Undercover

8. Tell Me Your Dreams

Once the smell of food reached my nostrils, my eyes immediately opened without warning. I lifted my head from the pillow and looked around. I had this warm blanket on me, but I didn't recognize the place. I gasped. This wasn't my house. It was Nathan's. To say I freaked out was an understatement. I probably fell asleep the night before. I hadn't even had the time to call my brother or sister to let them know.

Nathan came out to check on me. "Hey, sleepyhead."

"Oh my gosh, Nathan. I didn't tell my siblings. They're going to be so worried. They're going to be so freaked out and then they're never going to let me go anywhere again and—"

Nathan chuckled. "I called them as soon as I saw you were asleep, Nali. They know you're here and they're not going to skin you alive. You don't have to worry."

Relief washed over me immediately, and I felt all of my tense muscles relax. Seriously, I think I would owe my life to Nathan. And I'd have to work to compensate all of his life saving.

"It smells good, by the way."

"Thanks, love. I made it especially for you."

I stood up from the couch and went into the kitchen. There were waffles already on the table, along with some milk and some bacon and some fruit salad. My only reaction was to look at him in complete awe. It was more than enough food for the both of us. It blew my mind how sweet this gesture was. Because sure I was his girlfriend now, but that didn't necessarily mean that he had to make us breakfast. My heart completely melted. The only thing that came to mind was to hug him. So that's what I did, and I could tell that I had kind of caught him off guard because for the first few seconds, he didn't react. He chuckled and then put his arms around me.

"Thank you." I said to him. "This is a really sweet gesture."

"You're my girlfriend, Nali. I get to do sweet things for you."

"But it's not like you haven't done sweet things for me before I became your girlfriend. Either way, thank you. This is so sweet. I could already feel my heart physically melting."

Nathan hugged me tighter and pulled me a little bit closer. I didn't know that it was even possible. But there it is. Was it too soon to say I loved him? Of course it was. I know what you're thinking. This is the first real boyfriend she has ever had, she's only fifteen, there's no way that she can love him that quickly. She's a fool for even thinking that she was in love. What is she even doing? She's not done with high school yet. I get it. It was probably a stupid thing to say. But I don't know. I had had the biggest crush on him and I felt like everything he did made me like him a little bit more. Now, there is a complete and total problem with that. I knew if we in fact did not work out, I would be completely devastated. And seeing how Ingrid had kind of fallen apart, I didn't want to go through that. It wasn't completely crippling for her, which was the thing that gave me hope. Why was I even thinking about this right now? I needed to stop being depressing.

"Are you alright, Nali?" he asked me after a while.

I nodded. "Of course. I think I'm just happy."

"You think?" he had a raised eyebrow. "That means I'm not doing a good job."

I scoffed. "You're doing a wonderful job."

"I guess not. You can't even tell me that you're happy without putting 'I think' after it."

"Shush. You're doing a wonderful job."

He kissed my forehead. Up to this point, we hadn't kissed on the lips. I was grateful that he hadn't forced anything. I was completely grateful that he hadn't tried to speed anything up. Sure, I had had guys I'd liked but there wasn't really any real kissing. It was mostly on the cheek. Mostly, because we were two quiet, shy people that didn't really do anything else. To be honest, I was scared out of my mind with this whole thing. I was always worried that I wasn't putting enough effort into the relationship or anything like that. But every time I brought it up to Nathan, he said I was doing great. But I didn't feel like I was doing anything. I felt like it was mostly Nathan doing the work and I was just sitting there watching as if it weren't my relationship.