I would be lying if I said my relationship with Nathan wasn't the best relationship I had ever been in. I would be lying if I said I wasn't the happiest I've been in ages. I would be lying if I said the past few days weren't perfection.
But I would be lying if I said I ended today with a smile on my face.
Lying would be me saying today was fantastic, and fun, and filled with awe.
No. Today was shit. Absolute garbage. And I could not wait for it to be over. The only good thing? The tradition Nathan rekindled.
It was lunch time. Nathan and I had walked over to the store with Shannon Sprague and Claire McDaniel. We split a sandwich, each got a water and chips, and I bought some gummy worms. We ate there, and headed back over to school.
Outside the store we lost Shannon and Claire, (thank god!) so we walked alone, talking. It was cold out, what with being the middle of winter, so we held hands and pulled our hats on. My red mitten was squashed in his black glove. It was weird. It was nice.
I kicked snow onto his boots and he sprinkled snow on my hat. We both caught snowflakes on our tongues and I laughed when he got one in his eye. At one point he tried pushing me in a snow bank, but I stepped back, making him fall forward into the yucky snow. I pulled him up and offered some gummy worms as a peace offering. I had eaten all the red and blue ones, so the gross green and yellow were all that were left, but he accepted anyway.
I had a lot on my mind that day. Actually, for a few days...ever since Nathan had gotten extremely close to Matt Faraci and Will Rendler. I knew they were friends, but now he was always with them. Except when he was with me. Matt and Will were never up to any good. They got horrible grades, hit on every girl, and pissed off teachers.
I was worried they were bad influences on him. Maybe I got a little too anxious, but it was out of concern for Nathan.
"They're trouble is all I'm saying. They always have after school detention, and always get yelled at...I mean...Are you sure they're not just using you? For attention or something? They tend to do that...use people and stuff..." I was saying. Nathan didn't look at me, he just kept walking towards school. I frowned, I wasn't comfortable with him suddenly getting so close with Matt and Will.
Small backstory: Matt and Will were these two tall, extremely cute, extremely athletic dudes in 12th grade. They act like brothers and big shot idiots all the time.
They're at every party, and start every fist fight. That's how Nathan started hanging out with them, he went to a dance and I guess they just hit it off. Suspicious.
Just because I was friends with them, didn't mean I trusted them. They were trouble, with a capital T. Actually, Matt had two T's in his name...
See? I had my reasons for being worried.
Nathan shook his head slightly. "They are not ideal, but I get along with them well. We have fun the way guys should be having fun. I am okay. I will be able to handle myself." Nathan replied, calm as always. He wasn't getting it, they weren't great guys. And I didn't want him to turn out like them.
"Yeah but..." I began again.
"Jackie," he cut me off, "are you not friends with Matt and Will? Have you not known them your whole life? Have you no faith in me to be careful? I will be ok!" His voice was a bit testy. He loosened his hold on my hand a little. He looked down and shook his head again. Obviously he didn't want to hear what I had to say.
I stopped talking. He was getting annoyed. I felt like I bothered him, and that made me a bit sad.
I sighed, and he gave me a side look. He sighed, mocking me, and squeezed my hand he was still holding. It was his way of apologizing for being annoyed, but he was right. I really had nothing to worry about.
We walked across campus hand in hand. We had about 10 minutes before class, and I planned on spending it outside. It was still cold and snowing, but we were warm in our coats.
Kids from my class and some seniors were playing football in the snow. Nathan looked over at their game, I knew how much he wanted to play. I was about to tell him to go and have fun, when he suddenly stopped walking.
