The Seven Day Gangster

Chapter 18

I sat at the edge of my bed, toying around with my phone.

As of that moment, I had gone through all my pictures twice, read old texts once and was on the verge of taking random photos of my room. I was ridiculously bored.

But I wasn’t going to go out there. No way. It wasn’t even up for consideration.

I could not face and did not have the desire to see Nathan. God, it would be so awkward. Had I ruined our friendship with that argument last night?

Maybe I should have just stayed silent. Maybe I should have just brought up something else when he asked about my family. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked about his dad.

But I mean, I had thought we were becoming friends. And weren’t friends supposed to be able to talk about deeper stuff than just regular conversations? I guess that was how I looked at it. Maybe Nathan didn’t even consider me a friend or whatever.

The more I thought about it, the guiltier I felt about snapping at him.

But it wasn’t really my fault, right?

Damn, I wasn’t going to think about this anymore.

I lay in my bed, mulling over anything I could possibly think of when the door banged loudly.

I leaped up like two feet into the air and instinctively clasped my hand over my gasping mouth.

“Who is it?” I asked loudly.

The banging kept going, not even pausing to consider my question.

I rolled my eyes. “If it’s Logan I’m not in the mood to play tennis. And if it’s Alex, I have no idea who took your iPod. It seriously wasn’t me. Randy’s lying; don’t believe anything he says.”

The knocking didn’t stop even then.

“The door isn’t even locked,” I muttered.

Sighing, I hopped out of bed and swung the door open, prepared to give whoever was standing on the other side an annoyed look.

It was Nathan.

I stepped back, embarrassed from what I had said earlier and unsure of what to say now.

My face flooded with red. “Oh, uh, hi,” I stammered, resisting the urge to close the door in his face. I really didn’t want to talk right now; I had a feeling I was going to say something I would really regret later.

Nathan held up his hands as if to stop me from slamming the door. “Uh hey,” he said quickly, looking about as flustered as I did.

When had we become so awkward?

When you got all pissed off at him, my voice reminded me annoyingly. I shoved that thought away and gave a small smile.

“Uh, so what’s up?” I managed, avoiding eye contact.

“Well, I was just seeing if you were, you know, awake and all,” Nathan beginning, running his hand through his hair.

He sighed.

Then after a few more seconds, he just pushed past me and flopped down on my bed.

I followed behind, surprised at his sudden movement.

“Uh—” I began, not sure where this sentence was headed. “Well I was just--"

“Look,” said Nathan quickly. “I’m sorry, alright?”

I didn’t even—wait, what? He was sorry? Why was he sorry? I was just about to apologize myself.

“I was being a total asshole last night. I don’t even know why I got so mad at you. I was just pissed that you were upset that your mom had the flu. But then she didn’t even have that, and I had no idea. So I was yelling at you for no reason. I’m really sorry, honestly.” His words just flew out, and I sat there silently, not knowing how to respond. “Damn, this isn’t coming out right.”