Final Curtain

Mel’s POV

“I can’t believe you’ve been holding out on me. This is fantastic. I’m sunbathing miles away from the beach—College rocks.” Anna sighed sprawling her arms open on the soft grass.

By now she was convinced Low Plaza was the best thing that College had to offer. It was pretty good, not only College folk hung around. It was a place where you could study, socialize—and now that Anna had gotten here—sunbathe. She was getting looks from all around, good looks.

“College isn’t really… huh, never mind.” I chewed on my number one pencil. I had a master piece to finish, it was due tomorrow and I was still struggling with the hard lines around the cheeks.

“Hmm, who’s that? He’s hot—” I closed the pad. “Huh, come on at least tell me if he’s real.”

I let out a breath joined with a laugh.

“Ginger!” Anna popped up gazing above my shoulder. I got out of the way of their high five—yeah, those two shared a little bit of the same personality. “Where have you been? Classes have been going on for one whole week. BTW I heard you dumped Pacey—”

“Forgive her excitement she’s high on vitamine C.” I tugged Anna back on the grass ground delivering a scolding glare. She seemed to think both Pacey and Ginger were better off separated than together, and while that might be the truth, I wasn’t saying it to either of them. Pacey wanted Ginger back. Ginger...

“I guess he told you guys?” She sat down beside Anna setting her purse on top of the books.

“He did.” I wasn’t going to start discussing the matter. Ginger didn’t appear angry about the subject and I thought she’d tell us what a jerk Pacey had been by cheating on her.

“Hey,” She lifted her head halfway through looking in her purse. Her expression was kind, sympathetic... I could already guess what was coming. “I’m sorry about what happened... to your parents?”

I nodded with a yellow smile. Anna cleared her throat, her foot beat onto my angle. When I looked to her, the raven head was nodding forward. I glanced up. Sure enough my eyes melted from their sockets.

“I was already in New York when College began, but I don’t know, I thought I deserved another week to ready myself for...” Ginger’s words vanished as she finally took notice of a certain someone crouching next to my side. Soon, he was kneeling on the ground, deepening a kiss I’d been longing for through an entire Drawing class.

“Easy on the love, Romeo, if you don’t stop soon you’ll have to go to the nearest bathroom or something.” Anna’s comment made me cup his face as an effort to part us. Nate hadn’t showed intentions of stopping. “At least someone has common sense.”

“Who are you to talk about common sense?” Nathaniel interjected before I could give him a warning jab to play nice. “You were the one who slept with Aric right after you...” He had the right idea shutting up. Ginger was sitting right there, he’d taken a while to spot her, too lost in our moment. “Who’s her?” He asked when he leaned in to kiss my cheek.

“Oh my God!” I think Nate scooted to my side because the exclamation freaked him out. “He’s that guy you were drawing, isn’t he?”

Oh no... Just as I predicted a dazzling smirk showed up. Before I could say or do anything...

“Nate, give it back!” I screamed, reaching with my hand for the drawing pad.

“No way, princess. Not until I see my portrait.” He chuckled holding it up; high enough that I had to jump. “Ah, that’s real adorable, but you’re too short.” For a second, I wanted to throw myself on the green ground throwing a tantrum. It didn’t seem age appropriate. “I just want to take a peek.” He leant his body back a bit as I put my hand on his shoulder to help me jump higher. “Don’t over work yourself, sweetheart, you can’t reach it.” I slapped his chest with a deep scowl, the jerky-idiot smiled. “I just want to see it, what’s so wrong with that?”

“It’s not finished.” I muttered to the side. Nate looked up at the sketch book. I saw the intrigue in his expression, then, saw him roll his eyes at himself. “I’ll give it back if you promise to show it to me when it’s done.”

“Okay,” I agreed having no choice, it wasn’t like I wanted to start over again, if he didn’t hand it back that would be exactly what I’d end up doing. “Can I have it back now?”

“Promise,” I found this situation a bit of a déjà vu and couldn’t help a smile.

“I promise.” Nathaniel handed it into my hands.

Just as we broke apart from another kiss, sitting down again, I grew aware of Ginger’s presence. Anna being around was normal, Ginger on the other hand...

“I’m Nathaniel, Melissa’s boyfriend.” He held his hand out when Anna muttered something about ’people who had been raised by wolves’ I leaned against him as he desired.

