Pick Up lines

Gratification

Walking into Two Whales diner I instantly waved hello to Mrs. Price, a large smile on my face, She was always a really nice lady who only ever wanted to make sure we were comfortable and ate healthy enough (She'd have to give me extra vegetables sometimes, insisting that I ate too much greasy and fat foods). She seemed to really care about us all and it made me happy, my parents never spoke to me much and when they did all they wanted was a report of how I was doing in school. Most of the time I never even saw them on Holidays. I felt Nathan behind me fidgeting slightly as I conversed with Joyce about her day, apparently it's been quite dull and not much has happened except that the jukebox finally bit the dust and that she'd have to actually upgrade their music system no matter how much she would miss it. I felt a bit bad, but it never did have the greatest music to be totally honest, least I wasn't a fan of the music in it."Fuck fuck" I looked back at Nathan whose eyes were wide and kept glancing over to the right, when I looked over I saw Max and Chloe sitting in their booth, I met eyes with Max and she smiled, standing up halfway and waving to me, about to call out until she saw Nathan with me, her face fell and a curious look took over her features, that normally meant I wasn't going to hear the end of it once I was alone with the girls, "What the hell are they doing here? Dammit." I heard Nathan mumble and I saw Chloe turn around, a glare settling on Nathan and she kept giving me worried and oddly suspicious glances."I thought they'd be gone by now. . . ." I whispered to him and waved back at Max who kept glancing between me and the dirty blonde who kept looking down and seeming to try and make himself smaller."They're sitting at my booth." He grumbled, "I always sit THERE when I come here." I looked at the booth, recognizing it and grinned."Hey, me too. That's the booth that I accidentally put graffiti on. . .""You're the fucker who did that to my booth?" Nathan looked over at me with his eyes narrowed, I continued to look back and forth between him and the girls. Not sure if he was pissed about that or not."Uhm. .. Yeah. Sorry about that. I was uhm, thinking about some homework I still had to do and started to carve. Joyce kicked me out for like, 3 days because of it but forgave me quite fast and made me promise to never do it again." Nathan just shook his head, an amused smile on his face, I really loved it when he smiled, this is the most I've ever seen him smile and having it directed towards me was uplifting, when he saw me looking back at the girls his smile fell and he turned to me."Listen. I think I'm just going to go back to the school. . . .you. . .you can hang out with Max and Chloe since you seem to want to talk them to them and I don't want to be a burdan--""What? Hell no!" I said loudly, making Joyce give me a stern look and I apologized quickly before turning back to Nathan, "I invited you out! So no. You are sticking with me tonight. Where do you wanna go?" He looked shocked, his mouth was seriously open in surprise and too many emotions kept going through his blue eyes, making it hard to figure out what exactly he was feeling, I tilted my head down and gave him a nervous smile, hoping that I didn't make too much of a scene. I didn't want Nathan to be alone tonight, he looked like he really needed a friend and I was prepared to step in and do it if Victoria, Hayden, or the other Vortex members didn't have time for the guy, Nathan needed a friend, someone who had an idea of how he thought and why he did the things he did. Sometimes I think I'm too nice for my own good, I just hope it won't come and bite me in the ass one day. But I highly doubt it would, Nathan was actually a really good guy, he just had small anger issues. Some that will probably never be fixed of course and I didn't want them to be fixed to be brutally honest, this was who he was and I was not about to change him to how society wants him to be, but I wanted to be his friend, and if that meant dealing with a few arguments here and there I was willing to risk it. (You don't realize. . . you idiot. . . )"I. . .uhm. . . " Nathan looked to be at a lost for words, "No. . .Let's go sit with them." He said and I froze, did he really just agree to go sit with the two people he hated most in our school (Never knew why he hated them, he just does, and they hate him. Mutual hate. Very bond. Much interest.) I gave him a smile, he met my eyes and I noticed his face flush a bit, I ignored it, I know he is attracted to me, but I don't want things to be rushed, I was attracted to him as well, but I barely knew the guy, this is the first day I've even spoken to him. I turned back to the booth, once again ignoring the sigh of relief he had once I made my way over, I made sure Nathan followed by grabbing the sleeve of his blue letterman jacket and tugging him towards the worn booths. Once we got there Max and Chloe looked up at us and Max scrambled to sit on the other side of the booth next to Chloe and I had Nathan slide into the booth first then I sat down."Hey Max! Hey Chloe!""Warren. . .Nathan. . ." Chloe said, gazing at the both of us with her eyes narrowed in thought, "What brings you here War?" She turned to me and I shrugged."I was hungry as a whale. Hell, I could probably eat a whale at this point. I really should have taken up your offer to go with you to Franks though, I was so bored all day." I said, watching as Joyce came over to give us our drinks (we were regulars so she already had what we wanted memorized. That's one thing I loved about her, her photographic memory was very useful) I looked over and saw Nathan actually give Joyce a smile in thanks but it instantly fell once he saw Max and Chloe looking at him. "On my way out I noticed Nathan at his door, so I invited him to go with me." I finished, not going into detail that he looked like a walking corpse and was so out of it that I was surprised how sober looking he was now, even with the bags under his eyes that are most likely going to be there forever with how stained they are. I heard Chloe hum, I glanced at her and saw her still giving Nathan a few glares here and there. That was going to get irritating very fast. I took a drink and tried to ignore it."Well, this is awkward." Max said, looking at all of us, "But I really hope you don't hate me from what I said earlier Nathan. