Notes (Nathan Sykes fanfic)

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

‘Sophie, are you feeling okay?’ I bolted upright at the sound of the voice to my left, lifting my head from the desk as the brightness of the lights in the room hit my eyes.

‘What?’ I questioned in confusion, turning to face Jessa with her bright blue eyes staring at me, puzzled.

‘I said are you feeling okay?’ she asked again with slightly increased volume as I began to realise my surroundings.

‘oh yeah, I’m fine don’t worry’ I’d began to find myself drifting off in class a lot more frequently now that Nathan was around. Most of the time it wasn’t intentional but my subconscious seemed to have a tendency to want to remind me about him in every moment possible. Jessa had already turned the other way now, working on highlighting the piece of text in front of her. I sat up a little straighter my eyes flickering to where Marika was sitting; I waited a second until I briefly managed to make eye contact with her. I mouthed at her that we needed to talk at lunch she nodded in reply also turning back to her work.

On the exact sound of the bell I immediately got to my feet along with the rest of my class and began to walk briskly out of the room. I was shoved and pushed a few times on my way out with the exit of the classroom being a particularly dangerous place as students bustled past each other to get to lunch. Me and Marika finally met paths when we reached the end of the English corridor and began our descent to the front playground where we would hopefully get some privacy to be able to talk.

‘okay,’ Marika announced, taking her seat at the bench beside me ‘let it all out’

I took a deep breath, ‘I really think I like him’ I emphasised the word like, playing with the hem of my skirt, not looking directly at her as I spoke.

‘And you think he likes you back?’ her words were carefully chosen as not to cause me any offence, once again I took a deep breath before speaking.

‘I don’t know but if I had to answer,’ I paused momentarily, ‘I would say yes.’ She giggled at me and I gave her a short, sharp glare.

‘So you’ve, you know, kissed?’ She asked ignoring my obvious hints.  I didn’t reply, only nodded in fear of sounding smug about it.

‘Awww!’ she cooed loudly, grinning at me, ‘I bet it was so cute and perfect and…’ she stopped for a moment watching me, I smiled a little in return but she seemed unconvinced. ‘Did something else happen?’ I blinked quickly, not wanting to answer as I turned away, playing with my hair. My mind raced as the moments of that night replayed in my mind, pausing for the longest on the image of Nathan’s crippled figure as he struggled on the ground with that heart shattering, helpless look in his eyes.

‘Kind of…but I don’t really want to talk about it.’ She didn’t question me only smiled in understanding

‘Everything’s okay now though right?’ She asked slowly, I smiled happily feeling relieved to have passed over the subject so quickly and nodding quickly and confidently, she looked reassured as I decided now was the time to get to my feet.

‘Lunch?’ I questioned, as she followed suit in getting up.

‘Sounds good to me!’ She said, seemingly already over the conversation and not intent on asking anymore questions as we started to walk, our steps falling in sync on the concrete.

‘Do you know where Nathan is?’ Jessa and Marika were deep in conversation as they walked along side me, I was walking a little further away from them holding my phone with my right headphone in drowning out most of the noise of people leaving school apart from the occasional word or phrase that I picked up from their conversation. Charlotte’s text was short and blunt and the second I saw it, it raised an air of alarm inside me. ‘What do you mean?’ I replied quickly, not in panic but in confusion. I looked up to see that we had reached the school gates. Jessa and Marika smiled at me as they went to turn in the direction towards their houses.

‘See you tomorrow!’ they chorused, I nodded in reply turning my attention back towards my phone as I followed my own route home,  I knew the route so well now that I hardly had to pay attention to it. Her text came through after a couple of minutes.

‘He wasn’t in school today?’ I frowned at it as I read it over again. He seemed fine this morning so why wouldn’t he be in school, I thought up my reply, the curiosity growing inside of me, with, at the back of my mind, a slight hint of worry over his whereabouts.

‘Nobody knows where he is?’ I questioned, she almost immediately replied back.

‘No and he won’t reply to my texts or pick up my calls!’ I frowned again, the worry now starting to build as I went to text Nathan.

‘Where are you? Hope everything’s okay xx’ I tried to word it as not to sound too worried or panicky, after all I wasn’t sure whether he felt as strongly for me as I did for him and I didn’t want to seem too attached or clingy. As I expected he didn’t reply for the next 5 minutes so I tried phoning him but after ringing for a while it just went to answer phone.  I made it to my house replying to Charlotte again as I dropped my bags in the hallway.

‘He won’t answer me either?!’ I was definitely panicking now, however much I tried to hide it, he meant the world to me regardless of the little time we’d known each other and if something was to happen to him I honestly don’t know what I would do.

‘Maybe we should try his house?’ At this point it seemed the best option as I would have only spent the rest of the evening worrying and getting worked up over something that was probably nothing. He could easily just be off school sick.

I met up with Charlotte about 20 minutes later after quickly changing out of my uniform, we walked quickly and unusually quietly to his house, the conversation we did have being disjointed and slightly forced. We exchanged a look as we arrived at Nathan’s house and I quickly responded to it.

‘I’ll go.’ I said walking away from charlotte and up the step to ring Nathan’s bell in one quick motion. I had secretly hoped that it was going to be Nathan that answered the door, that he had just been off sick with flu but it was Jess who answered.

‘Are you looking for Nathan?’ she asked friendlily, already knowing the answer but being polite in asking. We both nodded in unison.

‘Is he here?’ I asked quickly, Jess didn’t look worried or concerned in any way which had definitely calmed my nerves.

‘He isn’t at the moment but we’re expecting him back soon, is there something you needed to tell him?’ she asked, tilting her head questioningly, her wispy blonde hair flying away a little in the autumn breeze.

‘Oh,’ I replied, not sure what I should say next, ‘could you ask him to ring me when he does get home?’ she looked at me for a moment as I watched her, her eyes flickered showing an idea had come to her.

‘I’m sure he’d want to see you, we’ve heard so much about you!’ I blushed at the comment and tried to hide it as I turned slightly and awkwardly to one side. ‘Does he have your address?’ she asked, I was surprised by the question but as I thought about it, I realised that he didn’t even know where I lived. She continued to talk, ‘I could leave it for him if you want and he’ll pop over when he gets home?’ I gave her a look of almost excitement; it wasn’t intentional but my initial reaction. She started smiling obviously noticing my reaction and quickly turned around grabbing a pen and note from the side to hand to me on the doorstep. Charlotte was quietly standing behind me as I wrote down my address. As I did so, Jess turned to Charlotte,

‘Charlotte is that you!?’ she asked her incredulously.

‘It is me, hey’ Charlotte smiled a small, embarrassed smile.

‘It’s good to see you again! Feels like I haven’t seen you in forever!’ Jess said loudly and incredibly perkily.

‘Yeah it’s been a while! It’s good to see you too’ I had finished writing on the note at this point as I handed it to Jess who went to put it inside momentarily. I turned to Charlotte looking at her questioningly; she smiled back with a gesture and expression that said. ‘I’ll tell you later.’ Jess came back to the door.

‘Well I’ll make sure he gets that and I’ll tell him you came over! Nice to see you Charlotte!’ and with that she gave a quick wave goodbye and closed the door.

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longer chapter this time as promised! :)

hope everyone enjoyed!