Deal With It By: Audrey B. Holley

Chapter 4

Natalie struts with a sense of confidence I envy, while I walk at a slow pace, not trying to impress onlookers. A group of upcoming boys who appear to be our age, whistle at us. One of them has an arm locked around a girls waist. His blond hair falls over his green eyes in a way that reminds me of...

I halt in my steps, clutching her wrist.

"Isn't that your..." I observe him bug eyed as he dips down to smooch on a pair of lips that aren't Natalie's.

Before I can stop her, she's already marching over to him, her small hands balled into fists. 

"What do you think you're doing?" She hollers, pushing at his chest.

"Natalie, what a-"

"I thought you were supposed to be at work? Working extra hours? That's what you told me two days ago when we last talked." Her brows furrow, and I know that look.

The look of fighting tears.

"Oh he's working alright," says one of his friends with a chuckle.

She ignores the senseless comment, and wines, "I thought you loved me!"

"Past tense, loved. Look babe, you're a hard woman to get a hold of. We were supposed to be broken up this afternoon, but you never answered your phone," he shrugs, and smirks. Her lip quivers and her tears spill.

I accomplish my part of being a good friend by butting in. 

"Hey butt face, why don't you just..." Just what? What do I say? I've only done this a few times before. I want to knock his face in and push him over a cliff. How do I handle this smoothly if all I want to do is give him a knuckle sandwich? 

I don't think my actions through and jab him in the chest. I hope that the power of my finger ruptures his shameful heart.

He shoves me.

I stumble back, but manage to keep balance.  

He calls me a name, and then says, "Lay off!"

"You're such a bamboozle! A disgrace!" I holler.

My flat palm connects with his face. I can only imagine how excruciating it must feel. I put quite the force. He rubs his cheek, and then curses at me. 

I'm too slow to react, for I see his rounded fist of thick fingers coming between my eyes. But I never feel it, that blow, the pain you feel when someone punches you. 

I see a man.

He backs me up, and covers my price to pay for even involving myself in the mess of a brawl. 

Then there's Natalie's boyfriend who is now obviously her ex, Jonathen, who lays dazed on the floor of the mall, while his buddies just watch.

The man who offered help without question turns to me. His influenced physique is broadly build with a few pounds of plumpness here and there, which greatly exposes his apparent potency.

I know that figure.

"Shy guy?" I beam. "Fancy seeing you here."

The security guards, obviously overly delayed with their jobs, excuse us all from the mall.

We are all exited to the cold outside evening. Natalie says her last words to Jonathen, while I chat with shy guy.

"It's odd to see you here." He laughs uneasily and sways on his heels. Baby curls that I hadn't noticed at the restaurant, twitch when his lashes brush the tips of his lightly browned hair.

His visible breath reminds me of  smoke.

"Where's your friend?"

"Oh, Franky? He's at home." He glances to his feet, and nudges the toe of his severely ripped sneaker into the snow.

"He's like my brother. But..." he laughs to himself. "Not really." He inhales a deep breath, as if preparing to reveal a big secret. "I'm poor, so his home is my home. That's why I needed that job." He stares down into my face, and a glint of light is caught in the depths of his chocolate irises.

"Did you ever get it?" I ask, stuffing my hands into the warmth of my coat pockets.

He smiles a bit bashful. "Yeah. Your boss..." he shakes his head. "I mean our boss is purty decent."

"I like the way you say pretty." I allow a half smile to seep through and show upon my lips.

His cheeks color as if he blushes, or is it just the chilly weather that gives off the exquisite shade?

"So what's your-"

His cell buzzes out in a ring tone that performs a unique beat. He holds his bare finger that I imagine is iced to the bone.

After all, it is the ending of November.

He mouths sorry, and the motion of his ample lips makes me feel something. 

As he takes a step from me to private himself with a discussion on his scratched device, I stand alone, waiting. A moment later he snaps it shut, and then says through chattering teeth, "I gotta go." Glancing down to his thickly muscled legs, I examine the torn jeans that clothe him to trap warmth to his bunched thighs.

Before he crosses the idea that I am checking him out, I bring my attention to his face.

"See you at work then?" His mellifluous voice urges me to sigh in a passionate way, so I then pretend to yawn to stifle it.

"Yeah." I reply with a nod.

* * * * *

Mom and dad prepare dinner down stairs all the while I talk Natalie through a break up.

"I can't believe this!" she sobs, blowing snot into a tissue. "I don't understand what I did wrong!" 

"Sometimes people just don't fit, and so the only solution is to break it off. Jonathen, however, was immature about the whole thing."

"This isn't even the worst part Keelie!" She wails. I hush her, cautioning her to keep her voice low. 

Her darkly shaded eyes glisten with streaming tears. She forms a deep frown with trembling lips all the while her shoulders jerk from the forceful movement of upcoming sobs.

"It's OK Na-"

"No! It isn't! I gave him my heart, I allowed myself to fall in love! I gave him my virginity for goodness sake!"

"Wait, what? Why would you do that?"

"I was ready, but I guess he was the wrong person to be ready with." The wine in her words silences her personality I always cherish. She swipes a blond strand from her face, and scratches her nose. She gropes for a fresh clean nex, and then dabs it below her eyes where her weeping lays upon her cheeks, drying.

"Why didn't I know?" I refuse to anger myself, so I just sit with her, and pat her slouched back.

"Because I know how you feel about sex, and it's just difficult to tell someone you lost something so personal to a dumb guy," she blows into her rag of gagging snot. "I wish I were you. You still have the chance to make the right choice."

I have to ask, but it is whispered, "Why would you just give yourself away like that?"

"I don't know. I feel so awful." She then buries her stained face of eye make-up into my lap.

After a moment of silence, I ask reluctantly, "What does it feel like?"

"It hurts the first time." 

I sigh, stroking her long blond hair. "We'll get through this together."