something when the loud sound of someone roughly shutting their locker door off snatched away our attention, making me turn around and just as I did locate the source of the noise, for a moment, I was sure I had even forgotten my own name cause in my mind there was only one thing now.
Daniel.
"Whoops," Mike whispered, taking one step back at one time. "I'm gonna go. See ya later."
I didn't reply. I just kept standing there, not even daring to move a single inch here or there. Although he wasn't looking in my direction, I could tell he was aware of my every movement, or more like the lack of it.
To say that I was a confused person in general wouldn't be lying but at that moment, at that particular moment, I was sure I wanted just one thing. I wanted him to look at me so that I could be sure that he was fine. Just once.
"Look at me," I mouthed as if that was going to make him actually look at me, but surprisingly it did and dear god, he wasn't fine.
He didn't look disheveled or sad or anything. But if there was one look that scared the hell of out of me was the look of nothing and right then I was scared. Terribly.
His blue eyes were as still as death: unaffected and blank.
But no matter how much I wanted to talk to him, I knew that I didn't have it in me to gather up the courage for it, so I was praying that he would do something. Yell at me, be mad at me, tell me how much he hated me, or maybe tell me I was wrong. Anything.
Anything would have done.
So when he walked away from me, disappearing into the crowd that filled the hallways, it was like a bunch of dementors doing their work on me. But this was how it was going to remain from now on. This was how he was going to remain towards me so I quickly collected myself and pretended that nothing was wrong. Like I did every time.
And as I made my way to my next class I realized how lonely I had made myself. If I were to leave tomorrow, no one would be really affected by it, right? Sure I had friends, but I had never let them in so maybe some of them would miss me, mention about me occasionally during the lunch break or think of me for half a minute whenever my name would be mentioned, and that would be it. Slowly everyone would move on with their lives and I would be just like a forgotten memory. And the thing was that in all of this I would be the one to blame. Never told anyone the truth and now I wasn't left with anyone to tell it to.
Urggh, the depressing thoughts were taking over again.
"Don't forget, the last day to submit your assignment is Wednesday," Mrs. Ericson, our Physics teacher reminded the class as everyone started to leave at the signal of the last bell of the day.
"Hey Bishop, can you please lend me your notes for the weekend?" Yoonsuh, the only Korean girl in my physics class called from behind. I ceased walking so that she could catch up to me.
"Yeah, sure," I replied, pulling out my notes and handing them over to her.
"Thanks," she mumbled, pulling on the owl pendant hanging down a chain from her neck. "So I guess I'll see you at Mike's?"
"You're going?" I asked, seeing that we needed to keep on talking since she was planning to walk with me to the gates of the school.
"Duh!" she exclaimed with a huge smile. "Isn't everyone? It's the only party that I actually look forward to. It's like the next best thing after Disney Movies."
I chuckled at the odd comparison. "That excited, huh?"
"Super!" she chortled. "I get more excited about Mike's birthday than I get about mine."
I couldn't suppress the laugh because of the wired look on her face and soon Yoonsuh followed too but then something caught her attention and she stopped.
"Oooh, check out the primo beautimus over there!" Yoonsuh flicked her chin in a direction and I followed her mark and I wasn't happy.
Because it was Nathan. Surrounded by a couple of giggling girls while he pulled off the not bothered look and leaning against my car.
My car!
My beloved old-as-the-world-itself Porsche!
"What the hell," I cursed under my breath and strode towards the little culprit who was now smirking in my direction.
"Here comes my coochie bear!" Nathan took a step forward with his arms spread wide. "Did you miss me?"
"What are you up to, Nate?" I asked with my teeth shut together so as not to let anyone else listen to our conversation.
"I am here to see this Daniel guy," he replied softly and then let me out of his grip. "Your dad told me that he's the one you had been spending time with until recently."
This didn't sound good.
"Noh, we never knew that you had such an awesome cousin?" Kayla, a brunette among the girls surrounding my car, or rather surrounding Nathan asked me in a way like she was about to make me her new best friend.
Wait, what did she say?
Cousin?
"I didn't know either," I mumbled but only Nathan caught it and tipped his head down to say something in my ear.
"So where would I find this guy?"
I looked back at him nervously. "He isn't in school today."
"Liar," Nathan cooed with his eyes narrowed but a hint of a smirk on the corners of his lips.
I rolled my eyes and looked back up at all the faces surrounding us. The one standing particularly strangest was of Kayla's and that reminded me that she probably was still waiting for a reply.
"Oh um, guess it never came to my mind," I bleated with a sheepish smile.
"Yep, always forgetting something, this one," Nathan joined in. He threw his arm over my shoulder and then turned to me with an expression like he had just been reminded of something and there and then I knew he was about to something that was going to make me mad. "Hey, remember when you forgot that you didn't have any pants on and roamed around Aunt Ginny's wedding reception without a care in the world. So cute you were back then," Nathan narrated and then ruffled my hair as all the girls giggled at his ridiculous story.
Telling someone's embarrassing childhood stories in public was one thing but telling embarrassing stories which are not even true in front of judge-mental teenage girls was like taking it another level because first, as far as I knew there was no such reception that I had ever been to and secondly, I definitely had no freaking Aunt Ginny in my family.
