Something New

It’s been almost two weeks since I had gotten to Chicago, and I was going crazy, Nate would be here in about a week and a half, and I don’t think I can’t keep this up too much longer.
Jon, Sisky, William, Mike and I had decided to walk to the store since we had nothing better to do. Jon and Sisky went inside, and Mike was going to after he finished his smoke. William was preoccupied reading some lost pet poster on a lamp post a few feet away so I seized the opportunity.
“Mike, can I borrow a smoke from you?” I asked almost nervously.
“I didn’t know you smoked, but I guess so.” He said pulling out the pack he had in his pocket and a liter.
“I was trying to quit, and I don’t usually smoke but, I kinda need one right now.” I said taking a cigarette from the pack and lit it.
Mike had finished his smoke and went inside, just as William came back.
“Whoa Aliki, I didn’t know you smoke!” He said shocked.
“Normally I don’t, could you just keep watch so Jon doesn’t see me; he thinks I’m straight-edge.” I sighed as I took another haul.
“I guess, so you’re not straight-edge?” He asked curiously.
“Nope.” I sighed and I threw the cigarette on pavement and crushed it with my foot.
A few seconds later Jon, Sisky and Mike came back and we walked back to the apartment. I decided to check my email and figured I’d talk to Nate for a bit, so I went into my room and turned on my laptop.
It wasn’t long before I got and message from Nate.
NotoriousNATE : hey Aliki.
AutomaticAliki: hey Natie, how are you?
NotoriousNATE : I’m fine, my exams are done, how are you.?
AutomaticAliki: not bad, can you do me a favor before you come visit?
NotoriousNATE : sure thing, what is it?
AutomaticAliki: can you get a package from Jay for me?
NotoriousNATE : sure, what is it?
AutomaticAliki: nothing, just something Jay forgot to give me before I left,
NotoriousNATE : okay, should I call him or what?
AutomaticAliki: no, I’ll just tell him to stop by your place the day you leave, you’re taking train right?
NotoriousNATE : yup.
AutomaticAliki: kay, cool
“Aliki, dinner!” I heard Jon yell from the kitchen.
“Coming!” I yelled back.
AutomaticAliki: I’ve got to go, Jon’s calling me, I’ll talk you later.
NotoriousNATE : bye.
I shut the laptop and walked out to the kitchen. Once again there was a box of pizza on the counter. I tossed a slice on a plate and walked over to the living room and flopped down on the couch next to Mike. A few seconds later William flopped down next to me.
“You wanna get a drink later?” Will whispered as everyone piled into the living room randomly around us.
“How are you gonna get alcohol, you’re 18, and that only works if you’re in Canada.” I sighed.
“My parents have a rather large liquor cabinet.” I could tell he was smirking as he whispered in my ear, making sure no one else heard.
“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t drink very much.” I whispered back.
“Well the offers good anytime.” He smirked again and we joined the othe4r conversation.
The truth is that before I left Kingston, there were a few months where I drank so much I was probably bordering on alcoholism. I would get together with a bunch of people, usually Chelsea was there too, but she was able to control how much she drank on most occasions. I would usually drink until I pretty much blacked out, it wasn’t my main objective, I just thought that every drink made me feel better. In reality it only ended up hurting me.
Eventually I had forced myself to reject the almost weekly invitations I got from various people. I still drink, just not as often, towards the end of my life in Kingston, it was less than once a month that I would drink with my friends, and I had even managed to stop completely binging.
“Hey Aliki, when’s Nate coming again?” Jon asked breaking away from his conversation with Pete and Mike.
“Ummm, it’s Friday right?” I asked trying to figure out the exact number of days.
“Yeah.” Sisky said out of the blue.
“Okay so then, and week Wednesday, so like 12 days.” I replied.
“Okay, do you want to come with us to Brooklyn for a few days?” Jon asked again.
“Who’s all going?” I asked trying to decide.
“Pete, Sisky, Mike and I, Will and The butcher have to work so they’re staying behind.” Jon answered.
“For how long and why?” I questioned again.
“Three days, and Pete wants to check out a local band, Midtown.” He replied.
