Spirit

Chapter 15: Comforted
I stayed up all night, not wanting to go back to sleep to relive the dream. But that wasn’t the main reason I didn’t get to sleep, the main reason was that I couldn’t.
Right when it feels like I’m finally getting my life together, it all falls apart.
The light from the rising sun was poking through my curtains. I looked at my clock and it was five forty-five.
I decided that I should probably do something with my day other than laying in bed wallowing in sadness. I got out of bed, took my clothes from my drawers, and walked sleepily to my bathroom.
After I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and changed out of my pajama’s, I walked back to my room and pushed my curtains open.
I froze in my place and my heart started thumping against my chest vigorously when I saw Lawren walk out of his house, heading for the school bus in front of his house.
I watched him as he looked perfectly fine. Perfectly happy without me.
As he reached the bus, I finally caught his eye. He looked over at me and I raised my hand to wave at him, but he just looked down and entered the bus without smiling or waving at me. His face was expressionless.
I stood there as still as a statue. I couldn’t move my legs nor could I even find them. From the cornor of my eye, I could see the my guard making a gesture for me to step away from the window.
With a burst of massive hysteria, the waterfall of tears fell over and burned the skin it touched. I fell over and landed on my floor under my window.
I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs tightly. I put my head down on my knees so the tears wouldn’t land on my face.
“Natalia?”
I jumped in surprised and looked up. My vision was blurry from the tears so I wiped them from my eyes. “Nathan?” I said, trying to sound casual. “What’re you doing here? Do you need me?”
“Are you alright?” He asked and kneeled down in front of me.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said and wiped the tears that were still trickling down my face away.
He took my face in his hands and wiped the tears I missed away with his thumb.
Our faces were about three inches away and our eyes locked on each other. He sat there for a couple of minutes.
“How did you get in here?” I asked, breaking the silence.
“Window,” he said and smiled. “I just wanted to come visit.” He examined my face. “Or is right now a bad time?”
“No, no, it’s fine!” To my surprise, I actually meant it. I wanted him to stay here with me.
Nathan smiled and sat down right next to me, our backs resting against my bed.
“My family has high-standards for me. They expect so much out of me.” At first, I didn’t understand what he was talking about, but then I realized he was continuing our conversation we had yesterday. “They want me to take over the family business,” he said and chuckled ludicrously. “I want to be a journalist not a business man.”
“Do your friends even know that you aren’t quite… human?” It was always so hard for me to say we weren’t human.
He shook his head. “Of course not. No one knows.” I lived in a world where everything was supposed to be perfect, clean, and sparkly-”
“You are perfect, clean, and sparkly,” I pointed out, unintentionally emphasizing each word.
He chuckled. “The society couldn’t know what I was or I could’ve put my parents business on the line.”
“I’m sorry. But how did you manage to keep it a secret?”
“It was easy. Once I knew what triggered Clarence, I just had to stay positive. All the time. It wasn’t that hard, but sometimes I struggled,” he looked at me and smiled to cheer me up. It worked. His smiled was so beautiful. “How about you?” He asked, turning the questions toward me. “Does anyone know about you?”
“Of course!”
“Who?”
“Now; my whole family,” I sighed.
“Does any of your friends know?”
I sighed again. “I tried telling one of them,” I whispered.
“And what happened?”
“I didn’t get a chance to. He left before I could explain.”
“What’s his name?”
Why did he have to be so curious? And why did I have to be so weak? I gulped. “Lawren,” I whispered.
“And… he’s just a friend? Right?” He asked eagerly.
“Not anymore,” I muttered and took in a deep breath before more over-wellming tears could spill over.
He saw the hurt on my face and put his arm around me. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up.”
“You didn’t know,” I said, trying to sound enthusiastic with a fake laugh.
“Where’d you come from?” I asked.
“Pardon?”
“Where did you come from before you came to Washington?” I said being more detailed.
“Oh. I came from Boston, Massachusetts.”
“Boston,” I mused.
“Yeah.”
“How old are you? Twenty-three or something?”
Nathan exploded with laughter. I looked at him confused.
“Do I really look that old?”
“Well, your maturity level is quite high, and your voice makes you sound very… manly. And your face has no sign of childish features.”
He chuckled. “I’m only eighteen, Natalia.”
My eyes widened. “Really?” I squeaked. I didn’t mean to squeak, but for some irrational reason, I was full of joy.
“Yeah,” he said, still laughing.
“That’s cool,” I said, switching my tone to casual.
“You are an odd person, you know that?” He joked.
“So who’s older? You are Keith?” I asked conversationally.
“Keith is twenty-six and Sarah is twenty-one.”
“What school do you go to? Or did you already graduate?”
“I… haven’t been in school since I joined Sarah and Keith. I’m supposed to be in my Senior year right now. My parents are under the façade that I’m attending the boarding school they enrolled me in.”
“So your lying to your parents?”
“Not lying…. Just not telling. Do you think of me as a bad person now?” He asked and smiled.
With the smile, I couldn’t think of him as a bad person. “Of course not.”
Our eyes locked into place like two pieces of a Lego.
Unfortunately, my stomach began complaining. I sighed and Nathan chuckled.
“Let’s go get something to eat?”
“Sure,” I said, smiling.