You Can Run To Me

Thirty-Six

She fell out of the room, breathless. It had suddenly become incredibly stifling in there, claustrophobic, even. She fumbled the door shut behind her and forced her feet beneath her, refusing to collapse in the corridor in front of anyone who cared to look. She had somewhere to go, right? A lesson? Homework? She gave her watch a hard look. It was getting pretty late: 18:10. That made it dinner time. With a tiny satisfied nod to herself, she made her way to the canteen.

When she strode in and was confronted with the back of Penryn's head materialized in front of her, she frowned disconcertedly. It wasn't exactly surprising that Pen was there, only it had reminded Nat of their earlier dispute. A stupid argument of course, but she couldn't help but hesitate at the end of the short queue. Should she turn back, and leave her friend to cool down a bit more? She bit her lip indecisively. A soft growl from her stomach sealed the deal. Penryn was probably pretty chill by now anyway.

Nat grabbed a plate of mysterious stew just like Penryn's and ghosted her to the usual table. Everyone else had empty plates in front of them, evidently having eaten a while ago. What a strange coincidence that she and Pen had been so equally late. She sat down in the only remaining empty seat, which happened to be just next to Penryn. Natalie pasted a smile onto her face, as though this afternoon had been perfectly ordinary, and tried to remind herself that Penryn had almost certainly forgotten about their spat by now.

"Hey, guys," said Rachel cheerily. She quirked a curious eyebrow, "how come you took so long?"

Penryn glanced left and right until she spotted Natalie beside her and her face flooded with a soft surprise. "Oh, hi, Nat. You totally snuck up on me; I didn't even see you there."

"Either you're a damned good liar –which you are – or you two really weren't swapping juicy gossip together and forgot the time," said Bea with a slightly incredulous grin.

"I literally didn't see her there. Hi, Nat." She laughed pre-emptively at her own little joke, "Would it kill you to stop stalking me?"

Natalie rolled her eyes and laughed along obligingly, but she couldn't quite manage to be more than half sure that Penryn was joking. Conversation continued to limp along like a three-wheeled car; almost convincingly a conversation, but still not quite as good as a real conversation. Throughout the conversation, Natalie found her eyes drawn away from her friends, to another table where no doubt he was sat, looking at her and willing her to look around. Every time the urge almost overtook her, her hand would creep up to the locket around her neck, feeling the life-affirming bite of the cold on one side, and her own body's warmth on the other. No one could have known her distraction, though, given the care-free way she threw herself into the conversation with abandon.

One other thing plagued her mind. She wanted desperately to ask Pen about her boyfriend again, but at the same time she was understandably reluctant to set that bomb off. There was clearly something going down, though, or Pen would never have gotten so tetchy about it earlier. Only the tiniest sliver of her mind was actually taking an active interest in the conversation. The rest of it was torn between Penryn and Ephren. But a plan for the former was beginning to form in her conflicted brain.

She grabbed Simone on their way out of the canteen, under some meaningless pretense. This being unprecedented, Simone was thoroughly bemused. She went along anyway, unable to resist the request of a friend – even if Nat often seemed more like a friend of a friend. Once they were a good ten feet away from the others, who they had already parted ways with and so the distance grew every second, Simone couldn't keep herself from being the one to start the conversation.

"So why exactly do you think I'll be able to help you with your Biochemistry homework?" cried Simone. "I don't even take Biochemistry!"

"I know you can't help me with that," said Nat patiently.