Under The Surface [Editing]

Chapter TwentyTwo 'My Problem'

Ms. Vox in history class bored me today, I thought as I yawned. Not getting much sleep the night before wasn’t helping me either.

Nathan and I were silent on the way to school today. He was clearly still upset and I was just literally too tired to say anything. I still had the car for the week since my dad doesn't go back to work until the following Tuesday.

I turned in his direction to see him watching me. He winked at me, but didn’t have a smile on his face. Penny got my attention as she was glaring at me with the hunger of hatred in her eyes. I openly rolled my eyes at her and Nathan kind of snorted amusingly as he had been watching the exchange since he sat behind her.

She turned and looked at Nathan and he met her stare as if to say ‘what’. A small amused smirk crept on my face now. Penny looked back at me and some realization appeared in her eyes. Uh-oh, well that is just great. The girl was smarter than I gave her credit for.

Wait, don’t get carried away Dawn. She could just have realized, maybe, we were friends now. Yeah that was it, had to be.

I turned back to the front of the class and caught Lily starring at me out of the corner of her eye. What was with everyone watching me today?

“What?” I mouthed silently to her, she grinned.

“No going back,” she mouthed back enunciating the words so I clearly understood them. I flipped her off playfully with a grin on my face.

The bell rang a little while later and it was off to P.E. class.

“See you at lunch girl.” Lily tapped my hip with her notebook. The class bottle necked to get out of the door, as Lily headed in the opposite direction of the gymnasium that I turned to. Nathan came up to me and settled into my walking pace besides me.

“What? We have the class together.” He shrugged from the curious expression on my face. His hand brushed against mine and he took part of it in his thumb and index finger rubbing soothingly and then let go. When I looked at him from the gesture he smiled warmly. The deep affection in his eyes made me shiver. Okay, I knew I was falling for him, but did it have to be such a hard and deep fall? Only time would tell I guess.

On the way to the gym we walked past James standing at his locker who unfortunately was glaring at us as we approached.

“What?” Nathan spoke with defiance and arrogance hinting at challenge in his tone as we walked by meeting James gaze. Turning in a complete circle as we walked past him, Nathan kept his eyes on him as he swiveled his whole body around walking backwards a few steps arrogantly as James watched and Nathan chuckled as he turned back around his back to James now and held my hand.

“You shouldn’t provoke him like that.” I said rolling my eyes.

“Just letting him know, I am watching him,” he spoke amused.

“He wouldn’t hurt me,” I said exasperated at what he was implying, and why would he think that?

“You never know,” Nathan was far away again thinking about something else. I could tell when he wasn’t here in the present with his thoughts.

Living with him the past few months, I have learned some of his unspoken habits, I am sure he has learned some of mine. He always smirked when he got playful or didn’t want to reveal something. When he was happy he talked and joked around more. When he was angry or hurting he shut down completely, which was the most difficult because that is when I really wanted him to let me in so I could help. I lash out when I'm really angry or hurt, almost the complete opposite.

We separated to go change in the locker rooms, I was quiet being lost in my thoughts when I heard my name. Déjà Vu began to creep up my spine.

“What are you doing with Dawn’s ex?” A familiar voice said quietly as this time the locker room was not as empty and the time limit Ms. Lewelling put in place still stood.