♡Tricky♡

19. Home again

I ran out of the house and into the tesla. I needed to find her. I couldn't lose her. Not now not ever. I frantically called everyone I knew, desperate to know where she was. I called everyone. And yet no one knew anything about this. I avoided my tears as I finally clicked on Jeff's number.

"Hey David what's up?"
"Hey man do you know where Natalie is? She just kinda disappeared and I'm worried about her."
"Yeah Bro she's here with me. I took her to dinner."
"Oh haha okay. Thanks."

He hung up and I contemplated going to her, to confess my blooming feelings for her, but I realised something that changed my mind. She is at dinner with Jeff. She kept it a secret from me. The blush and smirk that appeared on he race was not a friendly occurance. She was in love with Jeff, and I was too stupid to see it.

Without thinking, I drove back to the house and booked a flight for Chicago. I couldn't let Natalie see me now. Not when I was a heartbroken mess. I called my mom, briefly explaining to her that I was returning home that night. She was happy i was coming home, but she repeatedly asked me if i was ok. "I'm fine, mom," was my reply. My flight was at 9, so I hurried to pack my bag, seeing as I had just wasted an hour in trying to find her. I was sad, mad, and all in all disappointed that she didn't tell me she was seeing Jeff. I was planning to confess my feelings for her tonight, but that clearly didn't work out.

~~~

I was sitting on the plane, trying to clear my head. This was when Instagram blew up my phone with posts and stories I was tagged in.

They were paparazzi shots of Jeff and Natalie, sitting at the restaurant, holding each others hands, while being flirtatiously lost in each others eyes. All the captions read stuff like,

"David is punching the air right now"

"No more datalie lol!"

"#Jatalie is thriving! Sorry @daviddobrik!"

I heald back my tears of frustration and sadness. Why do people tag me in things like this? It's like they want me to suffer. I kept continuously scrolling through countless of pictures, when I stumbled across one that really crushed me.

It was taken a couple minutes ago, they were leaving the restaurant, and Jeff's hand was on Natalie's waist as they walked. The photo story showed Jeff leaning in for a kiss, right on the lips. She didn't reject him. She went along with it. That should have been me instead of Jeff tonight. But she chose Jeff.

As warm, salty tears of heartbreak streamed down my face, I quickly deleted all my social medias. I new everyone would keep tagging me and dm'ing me in those photos, and I really couldn't deal with that right now.

~~~

My mom picked me up from the airport. She greeted me, but all I did in return was hug her and cry into her shoulder. "Davey you have to tell me what the hell is going on right now." So I did. I told her about my feeling towards Natalie, and where she went tonight. "Oh honey I'm so sorry," she said hugging me, rubbing my back.

I thought back to when I was a child. My mom's hugs were always comforting for me when I felt down, but my dad always knew how to really relax me. He would put his hands on either side of my head, and tell me to breathe with him. We would stand there for a couple minutes, his hands on my head, and us silently just breathing in sequence until I felt better. I loved my mom, but I needed my dad right now.

We got home, and when my dad saw me, he opened his mouth to speak, but soon closed it and hugged me. I started crying then. I felt 12 years old again.

My dad did what I wanted him to. He held me head and we breathed, then after a few minutes of that, I cracked a smile and he pulled me into his chest. "Good to see you my boy," he said to me. "Now you wanna tell me what happened or not?"