“The last part was obvious the second I saw you two kissing. Mel doesn’t do relationships without a serious label.” I wanted to kick her to the moon, stupid, because what she said was totally true, Nate knew it. “My name’s Ginger.”

“Does that have anything to do with your hair?” Nate spoke after the quickest assessment of Ginger's dark peach hair, curly at the ends of her shoulders.

I wondered if she'd find the question offensive, maybe I should tape Nathaniel's mouth and keep it that way until I gave him a few lessons on socialization. Or not, since Pacey's heartache touched her hair as if only now noticing it was red, making a connection to her name.

“You know... I'm not sure, I never asked my parents about it.” She shrugged letting a curl flop down, smiling with her enthusiasm. “Though, they might have told me and I forgot.”

“Or you didn't even listen...” Anna added lazily from the side lines.

Ginger nodded.

“I can be a bit of an air head sometimes.” She giggled returning to her purse search, just with that, I knew she wasn't listening to anything going on around her.

Nathaniel faced me with a light frown.

“She's a weird one. Then again, she's friends with you.” He teased rubbing a hair strand between his finger pads.

I mocked a laugh before pushing him over. Nate made a big deal out of it—I had him pinned by the shoulders—faking all kinds of things, it went from running out of breath, because I was pressing too hard, to screaming 'abuse' really loud until I shut him up. His words were muffled by my soft palm, only problem was, he was free to move. That was just what he did. Nathaniel’s arms surrounded me like ivy. I smiled wriggling on his lap.

“There was a much better way to get me to be quiet, you know?”

“Oh, really?”

“Really—” Our tongues touched, overlapped. I was feeling Nate's French side coming out—French kissing with him was wonderful, almost perfect, it made me want to sob at how good it was which quickly led me to think of how many practice “dummies” he had had before me. The shook of jealousy was quickly flushed out when he stroke the ceiling of my mouth. I did my best not to close my mouth. I didn't want to bite him. My arms interlocked behind his neck. “Isn't this a much better...”

My finger shushed his lips.

“I want more.” My voice was husky, I could see how lustful it made him—he just came closer, ready for another hot kiss. All we ended up doing was a lingering lip kiss, though. “Why are you here?” My fingers softly curled in the lapels of his shirt.

“I'm all about surprising you, baby.” I drew into myself with a shy smile. Nate was gripping my thighs. “I'm thinking you liked this?”

I nodded.

“How did you find us, though? We could've been anywhere in College, you came right at us.”

“Phone GPS' work miracles,” He reached into the front pocket of my jeans, unblocking the screen, showing me the ‘on’ switch on the app. “I turned it on before you left today.”

“Hmm,” I licked my lips starting to feel strangely drowsy. Nate was so cozy.

“Do you go here?” Ginger's voice brought us back to reality.

Nate's arms loosened their former strong hold, he just snaked an arm over my waist.

“No, I finished College already.” Her walnut eyes blinked as she leaned forward a little, reading him up and down. Nate looked too young to be fresh out of College. “I skipped a couple of grades.”

“Oh, what did you graduate in?”

“Law, I'm a lawyer.”

“Wow, you must be really smart.”

“My teachers seemed to think so.” He flashed a smirk with an edge of prideful arrogance—I knew he didn't do it on purpose it was all part of who he was, part of his charm. “What do you want to follow?” Hmm, I thought relaxing against him. Hearing Nathaniel talk so fluently normal was... good. I was happy.

“Visual arts—sculpture and painting are my obsessions.” She texted quickly before lifting her eyes to us. “So,” she sat crossed-legged. “How did you two meet?”

Oh crap. How did we meet? We hadn't prepared any back story yet. Thankfully, we had Anna.

“I'll tell the story.” She shook her black hair for stuck grass, then a smile spread on her lips and her arm lowered onto Ginger's shoulders. “After Melissa's parents passed away, she had to go to California to solve some issues at the Company where they worked—boring business. When she was done with that, I met up with her and worked my evil influencing powers on her gullible mind—”

“I'm not gulli—” I tried to interject but Nate gave a squeeze. I forced the words down. I wasn't gullible. My cheeks were boiling.

