‹ Prequel: Undisclosed Desires
Sequel: You Don't See Me

Good Enough

Chapter 4; Complicated

It had been twenty minutes since Isabel went up with Brian upstairs and there was still no sound that would indicate if they were yelling to each other or if they were making love. Nathalie didn’t mind though. She was downstairs with Matt and Johnny, and they were watching TV while drinking a beer, Matt had convinced her to drink something.

She lifted the bottle of beer to her lips and drank some.

“What is this crap?” she pointed to the TV.

“Jersey Shore,” Johnny replied.

“It’s crap,” she muttered.

“It’s so crappy I have to watch it,” Matt said and grinned. “It’s really funny.”

“I find it so ridiculous, it is kind of funny,” Nathalie giggled.

“So, Nathalie, what do you do?” Johnny asked over a commercial. “Are you a model like Isabel?”

Nathalie laughed and shook her head. “No, do I look like a model?”

“Yes,” Matt answered almost at once which made her blush just a bit.

She cleared her throat. “I work as a yoga instructor at the YMCA near here.”

“Yoga?” Johnny asked. “Isn’t that the thing where girls do all kinds of weird positions?”

She giggled. “Yes.”

“Which means you’re flexible,” Johnny smirked and nudged Matt’s side with his elbow.

“Um, I guess I am, yes. You have to be.”

Matt was about to say something when hurried footsteps were heard. They all turned their heads to the stairs and saw Isabel crying her eyes out. She stopped at the bottom of the steps.

“Let’s go, Nat, please,” Isabel pleaded and avoided looking at the other guys.

Nathalie immediately stood up and went to her. “Are you okay, babe?”

Isabel shook her head. “He’s an asshole, let’s just go.”

Nathalie nodded and waved at Matt and Johnny and left with Isabel.

Shortly after Isabel and Nathalie left, Matt went upstairs to check on Brian. Matt found him in his room looking like hell.

“What happened?” Matt asked him.

“Nothing,” Brian said holding back tears. “I told her why I ‘cheated’ on her.”

“What did you tell her?”

“She’s a lousy girlfriend.”

“And she stayed here for twenty minutes after you told her?” Matt questioned.

“We talked about ourselves for a while, Matt, we didn’t get into our relationship right away,” Brian spat at him.

“This is for the best. You don’t want to mix her into our world. You can go after her when this is over.”

“I don’t think she’ll wait that long. She has a date tomorrow, and I’m going to kill the fucker if he tries to touch her,” Brian promised.

Matt rolled his eyes. “So overdramatic.”

Matt left Brian drown in his misery and went to his room. His thoughts on Nathalie. He chuckled at the memory of her blush when he answered her question if she looked like a model. Sure, she wasn’t the usual type he went for, but maybe a little change was all he needed.

Then, he scolded himself. He just told Brian he couldn’t have a relationship, and now he was thinking of hooking up with Nathalie. What kind of hypocrisy was that? The worst.

Matt rubbed his face. He was having a hard time not thinking about her since he met her. She was different from all of the Californian girls. She was down to earth, and she held her ground. She was also strong. He could see it in her eyes. He could also see that something haunted her, yet she remained upbeat. He admired people who didn’t let horrible things take over their life.

Matt went to his room and closed the door behind him. He went to his window which had a view of the front and the street. He could see Nathalie’s room from his window. Her curtains were pulled and the lights were out in her room, but Isabel’s room were turned on, and he could make out the silhouettes of them.

He closed his own curtains and changed into something to go to sleep. Tomorrow he had a long day of ahead of him. Full of blood and pretending something he wasn’t.

Nathalie comforted Isabel until she fell asleep due to her crying. Isabel explained in sobs that Brian told her that she was a lousy girlfriend, that’s why he cheated on her. Nathalie almost went to the boy’s home and kicked Brian’s ass, but she had to remain there for Isabel.

Nathalie went to sleep. She had classes in the morning and work in the afternoon. Nathalie was so sure that Brian still had feelings for Isabel. Why was he such an asshole? Were they all assholes? Her thoughts went to Matt.

He seemed cocky, not an asshole, but if he was around Brian a lot, then it could rub off. She didn’t want to get involved anyway. Not with someone like Matt. He seemed like a player, and like Jimmy said, she wasn’t his type.

