This is War

Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14 - NATALIE'S P.O.V

Jarrett stared back at us, he looked just as shocked as the rest of us. I was the first to recover, "Jarrett, what are you doing here?"

"Uh, I-uh..." he stuttered, trailing off while rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Dylan spoke up, "Aren't you Hall's evil minion?"

Taken aback, Jarrett's face contorted but returned to normal when Kate called out, "Jarrett? Who's at the--"

Her sentence was left hanging when she caught sight of us, freezing in her place. Her eyes then fixed on me, begging for help.

"Let's all go inside," I suggested, and everyone followed me into the living room.

We sat in an uncomfortable silence, the minutes ticking by at a painstakingly slow rate. Each minute felt like ten minutes of misery. It was terrible.

Finally, I decided to break the silence by addressing Kate, "I think you should tell them."

She sucked in a breath before nodding slowly, "You're right-- I should."

"Tell us what?" Olivia demanded.

"Give her a minute," Logan soothed his flustered sister and I gave Kate an encouraging nod.

With one large breath, she launched into the events of Saturday night, "...and so, Jarrett saved me, and I've been talking with him and he's helped me cope with it ever since."

The boys' skepticism was replaced by an emotion awfully similar to gratitude and Olivia began sobbing, running over and pulled Kate into a bone-crushing hug that made my joints ache just by watching it.

"Are you okay?" Olivia asked her, but then answered herself. "Of course you're not-- what a stupid question. I think you need to speak with someone-- really, Kate."

Kate smiled sadly, "I'll be just fine, Liv."

There was a loud pop and we all jumped before looking over at Logan who had just opened some food containers. He shrugged, "What? I'm hungry!"

As it turns out, we were all hungry.

*

"Why can't people just drop it?" Kate muttered the next day at school, ducking behind her hair as so to hide her face from the stares.

I sighed and offered her a smile, "They're idiots with no lives. Just remember, they talk about you because they have nothing interesting in their life and they want to be you."

She laughed and I beamed in pride-- mission accomplished.

We joined the rest of our friends at Kate's locker, immediately entering a war zone. It was a battle of books vs movies.

Olivia glared hard at the boys, "Books are so much better! You actually know what the character is thinking; plus there are so many more characters and plots you learn about in the book and they leave a lot out of movies!"

"Movies are more fun, though!" Dylan dragged out his words as if he were a five year old telling his mother he didn't want to go.

Logan chimed in, "Plus it takes less time!"

"Not necessarily," I butted in with a smirk. "Maybe you boys don't like books because you just suck at reading."

The girls laughed at them and Kate even shouted, "Ooh, burn!"

The boys stood there speechless and I smiled, patting Dylan on the cheek, "You tried your best, kid."

He scowled at me as we walked to first period. He was about to sit down behind me, when he was pulled back and a disgustingly hideous face replaced his.

Can you guess who it is?

That's right, Noah Hall sat behind me with a lazy smirk, "Hey, doll."

Rolling my eyes, I spun around in my chair. With a sigh, Dylan made his way to the back of the room and I gave him an apologetic look that also told him I'd most definitely rather have him behind me than Noah.

"Natalie," the devil himself sang, poking me in the shoulder.

He twirled a piece of my hair and I flicked it with my wrist, pulling it out of his reach. I heard him chuckle.

The boy didn't give up, "Natalie, doll. I know you want to talk to me."

No I did not.

"Are our friends hooking up, Natalie?" He asked and I could practically hear the smirk on his face as he spoke.

I glanced at Kate who was smiling down at her phone as the teacher rambled on about Socrates and how he was a great man and blah blah blah.

Looking to my left and a little behind me, I saw Jarrett doing the exact same thing. Facing forward, I ignored Noah's question.

"Hey, Natalie, doll. Do you remember my cousin Duke?" He whispered, his breath fanning my neck.

Of course I remembered Duke.

His last words froze the blood running through my veins, "He's coming for a visit, and can't wait to see you!"

Dear god, this can't be happening.

~

a/n: so, what do you think happened with Duke? Write your guess in the comments! How do we like Kate and Jarrett's "relationship" so far? Let me know any opinions! Ps, sorry for any errors this is unedited and written on my phone! :P until next time!