“I’ll think about it, wait which three days?” I asked again, it felt almost like I was interviewing him.
“Umm, Friday to Sunday.” He sighed, obviously getting annoyed with all my questions.
“Why not.” I sighed.
I could tell will wasn’t as excited as I was, since if I had of stayed Jon was going to make him check up on me sporadically to make sure I was okay. I was excited just to be able to see more of the world than a few cities other than Kingston, like Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Plaster Rock, New Brunswick (which was primarily rock and trees, and trees and rocks.
~~~~~
It was now the day before Nate would be here. Brooklyn was fun, the guys in Midtown were so nice, particularly this one guy, Gabe. We spent most of the daytime going around Brooklyn and New York City, and then the three nights we were there going to see local bands perform, primarily in basements, with Gabe.
I was tidying up the apartment while Jon was out getting groceries so we could have real food as apposed to the constant variety or take out that was delivered to our apartment almost nightly. Nate’s train was going to get to the station at about one in the morning so we were going to have to leave at eleven to get there at midnight incase the train was early or something.
A little while later I got a text from Nate.
Hey, I’m on my way 2 the train station!
I replied quickly
Did u get the package frm J?
I asked as I waited anxiously for the reply.
Yeah, he said 2 say hi, and apparently hes surprised u didn’t get w/e it was b4 u left
Didn’t have time, I’ll talk 2 u late k, I’ve gotta finish cleaning.
K, c u soon.
I puttered around the house mindlessly until Jon came back. I helped him put away the groceries and make lunch for us both. We hadn’t planned anything since we weren’t sure how long cleaning, or shopping, would take. We had decided to go wander around Chicago for a few hours, which is something I managed to avoid doing in the month that I’d been here.
We, well I, ended up shopping; which was something I had almost managed to go without doing in the month that I’d been here. I ended up buying new jeans, more converse, and a bunch of t-shirts, some how I had manage to spend less than I would have back home, and there was usually nothing to buy.
A few hours later Jon and I had started walking back towards our apartment. We were walking slowly since we still had almost eight hours until we had to leave to get Nate. Suddenly I had bumped into someone and had somehow fallen to the ground. I looked up to see who had knocked me over, and I saw a hand reaching to help me up.
The hand was connected to the arm of a familiar looking guy..
“Sorry, I didn’t see you.” He said as I got to my feet.
“Well I didn’t see you either, so I guess its okay.” I said with a light laugh.
“Are you okay?” Jon interjected trying to see if I had broken something.
“Yeah Jon I’m fine,” I sighed swatting his arm away from my wrist, which had started to swell slightly, “You’re Matt Devine from Kill Hannah aren’t you?” I asked curiously.
“The one and the same.” He said with a slight smile.
“Wow, me and my friends back home love you guys.” I said slightly flabbergasted.
“Where ya’ from?” He asked curiously.
“Kingston.” I replied.
“Really, people from Kingston have heard of us?” He said shocked.
“You’re probably thinking Jamaica.” I sighed.
“No, I’m thinking Ontario, you seem a shade pale to be from Jamaica.” He laughed slightly, referring to my ghostly complexion.
“Yeah, well there’s a few of us, man they’ll be so stocked to find out that I met you.” I replied, turning slightly star-struck.
“Hey, have you had time to see us live yet?” He asked a moment later.
“No, I’ve only been here like a month so I’ve just finally gotten settled.
“Well we have a show tomorrow, a few blocks from here, you should check it out.” He replied.
“We shall.” I replied.
“Well I better get going, gotta get to practice.” He replied and walked away.
“Oh my god, Nate will be so excited to see Kill Hannah tomorrow!” I almost squealed excitedly.
“Calm down, you’ve still got a few hours before he’ll even be here, contain your enthusiasm.” Jon said with a slight laugh.
“Shut up Jon, they’re one of my favorite bands okay so yeah, shove it.” I replied crossing my arms over my chest, forgetting the bags that were on my arm, as they hit my stomach.
We got back to the apartment and I put away the stuff I got. It was about five thirty and we decided to make dinner.
