CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
that would be enough
"God, these morning practices are killing me. I'm passing out at exactly 4:30 this afternoon." Chloe shook her head as her and Bryce pulled up to the school.
"Or maybe you could come back to my place." Bryce starts and realizing she was going to cut him off, continued quickly. "For dinner. Now that my sisters back, my parents think a family dinner would be a great idea and I mean, they'd love to meet you."
"Oh my God, thats so exciting. Oh my God, that's so terrifying." Chloe shook her head, quickly realizing that it was The Walker's.
"No, it's no big deal. I mean, it's just really uncommon that all of us are there at one time and I'm always talking about you." Bryce lied between his teeth.
"I'm so excited! Amazing!" Chloe exclaimed before walking into the school.
-
Natalie looked into her mirror, finishing up straightening her hair with her white long sleeve top with high waisted skinny jeans. She felt like she couldn't breath. She didn't know what to do now that she was going back to school.
Her father had called ahead of time and all she needed to do was go to the guidance counselor when she got to school. She drove over to Clay's house without warning and simply knocked on the door.
His dad answered the door so she flashed her charming Walker smile. "Natalie Walker. What can I do for you?"
"Hey Mr. Jensen. Um Clay said he would help me get caught back up with my work so I was gonna take him to school." Natalie rambled.
"Oh, yeah. Sure. Come inside. He's upstairs." Matt smiled and Natalie nodded, rushing up the stairs.
She knocked on Clay's door to avoid seeing him undressed to save herself the nightmares. "I'm a little busy, Dad."
"It's Natalie, stupid." She mocked and he opened the door. She walked in seeing Justin on the couch.
"I wanna ask why you're here but I'm actually glad you're here." Clay said as Natalie sat her bag down, next to Justin, he gave her a quick kiss before she turned to Clay.
"So, Jensen. My dad says the lawyers want me to testify for Hannah. Since I didn't get a deposition in the fall, I'll have to do that but I'm gonna have to hold off on going to The Baker's until Justin's better. But I'm back to school today." Natalie shrugged, putting her hand on Justin's leg.
"Good. Good." Clay nodded as he paced around.
Natalie turned to Justin. "Are you going to be okay until someone comes later?"
"I don't need a babysitter." Justin mumbled and Natalie looked up at Clay who coughed lightly.
Clay looked down at Natalie handing her a polaroid picture of her brother butt naked on top of a girl. "Ew, Clay. I don't wanna see that." Natalie turned it over to see the writing.
"Do you know where that is?" He asked and she looked at it closely, trying to avoid the whole brother thing.
"I don't know." Natalie looked up at Justin who put his hand on her back. "I mean, it's definitely not the pool house. I would never have a couch that looks like that."
"So where is it then?" Clay raises an eyebrow at her.
"I can ask Bryce" Natalie shrugged.
"No, we need him off our tracks for now." Clay says sternly and she nods in a response as Tony comes in through the window.
"Wait? He's my babysitter? Why can't Natalie just stay?" Justin asks and Natalie takes a deep breath.
"I have to go to school and then have dinner with my parents and my brother and his obnoxious girlfriend. I would much rather be here." Natalie stands up as her hand stays with Justin.
"I thought he wanted nothing to do with me." Justin shook his head, pointing to Tony.
"Oh, I don't. So keep your mouth shut and don't piss me off. And if you puke on this leather, I'm gonna have to kick your ass." Tony shook his head.
"Have fun. Don't kill each other." Natalie kissed Justin's head and sent a wink to Tony as Clay and Natalie made their way to her car.
Walking into school, she felt everybody watch her as she ran into Zach. They were both speechless. "Natalie." He said sternly.
"Hi Zachy." Natalie smiles slightly.
"You're back." Zach nodded.
"I'm back." Natalie looked at the ground.
"I'm glad to see it." He said as he caught up with Jessica and Alex, who wouldn't even look near her. Maybe Jessica didn't want them there or maybe it was just an off day but she shook her head and made her way to Mr. Porters office.
She nodded at the office lady as she made her way to Porter's office. She knocked on the door slightly. "Natalie, come on in."
Natalie nodded and sat down in the chair across from him. "So your credits didn't transfer over but since you were ahead of the game in November, you'll only have to do a little bit of summer school." Porter said as he handed her a new schedule.
"Okay." Natalie shrugged, scanning the schedule.
"If you need anything, just let me know. My doors always open." Porter nodded and Natalie stood up.
"I wonder how many times you've said that." Natalie rolled her eyes as she walked to her first class in the school she was already familiar with.
-
"What the fuck happened to you?" Tony asked looking at the broken boy in front of him. He quickly realizes what he says and starts to defend. "You don't have to answer or anything like that."
"No, no, it's okay. Natalies parents cut her off so we didn't have a lot of money to begin with but we blew through most of it quickly in the first few weeks living in motels and shit. Natalie worked so hard and I just I knew that no matter what I did, I was never gonna be what Natalie deserved. I started doing oxy to take the edge off but all these pills are so pricey and she started noticing the spending habits. Heroin's cheap. So here I am. Shitting myself in Clay Jensen's bedroom." Justin let out, Tony looked at him and took a deep breath.