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings--""Oh shut the fuck up Max. I know you meant to hurt me indirectly, and getting Kate involved was shitty as well, and trying to get me away from Warren. . . It worked, but this nerd seems set on hanging out with me." He sent a glare my way and I just smiled cheekily, his glare softened and I noticed Max squint at him, mouth open in surprise as she met my eyes."Yeah. We heard the entire conversation Nathan. I agreed with everything Max said but Warren here seemed to--" Chloe started but was interrupted."What the hell do you mean you heard the entire conversation?" Nathan said, eyes wide as he looked at me and Chloe, I chuckled nervously."Uh. . .yeah. Chloe and I were sort of. . . eavesdropping on your alls conversation." I said and Nathan stared at me with wide eyes, as if not believing me, once it sunk in his face turned a deep red color."Let me out." He said, very serious and he looked to be having a small panic attack and I raised an eyebrow."Wha--?""I said. Let me out. I want to go back to the dorms." He tried to push me out of the booth, but wasn't trying all that hard, I sighed."Fine. Let's go." I nodded to the girls and I felt Nathan scramble out after me, before he could get too far I grabbed his sleeve, "You're not going alone Nathan.""Yep. Yes I am Graham." He spat at me and I felt a bit hurt at the use of my last name once again, I pushed it aside and shook my head, "Why are you so DAMN stubborn?" he growled at me and I just shrugged, waving to the girls and leading Nathan back to my car. I got him into the passenger seat and when I sat in the drivers seat I sighed."Nathan. . . " I saw him glance up at me from his curled up position, he looked broken from here, it made me sad and terrified all at once, "Why are you freaking out about this? It's not like I heard anything bad. . ." He shrugged, glancing everywhere on me except for my eyes. I sighed deeply and continued to try and make eye contact to no success, "I mean. . .I guess the context that you want to date me was there. But other than that I don't see why it's such a big deal that I overheard?""It was suppose to be a joke. . . ." I heard from him and when I looked over at him he began to elaborate, "Everything. . . the pick up lines. . . .the looks. . . .the. . . the kiss. . .all a huge joke. I'm not attracted to you Warren. Why the fuck would I be?" He spit out distastefully and looked away, face still red as if he was angry at himself for saying such a thing,"Just take me back to the dorm." He said and I felt my heart begin to ache in my chest, I never knew how much his words would have hurt me, I barely knew him yet I knew him so well at the same time. I've been like him before, saying things I don't mean to protect the people I . . . .I love. Looking at him he seemed to be trying to hold it together as well but was obviously failing, he had to be lying. He was lying. I looked down at my hands, clenching and unclenching my fists, not really sure what to do or say at this point, so I guess I'll improvise."Yeah. . . .right. You're right." He looked up at me about to protest but stopped himself, knowing he couldn't just take back what he said, it wasn't that easy, he had tears in his eyes and I couldn't help but pull him towards me into a hug, he gasped and held onto me tightly and began to shake in my arms, "But. . . .that doesn't mean we can't be friends? Right? Nathan?" If he wanted to lie to himself about not liking me, so be it. But I wasn't about to get rid of him when I just got him. He reminded me a bit of a pup. At the moment he was still getting use to how things between us should work and how he should act around me to get the best reactions and how to treat my friends and family (Would he ever meet your family?), and I didn't blame him. I don't want to rush into our relationship at all and if it takes getting past those very awkward moments of 'Dude, we totally kissed less than 12 hours ago', so be it. But I was not about to let him slip through my fingers. I really needed a guy friend, like I've said many times; All my friends are lesbians (Well, except Brooke and Rachel. . .but still. Mostly lesbians.) "Just breath. . ." I felt him slowly stop shaking as he took in breaths of air and heavily leaned on me, trying very hard to keep himself situated and not embarrass himself in front if me, it's not like I would have cared. I'm the definition of embarrassing, seeing him actually do it would be freeing for me, showing that he wasn't perfect either and that together we would make the perfectly imperfect couple.As I held him I noticed one of his sleeves ride up a bit, showing a bandage. Not saying anything I just held him even tighter, not even bothering to mention them, it was too early for that sort of