Click

My chest took a painful stab, either from surprise or the pain of being lied to, even if it was just from some guy I met over the internet. My fingers hovered over the keyboard, debating what to do; should I brush him off or should I ask him who he really is? Sure, I probably should have shut down the conversation because now, this guy was a complete mystery to me. Before, I could actually picture it being Blade from school and not feel so threatened but now, there was some stranger out there who knew pretty much everything about me that there was to know.

Finally, I decided on talking to him.

Uh . . . then who am I talking to?

Well, my real name’s Nathan. Actually, it’s Nathaniel but I don’t go by that name because it makes me sound like some Roman hero from myths and stuff.

Then why did you tell me your name’s Blade?

Blade’s my middle name. Well, Bladen is my middle name but I hated how it sounded out loud so I changed it up a bit. I don’t even think it’s a real name so where my parents came up with it I will never know.

Why didn't you just tell me? We haven't even met before so I don't think it would be all that big of a deal."

True, but I get all antsy when I'm talking to people I hardly know over the internet. I didn't want to be talking to someone that's like a cross-dressing psycho man-perve or whatever.

Ha, I don't think every cross-dresser is a psycho man-perve.

Is that like an off-topic way of saying "oh that's fine, Nathaniel. It doesn't bother me that Blade isn't your real name"?

Lmao, I guess. But really, it wouldn't have bothered me if you told me your name was Nathaniel.

Let’s just stick to Nathan, for now.

Lol, okay.

Anything you want me to call you by? Or is Christabelle okay?

Christabelle’s fine.

“Who’s that?”

I whirled around in my computer chair and saw Aiden leaning over my shoulder, squinting at the screen. I swatted him away but he easily avoided my hands by grabbing my wrists and moving them out of his face so he could continue to eavesdrop on my conversation with Nathan.

“What with all the flirting? It’s like radiating off your computer screen.”

“Get out!” I yelled. Aiden chuckled.

“So, is this like a boyfriend or just some guy you have a crush on?” he teased.

I groaned. Then I jumped out of my seat, and pushed his chest, making him stumble back.

“Time for you to leave,” I said, pointing to my door.

“Aww, come on. I want to know who this mysterious boy is in your life. I have an idea. Why don’t you tell him you’re leaving the room for a second but actually hang out behind me while I talk to him and ask him if he likes you?” he joked, beginning to break out into a fit of laughter. I growled in the back of my throat and slammed the door in his face, before heading back over to my computer.

“Oh, come on! You know you want to!” he hollered through the door. I rolled my eyes and sat back down in my chair.

I'm back.

Didn't even know you were gone, lmao. You just randomly disappeared. Family thing?

When is it not?

Brother?

Of course.

I take it he's the over-protective type, huh?

Sort of. He can be protective over me but mostly, he just gives off this vibe that makes me want to punch him in the face.

Ah, that bad, eh?

You have no idea.

Well, I’m probably going to turn into him when my sister grows up.

You’ve got a while to wait before that happens, Nathan. Lol.

True.

Maybe talking to a semi-complete stranger wasn’t so bad in the end. Sure, he lied to me once about his name, but that didn’t mean he would lie about anything else. I mean, it was possible and everything, but I’m sure I would have picked up on it.

Right?



“What happened to you last night? I tried calling you but you didn’t pick up,” Marcy said, nudging me with her elbow the next day at my locker. I shrugged.

“Sorry. I must not have heard the phone ring,” I said. I was actually lying through my teeth right now, because I had heard the phone ring and I knew it was Marcy but whenever I talked with her on the phone, it would always be about boys, and it would always last about three hours or more. Besides, I was having too much fun talking with Blade to want to use the phone.

“Liar,” she accused, narrowing her eyes at me. “You always hear the phone, even if you’re outside. You were talking to a boy, weren’t you?!”

“No,” I replied, blushing. I turned away from her and looked through my locker again to make sure she didn’t see me. Marcy gasped.

“You did! You so did!”