~~~~~~~
The train station was packed, after ten minutes of trying to get to the right platform Jon gave up and decided to wait by the entrance. It was nearly twenty minutes before I saw his shaggy dark brown hair and his sparkling green eyes weaving their way through the crowd.
I snaked through the mobs of people as fast as I could and ran up to him.
“BOO!” I yelled making sure he heard me over the noise of everyone around us.
“Fucking Jesus, don’t scare me like that.” He said as his heart-rate slowed.
“You know you loved it.” I replied with a smile.
“Yeah, and you know I’m gonna have to get you back.” He replied looking down at me.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.” I replied as he put his free arm around me.
“So where’s Jon?” He asked as we made our way to the door.
“Right there.” I replied and pointed to the guy leaning against a random support beam.
“Of course.” He rolled his eyes and laughed.
We got in the car and started on the way out of the, now insanely crowded, parking lot. I pulled my iPod out of my pocket and pulled it into the car speakers with the cassette adapter. I cranked the volume and hit ‘play’. Within seconds the music blasted through the speakers, scaring Nate again; Jon had expected it.
‘Welcome to Chicago motherfucker!’ blared so loud Nate looked like he was gonna cry.
I turned down the volume a fair bit.
“Welcome to Chicago Natie.” I replied trying not to burst out giggling.
“Now I’m gonna have to get you back twice.” He replied with the sinister smirk I’d always loved.
“I know.” I replied smirking at him through the rear view mirror.
“Okay you two, remember, PG-13.” Jon said almost grossed out.
“But he’s sixteen, and I’ll be sixteen in like a month and a half.” I objected.
“Neither of you are seventeen so NC-17 is not an option, but I’ll settle for 14A.” Jon said.
I could tell by looking in the rearview mirror at Nate that he was going to say something stupid.
“Nate, save it.” I said hoping he’d catch on.
“What?” He said raising his arms as if he was innocent.
“You know what, save it or he’ll knock it bad all the way to G.” I replied with a soft laugh.
“Did you tell him yet?” Jon asked as we reached a ridiculously long red-light.
“Tell him what?” I asked confused.
“Yeah, tell me what?” He asked, sounding even more perplexed.
“About what happened when we were downtown.” Jon replied clueing me in.
“Oo, what happened downtown?” Nate asked excitedly.
“I ran into, like literally ran into, Matt Devine from Kill Hannah.” I explained excitedly.
“Really!? Oh my god that is freaking amazing.” Nate said like some skanky fan-girl talking about the Jonas Brothers or something.
“Yup, we’re going to their show tomorrow, well tonight.” I replied smiling.
“Oh my god, I’m like so fucking excited!” Nate almost squealed.
“Wow, Kill Hannah get that reaction and, all I get a ‘fucking Jesus’?” I said as if it was some great injustice.
“Well I’m sorry but they fucking rock, and you scared the shit out of me.” He interjected.
“Well they aren’t your girlfriend.” I argued.
“’Cause they’re guys.” He replied almost disgusted at the thought.
“So, are you saying there’s a problem with guys dating guys?” I said, only trying to make him uncomfortable.
“No, of course not. I just don’t swing that way, and I’m not heavy on the polygamy. Besides, I’m dating you aren’t I?” He replied with a laugh.
“Are you saying I’m a guy?” I asked, pretending to be outraged.
“Maybe?” He said shifting his eyebrows.
“Then you’re a chick, ‘cause I’m straight.” I sighed.
“I don’t think you remember that one time a Jake’s house…” Nate said raising his eyebrow again.
“And I’m not gonna remember ‘till later.” I replied hitting his knee.
“Fine, but I’m gonna tell you the story in detail.” He replied as the car pulled to a stop and I realized we were back at the apartment.
“You know what, I’d rather not know.” Jon said as he unlocked the door, since I forgot my key.
“I’m not sure I want I know either Jon. So that’s probably a wise decision.” I replied as I shoved Nate into the elevator.
By the time we got upstairs and actually saw the time it was nearly three thirty. I got changed in my room and then went to the bathroom to wash off my makeup and brush my teeth, and let Nate change. I pulled my hair back loosely and went back to my room.