But fake or not, I still felt the sting of public humiliation in my cheeks as they flared up. "You little bug. You will so have to pay back for this."
"I've more such tales in store. Confess and I shall not utter one more word," he riposted with a spark of challenge in his livid brown eyes.
"You don't understand," I murmured helplessly. What was I supposed to tell him? He was probably thinking that Daniel was at fault for the state I was in yesterday, but I didn't have it in me to correct him.
"Fine, don't tell me," Nathan sighed and then turned to the girls who looked confused with all the rounds of hushed talks happening between the two 'cousins'. "Hey, do any of you know of a Daniel?"
As Nathan unleashed the question, I choked on my own spit. Graceful.
Shooting me an odd look, another brunette in the group, Fiona took the moment to make Nathan aware of her presence. "Daniel as in Daniel Cohen?"
I didn't even make a sound but Nathan still understood that her guess was correct, possibly because of the flinch that my facial muscles had made.
"Yep, Cohen's the one," Nathan affirmed offering Fiona a smile. She blushed and looked down, hiding her smile.
"There he comes," Kayla jabbed her thumb over Nathan's shoulder, and while I was too nervous to do anything, Nathan immediately turned around in the pointed direction.
"Well, isn't he a gentleman. Being all couple-y with your former best friend."
And that was enough of a motivation to snap out of my immobile stage and see the scene for myself. It was a slight of relief that it wasn't how Nathan had presented it as. I mean sure one could say that they were holding hands but it was more like Anya having her hold on Daniel's forearm. But that also didn't mean that I didn't want to shred Anya to rips so badly right then. I mean there had to be a clause in the book of ex-best friends for situations like this, right?
"That's not him," I lied. Don't even ask why I lied. With me it should be a question why I don't lie at some occasions.
"Right," Nathan scoffed. "So you had this ready for a showdown look for no reason?"
Having nothing else to answer with, I settled with a simple roll of eyes and then looked back at Daniel and Anya who were now standing near Daniel's car while Anya constantly kept on talking and Daniel just responded with a nod or shake of his head and looked thoroughly disinterested.
"I think it's time to introduce myself," Nathan began and after it took me a moment to register what he meant, I instantly took his hand and stopped him from taking another step further.
"Don't," I mouthed to Nathan.
"But-" he interjected but I didn't let him continue.
"No, just please don't do anything. This is not how it looks like," my voice was showcasing my helplessness in all of this.
Nathan's eyes were fixed on my face so as to find any evidence that I was lying and after being assured that I was completely serious, he took a step back, a sign that he had given up on the plan of talking to Daniel.
While all of this was happening I was silently praying that somehow Daniel and Anya had missed seeing us and would have left by now, but since nothing could go right with me that day, so when I turned my gaze towards where they were standing I found that the two of them were already looking at me. Well at least Anya was looking at me, Daniel's line of sight was strictly aimed at Nathan, and since by now I was somewhat familiar how that boy's brain worked, I understood that it was going in the wrong direction.
Don't you even think of that, you dummy, I thought, and hope that I was wrong and he wasn't assuming what I think he was doing.
But the way the look of darkness took over his previously blank face after he noticed that I had my hand around Nathan's, I knew that I was indeed right and just as that happened, I also knew that there would be some kind of reaction from him coming my way so I wasn't surprised when he took Anya's hand, walked her over to the door of the passenger side of his car and then soon drove off from the parking lot.
"Well, he was a major douchewagon," Nathan bluntly commented placing his hand in the small of my back as I reached for the handle of the car door.
"He's not. It's just..." I rubbed my face with both my hands. "I don't know how to explain it."
"Good thing we have a whole weekend ahead of us in NYC. Plenty of time to figure things out." Nathan walked over to the other side of the car after waving the girls goodbye.
"It always start with just one weekend and the next thing you know you are buying scented candles from Bed Bath and Beyond for your new home in New York," I said.
"But is it really such a bad thing to be living there?" Nathan questioned, taking the steering wheel of the car and turning the ignition on.
"I don't wanna find out," I replied leaning my head against the glass of the window.
"A new place might do some good."
Nathan and I had this thing similar. Neither of us took the advice we gave to others. While he was the one telling me to take a chance with New York, he himself had rejected the idea of going to college just so he didn't have to leave Coral Hills, and while he thought that no body else noticed it I knew that it was because of her. Emma. It was so that he could go to her grave every night and talk to her, like she was still there, like she was still listening to him, like he still had her as his.
"Hmm...maybe..."
Unknown POV-
I remained silent as I watched her get out of the car.
I was seeing her after so long.
Three years two months and five days. I had kept a count.
She had grown so much, so beautiful, so graceful.
My little twinkle.
"Now, don't you even mention this to dad or I'll swear," she said to the boy who emerged from the car after her.
I smiled at the sound of her voice. It was like music to my ears. I had missed it so much. I had missed her so much.
My smile immediately vanished as the boy threw his arm around her waist.
My hands itched to tear his hands away from her and pure rage raced down my veins.
But I had to remind myself that this wasn't the way to do it. I had already made a mistake three years ago and had almost lost her.
I had to think of a better time, a better way.
"Don't worry, twinkle. You'll meet me soon and then I'll take you far away from everyone. And then we would be together. Forever. I promise."
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