Heart Of A Star

Chapter Two - Natalie

The morning came way too soon. I felt like I had just drifted back off to sleep by the time the alarm clock disturbed my dreams. The room was still all too dark, lit only by the dim glow of the streetlights outside of my window. My hand came down hard on the snooze button, but I knew there was no chance in hell that I'd be going back to sleep, even if just for a few minutes. My mind was already racing. Jump in the shower, blow dry and style my hair, put on my favorite, most comfortable pair of jeans and pull a sweatshirt over my t-shirt, load the car, and hit the road. The itinerary had been engraved into my brain for weeks now.

We pulled up at the diner at 5:30, and though we arrived much later than I wanted to, I was especially pleased to see Ray-Ray and Josh waiting patiently at a booth for us. Josh was leaning his blond head against the back of the booth seat, his eyes closed and his fingers drumming the tune of some song playing inside his head on the white marbled Formica table.

He had never been a morning person, and was known for his frequent mood swings when sleep-deprived, so I knew all too well to tread lightly around him early in the morning. We had all found it particularly amusing when he announced that he would be enrolling in pre-law at St. Joe's University just prior to us graduating prep school, but so far his partying habits hadn't interfered too much with his career path, so the last laugh might have been on us in the end. Lately all that had been on Josh's mind were preparing for the LSAT's, which were coming up in the next year, and getting into a good law school.

We knew Joshua Van Arden through Ray-Ray, who was his best friend throughout boarding school, and now they rented a historic twin together just outside of Philly, not too far from Rachel and me.

We were never quite sure why Ray-Ray had enrolled in St. Joe's. Maybe it was to stay close to his friends, and the city that he loved. It definitely wasn't for the Business Administration program that he was enrolled in. That also remained a mystery, as none of us could ever see Ray-Ray in an office cubicle. He could barely sit still long enough to get through his classes.

"Why are you even bothering to look at the menu, Natalie?" Sitting next to me, Ray-Ray pulled the slightly egg-coated bi-fold from my hands. On impulse, I wiped my hands on my jeans, mentally noting that I needed to pick up more anti-bacterial gel to restock my purse somewhere along the way. "You know you're just going to order the same thing you always do. Western Omelet with cheese, extra ham, side of wheat toast with strawberry jelly, a large iced-tea and a coffee. You're as predictable as my grandmother's medicine cabinet.

Even I had to laugh at that one. "Okay, I'm not sure what that means exactly... Maybe you should just chalk it up to knowing everything there is to know about me, Ray-Ray. You're such a good friend that you know me inside and out."

I realized as soon as the words came out of my mouth that I should have chosen better language around Raymond Montgomery. He caught his head in his hand as he leaned on the table, and said, "I think I'd like to know the inside of you a little better. If that's an invitation to..."

"No, it's not."

He looked like a three-year-old who had just been scolded, but recovered quickly. He wore that wide grin on his face, and his eyes had too much sparkle for that hour in the morning.

"Do you really need an invitation to a party that you've been to before?" Josh asked dryly, as he stretched, then tossed a smile in my direction.

Even Rachel cringed a little behind her menu. "I think he's got you there, Natty." She ignored the hand signal that I had flashed in Josh's direction. "Apparently Ray-Ray's the kind to kiss and tell."