Nate was staring blankly at one of the posters on my wall; it wasn’t one of a band, it was a picture I had gotten blown up of me, Nate and our friend Bella smiling like crazy in a tent that we had put up in Nate’s backyard. I had gotten one blown up for all of us as an end of summer present the summer before we started the seventh grade. Nate had died his bangs bright red, Bella had dyed hers an almost tropical blue and mine were dyed a near neon shade of purple.
We had sleepovers in Nate’s backyard every night we could. We were like the best friends from Disney shows, except we actually cared about each other. Bella, Nate and I had been major Harry Potter dorks. Eventually Nate had started calling me Trix, since he almost never said my name without Bella’s he decided that by calling us Bellatrix, it amused him so much. Almost instantly Bella and I had started calling him Le Strange since we felt he needed a new nickname too.
One of the last nice days of that year, on a cloudy day in November, Nate and I were sitting at his kitchen table on a Saturday afternoon waiting for Bella to join us for our bi-monthly trip to the movies; it was the day after the latest Harry Potter movie had come out. His mom got a phone call and immediately turned ghostly white. She came to us a few minutes later, with tears and her eyes and told us she had bad news.
She told us that Bella had never made it home from school the night before. She then told us that the police had found her a few hours earlier. She had bled to death in an alley less than two blocks from where she lived. She had been raped and stabbed to death and they didn’t have feasible evidence as to who her killer was. Sick fuck used a condom when he raped her.
It was almost six weeks later when I was walking home from school on a Friday night, it was the day before we had finally decided go to the movies again. I was almost two blocks from my house when I was attacked, thankfully I was lucky and there were people around who heard my screaming and stopped him. They called the police and he was arrested. They had managed to scrap enough skin from under Bella’s nails to get a DNA sample, but at the time the man wasn’t in the CODIS database.
After he attacked me he had gone to trial. He had been convicted on two counts of rape, one count of manslaughter and one count of attempted murder for the things that happened to me and Bella alone. With my attack they solved three other cases where teenaged girls were raped and then stabbed, and two other rape cases; sadly those were solved after both girls had killed themselves. He was sentenced to something like ninety years, no parole, and he was at least forty.
I still have trouble with living with the fact that at least six people died at his hands and I’m the only survivor. The only visible reminders of that attack are two huge scars, one on my left breast and one across most of my stomach. I have a few other small scars on my arms and legs, but nothing I haven’t convinced myself was a cat scratch.
I kept that poster on my wall as a reminder to live, and live well. I shouldn’t take life for granted because out of those six other girls and I, I was the only one to make it through that alive. I also kept it in memory of her. I knew Nate still had the poster in his room, but he had put his on the inside of his closet door so he wasn’t constantly being reminded of the bad things that happened to his two best friends.
Nate was the only one who knew exactly what had happened, he even went with me everyday of the trial, and he was supportive, especially on the days when I had to testify. The next year we both switched to another school to get away from they hype and gossip that surrounded us both, and that’s when I met Chelsea.
I walked up to Nate and wrapped my arms around him. He put his arms around me and we hugged. Within a few minutes I had tears streaming down my face. I looked up to Nate and he had a few tears rolling down his cheeks. He gently cupped his hand around my face and wiped the tears from my eyes. He kissed me softly.
“Aliki, I know this might sound a tad premature but, I’m pretty sure that I’m in love with you.” He said staring into my eyes, tears falling from his, and mine.
“Nate, I love you too, I can’t picture myself loving anyone as much as I love you.” I said smiling, tears still running down my cheeks.
“I know you’re thinking this, but don’t worry; I promise you Aliki I won’t leave you, and I’ll do what ever I can to make sure that nothing like that ever happens to you, ever again.” He said, both of us tearing up for a new reason.
“I know you won’t, you haven’t yet and I know you won’t.” I said stretching to kiss him.
A few minutes later we crawled into bed and still had our arms wrapped around each other. We fell asleep a few minutes later.
