Rhapsody High: The Tale of Super Zero

Chapter 28: A little bit of hope

"Some nights just lasted for one night."

Nathaniel was woken up as Renata getting out of bed. Her face looked groggy and tired, the hangover must have hit her badly. She sit on the edge of the bed, facing the window. Her back was facing him and the sunshine shone from her front giving her the most beautiful silhouette he has ever seen in his life. Renata will always have a place in his heart no matter what.

"You okay? You're having a headache?" Nathaniel asked her as he tried to help her out of the bed.

"I'm fine. A little headache won't kill me." She answered, smiling tiredly.

She got out of bed by herself and headed straight towards the kitchen while Nathaniel followed her.

Silvana was cooking breakfast, however  jar of hot chocolate was already prepared on the electric pots. "Hey mija! Have we learnt something from last night?" She smirked at the young girl.

"Please don't make fun of it, Mum." Rena rolled her eyes and sat down on the dining table.

"Thank you for the breakfast, Ms. Montez." Nathaniel answered with a smile.

"It's all great! It's always fun to have more people join us for Breakfast." Silvana placed her tray filled with Chicken Quesadillas and Half-Boiled Eggs on the dining table. "Hope you don't mind some Quesadillas?"

"I love it, Ms. Montez. Thank you." Nathaniel answered nicely.

Silvana looked at her groggy daughter and smiled for a bit before sitting down on the table and pouring the hot chocolate on everybody's cups. "Ruben left really early this morning." She started. "Quiet a unique person, isn't he?"

Nathaniel can see how Renata's eyes gave a little more glimpse than annoyance as Ruben's name is mentioned. He quietly grabbed few pieces of Quesadilla and just calmly ate his breakfast.

"He's a really nice young man. Better than what the school has rumored him to be. A really nice lad in fact." Silvana added. "He talked to me before he left. I guess he found it rude not to."

"Did he say anything?" Renata's eyes widened.

"No, not really. He just said he'll make sure he'll check up on you again sometime." Silvana gave her daughter a wink as she sat in front of Renata and took her own portion of breakfast.

As they sat and ate quietly, the Daily Magazine caught Nathaniel's attention. The cover shows Troy Zolansky and Jaclyn Leighton kissing in the party. From the perfect angle and lighting, plus the amount of photoshop done on the photo, Nathaniel can bet that Jaclyn paid Daily Magazine a big sum to especially took the best photo of couple kissing to be the front news of her party. Another big font headlines with a small photo on the edge of the cover caught Nathaniel's attention next. "Nathaniel Robinson with a Mysterious Girl!" Nathaniel can't help but smiled, Brenda does look beautiful and what's great is people will stop picking at Renata from now on.

"Oh, Nathaniel. Look at you! There's you. You look so handsome here!" Silvana took the magazine and gives the magazine a flip. "Isn't this the girl from last night? Brenda?"

"Yeah," Nathaniel answered.

While Renata added, "Brenda does look incredible last night. You are very lucky." Renata gave him a meaningful smile. "She seems like a keeper."

"Oh no." Silvana suddenly said. Silvana's expression changed as she read article. "You two don't want to read this." She put away the magazine abruptly, annoyance was clear in her face. "Always a bunch of liars as always, after so many years being talked bad in all of them, i wonder why i still subscribe to them."

"What's up, Ms Montez?" Nathaniel was about to take the magazine when Renata already took it in her hand, flipping through the Leighton's Party articles. The whole party gets 80% scoop in daily magazine! Jaclyn does have a lot of money to begin with.

"Oh my god. I just can't believe this! Can they stop honestly?! I am so done with this!" Renata shouted angrily, leaving Nathaniel puzzled. "Since i was born, everyday, i thought they would get bored of me for once!"

Nathaniel took the magazine from Renata's hand. The picture of fainted Renata was big on the page, alongside with him, Brenda, Brook and Ruben.

"Renata Montez was seen drunk the same time as Robinson bringing his new date to the party last night. Could there be hearts being broken after the Robinson prince found someone new? Luckily her acts were later saved, by no other than Nathaniel Robinson himself, insider said. Him and a couple other friends, including his date, helped to take Montez into the limousine and left the party last night, before reported has made out with a few strangers last night."

Nathaniel put the magazine slowly. His face has turned flat, expressionless, he thought he had been protecting Renata all this while. It was just his imagination. Her life will always be filled with disastrous rumors because of him. His mother once told him that fame was something he needs to be worry about, no matter how much of a blessing it is, it will always hurt the people he loves. He didn't think it was that bad. He knows his dad has put the whole family in jeopardy with the amount of paparazzi during the divorced, he didn't think it was a big problem for him. He enjoyed the spotlight he was in and how everyone took pity of him and care about his whole life story, how people also proud of how he had turned out after the divorced. He never asked his mum whether she was in pain that people were flaunting her heartbroken right onto her face.

After the breakfast is done, Nathaniel decided to leave the Montez's home. It was a long silence after the magazine is being put down which had made Nathaniel felt uncomfortable and couldn't stop wondering whether it was his fault. As Renata decided to rest some more, he said goodbye to Silvana and left.

Walking through the apartment's building, he wished he can make everything rights for Rena. If he wanted Rena all for himself before, all he wanted now is for Rena to be happy and he can't never do that for her.

On the 27th Avenue, he waved for a taxi. One taxi with a fat Indian man in it, turned around and looked at Nathaniel weirdly up and down. He was still wearing his last night suit, this driver must have thought that he may just had a walk of shame. With a strong thick Indian accent, the driver adjusted the back mirror and looked at Nathaniel. "Leighton's party got wild tonight, is it?" His head bounced right and left as he talked.

Well, at least he didn't seem to recognized that it is Nathaniel Robinson sitting in his cab.

"No, not really." Nathaniel replied. "I left early."

"Doesn't seem like it." The driver added.

"Oh my gosh." Nathaniel thought. This driver honestly likes to put his nose where it doesn't belong.

"You see, kids these days, all they do is party, party, party!" The driver's head bounced right and left in each syllable he spoke, it started to push Nathaniel's button. "They don't care their parents work, work, work, everyday. Party, party, party, they don't know the consequences. When i was your age, all I do is make my parents' happy. My parents are crazy, you know?"

Honestly now, Nathaniel's considering getting down from the taxi. "I'm heading to the Peak Hill, please."

While the driver in front of him kept on talking non-stop, the taxi passed the well-known Max's Homemade Cupcake Café. A familiar guy with a black leather jacket just walked out from the glass door with a cup of coffee and gentlemanly held the door for the girl who was holding a box of cupcake. They were laughing together half-heartedly and shared a cupcake together. Ruben and Brenda.