another side

chapter fourteen

For the rest of the week I stayed at home. Maya stayed with me and distracted me when she could, but she had to go to school and so I spent a lot of time crying while trying desperately to sleep. Carmen had called me a couple times, but she had never come to the door. My stomach twisted at the thought of seeing her.

On Saturday morning I had managed to sleep for a while despite the fact that the urgency of my situation was becoming more and more apparent. I had been awake most of the night, but at about 8 o clock I had finally passed out and I wasn't woken until I heard voices hovering about my head. I thought at first that I was imagining things and that the voices were outside my window rather than in my room, but the more awake I became the more I realised that they were in fact coming from right above me. I opened my eyes and blinked, seeing three faces looming over me. I let out a squeal and jumped upwards and backwards at the same time, hitting my head off the headboard. As I rubbed my injury, the faces came into focus and I was even more shocked than before somehow.

"Hey." Nate greeted. His voice was awkward, but not entirely unfriendly.

Levi's sheepish expression alerted me to the fact that whatever was going on was a plan of his. June was sipping a bottle of orangeade and didn't seem to be completely clued in to what exactly was going on. At least I wasn't the only one.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, wiping sleep from my eyes and frowning deeply. Nate's prescence was like a knife in me after our fight. It felt so unnatural to have him in my room again.

"Cheering you up!" June chirped, sitting down on the edge of my bed. "God, you look awful!"

"Thanks..." I muttered. I looked at Levi for an explaination who just looked at Nate. I switched my eyes to him and waited for him to speak.

"Levi told me everything." He said.

"Shit." I muttered. "Levi-!"

"No." Nate interrupted. "I wanna help."

I just stared at him emptily for a moment and the room when quiet except for the sound of June clicking her tongue against the side of her bottle. Levi cleared his throat to get her attention, but she was much to absorbed in what she was doing.

"June." He said, causing her head to spring up. "I think we should go outside for a moment."

"What?" June questioned, then she seemed to process the situation whenever she looked at Nate and I's cautious expressions. "Ohhh..."

She and Levi walked out, closing the door behind them and leaving me alone with the person who I was pretty sure hated my guts right then. I didn't know where to start.

Nate began to slowly sit down on the edge of my bed where June had been, then he hesitated.

"Uhm...this is okay, right?" he asked.

"Sure, sure." I muttered, drawing my legs back to stop my feet from touching him.

"Sylvia, if I had known things were as bad as they are..." he started, but I stopped him before he could go on.

"That's not your fault." I said. "I was a terrible girlfriend and a terrible friend. I am a terrible friend."

"You are not." He protested. "I thought about everything that's happened and I kind of get it now. Did you do some shitty stuff? Sure, but I did just as much. I just wished I had realised before now that...." He trailed off, but I could almost see the words on his tongue.

"We make much better friends." I added.

"Yeah."

We were silent for another moment, but the awkwardness was slowly dissipating. I let my legs lie flat again. I wasn't scared of the chance of him touching me.