We woke up the next morning, well afternoon, around three. I got up took a shower and got dressed and then Nate did the same. We both wandered out towards the kitchen to get some breakfast.
I started rummaging through the cabinets for the cereal Jon had gotten the day before.
“Fuck Jon, what did you do with the cereal!?” I yelled looking in the cupboard under the sink, just in case.
“I don’t remember, plus, breakfast ends at ten.” He replied, the last part sarcastically.
I saw the box on the table and went to grab it.
“Jon, stop being a dick.” I sighed as I went to reach for it.
Just then, someone pinched my side and made me jump, I then realized William was sitting on the couch.
“Fuck Will, stop being a dick too. I just want to get breakfast.” I sighed in annoyance and shoved him.
I walked back to the kitchen and saw Nate leaning against one of the hall walls laughing his ass off.
“You know what Nate, just for that you don’t get breakfast.” I said as the last bit of cereal fell into the box.
I pulled out the plastic bag from inside and threw it in the trash then I flattened the box and tossed it into the recycling.
“Man, you two are pigs.” I sighed chucked a piece of cereal at each of them before pouring milk into the bowl and getting a spoon.
I shoved the bowl at Nate and he took it, caught off guard.
“Here.” I sighed.
“What are you gonna eat?” He asked concerned.
“I dunno, actually I’m a make waffles.” I said as I went to the freezer and pulled out a yellow box.
“Uh, no my waffles.” Jon objected from the living room.
“You ate like all the cereal so I’m having waffles.” I sighed as I put them in the toaster.
“Fine, but only those two!” He cried.
“Fine, but that deal’s only for today!” I yelled back.
Once Nate and I had finished breakfast we decided to go for a walk around town.
We walked for a few hours, hand in hand, talking about nothing, and everything.
“Oh my god, you have to hear some of the rumors that started after you left.” Nate said laughing.
“Really, like what?” I asked laughing, as my imagination started running wild.
“A few people said you’re pregnant, in rehab; that sort of thing. I think the most interesting and creative is the one Chelsea started.” He said.
“So she did start the rumor for me, what did she come up with?” I asked curiously.
“That you got pissed off about all the rumors that started when you left your old school that you went back and killed a bunch of people for lying about you being pregnant and in rehab. It was almost genius, the rumors stopped within the next few days.” He replied.
“I’ll have to remember to thank Chelsea. That’s fucking amazing.” I replied with a laugh.
“She said to text her any time, her mom flipped when she saw her absences page on her last report card, and got everything but her phone taken away.” He said.
“Ah, that sucks, her mom must have been majorly pissed, she skipped more than I did. Oh fuck, my mom must be getting my report card like today; oh well at least I’m not there to here her bitch at me. I’ll text Chelsea later.” I sighed.
“My mom was pissed when she saw my page, and I skipped like half as much as you did.” He sighed as he opened the door to a coffee shop.
“You skipped way less than half as much as I did, the only times you skipped was with me, when I wasn’t with Kristian or Chelsea and the radio kids, so that was like a quarter of how often I skipped.” I replied as we ordered.
We sat down in one of the corners near the back.
“I’m guessing that you skipped like everyday?” He said almost teasingly.
“Sounds about right, I only really skipped French and History though.” I sighed.
“The only classes you could pass by just being there.” He sighed.
“Shut up, I passed both classes.” I retorted.
“With a 67 and 69. If it weren’t for your 90 in drama your average would have been like 50.” He sighed.
“Hey, your average was only like 78.” I objected.
“And yours was 65.” He replied.
“So, it’s only because I was really bad at quadratics and factoring so I got a 35 in math.” I replied.
“I could have helped you, you know that.” He stated.
“Yeah, but we were both too busy with other people at the time.” I sighed.
“Yeah, and both of those relationships went so well.” He sighed,
“I’m sorry I was right about her, you know I am. Jake wasn’t that bad, we just didn’t work.” I sighed.
“Yeah well it’s not like I didn’t know Jessie was gonna cheat on me, it seemed obvious she only wanted to spend time with me to get to Blake and Cara,” He sighed, “Jake, treated you like shit and you know it.” He almost snapped.
