Phantom

Chapter 6: Jealousy
I woke up the next day by the sound of my phone vibrating on my bedside table.
I looked at the caller ID. “Lawren,” I mumbled sleepily.
“Are you getting ready?” He chirped happily.
I sighed and looked at the clock. “Lawren, it’s only six o’clock.”
“The early bird catches the worm!”
“Not if the worm is still sleeping,” I muttered. “Lawren, call back in two hours or something.”
“But I’m already in front of your house!”
I sighed extra loudly. “Then go back home,” I moaned.
The door bell rang three times in response. “I’ll make some coffee to wake you up. Now get out of bed sleepy pants!” The doorbell rang three more times.
“Who’s that?” Nathan mumbled.
“It’s Lawren,” I whispered, covering the mouth piece of the phone.
Nathan mumbled something under his breath.
The door bell rang two more times.
“Hi, Mrs. Wellington,” I heard Lawren say from downstairs.
I groaned as did Nathan. We both reluctantly got out of bed and I trudged to the bathroom loathing Lawren.
I walked downstairs and in the kitchen was Nathan and Lawren sitting in my kitchen, their backs toward each other. Lawren was looking out the glass door window to my backyard and Nathan was facing toward the front door of the house. They were both tense and I was able to feel the misanthropical mood in the air.
Nathan smiled in relief when he saw me. He walked to me and took my hand in his.
“How about we ditch him?” Nathan whispered in my ear.
“What?” Lawren asked and turned around. Did he have super sonic hearing or something? “Oh! Hi, Natalia,” he chirped. “Sorry for waking you up so early. I was just so eager.”
“That’s obvious,” I muttered as I put together my breakfast.
“What’s he doing here?” Lawren asked, suddenly hostile.
“That’s none of your business,” I said haughtily. “So where are we going to go? Let’s get this over with.”
“I was thinking about going to the amusement park we went to a couple months ago for your birthday.”
“Or we can just stay at my house and chat,” I suggested.
“That doesn’t sound very fun,” Lawren mumbled. “How about we go to Green Lake and do a little peddle boating?”
“Peddle boating?” I mused. I’ve always wanted to do that. “Nathan, do you want to go peddle boating?” I asked.
“Wait, what? He’s going? I thought it was just going to be the two of us!”
“Oh! I forgot to tell you. Nathan has to come with me. We’re sort of a package.”
“Natalia,” Lawren groaned. “Are you serious?”
“Yup,” I said, popping the “P”. I held up my hand that was in his and shook it.
“Is there anyway to split the package in half?” Lawren asked glaring at Nathan.
“It’s all or nothing,” I responded.
Lawren deliberated for a couple of seconds and sighed in defeat. “Fine,” he mumbled and crossed his arms.
“Alright then!” Nathan cheered. “Let’s go.”
“Do you have your bus money?” Lawren asked me.
Nathan scoffed. “Bus money? We’re driving there.”
“We don’t have a car,” I said.
“I had someone come and bring it here.”
“Oh. Really?”
He nodded his head and smiled at Lawren.
“Show off,” he mumbled.
“Let’s get going!”
We all got into Nathan’s car, Lawren sitting in the back while I sat shot gun.
As we drove, I felt the tension in the air and I opened my window just to let air flow through hoping the tension would go along.
Throughout the whole trip, the car remained quiet and with the awkwardness, it felt like the trip took about an hour instead of ten minutes. In the back seat, Lawren was constantly sighing out loud and which each sigh, Nathan would tighten his grip on the wheel and I would give him a look that says “don’t blow up just yet”.
We got out of the car once we got to Green Lake. Once I was out of the car, Lawren hurried out.
“I saw we ditch him,” he whispered to me.
“Stop it,” I hissed.
Nathan came around the car and took my right hand, Lawren waking on my left side.
The sun was already out and it wasn’t that cold. There were already a couple of people at the lake jogging around the track.
“So we’re going peddle boating?” Nathan asked as we walked to the stand where they sold the peddle boats, kayaks, and canoes.
“Sure,” I said and nodded me head. Do you want to go peddle boating?” I asked Lawren.
“Can I peddle with you?” He asked with a smile.
Nathan took in a deep breath and let it out to calm himself down.
“How about you two trade off?” I suggested to both of them.
“Fine. But I go first,” Lawren said calling it like a child would for the first piece of cake.
We got to the counter and Nathan paid for all three of us.
“What a kiss up,” Lawren mumbled.
We got our life jackets and walked down to the lake to get our boat.
Nathan got into the boat first and helped me in, ignoring Lawren’s struggle to not fall over.
“This is… a bit shaky,” Lawren said and laughed a fake laugh.
“You can leave if you want,” Nathan said and shrugged.
“No, I’m fine.”
Lawren and I started to peddle out of the dock.
“If you want you can come back here,” Nathan murmured in my ear.
“Lawren can’t do this alone.”
“Yeah he can. Lawren’s strong,” Nathan said sarcastically and patted Lawren extra hard on the arm.
“Do you got this?” I asked Lawren.
“Actually, I don’t think I’ll be able to do this on my own. Sorry man,” Lawren said and patted Nathan on the arm twice as hard.
Nathan sighed and turned back around.
“This is fun,” Lawren mused. “Just me and you like old times. Did I tell you that you like pretty today?”
“I’m still here,” Nathan spoke up, irritation clear in his voice.
“Stop eavesdropping.”
“Stop getting all flirty with my girlfriend.”