“Honestly. I didn’t,” I lied.

She scoffed. “I hate to say this to you, Christabelle, but you suck at lying. You’re a great friend, but you can’t lie for shit.”

I sighed and closed my locker, turning to face her.

“All right, fine. I was talking to a boy,” I said.

Marcy squealed. I’d never talked to her before when she got so hyped up about one boy. At least, not one that she wasn’t interested in. I felt like I was talking to a seven year old right now. Let’s just say that Marcy wasn’t one to squeal.

I frowned and walked down the hall with her trailing behind me.

“So who is it?”

I shrugged. “Just a guy,” I replied. “It’s no big deal.”

She narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously for a moment before she gasped yet again—only this time much louder and more obvious, which drew a little bit of attention from the group of grade nine boys that we were passing but they didn’t seem all that concerned to know what was going on. I looked over at her and frowned.

“What?”

“It was Blade, wasn’t it?!” she exclaimed.

I shook my head. “No.” For once, I was telling the truth. It wasn’t Blade; it was Nathaniel Bladen . . . something or other.

“Then who is it?”

“His name’s Nathaniel.”

Marcy burst out into a fit of laughter. “Nathaniel?!” she exclaimed, before laughing loudly once again. I slapped her on the arm with my notebook and scowled at her.

“Shut up! It’s a nice name.”

“Yeah, sure. For like a Greek God or something,” she replied. “How old-fashioned are his parents?”

“Marcy, shush. You’re being a little too rude for my liking.”

“Sorry. Sorry, I’ll be serious now,” she said, clearing her throat. “Christabelle and Nathaniel. Nathaniel and Christabelle. It has a nice ring to it, I must admit. Although . . .”

I groaned and looked over at her. “What now?” I grumbled.

“Christabelle and Blade also sounds right,” she commented. I frowned.

“Are you really comparing the most popular guy in school to someone I’ve never even seen before on whom I’m more compatible with? I only met Nathaniel two days ago on that stupid website.”

“Ha! So you did try it out!” she exclaimed. I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, so?” I asked her. “I just wanted to see what it was like.”

“Well you and Blade have only talked . . . what, two times?”

“Yeah, but pretty much only because we had to,” I countered.

Marcy shrugged this off as if she hadn’t even heard what I said. “As for this Nathaniel guy, you’ve talked to him enough to ignore my calls, and the website said that he was your perfect match. I was just comparing names, but now that I compare everything else but; I’ve got to say that Nathaniel sounds better for you.”

“Actually . . .” I mused. She looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. “The website didn’t pair me up with him. I just commented on the staff blog about how stupid the site was and he and I just happened to share an interest in hating the same thing everyone else loved.”

She smirked. “Wow. This is such an interesting love story,” she said sarcastically. I frowned.

“That’s not funny,” I said.

“Oh, come on, Christabelle. You know how these things are supposed to go. You meet a stranger on the internet, you spend your nights on the computer just so you don’t have to go to sleep and you can stay up talking to him, when you finally do fall asleep you dream about what he looks like and picture him holding you and caring for you, and then when you finally meet him he’s more than you could ever ask for, bam! It’s a Happily Ever After, virtual-style,” she explained, nudging me with her elbow. “Call this guy up and meet his ass!”

“I’d rather meet him than his ass in particular,” I said, smirking.

She glared at me. “Do it,” she said.

I sighed and shook my head, walking off down the hall away from her.

It was too soon to meet Nathan. I knew I had to wait quite a while longer before I saw him in person, because we had only just met a few days ago, and it was way too soon for that. I mean, yeah, I knew a lot of things about him and vice versa, but I didn’t know him well enough to determine whether he was or wasn’t like a rapist or a killer or anything. The internet held all kinds of freaks, and I didn’t want to run that risk, even though I was kind of doing that already by continuing the conversations with him.

It was kind of confusing now that I thought about it, but I knew what I was talking about.

First period seemed to drag on forever because of course; there was no one to talk to and no one that I planned on talking to ever in this class.