“Jake treated me fine, you just don’t like him.” I sighed in annoyance.
“No, damn straight I don’t like him; he was abusive and took advantage of you constantly.” He almost yelled.
“No, he wasn’t, he never said anything mean or insulting, he wasn’t manipulative or controlling in anyway, and he never so much as laid a finger on me. And he never took advantage of me, in any way.” I snapped.
“And what makes you think that?” He argued.
“Because he never gained anything from our relationship other than spending time with me, instead of alone.” I replied, getting annoyed.
“And what about all the times you blew me off to spend the night with him?” He argued, trying to prove me wrong.
“Anything that might have happened, whether it did or not, is between him and I, and it wouldn’t be taking advantage in anyway, he knows that no means no.” I sighed getting even more annoyed still.
“Not the way he told it.” He almost muttered.
“What do you mean? The stories he told his friends? Yeah I know about that, he didn’t want them to think he was a complete loser, and neither of us wanted everyone to think I was easy, so we compromised.” I sighed.
“Oh so you let him tell everyone that he managed to convince you to have sex with him like every night?” He asked getting mad.
“Does any of this matter anymore? Jake and I broke up, I’m out of that city so those rumors don’t matter, besides we never even had sex. Neither or us ever have. I don’t care about the stories he told because we knew the truth and that was all that mattered.” I snapped once again.
“Woah chill; that I didn’t know.” He sighed raising his hands defensively.
“No, you didn’t because it was none of your business before we started dating, and it’s not much of your business now.” I said, still mad.
“It’s okay, calm down. I guess I didn’t know what I was talking about.” He said still trying to calm me down.
“No, you didn’t telling me to calm down won’t help; you know that Nate.” I replied, trying to calm down myself.
“I know, I know and I’m sorry. But we should get going, Kill Hannah’s in a few hours.” He sighed and stood up.
I got up and followed him out of the café. We walked back to the apartment in almost total silence; we both had our hands shoved deep into our own pockets.
Once we got back to the apartment building we rode the elevator up in silence.
We went inside and I decided to change into something more suitable for the show. Nate went into the living room to hang out with Will and Jon.
A few minutes later Nate got up to get changed too; I’m not sure why, all he did was change his shirt.
Jon ordered pizza for us all to have for dinner, of course. I swear he had the pizza place on speed dial.
We ate dinner quickly and decided to walk over to where Kill Hannah were playing.
Once we got there it was a little less than an hour until they started. The venue was moderately sized, for a bar, but it was packed full of people with fifteen minutes of us getting there.
We made our way to the front of the stage area and waited a maybe twenty minutes for them to start.
After their set we fought our way through the crowd and went over to the merch table. We each got one of their t-shirts and Nate and I got one of their posters. We ended up talking to Matt and the other guys for almost two hours after the merch rush ended. They were really cool and super nice.
It was close to three in the morning by the time we got back to the apartment. Will decided to stay the night so I had to help him pull out the futon since Jon had fallen asleep almost instantly, and Nate had decided to take a quick shower since he felt gross after the concert.
It took less than a minute. I grabbed some sheets and blankets and a few pillows.
Once Nate was out of the shower and getting changed in my room, I decided to take a shower myself since I felt gross after the concert too.
I threw on some pajamas and went back to my room. Nate was sitting on my bed; it looked like he was waiting for me. He took my hand and pulled me down so I was sitting next to him.
I could tell by the first word out of his mouth I was practically in for a lecture. It was the same word my mom used to tell me everything I ever did wrong, as I did it; and it was the same word anyone ever used to break bad news to me. I had grown to completely despise the word, and now would be no different. I knew Nate was going to try and completely explain every word he had said in the coffee shop and exactly what he meant by each little thing, even if it didn’t come out that way.
“Look, Aliki.” He started before I cut him off.
“Nate, I don’t want a lecture, I don’t want some long speech explaining everything. I don’t care what you meant, or what you said; we were both talking without thinking and I get it.” I sighed.
“I know, Aliki, I’m sorry. Some of the things I said were hurtful and I wish I had of thought before I said them.” He said looking at his hands.
