Confused (Matthew Espinosa)

Chapter 10

I turned slowly around and grinned.

"Natalie!"

"Hey Elle!" She smiled. "I waited for you. Not like I'm a stalker, I just wanted to get to know you more. I'm new here, so it's really hard to make friends." She said shyly.

"No, it's fine." I assured her. "I'm new here too, so I know how it feels." I said.

"Want to go get a snack or something?"

"Well I have a hamburger.. But you can have the fries." I smiled.

"Yay! Thanks! Listen, there's a park a couple blocks from here, want to hang there?" She asked as we started to walk down the white, nice pavement.

"Of course, but I have to go to to work early tomorrow, so I can't stay long.." I said, sounding a little sad about it.

"Oh." She said, sounding disappointed herself. She was really pretty. Her hair was obviously dyed bright red with pink tips. It was also straight and came about boob length. Strangely, it looked cute. Her dark brown eyes were really big, with perfect mascara and eyeliner. She was tan and taller than me. She was wearing a floral romper and black combat boots.

"Yeah.."

We finally arrived at the park. We sat across an IceCream cart laughing and eating my hamburger and fries. We started talking about my current situation with money and stuff. "You know if someone finds out you live by yourself, they could take you from your parents and put you in an orphanage. You're seventeen, right?" She was eighteen.

"Yeah and I know. It's just that it was really important to me to be here, so we took the risk I'll be eighteen in a few months anyway." I said.

"Still, you shouldn't do that." She gasped. "You should come live with me!" She exclaimed. "You wouldn't have to work! My parents are super rich! They have this beach house in Orange County on Laguna. It would be so much fun! Living in this city isn't that great anyways, plus it's really close to L.A." Matthew. Matthew lived in Los Angeles. What if he went to Laguna? I could see him maybe. "Come on! Please!?!?" She pleaded.

"Can I stay here for a few more days? It's payday on Monday, and I want to get my check." I hope moving in with her doesn't become a mistake..

"Of course! I'll have to start adding furniture to the house anyways. My parents never used it. There's a furniture shop close by, can you meet me here tomorrow?" She asked.

"Um, can it be a 2:00pm?"

"Yes!" She squeaked, standing up. "I'm socializing!" She laughed, jumping up and down. We both got up, calling a cab. "Okay, so you meet me here at 2:00 and we can walk to the place, it really close."

"But what about rent? I haven't payed yet, and if I leave now, he'll still make me pay for the whole month!"

"Do you really want to pay rent?" She raised an eyebrow.

"No..." We giggled.

"Okay then, do as I say." She said jokingly. "Maybe during the night you could move out. He wouldn't notice! Anyways, meet me here! And don't forget!" She said, running off.

"I won't!! Promise!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sure enough, I didn't. We were walking towards the furniture place as Natalie talked about all the fun things we could do. She talked about how huge the beach house was. It wasn't big like a Victorian, but it was big for a beach house. She told me her parents didn't mind, but they would visit later on next month to see how it was going. She said that it had four bedrooms, five restrooms, four of them connected in the rooms. She said it had a lounge, a foyer, a kitchen, a diner, and this big living room. It had a pool in the back that she had mentioned. It was also two story and from the outside, it was also really beautiful. To make things better, it had a security alarm, so no hobos could get in and live in it. "Wow, it sounds amazing!" I said.

"It is! It's so beautiful!" She assured me.

We entered the store, and I immediately gasped. It had such pretty things. From beds, to couches. From vanities to tables. "This is so cool, but I don't have a lot of money." I said as I saw one of the price tags.

"Don't be stupid!" She said. "This beach house is my parent's house. They put tons of money on my credit card," She said taking out and rubbing it in my face. "they said we could get whatever we wanted for the time being."

"No, but I want to help pay and I don't want you to use any money on me. Helping me get out of that rat hole and getting me out of that food place is enough." I said, sounding a little embarrassed.

"Dude it has like $100,000 so let's not worry about money here." She said.

"I don't know.."

"Look I got you into this, it's only fair if my parents pay for this." She said smiling.

I giggled, getting her joke.

We searched high and low for all sorts of furniture. We got two Queen sized beds, a few beanbag chairs, a sofa set, love seats, a couple vanities, bedside tables, some lamps, and a few other cheaper things. She gave them the address and told them to ship all the stuff tomorrow.

We left really pleased with the choices we made and headed into a smoothie place. "I don't work this whole weekend so we can take my stuff tonight if you want."

"Yes! My parents let me have the keys to the car that's in the garage of the beach house." She said slurping some smoothie from her straw. "I could get it later while you pack up everything. Then we could stuff everything in it and leave this same night."

"But what about my check?" I questioned.

"We can come back on Monday and get it, then officially leave this sad tiny town, but if we're gonna do it tonight, I need to leave like now." She said, taking another sip. "Laguna is about three hours away, plus I have to find the keys and then drive all the way back." She said.

"Do you have the keys to the house?"

"Yeah, they gave me a copy in case I wanted to live there one day." Natalie got up to through away her drink. "It's 6:33 so I should really get going!" She exclaimed. "See ya at your place in like seven hours." With that, she grabbed her purse and hurried outside. She waved down a cab and when she was about to get in, she turned and mouthed bye. She got in and it drove away.

I turned back and started sipping my drink again.

Matthew. What if he finds out where I live and try's looking for me, but I'm already gone? Please Elly, it's been like a month and a week. He should've found you by now. I looked down and started to tear up. What was I thinking? He was sleepy, that's why he said those things. He wasn't thinking straight. We were just having fun.

I got up and threw my drink away. I walked to the apartment and started packing, thinking completely about Matthew and not once did Cole appear in my thoughts as I laid on the sheetless bed, waiting for Natalie.