Then second period, and when I looked up from opening my binder to outside the classroom door, my heard didn’t even skip a single beat like it did yesterday when I thought that he was the internet guy. If his name really was Nathaniel, he probably would have confided in one of his friends and told them his real name but knowing them, they wouldn’t have been have to keep the secret for more than one period and by the end of the day, everyone in the school would have known. I had nothing to worry about.

However, when a girl suddenly came into my vision, my gut wrenched uncomfortably and I shifted in my seat. I wasn’t really sure why it bothered me, but it just did for some unknown reason. Then the girl became more visible and I frowned when I realized who it was. Her name was Amanda, and she was the It Girl of the school. Most girls wanted to be like her and tried as hard as they could to do it, but you just couldn’t top her. I hated her though, because she always hated me back. Ever since we had a finger painting fight in grade one, I knew that she secretly wanted to push my head back into that silver can of blue paint.

Apparently Blade and her were dating, but judging by the trying-to-be-hidden scowl on his face, he didn’t seem to be all that pleased about it. She practically leaped onto him and aimed to plant a kiss on his lips but he turned his head at the last minute. I stifled a laugh and looked back down at my binder as Nick glanced over at me. Then he looked over at Blade, who had managed to escape from the clutches of Amanda and opened the door, stepping inside and heading over to his seat beside me.

“Don’t tell me you’re one of his admirers,” Nick whispered. I looked over at him and raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

He looked at Blade, hinting for me to turn my head as well. I did as I was told just in time to catch Blade send a head nod our way. We nodded back at him before I looked in Nick’s direction again.

“You think I like him?” I asked. He nodded. I scoffed and shook my head. “Psht, no.”

“Okay, good. It’s nice to meet at least one girl who doesn’t have a complete obsession over him. I’ve met enough of the Blade fan-girls.” I smirked at him and crossed my arms over my chest.

“And let me guess, the fact that I was staring out the door at him clearly meant that I had butterflies in my stomach just from being blessed by God's almightly power for bringing him into my life," I teased. Nick laughed.

“I didn’t say that, but the way you were gawking kind of gave off the vibe,” he said. I frowned.

“I wasn’t gawking, and shhh. How he hasn’t heard you yet is a mystery to me.”

“Oh, I heard.”

My head snapped in Blade’s direction but he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking down at the book in front of him, but that didn’t stop me from noticing the amused smirk. I whacked Nick on the arm, even though I didn’t really feel I had the authority to do that to someone I hardly even knew that well. He scowled at me and rubbed his arm.

“Ow.”

“This is why you don’t speak out loud.”

He rolled his eyes but began laughing anyway. “So what was up with you yesterday? You know . . . yelling at the teacher when she said your name and all.”

Blade closed his book, slid it to the side and leaned forward so he was in my view.

“I’m kind of curious to know as well,” he said. I frowned and leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest.

“I already announced it. I was just . . . excited about biology.”

“Why? It’s biology.”

“The human body fascinates me,” I lied, shrugging it off as if it were nothing. Nick’s brows furrowed in confusion.

“You’re a weird lady,” he said, turning his attention to the front of the class, where the teacher was now standing, looking through her notes that she was planning on teaching us today.

She looked up when the bell rang, which just happened to be about two seconds after Nick commented on me being weird, and smiled at us. I kind of tuned her out when she began talking because even though she was a teacher, she was probably the most boring teacher in the world. Usually, I listened to what teachers had to say but not with her, because she actually made me feel like I wanted to fall asleep on my desk.

Then when she got to the attendance, I prayed to God that she would get the point by now that I didn’t like people calling me Christabelle, and Chris was all I wanted to go by.

“Chris—"

“AHH! SHE’S HERE!”

I jumped a little in my seat and peered over my shoulder, just in time to witness David leap up from his seat, waving his arms in the air. The whole class burst into a fit of laughter, and so did the teacher. I groaned in humiliation and buried my face in my hands.

Obviously I was never going to hear the end of this.