Chapter 8: The Art of Making Friends
Nathan finally tracked me down at lunchtime on Thursday, just as I was contemplating a limp, clammy egg sandwich and wondering if I could be bothered to eat it. Common sense told me I should, but I wasn’t hungry at all, and now it was question of dredging up the energy to eat the damn thing. Maybe I should stop being so snotty and let Jenny to make me lunch. She had offered after all, but I had turned her down, again refusing to be indebted to my sister. I wished I could go back to eating in the cafeteria. As bad as the food was, at least it was warm. And indoors. And it didn’t rain in there.
“I’ve been looking for you” Nathan’s voice made me jump and drop the sandwich. Good riddance.
“Come to laugh at me?” I snapped. I knew I was probably being unfair, but I couldn’t help it. Nathan was potentially an enemy. I had to protect myself from him.
I had seen him a few times over the last couple of days, but had managed to avoid coming face to face with him. As I had predicted, he had fallen in with the popular crowd right away, easily stitching himself into the social fabric of the upper sixth form.
“No, I just came to return this. You left it on the table on Monday” he handed me the ugly woolly hat I had been wearing the other day. It must have come off as we were rolling about on the picnic table. I hadn’t even noticed I had lost it.
“Thanks” I muttered, stuffing it into my pocket. I could feel my cheeks beginning to heat up.
“Why would I laugh at you?” Nathan asked me, dropping onto the bench next to me.
“Because I made a complete fool of myself the other day?” I said flatly “Or maybe simply because everyone does. Take your pick, I’m not fussy”
“I’m sure they don’t” he said, but without much conviction.
“Please don’t expect me to believe you have been here for four days and you haven’t heard all about me. Annabeth Gankins, the black widow. The boyfriend stealer. I’m a lot of things, but naive isn’t one of them.”
Nathan stared at his feet.
“I might have heard some things” he admitted.
“There you go.”
“I didn’t say I believed them”
“You should. Most of those stories are true”
“So you really did almost kill this Connor bloke?” Nathan didn’t sound accusatory, he just seemed interested.
“That’s one way of putting it” I said guardedly.
“What’s the other way?”
“There was a car accident, which I did not cause, whatever Kathy or Charlotte might say”
“You’re an interesting girl, Annabeth, do you know that?”
My face felt like it was on fire, I was blushing so hard. I shuffled away from him.
“Look, about the other day...” I mumbled, my eyes glued on my shoes. “I don’t know what got into me. I don’t usually go around kissing people I’ve known for five minutes”
“That’s good.” Nathan shuffled closer to me “I like to feel special”
He started to lean towards me, one hand reached out as if to touch my hair. I jumped off the bench.
“Don’t even think about it.” I snarled, batting his hand away. Nathan shrugged, laughing.
“Just though I’d give it a try”
YOU ARE READING
All the Wrong Reasons
Teen FictionAnnabeth is a nobody, and that's the way she likes it. She gets by under the radar and she wants it to stay that way. But now she's in trouble. One stupid mistake means the little bubble of anonymity she has worked so hard to achieve has shattered i...
