You Can Run To Me

Thirty-Three

March; the mid-term break. Natalie had agreed with her parents that she'd come home for the week. They hadn't really given her much choice, and she knew they wouldn't, so she hadn't tried too hard to persuade them to let her... Well, that was just it – where would she go if not home. Not that she really thought of it as home any more. Home was her dorm room, alone with the lights on to keep away the dreaming. The college didn't really encourage students staying on over the break, presumably so they didn't have to cater for them, and to give them a chance to get some cleaning done. You were allowed to go in and study at the library, at least, though it was a bit too far away for Nat to do that.

She would have stayed with Penryn, or maybe one of her old friends from all those months ago. But months felt like years now, and Natalie had almost completely fallen out of touch with them all, bar a few texts or whatever. And as for Penryn – Penryn was going on holiday down somewhere secluded on the edge of a lake with her parents. They had even let her take Stan along! Nat tried to be annoyed with her, but couldn't manage it. It was such a nice thing for Pen, and Nat probably wouldn't have wanted to stay with her for an entire week anyway. Instead, she'd shut herself up in her old room for seven long days under the pretense of hard studying for yet more mocks. The finals were getting all too close now.

The drive home was awkward. Nat was trying not to think of Ephren, who was probably right this second driving Jolene away on their little 'cool-it-off', 'spark-it-up' trip. She had almost told her friends about seeing their spat in the corridor that day, but she was saved from doing it when Rachel came out with the little tidbit that those two were going on a road trip somewhere-or-other in an attempt to fix their relationship. Natalie had no trouble looking surprised, but her disappointment was a little more challenging. That was something she didn't even want to feel, let alone show the world.

Her parents expected her to talk. They expected her to be all excited and burbly, but she forgot.

"Are you alright, sweets? You're so quiet today," her Mom said, taking her eyes off the road for just long enough to meet Nat's blank stare.

Nat blinked. Did someone say something? "Huh?"

"Off in your own little world again, aren't you?" said her father knowingly.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you were talking to me." Her dad was still looking at her, full of expectancy. What did he want from her?

"I figured you'd have loads to talk about, honey. I mean, you haven't seen us in almost two months. That's a hell of a long time."

Her Mom gave him a dirty look.

"Oh, come on! 'Hell' is not a swear. Anyway don't you think Nat's old enough now to..."

His voice trailed off as he received another dirty look that lasted long enough for Natalie to intervene. "Mom, can you please pay attention to the road. I swear you're going to ram into that truck in front and we all know who'll walk out of that one alive and who won't."

"Alright, alright!" her Mom cried indignantly. "I could see just fine."

"Why should I have to tell you about my life before you've even said a word about yours? I was waiting for you guys to start talking!" Nat said, proud of herself for diffusing that bomb for a little while.

Her Dad hummed and hawed for a while, but her Mom jumped in to the conversation first, very coyly. "Your father took me out to dinner last night."

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, I did. You know, as a kind of birthday treat for her."

Oh, God. Natalie had completely forgotten it was her Mom's birthday on Wednesday. How was she supposed to get a card or present at such short notice? And how had she forgotten in the first place – it wasn't as though her Mom had a habit of changing her birthday around, and it must have been in her calendar. There was no way she could admit this to her Dad when he would find it so hilarious. She couldn't even justify making her something – she was too old for that and she wasn't good enough with her hands... unless she could draw her something.