The next morning, she made breakfast for herself and left a plate for Isabel who called in sick for work. She was going to stay home. Nathalie would have stayed with her, but it was the first day of school, or second first day, whatever, she couldn’t miss class or she would be dropped. Isabel understood very well.

Nathalie dressed for school and promised Isabel she would return from school as soon as she could since classes would end early.

Nathalie walked out of the house with her things for school and went to her car. Her eyes shifted over to the house across and saw all of the cars parked there. She got inside of her car and backed up. Again, Matt walked out to get the newspaper. This time, she looked away quickly.

She arrived at school on time. She even got close parking. She quickly headed to her math class. She made a new friend in her math class. Her second class went rather well too.

Since it was the second first day of school, she finished early. She finished at twelve instead of two.

She decided to buy her books since she had time to kill before going to work. She didn’t go into work until three. She stood in line for a while before reaching the student store and she bought all of her books. 300 dollars worth of books.

She dreaded wasting so much, but at least she had all of her books, and she didn’t have to worry about it anymore.

She drove back home and parked.

She glanced over to the boy’s home and saw that Matt’s truck was missing. There was only one person come because only one car was there.

Nathalie walked inside of the house carrying her many books. She struggled to get them upstairs. She finally got to her room and she placed them on her bed. She rubbed her arms because they ached from carrying them.

She heard a thump from Isabel’s room.

“Isabel, are you okay?” Nathalie called out concerned.

Nathalie heard whispering of two people. She immediately went to Isabel’s room. Isabel was still in bed and looking flushed.

“Are you okay?” Nathalie asked.

“Yes,” Isabel answered too quickly.

“I thought I heard someone else in here,” Nathalie scrunched her face when she inhaled. “It smells like… sex.”

Isabel laughed nervously and then stopped. “Crap, Brian come on out.”

Nathalie’s eyes widened when Brian walked out of Isabel’s closet with just his jeans on. He pulled on his V-neck shirt on.

“Hiya, Nathalie,” he waved and sat on the bed with Isabel.

“What the hell is going on?” Nathalie asked and pointed between them.

“We’re… sneaking around,” Isabel shrugged. “Apparently not anymore. I can’t hide anything from you.”

“Why are you sneaking around? You’re adults,” she pointed out.

“It’s complicated,” Brian chimed in.

“I don’t care about the details,” Isabel pecked his cheek. “As long as I have him. Please don’t tell the other guys. It’s our secret, okay?”

Nathalie didn’t understand why the others couldn’t know, but the pleading look from those two made her cave in.

“Fine, whatever. Your weird, unnecessary secret is safe with me. I’m going to go and shower. I stink of your… ugh,” she shivered and left them.

She went to her bathroom and removed her clothes and showered.

She couldn’t believe what they told her. Why couldn’t they just have a normal relationship? Nathalie shook her head to clear her head. It wasn’t her problem, and as long as they were together. She was happy for them.

After her shower, she got ready for work. She decided to head in early. She was only half an hour earlier. She spent it talking to the receptionist, and then her first yoga class began The afternoon classes were a bit bigger. Fifteen people, her first class were for beginners, so she explained to them what yoga did and how it would help them in their life.

Her second class was one level more advanced.

She was finished for the day, but she decided that she needed to run a little. She asked if she could use the small gym the place had, and they said she could. She took her I-Pod and she went to the treadmills.

She was surprised when she walked in there and saw Matt running on a treadmill.

He had his ear buds in his ears and running at a level six.

She decided not to disturb, he was probably in a zone. She took a treadmill three away from him and she turned it on to a level four. It was a jog. She turned on the music and the music helped her concentrate.

She was in the middle of listening to Iron Maiden when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She slowed down and removed her ear bud and faced Matt.

“Hi,” she said panting from the run.

“You saw me and you didn’t say hi,” he pouted. “I’m hurt.”

She giggled. “I didn’t want to bother you. You looked deep in concentration.”

“I’ll always have time for you,” he grinned and took the treadmill next to her.

He put the treadmill in a small walk, and so did she.

“How was school?” he asked.

And simply like that Matt and Nathalie got to know each other a lot better.