"Well put your fucking shoes on. Let's go on a walk." He shrugged.
-
"Are you sure it was Justin?" Bryce leaned against his locker, maintaining eye contact with Monty.
"Yeah. Why would he be with Tony? Did him and Natalie come back to testify?" Monty asked and Bryce was quick to shake his head.
"No. And don't bring my sister into this, got it?" Bryce turned to Monty. "I don't know or care."
"You keep telling me you got shit taken care of but it really doesn't seem like that." Monty scoffed.
"Why the fuck do you care, exactly?" Bryce asked in a tense voice.
"You, man. Us. State." Monty shook his head as he buckled his belt.
"All taken care of." Bryce says, sending Monty on his way as he walks over to Zach. "Not gonna tell on us for the steroids, are ya?"
"No. You think I'm a rat?" Zach asked and Bryce quickly shook his head.
"Just wish I had your genes, man." Bryce shrugged and Zach chuckled.
"Hey, I saw Nat this morning." Zach raises an eyebrow.
"Oh. Yeah. She was having a hard time at school so my parents wanted her to come home." Bryce nodded.
-
Natalie made it through the day, thank god. But now it was gonna be a million times worse at this stupid dinner. Her mother made her wear a yellow striped dress she picked out for her and had her stay in the kitchen to ease the tension between Chloe and Nora.
"Here you go." Nora puts the pan on the counter as Chloe looks at the ground nervously. Natalie sits at the counter, passing looks between her mother and her father every other minute or so. "You seem quite happy, the two of you."
"Oh yeah, absolutely." Chloe responds earning an eye roll from Natalie but she keeps it hidden from her mother. "He's so sweet to me, like, all the time."
"Sweet? That's good to hear." Nora nods as she makes eye contact with Natalie as they had a conversation about the girl through their eye movement.
Chloe puts her hair behind her shoulders as both of The Walker's in the room notice bruises on her arm. "Oh. Cheerleading. Full contact sport."
"I always wished Natalie would get into cheerleading." Nora said and Natalie's eyes widen. "She got the creative gene though. And the looks. And the smarts to be fair." Nora chuckled and Natalie blushed a little at the compliment.
-
"How do you know about Justin?" Zach raises an eyebrow at Alex.
"Jessica told me when we ditched with your car yesterday. Told me Clay went to find him and Natalie in Oakland." Alex shrugged.
"I thought Natalie was at boarding school." Zach shakes his head confused.
"Natalie was with Justin the whole time." Alex shrugged.
"Why are they back?" Zach asks quickly.
"I don't know and I don't care. Everything is always about Justin and Natalie." Alex rolled his eyes.
-
"When were you gonna tell me you got discovered?" Clay barged into the bedroom. Natalie had gotten an excuse to leave to go see a friend so she came through the window to see Justin.
"When were you gonna tell me that Jess doesn't want us here? Natalie went to school today." Justin rolled his eyes. "You lied to us."
"I didn't lie. You just need to get sober and you'll be able to help." Clay shook his head.
"Fuck that!" Justin exclaimed a little bit loudly.
"She kept Natalies postcard." Clay says and Natalie looks at him confused. "It's how we found you. She kept it. With the Gossip Girl reference about being best friends forever. Why would she keep that?"
"I really did love her. She was the best friend Ive ever had." Natalie took a deep breath and Justin looks at her. "We need to stay."
-
It was only around 11 or 11:30 when she hears her door open slightly. Natalie noticed it was her brother and she nodded slightly. "Hey, mind if I come in?" Bryce asked and she nodded. "How was your first day back?"
"Fine." Natalie shrugged as he walked closer to her. "Chloes a fine girl if that's what you're here about."
"No. I genuinely wanted to know." Bryce shrugged.
"Why do you care?" Natalie asked a bit defensively.
"Because you're my sister." Bryce crosses his arms. She thought about a smart response but was cut off by her phone.
She sees it is Clay so she answers it quickly. "Hello?"
"Nat. Is Justin with you?" Clay asks and Natalie takes a deep breath nervously.
"No. Where is he?" Natalie asks, poking up into a seat on her bed instead of laying down.
"He left." Clay says with an upset sigh.
"No way. He wouldn't leave me." Natalie shakes her head.
"Then where is he?" Clay asks and Natalie looks around the room.
"I'll find him." Natalie says, hanging up quickly and grabbing the Liberty windbreaker off her desk. "Cover for me please?"
Bryce nods in a confused way as Natalie sneaks out her window and finds her way to the driveway. She was going to drive and drive and drive until she found him.
A/N : Chapter 18! Thank you guys for 5k views, I love this story and I am so grateful that you guys love it just as much!! Remember to vote, comment and leave feedback if you guys are enjoying! Thank you so much guys again for l love and support!!
word count - 1983