Choices

Chapter 20

"I think we should do something fun today. You know, just hang out. The three of us." Julie suggested as we both walked together out the hallway and towards the parking lot.

I scanned around if I could find Nate among the mass of students hurrying out of school eagerly "I guess that's a great idea actually. But we got to find Nate first."

"Yeah. Where is he?" Julie muttered impatiently.

"Oh.. I've seen him!" Julie tells me as her eyes dart around a certain direction.

I followed her eyes and quickly found him too. He looked kind of exhausted as he brushed his hair out of his face and quickly hurried toward us after spoting us.

As he got closer, I realized Camilla was walking close behind him. He tried to walk faster in order to lose her in the crowd but she only increased her pace.

He reached where we were and breathed "Hey guys."

Camilla stopped right next to him and literally latched her hand to his arm. "Hi," she said.

Julie frowned but muttered 'hi' back to her. I just stood and ignored her presence. Her presence was already annoying to me.

"Come on let's go. Oh.. yeah. Nate we're planning to go out and do something fun. You in?"

Camilla frowned as if we were ruining her plans.

"Oh yeah... About that. I can't make it, sorry."

"Why?" I frowned.

"I...um got something I got to do." He shifted from foot to foot and avoided eye contact.

Camilla grinned as if she just won something "Oh does that mean you're agreeing to my plans."

He winced.

She leaned in to his ear and whispered even though we could hear her clearly and giggled loudly "oops... Are they not supposed to know?"

He quickly moved away from her and her hand fell off his arm "no Camilla. I meant it when I said I'm busy. I wasn't joking."

"Oh." She looked crestfallen.

"Bye Camilla. You can go now." He said without looking at her.

"Fine" she spat out and stomped away looking very mad. What the hell was going on?

Julie quickly moved forward and looked him straight in the eye "Nate, are you hiding something from us? Or you just don't want to hang out?"

"No Julie. Come on guys. I'm actually busy. You got to understand."

I stepped forward "then tell us what's going on. You can't just blow us off like this."

He groaned "I'm not blowing you off. Look, I got to go."

Julie was clearly about to argue more but I grabbed her hand and shook my head subtly.

She breathed in deeply "then at least let me give you a ride."

"No" he replied sharply.

"No?" Julie asked incredulously.

He rubbed his forehead "I don't want to bother you. It's fine."

Julie narrowed her eyes at him "since when has giving you a ride been a bother?"

"No, it's just I have to pick up something before going home and it's the opposite way you're going."

"So?"

"Julie," he started frustrated "just because you have a car doesn't mean I have to ride home with you."