If Only

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

"As Logan probably already told you, we first saw you back in seventh grade. You were so cute with your big eyes and button nose, but we didn't approach you, because of-"

"Matt." I interjected. I really wanted a pause button right now. Did he just say I was cute?

He nodded at first and then shook his head. "Well yeah, Matt was the one who intimidated us into not approaching you. But it was actually someone else. Well, for me at least. Not for Logan."

"Someone else?" This story seemed to take an interesting turn. The way he talked about this "someone else" made me feel like this person threatened Nate. Which of course, is ridiculous. Also for some reason Nate had a longer back-story than Logan did. Not that I was comparing the two.

Nate paused for a moment. "Did Logan ever mention to you a girl who was crying on the day we first saw you?"

I racked my brain for Logan's story and slowly nodded my head. "Yeah, he did. Who was she? He never said."

"I'll tell you who she is later. Anyways, she was that 'someone else.' While Logan was still wrapped up in your beauty, I became curious of the girl who indirectly led us to you in the first place- the crying girl. I approached her during lunch one day when Logan was out sick." He sighed, and continued, "It's not that I didn't want Logan to meet her too, it was just that sometimes... Doing everything together felt kind of suffocating, and for once I wanted something just for myself. Something I didn't have to share. Of course in this case, it was a someone."

Nate opened his mouth to continue when he was interrupted by our waitress, Sam. "Hi, I couldn't help but notice that neither of you have touched your food yet. Is there something not to your liking?"

Nate seemed a bit surprised and shook his head. "No, the food's perfect. I guess we just got carried away with our conversation." He looked at me when he said the last sentence. I blushed a bit and looked down at the table, avoiding his eyes.

"Oh you two are so cute! Anyways, if there's anything you need just let me know." She smiled and walked away.

"I guess we should eat first." Nate grabbed a slice of his pizza and took a bite. He nodded and pointed at his pizza, "this is really good."

I laughed and grabbed a slice of my own and took a bite. Nate was right, it did taste good. Although I was kind of disappointed that Nate left me hanging on his story like that. For the next few minutes we were in silence just eating. Any second now I was waiting for Nate to continue. When he picked up his third slice, I began wondering if he had ever intended to finish what he started.

After finishing my second slice I drank some water and cleared my throat. Nate guiltily looked up at me, as if he knew that he was avoiding the situation. I watched as he swallowed and took a sip of water. "Okay, I just want to let you know that you might not like what you hear."

"What do you mean?" My curiosity piqued. Even though he was taking forever to tell me what happened, with every sentence I became more and more drawn into his seventh grade life.

"I just... Nevermind. Okay so after that day we became friends and she was really sweet. She told me that the day she was crying were tears of joy. Matt was congratulating her, which made her laugh."

"Congratulating her for what?"

"She won the district art competition."

"Oh wow, how come I've never heard of someone from our school winning?"

"She's shy. Or at least, she was shy. She didn't want random people coming up to her and forcing her to make conversation."

"But Matt..."