“I convinced her to take a little more time off. She'd never been out of New York, so, it was a good time to explore.” Anna shrugged her voice held such conviction I nearly believed she was telling a true story. “Anyway, a little while after, we met Nate in San Diego at a... beach behind his house.” Ginger was hanging on Anna's every word, she liked fairy tale stories, I guess. “And...” Her forest eyes met mine, as if asking, what do I say now? I mouthed 'love at first sight' to get this over with—though, it was the biggest lie on the face of the world. “It was hate at first sight—I mean love, I'm sorry, love at first sight.”

“Right,” Nate supported with a snide smirk. “What she meant about hate at first sight was herself and Aric—they hated each other from the start.” Oh, he was mean. I giggled into his shoulder.

“Aric?”

“He's...” I couldn't say he was mine and Nate's half-brother.

“He's my half-brother.” Nate said. It was much easier to say that, otherwise we'd have to make up more explanations. “They hated each other when they met, they still do.” He nodded to Anna—I could swear their eyes were sparking with challenge.

“Yeah,” She drew out. “The personality must run in the family.”

“Cut it out.” I muttered with a light sigh. “Are we finally going to have lunch together?” I took Nate's attention gratefully.

“Sure, whatever you want.”

I gave a loop-side smile—

“Have you guys had the awkward ex-conversation, yet?” I forced my smile not to deflate like a balloon.

My fingers dug into Nate's shirt discretely.

“Sure... why do you ask?” I tried to talk without gritting the words, Anna was glancing to Ginger with a guarded face.

“Well, the weirdest thing happened this summer—I'm not sure if you know, but Parker's gone missing.” I wanted to run all the way home, lock myself in the bedroom and throw the key away.

“Oh...” I managed when Nate's fingers pinched my back, that's why it sounded more like an 'ow'.

Ginger nodded with a wondering face. “Pacey... huh... didn't mention anything.”

“I don't think he wants to think about it, the police haven't been able to track him down anywhere, though. He just stopped showing up for classes. The first days his friends thought he was sick or something—”

“Is that Daniel Grayson?” Ginger's ears perked when I said it. I didn't know why he was coming towards us, it wasn't like we talked all that much with him—but I was glad. I couldn't take much more of this Parker arc. “And why is he walking towards... here?” I looked between Anna and her. “Which one of you...?” I left the rest of the phrase out because he drew nearer.

Anna was up wiping her jeans' rear, bending to grab her bag.

“Anna?” I questioned before he was too upon us.

“What? We're just eating together. It's not like we're having S-E-X—”

“Yet,” Nate breathed with a snort. “We know you spelled sex, by the way.”

“You can spell? Soon enough you'll be reading sentences.” Wow, she was on his case today. Though, I couldn't say Nate wasn't provoking her right back. “What's wrong with Daniel Grayson anyway? He's hot, basketball player—rich...” She shut her mouth when I told her. A second later, she was being greeted by a tall, lightly tanned guy.

“Ready for lunch? Hey, Ginger haven't seen you around lately.” He fit everything into his greeting, if you could call it one. Daniel’s voice was an American husk, paused and delectable—girls swooned over it. It had nothing on Nate’s deep sounding tone.

“I’m ready and starving.” Anna slung her bag on her shoulder delivering an easy smile at him.

Daniel’s caramel eyes slithered past Anna, the nice looking expression still plastered as he acknowledged me and Nathaniel with a nod. He was a golden boy, the problem with him, was just that. He wasn’t the type Anna usually went after despite his riches. She liked them fun, rule-breakers and bad.

“She’s Melissa, my best friend and that’s Nate her ass boyfriend.”

I think Nate wanted to shoot her. Good thing his gun was locked in a drawer back home. When Daniel’s eyes seemed to linger further on mine, Nate did something low in his throat like a growl. Breaking the fight before it started, I took his chin between my thumbs and began kissing him. I knew this was totally rude, but it was the most effective way to keep Nate from throwing macho warnings all around.

“We’re going, see you later.” I heard Anna bid.

Stopping was hard once we’d gotten so wrapped up, but the growling my stomach made was enough of a reason.

“Someone’s hungry.” He whispered, I could hear the double meaning of the sentence.

“I haven’t eaten since my last class break... that was about an hour ago.”

Nate grabbed my things while I adjusted the shoulder strap of my messenger’s bag, he held my books and notepads under an arm, like they were his. Hmm, Nate looked like he was a model posing.