“Nate it’s no big deal, words are words, they’re tossed around like tennis balls these days and most of them have no real meaning.” I sighed.
“I know that, but it still doesn’t mean words can’t hurt. Plus I know you mean just about everything you say, so I know you were actually hurt.” He said trying to look into my eyes.
“Nate, I’m fine and I’m not offended, I know words are just words. I know when people mean them or not; there was no hint of sincerity in your voice when you said those things, only frustration. I’m not offended trust me.” I sighed looking away.
“You can’t tell me words don’t hurt, whether they were meant or not. No one says anything unless in some way they believe it, or they’re trying to lie; in which case they put effort into the story.” Nate said, not sure if he was helping or hurting.
“Nate, are you trying to make me mad at you? It seems like you want me to be offended.” I sighed.
“No, of course not. Although even if you reacted negatively it would at least be a reaction. You seem rather apathetic.” He said trying to prove his point.
“I just don’t care about those things you said. I could tell by your voice and your eyes, you didn’t mean them.” I said getting annoyed.
“So you’re not mad?” He asked, I swear he was trying to get me mad.
“No, Nate I promise I’m not mad. I’m tired but not mad. It’s close to five in the morning and I really want sleep.” I said dragging out the vowels in the last word.
“Okay, you look exhausted anyway.” He said with a slight smile and we both climbed into bed.
We fell asleep a few minutes later. Nate had wrapped his arms around me and I had my head rested on his chest.
We woke up to Will and Jon, for some god-awful reason, clanging pots and pans together.
I jumped, groggily, to my feet and practically tore a pillow off the bed. I started beating them with it as they ran for cover. They darted into Jon’s room and slammed the door. It was only ten thirty in the morning so I slowly made my way back to my room and closed, and locked, the door behind me. I practically threw myself onto the bed and Nate pulled me into his arms.
“You could have helped you know.” I yawned as I rested my head on the newly fluffed pillow.
“But you were so good at taking care of it; I’ll deal with it next time.” I sighed, yawning too.
It didn’t take long until we were both back asleep. A few hours later we woke up, on our own, and both lazily got out of bed. I threw on some old jeans and grabbed my Escape The Fate t-shirt and threw it on. I grabbed the sweater that I had worn almost constantly since I left Kingston and threw it on without thinking.
“Hey, that’s my sweater.” Nate said shoving me playfully.
“And I’m wearing it.” I replied with a smile.
“Well maybe I want to wear it?” He said smirking.
“Hey, you have the sweater you’re wearing, and I’m cold.” I said crossing my arms.
“You have your own sweaters don’t you?” He said as we went into the kitchen.
“Yeah, but none of them are this warm.” I said like it was obvious.
“Fine, then I guess its okay.” He said like he was agreeing to give me a kidney or something like that.
“You know I’ll give it back before you leave.” I sighed taking a handful of cereal from the box sitting between us on the couch.
We sat there for a few minutes then we deiced to watch a movie. We decided to put on ‘Interview With The Vampire’ since it was one of our favorite movies.
The whole time we were watching we had been making fun of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. We usually made fun of the crappy actors in our favorite movies.
Once the movie was over I stood up too quickly and lost my balance. Luckily Nate had jumped to his feet less than a second after I had gotten up, and he caught me. I know it sounds cheesy but it made me smile to know that he was there to catch me. I had fallen to the ground so many times in my life, not just physically, and never wanted to get back up knowing there would be no one there to catch me when I fell again. I loved knowing that, at least for that moment, he was there; and there for me.
I stood up again and took his hand. I dragged him to the door and grabbed my keys. I had remembered something that I hopped he would like.
“Alike, where we going?” He asked confused and we ran down the stairs.
“You’ll see when we get there.” I said as we ran through the front door.
“Could you at least slow down?” He asked confused.
“Not until we get there.” I said as we darted across a somewhat busy street.
“Then watch where you’re going you almost got hit by that minivan.” He said as we crossed another street.
“Cause soccer mom back there, like half a block away was gonna hit us. More running less talking.” I said as we went across the final street.