Nothing More - Sam Kiszka

Chapter 16

"Come on, you don't have to go yet," Danielle says from the bed, watching the girl in front of her tug her clothes back on in a rushed manner.

"No, I really do have to get going, I can't be late for this test," she says, turning back to face the bed as she buttons her jeans up and grabs her sweater from the ground.

Danielle was soon to get up from the bed, pulling her own clothes back on before pressing a kiss to Natalia's temple. "You're gonna do fine, don't freak."

Natalia nearly rolled her eyes at the comment, but kept her thoughts to herself. She invited Danielle over in between her midterms to let off some steam, but she seemed to take it more as wanting something out of the two of them hanging out, which Natalia wanted to avoid at all costs.

"Thanks," she mumbles, pulling her hair back into a ponytail and grabbing her shoes. Once they were both dressed, Danielle walks her to the elevator and says goodbye before letting her go off on her way out of the building. It was a little cloudy, but nothing that would stop her from walking to the lecture hall since it was so close. This was her last midterm, so it felt like a lot of weight was already off of her shoulders academics-wise. What wasn't leaving her head, though, was that she would have to be seated by Sam to take the test. She would ignore it, as it did nothing but distract her and make her angry, but seeing him when she entered the classroom made her stomach turn.

She takes her normal seat and grabs her notebooks from her bag, since this was her one open-note test. After 5 minutes of tapping pencils and bouncing legs filling the classroom, they're told to start the exam.

This was the one she was least nervous about, since all she had to do was locate information in her notes and write it down. This resulted in her finishing relatively quickly, only taking about 40 minutes of the hour they had. The professor, being one of the most strict she had, insisted that they stay the full hour to get attendance for the class. So, once her test was turned in, she returned to her seat and picked her pencil back up to doodle in her notebook until the timer went off in the front of the room.

Promptly after hearing permission to leave, she heads for the door to find that the clouds she thought so little of earlier had changed to a full storm. She sighs at the dismal sight of the pouring rain against the grey sky, debating just waiting it out in the building or calling an Uber to drive her 5 minutes down the road.

"I'll give you a ride," she hears, causing her to turn and face the tall brunette who was watching her watch the rain with his hands in his pockets. She considered how weak taking the offer could make her look, but then went back to thinking about how long her walk in the rain would be.

"Are you sure?" She asks shyly.

Instead of responding, he nods toward the hall leading to the parking garage and starts to walk, which she takes as a sign to follow. They reach his car and get in, sitting for a second with unspoken words from both mouths threatening to fill the space before Sam finally backs out and starts to drive.

She stared out the window for most of the drive until they got closer to her apartment complex. Though her eyes never moved, she decided to break the silence. "Thank you for the ride."

She heard him hum in response, figuring it was so he could keep his focus on the road. The rain was coming down hard now, hard enough to make it difficult to see too far in front of them. She could tell a storm was coming.

Entering the parking garage provided them a break from the pouring rain as he pulled into a parking spot. She stayed for a moment, thinking before looking over to face him. "Do you want to come in? I don't want you to have to drive in this."

He looks around for a second at the rain pouring down outside of the garage, letting out what Natalia heard as a sigh. "Yeah, I guess so."

She chuckles sarcastically and rolls her eyes, opening her door and picking her bag up. "Don't sound too thrilled," she mutters under her breath, getting out and hearing him do the same before they head up to the apartment in silence. The thunder and lightning had started by the time they got through the door, and Natalia would be lying if she said it didn't make her anxious.