Accidentally

Chapter Eleven

“So, this parasite doesn’t eat at all?” I confirmed, staring at my laptop screen in amazement.

  Nathan came over and plopped himself beside me on the chair, Diet Coke in hand. “Yup, guess so. How are you feeling, by the way?”

  I touched my forehead and nose. The swelling had gone down. “It’s fine now, I actually forgot about it for a while. Thanks for helping me,” I flashed him a smile and he shot me a dazzling one back.

  Crack.

  I sprung out of my bed. “What was that?”

  Nathan stood up, steadying me. His eyes narrowed and he walked to the window. He peered out, suspicion evident in his face. I studied him a little. A look of understanding crossed his face as he furrowed his eyebrows. Boy, was he cute.

  “Babe, I told you to take a picture,” He smirked.

  I gaped at him. “Babe?”

  He winked at me and I slapped him upside the head, grinning evilly.                   

  He glared at me. “For a small person you sure do pack one hell of a strong hit.”

  “Try me.”

  “I will, babe, I will.”

  Slap.

  “Okay, enough,” he muttered. “If you were a dude you’d be getting it by now.”

  “Getting what? A punch? Not with those twig arms,” I shot back, not missing a beat. I was known for my fast, sarcastic comebacks.

  He raised an eyebrow. Those ‘twig arms’ were actually buff and pretty muscular.

  “Like your arms are that muscle-ey,” he muttered under his breath.

  It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. I flexed a lean and slightly muscled arm and smirked as Nathan’s jaw dropped.

  “Dude,” he whispered, “not bad.”

  I suddenly remembered the cracking noise I had heard previously. “Nathan.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Did you hear it? The cracking noise?”

  “I did,” he looked away. “It must be a branch or something, I don’t know.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly. “Let’s get back to work.”

  I was convinced that he was hiding something, but did not want to pry further. As we went back to researching the organisms found in the school pond, I could tell something was bothering him.

  Brzzt. Brzzt.

  Nathan’s phone buzzed with a call. “If you’ll excuse me,” he said, and then left the room.

  From my room, I could hear bits and pieces of Nathan’s conversation. I could also hear him pacing in the hallway.

  “..yeah, okay.”

  “I know.”

  “Maybe, for once, I’d like to-“

  Nathan’s sentence was interrupted. He groaned and punched the wall furiously and knocked on the door to my room.

  I fixated my eyes on the screen and pretended that I did not hear his conversation.

  “Sorry ‘bout that,” Nathan said sheepishly.

  “It’s okay, Nathan,” I smiled.

  “Uh, Audrey,” he ran a hand through his hair perplexedly, “I gotta run.”

  I looked up at him in surprise. “’Kay. I’ll go down with ya.”

  We walked down the stairs and out the door in silence. Nathan put his hands in his pocket and smiled at me. “I had fun.”

  “Me too.”

  “Bye,” he started walking away.

  “See you at school,” I called out hopefully.

  He stopped walking and I saw his shoulders tense a little. My heart thudded. Had I said the wrong thing?

  He turned back, a troubled and apologetic smile on his face. “I don’t know about that, Audrey.”

  “What?” My heart sank. “Why?”

  He looked away and stayed silent for a while. I awaited his answer with bated breath. Then, he met my eyes and looked at me emotionlessly.

  “Why? Because maybe I don’t want to,” he deadpanned.

  He turned on his heels and left.

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DUN DUN DUN!

Yes, throw potatoes and eggs at me. Tone down on the eggs though, they're slimy.

-omg Aretha is so nice, she wrote extra-long today. I'm going to vote for all her chapters and comment too.- :P

I won't update till this gets at least 55 reads, 12 comments from DIFFERENT PEOPLE, and 20 votes! I raised the bar higher because I know y'all can do it. And because I'm a master at blackmail.

Thanks for all the supprt, dear tadpoles! ("omg did Aretha just call us tadpoles?")

PS : If y'all wanna send covers of this story to me, email me at aretha.aryono@gmail.com

THANKS! :)

xACCIDENTALLYx