Wild Berries 🍓 Fezco

Three 🍓

People who are addicts will lie and manipulate and scam whoever they need to in order to get more drugs. I know, because I am one. But Natalie isn't. Well, at least she's not as bad as me. And maybe it's just who she is, that perfect little angel, but I don't think she has it in her to fuck over whoever she needs to in order to get some more drugs. And usually, if I just like... needed some, she give 'em to me for free.

Natalie has a very expressive face. It tells on her a lot. But she's so kind that it's okay. And when her face turns a little sour, a little sad, after she gives me whatever she could find in her sock drawer, I know it's because she's regretting her decision. She always tells me to quit coming to her for drugs, because she can't say no. Like it just isn't possible. And, you can tell from her doe eyes and her nose scrunch that she doesn't want to enable me. I love her for giving me drugs, but I also wish she would cut me off and block me and pretend like she doesn't know what pills are, and like she doesn't know me.

But she never will, because she's too fucking kind.

She met Nate in sixth grade, when they were eleven. He walked her home that day that he helped her wipe baby food off of her binders, and it became like a ritual for them. And, she said she's never told anyone but me, and I don't know how true that is, but she said that one day he just got kind of mean. Not really to her, but to everyone else around them. She said it was because of something his dad did, and she swore me to secrecy, even though she didn't tell me what he did. And, I don't think she knows either, but she does know more about him than anyone in this town. Natalie had told me forever ago that he was a lot like his dad, but I don't think she knows just how much.

But, she said that he became kind of obsessive over everything he could control. That was why she felt he was so similar to his dad, because Cal was obsessive too. Nate became obsessive over his fitness, and football, his girlfriends, and his Natalie.

He loved how it felt to win, and he always felt that way when he was with Natalie.

He's focused and driven, and he knows what he wants and exactly how to get it.

He had a long mental checklist of things he liked and disliked about women. He liked tennis skirts and jean cut offs, but not the kind so short you could see the pockets. He liked ballet flats and heels, he hated sneakers and dress shoes, but was fine with sandals as long as they were worn with a fresh pedicure. He liked thigh gaps, and hated cankles. He liked tan lines, long necks, slender shoulders. He liked good posture and fruit scented body mists. He liked full lips and small noses. He liked chokers, but the lacy ones with flower cut outs and delicate patterns. He hated girls who sat like boys, talked like boys, acted like boys. But there was nothing on planet Earth that he hated more than body hair.

Natalie had most of the things he liked, but she also had quite a few things that he didn't. She loved a good tennis shoe, and her feet were sensitive so she didn't like to go get pedicures, and instead liked to make Nate paint her toes while she threw her feet in his lap and read a magazine. She hated to wear ballet flats and chokers. Her posture wasn't always the best, which irked him a lot, and a lot of the time she would absentmindedly sit in a way that her mother would get onto her for. But one thing he adored her for was that she knew how to use nair.

He would never know, but one day he told her that her arms felt fuzzy, and then the next day she showed up without any arm hair. It really fucked with her self esteem, but he felt like she could read his mind, and he loved that she knew him so well.

When he met Maddy, he kind of pushed Natalie to the side. So far to the side that she was hanging off. He stopped walking Natalie home from school and started to walk Maddy. Instead, Nat would ride home with Lexi and Cassie. And Nate felt bad for kind of just abandoning her, but he knew Maddy wouldn't like it if Natalie was around them too much, and he also knew that Nat wouldn't want to be a third wheel.