No Longer Euphoria | Nate Jacobs

Part 23

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It's not the violence that scares me... it's the fact that no matter what he did, I would always love him.
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I feel my limp body be carried down the stairs and out the door, vaguely making out the screams of my mother and father in the background. I don't feel conscious, I don't really feel anything. I manage to move my head back, to see who's carrying me. It's Nate. His eyed are bloodshot from the tears he has restrained from falling down his pale cheeks. He places me down gently on a stretcher as I notice blue and red flashing lights in the corner of my eye. I feel a gentle pinch on my arm, before a cold fluid is injected into my body by the paramedics. The cold travels through my body before slowly sending me back to sleep. As I feel my body be lifted onto the back on the ambulance, and my mind begins to give way to the drugs, I see Nate let a single tear slip before he turns suddenly and walks away. That's when everything went dark.

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"Cass? Are you awake?" I hear a familiar voice say. My eyes begin to adjust and I see my father hovering over me, my mum tightly by his side. It's sickening. She clearly doesn't know. "Yes" I bluntly state. "Sweetheart, how are you feeling. I'm so sor—" I cut her off. "I'm fine" I mumble. "Look darling, we have to make a decision. You either have to attend a drug intervention group or we will be forced to send you to rehab" my dad says. "Okay well intervention group is it because I don't have a fucking drug addiction" I spit. My parents look at each other before nodding and my father walks away. "Where is he going" I ask. "He's going to tell them that you will be signing up for the intervention group. You will most likely be released today" she says. Now, you must be thinking, you've just had a near death experience so you probably feel like shit right now. Well, funnily enough... it could not be further from the truth. In fact, I fully plan on attending school today depending on the time I am released. In fact, I'll even be attending the dance. Now what might be my motivation, you ask? Nate. Freaking. Jacobs. Yep that's right, I want to leave the hospital purely to begin what I hope will be a relationship with Nate Jacobs. Whilst I felt the cells in my body slowly dying from the overdose, there were a few things that became scarily clear. Number one being that I hate my father and nothing will ever fix that. Number two is that I will never be a pushover like my mother, so I'm going to start being brutally honest and fuck what people think. Then number three, I am in love with Nate Jacobs and if I have to live the rest of my life being mentally and physically abused, then it will be a lot better than what my life is already.

Some time passes before the doctor reviews me and allows a discharge. The drive home is silent. Once we arrive home, I walk up the stairs into my room and make my way into the shower. I let the hot water cascade down my back, feeling every part of my body be freed by the boiling water. Near death experiences make you feel refreshed honestly. I feel weird, not happy but not sad... and definitely not numbed either. I hop out of the shower and do my hair, makeup and put some clothes on. I check the time on my phone, it's 12am. Perfect, just in time for lunch. I pack my things and grab my keys. "Cya guys!" I yell to my parents as I make a quick dash out to my car. I can hear racing footsteps but I don't stop, I jump into my car and speed off to school.

I pull into the car park and hear the bell for lunch ring, just my luck. I hop out of my car and race toward my locker, shove my bag in and head to the cafeteria. As I approach my normal table, I see my friends look up at me stunned. Not stunned in a good way but like more in the way were if you were to see your dead relative arise to say hello... this would be the reaction. I sit myself down next to rue and give her a smile. She pulls me into the most warm and genuine embrace before whispering "I'm here for you, and I see you" in my ear. Whilst this is nice and I know she definitely does understand what I'm going through in some aspects, I whisper back,"Everything is so much clearer now". She looks at me worried, I drift my gaze toward Maddy who isn't looking at me or saying much. Fair enough, I've only had sex with her boyfriend right? "Maddy can I speak to you alone please?" I ask. "Sure" she says sarcastically but I still stand up and gesture her to follow me. I lead us both to the hallway. "Maddy I just wanted to say that I am genuinely sorry. I never meant to feel the way I do about Nate, especially because he's yours. I love you, believe it or not. I've been a shitty friend and I —" she cuts me off by slapping me across the face. "There. Now we're somewhat even" she giggles. I giggle confused back to her and she hugs me before saying "no boy is worth a best friend giving up on another best friend when she needs fucking serious help". Her tone changes at the end before she steps back and says nastily "and if you think that I'll ever fucking speak to you again, you have me wrong. At least the girls think we've made up and we can pretend now. Okay? You home-wrecking bitch" she smiles sarcastically. I turn to see the girls all staring. Lovely. "Ok" I say before sarcastically smiling back.

We both walk back to the table smiling as genuinely as we can, even though it's faker than Kylie Jenners lips. When I reach the table I say "oh I'm just going to pop to the toilet but I'll be right back". I rush to the back of the school before texting Nate.

Me: Meet me at the back of the school behind the gym.

Not so soon after, he replies.

Nate: okay.

Minutes later, Nate walks around the corner. He smiles before running up to me and picking me up and spinning me around. "Cassie thank god. I was so worried that I had lost you" he says planting kisses all over my face. This feels... different. Different in a good way? I'm not sure yet but I know that I think I like it. I walk in and just hold him. That's all I want, a simple hug. "Cassie, when I snuck into your house to see how you were, and saw you lying there... lifeless, I had this feeling rush through me. A feeling as if I'm on the brink of losing someone I love. I look up at him, and think. "Nate, I need you to spare me from all of this. Tell me what you plan on doing to make sure that we don't have to fuck around with emotions and that I'm not being played because I don't know how much more of this my heart can take" I say. He looks at me plainly before replying "come with me". He takes my hand and whips my body around before pulling me into the school. He wraps his hand around me and I wrap mine around his. He drags me into the cafeteria where pretty much everyone is, and I feel eyes start to burn us... especially Maddy's. He walks me to the football table, clears a spot and whisks me up so that I'm standing on the table for everyone to see. I feel so embarrassed but I wonder what he's got planned. The cafeteria goes silent and he speaks up. "Cassie Howard, will you be my girlfriend and will you go to the dance with me?" He says. Surely he isn't doing this in front of Maddy. I mean has he even broken up with her? I'll let him deal with that. "Yes!" I shriek. I love this man. He picks me up off of the table and kisses me with my legs straddled around him. The football team all cheer but when I look to my left I see Maddy walk off. I want to fix this with her but I don't see how I can when I'm now dating her ex.

"Cassie, want to ditch early and go back to my house?" He says. "Yes boyfriend" I giggle. Wait. Oh no. I realise that McKay is seated at the table and is the only one still sitting with his head down looking at his phone. I'm being such an insensitive bitch right now to two people that have only done right by me. I don't know if I'll ever make it up to them but I guess if this is what I want right? I mean Nate seems to want it too? I might have to talk to him about how we can go about fixing those friendships. He leads me to the car park and opens the door for me. We sit and talk about how happy we are for the whole way home, however I can't seem to get Maddy and McKay off of my mind. We get to his house and walk up the stairs. I sit myself on the bed and lay down, I feel like if I were to bring up the conversation I really want to talk about... it would ruin the mood I know Nate is in right now. I guess I'll just have to wait.

Clifffffhangerrrr! Who knows how the conversation will go? Oh and the DANCE? Things are heating UP!