We were slowly moving. At least Lawren was. It was obvious that he was trying to make this somewhat romantic
“Anyways,” Lawren said turning back to talk to me. “How’ve you been? We haven’t had a real conversation in a long time.”
“That’s because someone left the other person,” I said pointing out the time he left me and didn’t talk to me for about three months.
“Natalia, I’m sorry. Can we please get passed that?”
“Yeah Lawren, because I’ll totally get passed the time my best friend left me. Do you know how you made me feel? Why do you suddenly feel the need to talk to me? I thought you… hated me or something.”
“I didn’t hate you, Natalia. Please understand that. Without you, my life felt… odd. I felt lonely.”
“That’s not my fault,” I said smugly.
“I’m not saying it is. I’m saying that I never stopped-”
“Okay, it’s my turn!” Nathan said, cutting Lawren off.
“I still have five more minutes,” Lawren said but keeping his eyes on me.
“Hey, Natalia,” Nathan murmured, putting his arms around my waist and resting his head on my shoulder.
“Hi,” I said and giggled.
“Are you having fun?”
“Okay, okay, stop. This is my time with Natalia. Stop trying to get me jealous,” Lawren said loudly.
“I wasn’t trying to get you jealous but if you think I was, you must be,” Nathan said and snickered.
“Natalia, why do you like this guy? Honestly, I think he’s an idiot.”
“And I think you’re annoying but you don’t see me complaining.”
I never ever see Nathan get this hostile about something but whenever it was affiliated with Lawren, he was a whole different person.
“You’re always complaining. Whenever I tell Natalia I want her back, you get all defensive.”
“That’s because she’s my girlfriend. You are just so ridiculous.”
Lawren scoffed. “I’m ridiculous? You’re the one trying to take over my fifteen minutes with Natalia.”
“Speaking of fifteen minutes, yours is up!”
“Nathan, stop,” I said.
“You’re right. I will because I’m mature.”
Lawren rolled his eyes.
“Your time is up. It’s my turn,” Nathan said and stood up and waited for Lawren to get out of his chair.
“No, you wasted my five minutes.”
“Oh, boo. You’ll have another fifteen minutes after me, now get up!”
“Nathan, sit down. You’re rocking the boat,” I pleaded, holding onto the seat tightly.
“Yeah man, sit down,” Lawren said and pushed Nathan away from him.
Nathan stumbled over and landed on the back deck of the boat.
“You did not just do that,” Nathan chuckled and stood up.
“I think I just did,” Lawren responded with a chuckle. He too stood up so he wouldn’t look inferior.
“Sit down!” I hissed to the both of them.
They ignored me.
“If I were you, I’d jump off the boat and swim far away,” Nathan murmured fiercely.
Lawren chuckled once. “And if I don’t?”
“Well, I guess I just have to make you.”
“Let’s see you do it!” Lawren encouraged, shoving Nathan once again making the boat rock.
“Lawren, stop it!” I shrieked, hugging the chair.
“I’ve been taught that violence is never the key…. But sometimes, the rules have to be broken!” Nathan sprung up and threw himself at Lawren.
“Nathan!” I shrieked as the boat rocked vigorously.
They both managed to stay on the boat but they were very close to the edge.
I stood up unsteadily to try to break up the fight. The boat shook and I quickly clutched the little railing, crouching down so I wouldn’t loose my balance and fall.
I came up behind Lawren. “Stop it!” I screamed and tried to pull him off of Nathan. “We’re going to fall!”
Nathan pushed Lawren off of him, sending him flying back. The next thing I knew I was in the water. My life jacket bobbed me back up to the surface to find our peddle boat flipped over and Nathan and Lawren in the water still fighting.
Since we weren’t that far from the dock, I decided to swim back and wait for them to finish.
One of the workers got me a towel and I sat in the grass below the sun to dry off as I watched them fight.
They both constantly tried to drown one another and swim away and when they were finally exhausted, they had a race on whoever could get to me first. Nathan and Lawren were two very competitive people.
The workers went out to get the flipped boat and Nathan and Lawren walked sluggishly toward me.
Lawren was holding onto his arm and was bleeding on his lip and right eyebrow.
Nathan on the other hand was clean. He had no marks or scratches but was just tired. I wondered how much damage Nathan had before he healed.
“You guys are ridiculous,” I muttered and stood up. I picked up the towels beside me that the worker left me and threw it to both of them.
“I’m sorry, Natalia,” Nathan said.
“I’m so sorry, Natalia,” Lawren said, always trying to be above Nathan.
“Will you please act your age?” Nathan groaned.
“Will you please stop being such a kiss-up?”
“Will you both please shut up?” I asked.
Nathan walked over to me and put his arm around me. “Do you want to go home?” He asked.
“Lawren, are we done?” I asked.
“Yeah, sure,” he sighed.
We got into Nathan’s car and the tension was at it’s highest. It was so quiet in the car I felt like I was going to go insane.
I didn’t realize we were back at my house until Nathan stopped driving.
“Bye, Natalia,” Lawren murmured, jumped out of the car and closed the door.
“Bye,” I whispered a bit too late.
Nathan and I sat in his car in front of my garage for a couple of minutes. I waited for him to get out of the car first.
“Are you mad at me?” Nathan asked, breaking the silence.
To be honest, I wanted to but I just couldn’t. “No,” I sighed. “But I’ve never seen you act so… defensive.”
“It’s crazy what jealousy can do to a person,” he said with a light chuckle.