“That is so sweet.” I turned to look at Ginger, wondering what she was talking about. “He’s carrying your books for you, that’s one of the sweetest things a guy could ever do.” Her eyes were so positive, as her personality. Ginger was a happy girl. “Oh shoot!” She suddenly exclaimed as her cell phone screen began blinking. “I forgot about my sister’s lunch, she’s going to kill me if I’m not there to pick out the bride’s maid dresses. I hope she doesn’t pick before I get there, she’ll pick something than I’d be stuck wearing it.” With a sigh she waved and was on her way like a hero on a cause.

Meanwhile, I could see Nate glancing down at the books in his hand. He looked at me as my hands reached to grab them. Nate pulled away.

“Nate?” I inquired softly with some confusion.

“I’ll carry them. Boyfriends do that right?”

A sigh dissolved in my mouth like sugar. Nathaniel hadn’t been thinking of doing this until Ginger brought it up. I knew how Nate was afraid, sometimes, of screwing up at being a boyfriend. Basically, because all he'd had in the past were one night stands. He didn’t know how some things worked in a relationship, but, up and until now, we'd made it and he didn’t have to carry any stupid
books for me.

“Only lame ones.” I made to grasp the things from him, he took a step back. Were we going to play this game again? “Didn’t you have enough keep away for one day?” I asked trying to sound sweet it was actually getting on my nerves.

“I thought it was a sweet thing to do.” He mumbled glancing around quickly.

What, play evil kid games—oh. Carrying the books, guess he was still not convinced by what I’d said. The anger drained somewhat. Did he think he wasn’t sweet? I wanted to jack hammer Ginger for planting seeds of doubt inside his mind. He was doing just fine in the boyfriend department without acting like a pack mule.

“Listen, okay?” I placed my hands on his face. “It might be sweet for Ginger, for me it’s not. I like to carry my things. They’re mine, not yours. I’m not ill or weak for you to carry stuff around for me. I think you’re sweeter in different ways.” My eyes drowned inside his, and vice-versa. I thought it was all the convincing he needed when the emotion in his eyes sagged, I refused to frown. Instead, I smiled softly. “You know what the sweetest thing about you is?” My soul shuddered at how innocent his eyes truly were, at times. It was rare and he only showed it to me, making me feel protective of him, like Nate was made of glass and might shatter if I wasn’t there to shield him. “The sweetest thing about you is how you surprise me, even when I think you’re done and I’ve figured all of you out—you manage to come up from behind me, like when my birthday rolled around. I didn’t even recall it, and you took me to that county fair. It was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

His golden cheeks became a light shade of red. Now that was surprising, he had only blushed a handful of times since we met.

“Where do you wanna go eat?” His voice sounded a little nervous, embarrassed from blushing.

I was allowed to retrieve my books without resistance on his part and smiled, locking our hands together.

“Surprise me.”

Nate smirked back to his old self.

***

“Okay, I'm surprised. Vegan restaurant?” I flipped open the menu. “I've never been to one.”

“Neither have I. It's a new experience for both us—maybe we'll become vegetarians.” His eyebrows wiggled after the waitress walked out from ear shot. I shook my head baring a smile. Us turning vegetarians? Not happening, not after we went our whole trip eating stakes and bacon.

“You do know vegetarian and vegan are different things, right?”

“Huh—sure. I know that.”

“You're such a liar.” I bumped him on the head with the dark thin book.

He smirked through the ordeal, tipping his blond head backward where I couldn't reach him.

“And I'm sure you can tell the difference, smarty-pants?”

I crossed my arms setting them on top of the table, leaning forward.

“Vegans don't use any animal products—I'm not just talking about food, I mean beauty products that were tested on animals, or clothes made of leather, wool, fur—stuff like that. They're against the exploitation of animals for any reason. It's a lifestyle, not a diet.” I sipped my smoothie watching the glint in Nathaniel's eyes. Fascination rolled up amazement, my eyes lowered at a moment's weakness. I was sitting but my knees felt shaky, it was supernatural how Nate could still provoke such strong feelings in me. “It was part of a science project back in high school. I got an A plus.” He cracked a smooth grin. “If you call me a nerd—” He grasped the hand I was pointing at him, his fingers fluently coursed mine.

“I can't call you a nerd. Did you forget who skipped two years of high school?”

“Wait. You skipped two high school years? I always thought you skipped years in College.” I propped my head on my free hand.

“Nope. I skipped eleventh and twelfth grade.”

“You... didn't have a senior year?”

“No.” He shrugged off like the matter wasn't important in the least. Maybe for him, it wasn't.

“I guess I don't have to worry about an old flame from prom.” I don't know what possessed me to say something so cold—it sounded that way to me. It wasn't how I said it, but because I had said it. “Sorry.”

“For what?” He honestly questioned trailing my wrist with softness.

“For what I just said... for all I know you wanted to go to prom.”

“Have you met me? I hate those things.” Yeah, Nathaniel struck me as the kind of guy who wouldn't go to a dance or any kind of high school celebrations, because it was lame and tough guys didn't do lame. “Did you go to prom?” My eyebrows lifted as I finished savoring the strawberry shake in my mouth. “Of course you did, you're a princess. Princesses love dressing up in fancy dresses, get corsages, dance all night...” He chuckled at my eye roll. “Did you go with him?” By 'him' I'm assuming he meant Parker.

“Yeah, we were together back then.” There was a strange movement of his shoulders. I took it as a tip, I should change the subject. But now I'd gotten worried about Parker's disappearance... “Do you … do you think they'll ever find out the truth?”

His composure became different that same second. Eyes locked with mine, calm, assured and certain. Nate's fingers looped with mine.

“Everything will be just fine. As far as they're concerned Parker ran away. Obviously The Order didn't kidnap him from his house or there would've been signs of struggle which means they picked a quiet, deserted spot. Maybe when he was walking home, or going to College—something like that. No eyewitnesses in Philadelphia and the only ones who know what happened are us—plus, The Order members who were in charge of pulling the stunt off. We're in the clear.” His voice was so low I had to follow his lips movements to understand every word.

“What if they find that house...?”

“If they were going to find it, they would've by now. There are no clues for them to track, Mel. Relax.”

While that should put my mind at peace it didn't. How could it? I was going to lie to my friends for the rest of my life. Pacey hadn't confronted me with the news but he would, sooner or later. I felt guilt well up.

“I hate this.” I muttered lowering my head, russet hair fell forward and to the sides obscuring my vision of everything. “I hate that I have to lie—I'm going to be giving Pacey fake hope for the rest of my life when I know Parker's not coming back—he will never turn up.” I disentangled our fingers, massaging both my temples.

From across the table, I heard a sigh rippling the heavy air that had suddenly set itself around us.

“It's not your fault.” My hair was parted and after that, my face was being lifted, cupped, between soft, cool hands. “He had bad luck, princess. It's not your fault.” I could hear that he believed it, but I couldn't shake the feeling of responsibility for Parker's life. “I brought you here so we could have a good time, I don't want you to be sad.” When I did my best to conjure a smile—and failed epically—Nathaniel leant over the table kissing my head. It made me feel warm, like there was nothing to worry about, as if being with Nate solved every possible problem. He glimpsed at me still from up close, before sitting down. “That's a nice scarf.” He pointed to my neck, I fingered it out subconsciously. “Who gave it to you?”

Clearing my voice before I spoke, my face lightened a bit.

“Chris.” My heart fluttered with heartfelt nostalgia.

“You liked her a lot, didn't you?”

“She was like a grandmother to me.” I glanced down at the simple, but vibrant scarf loosely wrapped around my neck.

“She must have been pretty amazing considering she raised you.” I grimaced a little smile, making a priceless grin overcome his lush lips. “I made you smile.” He followed my head movement as I tried to cover up the growing turn of lips.

When the waitress found time to take our orders we both chuckled at one another, sitting in a straight position. When we both managed to cease those goofy smiles, the lady in her thirties was more than happy to send our requests to the kitchen.

“Do you think we pissed her off?” Nate whispered as she stepped away.

I leant closer to him.

“You maybe, me though, people love me.” I made a mock impression of his voice and a cocky remark.

One trimmed eyebrow arched.

“Are you impersonating me?” He scoffed. “I don't sound anything like that.” I laughed hard for a good while. Nate leant on his chair watching me, looking like he had something to talk about—something serious. “I wanna tell you something.” I was right; the moment I quieted down he found the comfort to start.

“Okay,” I conceded. “Just tell me something first... is it a bad thing?”

“No.” I sighed gladly. “I'm going to start looking for a job.” My eyes perked with the news. It wasn't like money was a problem. Nate's account was loaded, like he insisted on saying, and mine had some leftover money my parents had transferred. But the thought of Nathaniel being locked up in our apartment with nothing to do, all day... was just enervating. I knew he hated it.

“That's good.” My lips pressed together. “I know it's boring for you... to stay home alone with nothing to do. I don't want that.”

When our meal arrived we ate slowly, talking along its duration. I strove to keep my thoughts clear and far from Pacey and Parker. Nate made a face when I stole a bite from his vegan hamburger. I chewed it all up swallowing it easily. I shook my head when he accused me of eating more than my fill.

“Do you want some from mine?” I asked rolling the spaghetti around the fork, then stabbed a piece of almond holding it up.

Nate pretended to glance around for a bit looking suspicious.

“You sure you want to feed me in public? I thought that was kind of private.”

I would've choked if I had something in my mouth.

“This isn't that kind of feeding.” I rolled my eyes excessively.

“So... we're not getting naked?”

“Huh, you're such a perv sometimes. Forget about eating my food, suddenly I don't feel like sharing.” I drew the fork to my mouth, he watched me with slow growing amusement in his eyes.

Nate pulled out his wallet when the tab arrived. I caught him making a face before stuffing back in his back pocket. Once we stepped outside I looped my arm with his tilting my head on his arm.

“Why were you looking evilly at your expensive leather wallet?” He scrunched his face, I shrugged. “You have a leather wallet it’s... not something I'm used to seeing.”

“I like expensive.” Nathaniel kept me glued to his side as we walked to the subway. “And I'm out of cash. I'll have to use my credit card when I go buying groceries.”

“We're out of food already?” I squinted up at him.

“I'm a guy, I have a fast metabolism.” I guess he was right. “Where are you heading now?” He sighed when we descended the stairs to the underground transport.

“Library, I have research to do.” He maneuvered me to stand in front of him, I took advantage of our position and slipped my arms around his torso. “You can come if you want?”

“Nah, I've made my contribution to College, Mel, but you could tell me what's it about, maybe I can help.”

“Know anything about Raphael?”

“Who?” I jabbed his stomach playfully, he snickered. “Either than that he was an artist in the Renaissance Era? No.”

“Then you can't help, baby, sorry.” I leaned up to peck his chin.

***

That evening when I boarded my building’s elevator, after my study session at the library, I ran into a girl I had never seen. But when I noticed she'd marked my same floor I knew she could only be my new neighbor, the girl who rented Anna’s house—besides, her hair was bleached just as Nate said.

“What floor are you heading for?” She asked in a polite manner, standing close to the elevator numbers.

“Tenth floor,” I looked to the button already lit.

“You live in the same floor as me.” She… Ashley, I think that was what Nate said, gave away with a friendly smile. I could see why he hadn’t enjoyed her. For me it was different, as Nate put it: Friendly was my cup of tea.

“Yeah, I’m Melissa.” I held my hand out and she shook it. “You met my boyfriend the other day. He helped you carry the boxes?”

Ashley nodded immediately.

“It’s nice to meet you, Melissa, I’m Ashley. He was great, those boxes were really heavy. I tried to thank him with some cooking but he didn’t want anything.” She shrugged with a light smile. “I’m Canadian I guess it’s in my nature to be polite, like that.”

“You’re from Canada? Anna hadn’t told me that—huh, she used to live in the apartment you rented until she moved into Campus.” I explained not knowing if she knew who Anna was or not, for all I knew Ashley could’ve met with only her Aunt. I didn’t want her thinking Anna was my spy or something. “So you’re a cook?”

“Yes, but I’m working from home right now. I have a catering business. It’s small since I’m only kicking off.” She leant her back on the elevator wall just as we passed the fourth floor. “I’ll be able to get more organized when Roland comes back from Europe.” She seemed to muse more than inform me until realization shone in her eyes. “He’s my boyfriend—I let him handle any paper work I have, since I can be a little distracted with that. Reading contracts isn’t my favorite hobby.” She shrugged with a soft guilty expression. Nate seemed right this was my type of person, not his, definitely. “What about you, Melissa, what do you do?”

“I’m an art student at Columbia. Actually,” my lifted slowly with the entire book weight, so I could show her proof. “I just came from the library. My arm’s killing me… I wished they put this stuff on the internet.”

“I support that decision, heavy things are too much of a bother, they should be easier to deal with.” She stated glancing fleetingly at the numbers—I did the same—we were almost on our floor. “Well, if you ever need to eat you can ring my doorbell, I feel like I still owe your boyfriend and you’re nice, I liked meeting you.”

“Thanks, same here.” We parted, I exited and marched to the left, she to the right.

When I stepped in, I expected there to be a wonderful smell carrying from the kitchen. Nate made an amazing cook. Really, he could’ve been a chef. When he started cooking I felt surprised. Aric and him were complete opposites when it came to the kitchen. Anyway…

“Nate?” I asked into the quiet living room, dying to put my books down. He sat up slowly on the black couch, hair tousled. “Were you sleeping?” I strolled over to the coffee table easing my things on it.

He rubbed a hand across his face.

“I might have dozed off for a minute there…” His finger scratched below his ear as he adjusted his eyes to the room light. “I got bored.” He confessed when I sat on the brim, next to him.

I kissed him quickly, too tired to prolong it. Nate inched his face in for more, I backed up a little, blinking tiredly. He understood cupping my cheek.

“Those books were heavy reading. I’m starving… maybe after dinner.” My thumbs rubbed the backs of his hands.

One hand fell from my face as he rubbed his neck.

“About that…” He started. “There is no dinner. I didn’t make it. I couldn’t, since there is nothing for me to cook.”

I frowned.

“I thought you’d gone to the store?” He nodded. “Well, did you eat everything while I was gone?”

“No—” On cue his stomach growled, I looked down then back up. That even sounded painful. “I couldn’t buy anything. Since I didn’t have money on me I used the credit card and it was rejected…”

“Why…?”

Nate offered a soft shrug leaning his side to the backrest.

“I was going to the bank to find out but I had to walk there, so, when I arrived it was already closed.” He sulked momentarily. “Then I had to walk all the way here…” He rubbed his stomach. “If you’re starving imagine me.”

“My poor baby,” I cooed making him roll his eyes. I turned a little more serious, or worried then. “Why do you think your card was rejected?”

“It must be some glitch or something. Don’t worry about it.”

“What about your ATM card? Couldn’t you’ve made a withdrawal?”

“I tried… I couldn’t.” My throat felt a little a dry; I was getting a bad feeling about this. “Look, it’s just a glitch. It happens more often than you think.”

“You’re sure?”

“It will be fine. I’ll go to the bank tomorrow and solve this mess, okay? Don’t worry.” He kissed the side of my head in a attempt to make my bad feeling diminished. “Worry about dinner, though.”

I grimaced when my own stomach woke up grumbling like a monster. I patted it for a second until I got an idea.

“I just met our next door neighbor.” Nate let out a little groan, I pushed his side. “Don’t be like that, the poor girl actually thought you were nice.”

“And I’m not?”

“You are when you want to be…” But up until now, I’d only seen him be good to me and for me. To others he was still… well, it was like he didn’t really care if they existed or not. “Besides, she’s Canadian—”

“Ah, that explains a lot.” He laughed honestly.

“Don’t stereotype.” I scolded him a little, though Ashley seemed to fit perfectly in the Canadian profile.

“Whatever you say,” he rubbed my hair in-between his finger pads. “Why are we discussing her instead of figuring out dinner?”

“Because you helped her with the boxes and she wanted to repay you—and still does.” His cognac eyes sharpened. “She said we could drop by any time…” I finished in a smaller tone. “I’m really hungry, Nate.” I knew he didn’t like the thought of spending time with other people, especially the extremely nice ones, but he’d have to learn how to deal with it. “It’s just dinner.” I sorted the tousled hair into place, slowly, to give him time to think.

“Just dinner?” He asked voice softer than his eyes.

“Yep,” I confirmed.

With a sigh he pushed me to the side so he could get off the couch.

“You’re lucky I can’t resist you.”

I smiled watching him disappear into the hallway, into our bedroom, probably to wash his sleepy face and change into clothes that weren’t wrinkled. I shifted to my side when my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a text from… an unknown number.

What part did you like better in your road trip? Meeting assassins or killing them?

And just like that, normal went to hell.