The Quiet Ones

29. Nobody But Nathan

I walk out of the funeral with nothing to think. She's gone. My best friend is gone. I had to see her still and lifeless body before me and, to be honest, it was almost unrecognizable. Apparently she was shot in the heart - the best thing about her: her heart. Some gang of misfits thought they should take her best feature and wreck it up with a gun and bullet, leaving her with nothing identifying her besides her social security number and birth certificate. Everything else has virtually vanished.

I walk down the marble stairs and rub away a mascara-filled tear with the back of my hand, causing a black line to smudge against my skin. Right as I was about to take out a tissue to wipe away the mark, a hand grabs my wrist and pulls me to the side of the building, causing me to trip slightly over my heels.

Once I'm pressed to the wall and the tears move from my eyes and onto my cheeks, I realize it's Nathan. Nobody else. Just Nathan.

Great.

"Nathan?" I ask as I snatch my wrist away and hold it in defense with my other hand. "You can't just go around grabbing people without giving them a warning!"

"I'm sorry," he says as he pulls out a tissue from his pocket and wipes away the black tear that had been residing on my cheek. "I need to talk to you."

"I thought you said you needed a few days? Didn't you think-"

"No Parker. Now."

I nod as I wipe away my tears and throw the mascara covered tissue onto the ground, making a mental note to pick it up later before someone yells at me for littering. Nathan takes a breath, fixes his tie, coughs slightly, and then is finally ready to look me in the eye.

"It's my fault," he says bluntly in a way that gives me chills and makes the hair stand up on my arms.

"What's your fault?"

"Avery's... Death." He says as he takes a deep breath.

"No... No, no, no, no, you didn't kill her... Did you?" I ask.

"No!" Nathan says quickly as his eyes go wide and shock strikes his pale face. "I'd never! I just told her that she should join a team, and, well, she did."

I punch him in the arm, causing him to let out a loud 'ow' while he quickly grabs the fabric of his suit and rubs the skin of where my knuckles met his body. I don't care, he deserved it.

"Why would you do that!" I shriek as I punch him once again, making him huff from a loss of breath. "You knew she'd get hurt!"

"Okay, well if you stop punching me-" I once again threw my fist at his arm, causing him to wince in pain. "Parker!" He said as he grabbed my hand before I had a chance to hit him again. Tears begin to form in my eyes, making me bite my lip to keep them from escaping. "Look," he says as he keeps my hand in his. "I did it so you would come back to us. I didn't know she'd get hurt, I just thought that maybe you would want to hangout with us again."

"That's it?" I ask as I drop my hand from his. "You put her life in jeopardy so I would spend an afternoon with you?"

"I wasn't thinking."

"You weren't."

We stand in silence as Nathan rubs his arm where I punched him, wincing every time his fingers trace the bruise that I probably left. He can suck it up, it's a bruise not a gun shot.

"Maybe I would have just hung out with you if you didn't ditch Levi and I to drink at a bar," I say under my breath and my voice cracks and the air suddenly begins to feel thicker.

"I had good reason to do that."

"What's your reason Nathan? Huh? Did you just want to drown your thoughts in alcohol and tell your girlfriend it was cool? Or were you showing off? I didn't realize ditching your friends for bars was cool now!"

"I did it because I couldn't stop thinking about you!" Nathan screams as he pulls at his hair, his face turning red in anger. "I still loved you! It was the only way to stop thinking about you while Avery was there!"

I stare at him until he's huffing in defeat, rubbing his cold hands over his beaten red face and weary eyes. I couldn't watch as a tear escaped and traced down his trembling cheek. His hair was disheveled as he took deep breaths and refused to meet my eye.

"I need to go." Is all I say before I walk away and leave him in the parking lot by the side of the building. Loud sobs escape from his mouth until he buries his face in his hands - afraid to fix the problem that he had created.

"Parker!" He yells. I don't look back, I just keep walking and focusing my line of vision on my car. It's been a long enough day, I don't need any extra drama.

"Are you okay?" Levi asks as I walk past him at the entrance of the church. He must have been saying a final prayer, because when he sees that I have just walked back from something horrible with sorrow on my face, he doesn't ask any further questions.

"We need to go," I whisper quietly.