Shadows and Popularity

Chapter 09: Night Out

Chapter 09: Night Out 

“Nathan?” Maya asked through the line, her voice was sleepy, but Nathan wasn’t expecting anything less.

“Hey.” He greeted. “Sorry if it’s late and I bothered your sleep…” he trailed off when he sat upright, his legs on the edge of the bed, his bare-chest not even cold from the air-conditioner set to fan. “…But can we meet up?” He finally asked.

A silence, a bead of sweat cascaded down his temple, and then an answer. “You mean now?”

Nathan stood and walked to the closet. “Yeah. If you don’t want to though, I’m fine with that.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to if you really want to meet up but…” Another moment of silence reigned. “Is it safe?”

Nathan looked out the tinted glass wall. The city alive and bright even at midnight. Traffic wasn’t obvious, and tonight seemed like a rare peace. He nodded.

“Yeah. I just need to clear my mind. Wanna join me?”

Another silence reigned, and Nathan thought she had fallen asleep on him, before he heard the shuffling of bed sheets.

“Where are we meeting up?”

The heartthrob smiled thankful before he wore his thin white t-shirt and red checkered polo as he said. “I’ll pick you up. Just get changed. We’re only going to be out for a drive.”

Thirty minutes later, Maya saw the familiar blue car park on Clarisse’s lot. She walked out, locked the door, and checked her sling bag if she had the spare. She wore a simple blue blazer over a white cybersmile shirt and a navy blue skirt that reached her knees partnered with practical walking shoes. She had asked Clarisse if it were all right for her to borrow some of her clothes, and the musician girl sleepily said it was okay. Maya never bothered telling her that it was for right away, but she eased her conscience by telling herself that Clarisse never really asked for specifics anyway.

Nathan opened the door for her and, before they knew it, they were already driving away.

“So,” Maya sounded. “Just a drive, right?”

Nathan shrugged. “I just need to think.”

She nodded, but her eyes were out on the scenery, her black locks swaying prettily over her shoulders as the open window gave her a refreshing, cold awakening. She closed her eyes then, and Nathan thought she was going to sleep on him.

What was he even thinking of, anyway? Out on a drive in the middle of the night with a girl? He was an insomniac when he was a kid, usually getting up on strange hours of the night and just wanting to take a walk around the house until he’d fall asleep again, but he hadn’t felt such way since he transferred schools. During middle school, he had asked his mother if there was a cause of his sleeplessness, and both his parents answered that it started when he was around five or six, the first time he had encountered the media late at night. They told him he started having nightmares of flashing lights chasing him since, until the restlessness turned into a bad habit of insomnia.

Ever since his freshmen year however, he hasn’t been that way, but it seems that he was starting up again. And this time, he seemed to need a companion.

He put the car on park when they reached a clearing. He laid his head on the wheel.

Maybe that was why he never felt right being in the spotlight. Maybe that was why he sometimes wished he could have just blended in with the surroundings and go unnoticed. He wasn’t so much of a misanthrope though, he liked making friends, maybe even a little bit of flirting, but he never really liked being the center of attention. In the complete middle of the spotlight. Based on his parents’ explanation when he was a kid, he never really recovered from growing up with so many people watching what he was doing.