stuff. No matter how serious it was. I'd talk to him one day about it, but today was not that day. That sort of stuff you only talk about with your closest friends and family (Hell, some people don't even tell them, too scared to hurt them as well to go along with your self hatred and despair.) We'd work in it. That's all we can do at the time. Work our way through it and just hope that this relationship will turn out for the better, but only time can really tell if we'll work out, god I hope it works out. (Doesn't matter what kind of relationship, I just want to be close to the King (Prince?) of BlackWell. Victoria doesn't SEEM to hate me, ever since her and Kate got together she has seemed to warm up to me."Warren. . ." I heard Nathan breath into my ear and I pulled away from him, looking at his slightly puffy face and he gave me a gentle smile, "Take me back please? I'm not hungry." I nodded, turning on my car."Well, first I want some food. . . .so fast food place here I go." Nathan sighed and when I looked at him he just seemed amused."Anything to stuff your face, huh?" He said and I nodded."Hell yeah! I haven't eaten all day." He furrowed his brows and looked at me."Why the fuck not?" He asked, I hummed in thought, trying to figure out why I haven't eaten, nothing was really sticking out except I've had my mind on him all day. I opened my mouth to reply but shut it, choosing to instead chew on my bottom lip. "Warren. Why haven't you eaten today?""It's not a huge deal Nathan. Just today my mind was sort of. . .out of it. You did sort of fuck me up this morning with that kiss you know." I joked and he looked away, I tried once again not to notice that he tensed up a bit and started to put up another wall. I didn't want to show how much I hated that. I can already tell this will be a difficult relationship."That was barely a kiss.""Enough for me." I said and he snapped his head towards me again, glaring at me, it wasn't heartfelt as it soon disappeared and I saw he was still trying to compose himself and control his breathing.I decided getting him back to the dorms was more important at the moment. I could go back and get food later. Maybe see if Brooke has any time to go eat. Well, if she wasn't stuck to Luke's side again. As we drove I kept glancing over at Nathan, noticing that he looked. . . .well, beautiful in the afternoon sunset and if I was Max or had a camera I definitely would have taken a picture to capture this moment. Hmm. . .I pulled out my cellphone and while still watching the road discreetly took a picture of him. I looked down at it and grinned at how it captured it perfectly then put my phone back up, I was already stupid for taking that picture, I did not need to crash.Once we were both in the dorm we split off once we got to our doors, I fiddled with my keys to open the door and could hear Nathan doing the same thing, I sent a wuick text to Brooke and was instantly rejected once again, she was always with Luke. . . is this what she felt like when I was always with Max? (Before Max told me she was in love with Chloe and then Brooke moved on from me when I mentioned to Brooke that Luke needed someone to help him with his homework . . . it was a good thing I did that though, they are really happytogether and knowing that I was the reason they are together now makes me pretty happy.)"Hey. . . Warren." I jumped slightly and turned around to see Nathan much closer than I thought he was, he was right there in front of me and he leaned in slowly, grazing a small kiss onto my cheek and he nodded to me, "Gratitude. . . .for. . . .for caring about me." I was out of it as he turned away, I watched his retreating back and his door as it closed and didn't pay attention to how long I stood there. Like a fool I hoped he would actually come back out and give me an actual kiss, one that wouldn't make me feel so fluttery and weird inside. One that would make me feel lust and WANT. This one didn't. It only made me feel giddy and happy and as soon as I stepped into my room I let the out the most unmanly squeal ever heard into my Marvel themed pillows and actual embarrassed myself, not even wanting to look at my own reflection. How does one embarrass themself in front of themself? I don't know how. But now all I knew is that I'm definitely calling for take out. . . Chinese sounds nice. I hummed in thought and shrugged.Why the hell not. I grabbed my cellphone and was about to call before I saw a text message from Max.Max :P: Hey Warren, sorry about earlier.Me: It's totally fine, Nathan is fine now. . . .he's in his room. I'm ordering chinese now.Max :P: Chinese? Oh that sounds rly good right now War. Can we join you? Like total idiots we didn't even eat at Two Whales.Max :P: Sorry Chloe stole my phone.Max :P: But we'd love to join you, chinese does sound really good.Me: You both are total dorks. Of course you can join me, jeez.Max :P: BOO YAH!Max :P: Thanks Warren. See u soon.And they always call me a huge dork, those two together are always hell, wherever they go they seem to forget something or another, what would they do without me? I finally called the local (small) chinese place and got off of my ass. Making my way towards the front of the dorms, knowing they hated walking all the way up the stairs to feed my ass.Standing on the steps boredly I noticed Mark making his way towards the dorms with a phone to his ear, but when he noticed me there he took a few steps back, hurriedly talking on his phone and finally hanging up. He seemed to be looking me over and then turned briskly, making his way back towards the school.That. . . .was weird.