Innocence and a Broken Heart

3 years later.

"Loosen up," Nathan said resting his arm on my shoulders, "The guys were just kidding." He said giving me a quick squeeze.

"Get off me Nathan,” I said shaking him off.

“Lily, Lily, Lily. What will we do with you?” He said throwing his head back with a laugh.

“I said go away Nathan.”

“Fine,” he said throwing his hands up in defeat, “Fine.” He walked away, laughing of course.

Boys were stupid. Always have been, always will be. Especially Nathan. He was the stupidest of them all. He had to be. There was no way a person could have a smaller brain then him. And yet, every girl in our entire grade was obsessed with making him theirs. Yes, three years ago I was right in there with the rest of them, but since then things went down and well I’ve learned the error of my ways. Yet, I still got the great honor of living next door to him. Lucky me. I wasn’ the type of girl to go all goo-goo eyed over a guy. I don’t wear tight shirts or bat my eyelashes. I don’t act like a retared or makeout with every guy I see to make other guys jealous. I wasn’t really into the whole “game” thing, it all seemed slightly juvinile to me. But, that’s just my outlook on it. I’m sure if you asked Michele Jones or Alyson Capp, they’d have a much different way of seeing things. Which is probably why every guy was in love with them, but I wasn’t complaining. It gave me more time to look at the important things.

“Hi Mom.” I said as I walked into the mudroom and slid off my jacket. It was getting chilly outside and like any normal person, I wore a coat. The rest of the girls in my school were still wearing tank tops and skirts, even though it was 30 degrees out. But it was their choice to cath the flu, I pefer not to be stuck in my bed for a week, puking up my guts, but it wasn’t my place to judge.

“Hi dear,” My mom called from the kitchen. “How was school?” She asked as I walked into the room, grabbing a cookie from a plate on the island.

“It was good. I got an A on my West Civ paper.” I said taking a bite of the cookie and sitting on the bar stool. “Oh! And a B+ on my bio test.” I added taking a slug of milk from the carton.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?” She sighed, grabbing the carton from my hands, spilling a bit on my shirt.

“Mom!”

“Lily, this isn’t just your milk. It is for everyone. Be civilized and get a glass from the cabinet.” I just rolled my eyes and grabbed a napkin trying to dab the milk off. This happened to be my favorite shirt. “Mrs. Quinn called, she needs you to babysit Friday night. I told her it wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Okay,” I shrugged, whatever. The more I babysit the more money I get.

“You know, you could cancel if you have plans.” She pressed on.

“I don’t.”

“Well something could come up.”

“It won’t.” I said, smiling at her. The thing you have to understand about my mother is that the fact that I wasn’t a social slut like my sister really bothered her. My mother was the captin of the cheerleaders, dated the quarter back. Won prom queen all four years. And the fact that her eldest offspring didn’t have the popularity gene built in drove her insane. Luckily she had my sister Beth, who was a clone of every queen bee you see in movies. If she didn’t have Beth I’m almost postive my mother would end up in a mental hospital because she would turn legally crazy. So the fact that my Friday nights mostly consisted of hanging with my best friend Juliet and not getting drunk and “raging” made her pretty sucidal. But I didn’t really care, my mother was a nut case anyways.

“Why don’t you go out with Bethy and her friends one night? I’m sure you’d have fun!”

“Mother, I have my own friends. And I prefer to spend my time talking about revelnt issues and not the color of my nails.

“Think about it. You have two years left of highschool and you havn’t really done much.”

“I’m going for a run because I can’t talk to you right now. Goodbye.” I said running out the door and grabbing my coat, before she could object.

I hated running.

Like legit if running was a person I would probably murder it. Brutally. Possibly cut off all its body parts with a dull knife? But, if I felt like I was going to pass out and die, which is what happened when I ran for an extended period of time, it would be better then thinking about today. So I slipped my headphones in my ear and blasted my music. I could usually last more then five steps when I ran to a beat. Sometimes I got so caught up in the music that I didn’t even feel like running, well for ten minutes that is.

So I closed my eyes and let the music carry me. I was so caught up in it that I didn’t see a person in front of me, well that was until I was laying on my butt with this annoyingly handsome being standing over me, with a hand streached outward.

“You’re lucky I wasn’t a car.” Nathan said with a grin.

“I wish you were.” I said, letting him pull me to my feet. I brushed myself off, only to find a little scrape and a bruise here and there, I’d live. “Well bye now Nathan.” I said turning off and jogging the other way.

“You can’t tell me your still upset about this afternoon?” he said jogging next to me. I just shrugged, not wanting to instigate a conversation. “I told you, the guys were just kidding. Let it go kid.” He said ruffiling my hair.

“Nathan, I’m not a kid. Your three months older then me, get over yourself.” I said picking up the pace. He matched my pace easily. Damn fit people.

“What are you so messed up about?” He asked , “Whats’ with you lately?”

“Nothing. Now go away.” I said sprinting ahead. I turned quickly. He wasn’t following. He just watched me run, shook his head and went inside. I could see he’d hurt my feelings, but I didn’t care. He was trying to be nice, a side that didn’t emerge often. But I didn’t care, he deserved it after all.