Chapter 18: Its Natalex all the bloody way

I rush out of the room and plonk myself down into a chair, I sit on it, bringing my legs up to my chest as I stare out of the small window at the rain pouring outside in the darkness. There is no noise in the kitchen, only the faint sound of Alex and Amanda's singing.

I put my above my legs and I'm alone with my thoughts.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Was I legit checking him out before?

Well, he sorta does look good...

What the HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, NATALIE?

I decide to stop thinking about Alex all together, instead, I just pull out my phone and start playing candy crush. I've been playing level 50 when my phone runs out of charge and I turn it off.

"Hi."

I look up and see Alex standing there, he's holding a bouquet of roses and is looking at the floor and scratching the back of his neck.

"Hey," I say quietly, bringing down my legs and standing up, walking over to him. Even though he's looking like a God, I try to keep my face as normal as it usually is.

He looks up. "Um, how was your first day?"

My heart flutters and the butterflies return. I look at the ground. When he asked me how my day was this afternoon, I thought he was just being annoying, now, when he asks me this, my face is going red. "Um... good."

"Oh, great," he scratches his neck again when I look up, once my face has returned to its normal color, because I come to the conclusion that I'm angry at Alex for being so annoying, which is why I'm feeling nervous and red.

"Did you get those for your performance?" I ask, gesturing to the flowers.

"Um, no actually... they're for you," he gives me the flowers.

I raise my eyebrows. "Me? Why?"

"I was rude to you this afternoon," he says, staring into my eyes.

"Rude to me? You're always rude to me," I roll my eyes.

"When I walked away from you without saying goodbye," he says.

"Oh, Patricia, that never would have happened if you'd never said hello to me in the first place," I raise my eyebrows again.

He laughs awkwardly. "I better go," he says, looking behind him.

"Yeah, thanks, by the way, you didn't have-" I'm stopped by a shrill voice from behind Alex.

"Baby? What are you doing with her?" Amanda screeches.

"Oh, I was just leaving," Alex looks down.

"Alex, I thought you weren't going to talk to that fugly chick again," she says, sighing.

"What the hell, Amanda?" Alex turns to her.

"What, she's the most ugly thing I've every laid eyes on," she rolls her eyes.

Alex turns back to me. "I'll see you at school," he says, looking at me with an expression I can't place, sadness? