The Heaven I Found In Hell (41 page)

And everything turned around.

"Blake, you're an ass," Natalie said, using a tone of finality. "I shouldn't have dated you."

Instead of trying to make peace, Blake decided to feed his ego by saying, "But you did."

Natalie screamed, unable to bear the drama any longer, before she got Scott's hand and pulled him out of the pool. I saw the two of them enter the hotel, and when they were completely gone, we looked at each other, and suddenly, no one was in the mood to swim. I remained in my place, and waited for Nathan to come over to me, and when he did, he knew what I wanted, to feel protected.

"Did you hear?" Sasha, a classmate of mine in French, asked, not paying attention to our teacher who was writing a number of sentences onto the blackboard.

I turned to her, and asked what exactly was I supposed to know. It took her a while to answer, and while I waited, I thought about what had happened to me today, which was nothing really. This Monday, so far, had been uneventful, that was because we still didn't have lunch, and I woke up a few minutes later than my usual 'get-up time,' so the whole morning I was rushing for everything. I didn't even get enough time to meet with Nathan since I had finished getting dressed five minutes before the bell rang. Before I could prolong my train of thoughts, Sasha spoke up.

"I heard Scott and Natalie are going out."

I looked at her, and smirked. That was a shocker. Not.

"They're so random," I said, rolling my eyes in annoyance.

I hated Natalie, and every part of her life. I still remembered the things she said to me and my friends, and the way she kept hitting Nathan. She was stronger than what I expected, and I had hoped she wasn't. She was independent, and she didn't need Scott, or any other guy, or person, to help her get what she wanted. She could manipulate almost everyone, that is, except for my group of friends. They knew her and her shit, and besides, it didn't matter if she was head cheerleader, and was able to make her posse hate me, backstab me, or threaten me. I had three of the best jocks on my side, and one of them was my boyfriend.

"Yeah, I mean, is Scott even that good of a soccer player?" she asked, as she took something out of the pocket of her skirt, her lip gloss, and applied it.

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't know."

"I mean, I'm sorry, but punks and preps don't mix," she said in a matter-of-factly tone, and I found myself grinning.

"Scott isn't really a punk," I said in return with a small laugh.

"But still, they don't mix."

"Figures," Riley said when she found out Scott and Natalie had hooked up and was going out. "Are they trying to annoy us or maybe they're just really in love?"

We exchanged glances, and after, laughed.

"The two of them? In love? For real?" Riley said, unable to contain the laughter inside her. "Please. That will only happen the day I start hating soccer."

"Which is never."

She agreed.

We put our books inside our locker, and after, made our way to the cafeteria. We quickly went to our table, and even before I could take my seat, Nathan had stood up from his chair, and he greeted me with a soft peck. He sat back down again, and I was about to do the same, but instead of sitting at my usual place, I found myself on Nathan's lap which I must say was a very comfortable position. To support me, he hugged me from behind, before he rested his chin on my shoulder.

"You guys are adorable," Kendra said, smiling at us.

Everyone at the table started to fix their gazes on Nathan and me, and that was when I started to feel awkward. I liked Nathan's touch, and the warmth he always gave me, but I disliked attention. Though, it's not like I could get away from that. I had my friends on the lookout for the next 'cute' thing Nathan and I would do, and the whole world wanting to know almost every part of my life. Attention was following me 24/7.

"Nathan, stop," I said, but did he listen? No.

His head remained on my shoulder, and I could feel his hair tickling the side of my face. Slowly and unaware of my actions, I loosened up, resting my head on Nate's. Riley and the rest continued whistling and commenting, and so I tried one last time to make Nathan let go of me.

"Nate. Me. Off. You. Now."

He let out a groan before he shook his head in defiance, and it made me want to raise my voice at him. Some continued looking at us, while the others stood up from their seats to get their food. I, on the other hand, couldn't do anything since I was caged. After a few minutes, I finally got tired, and decided to try and escape. I got a hold of the lower part of both his arms, and with all the force I had, I pulled them off from me. Catching him by surprise, he didn't know what I was doing, and only just realized that I had left his lap and was sitting down on my 'real' seat.

"You're mean," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "I thought you were an affectionate girlfriend."

A lot of long 'oh's erupted from our friends, and that made me furrow my eyebrows at my boyfriend.

"Well, you're sickeningly affectionate," I retorted, suppressing a smirk. "So bug off."

I saw him pout, and I knew he was waiting for me to apologize. Nathan and I were always like this, argue, make-up, then argue, and then make-up. And it's a shocker to me why, until now, I am still not getting sick of our tease-fests. They were always fun, but they usually ended up with intense public displays of affection.

"Alex, you're annoying," he said, wearing the annoyed and hopeful look of an eight-year old.

"What's happening here?" Blake asked, returning with a tray which packed a burger, fries, and a bottle of juice.

"Alex is just being hard," Nathan answered, as he tried to snake his arm around my waist.

I got his hand, and removed his hold on my hips, before I put it back to where it was supposed to be, on his sides. Stubborn and apathetic to how uneasy I felt about showing signs of 'love' in public, he didn't let go of my hand, and instead, intertwined his fingers with mine. I liked the touch, but what I disliked was the way I always gave in to his wants.

"And Nate's being sick," I said, as I rolled my eyes in mock-irritation.

"You're calling me sick?" he asked, feigning a hurt of look. "Unbelievable. My girlfriend is a fag."

With that, I let out a laugh, and at the same time, slapped his shoulder. I looked at him, smirking wide, and he returned my look of happiness and amusement. I immediately forgot about how his mushiness made me want to pretend I was annoyed with him, so now, I didn't mind how much soap-opera-y we were being.

"Me? A fag?" I asked in mock-surprise, as I held out my hand in front of my face to be able to flip him the bird.

In response he laughed at me as he leaned his head down to kiss my middle finger. I didn't expect that from him, so when he did just that, I looked up to meet his eyes before I said, "Ass. You always find a way to do something good from every bad thing I do."

"That's why," he said. "I compliment you."

"And what about me? What good do I bring out of you?"

"Number one, I've been a complete angel even before you got here, so don-"

"Right, Nathan," Riley said, who was tangled up in Anthony. 
I swear. They are such a cute couple. 
"You were like Ridgeway's bad boy before-"

"No, I was the badass one!" Blake proclaimed, catching the attention of a few students around us.

"Well, maybe you hold that title, but what I'm saying is that," Riley started. "Alex changed my brother."

"Here, here," Cindy said in return, using her debate slang. In layman's terms, 'here, here' just means 'I agree.'

"Oh no," I said, wearing a look of pretend worry. "Is the sappiness going to start again?"

Everyone around the table looked at each other, and as if in unison, everyone nodded their heads. After a few seconds of silence, the lot of us broke into laughter, as we started talking about Nathan and Me, Riley and Anthony, Kendra and Jackson, Blake and Mandy, and Cindy and…Dylan?

"I need to get out of here," I said. "I need to get away from the soap opera I call high school."

I began to stand up from my seat, and pulled my chair away from the table, so that I had a tiny space that served as my exit. Nathan followed, and again, like always, the teasing started.

"Here, have a condom," Blake said, as he retrieved his wallet from the pocket of his pants, and got a pack which he threw over to Nathan.

"Now, that," I said, wearing a look of disgust, as I looked at the 'thing' that looked like an elongated balloon that had not been blown. "That is just sick."

Before Blake could say anything in return, Nathan's hand circled my wrist, as he pulled me away from the table, from the cafeteria, and from the building, as we spent the rest of our lunch time walking around, talking, hugging, and you know the drill, kissing.

Another month passed, and before I knew it, December had approached, flooding me with a wave of feelings, of anxiousness, excitement, worry, and uncertainty. I was anxious because of the fact that Winter Formal was just round the corner, and I was going to go back to New York for the first half of my Winter Break, which meant I could model again. The second, I was going to L.A. to spend time with Nathan's family. I was also excited since yeah…there was going to be another dance, and hopefully, this was going to be much more enjoyable than the last one I had attended. I was also eager to see my parents again, since now I'd be able to show Nathan to them, especially to my mother. I couldn't wait to see the horrified look on her face when she found out that she wouldn't be able to say anything bad about Nate, and that she would have no choice but to accept him. I was also worried though since the possibility of my mom embarrassing Nathan, me, or the both of us was of a high percentage. My dad was going to be there, but my mom was like…RAWR! 
I have no idea how else I can describe her…

Before I could continue ranting on and on in my head, Nathan spoke up, telling me, "Come on, we better hurry."

I stood up from the couch I was lying down on, and turned to him. He had his back against the wall of his dorm room, while his arms lazily fell on his sides. He looked at me, quite apathetically, and I knew he was starting to become sleepy. Although in his weary state, he still looked dashing.

"Did you make plans?" I asked, and in response he nodded discretely at me.

"But you look tired," I said, as I made my way over to him.

In a soft voice, he spoke, "I didn't know I was going to be this exhausted, so I made plans with Ri and Anthony. They invited us to have dinner at this upscale Italian restaurant."

"Is this like a double date?" I asked, bringing him closer to me by a hug.

It was around seven-thirty in the evening, and the sky outside was dark now. I had spent this Friday afternoon watching Nathan play soccer. It kind of bored me to death, but I definitely wasn't going to tell him that. I had planned to go shopping like always, but he invited me, and how could I refuse? I watched him and the guys half-stripped, kicking balls, and doing sit-ups and push-ups, and all those strenuous exercises that built the body. It was kind of heavenly since there were a couple of dozen hot guys sweating in front of me, and they didn't care if I and other people were looking at them. So yeah, it might've have been a boring afternoon, but it was also enjoyable, slightly.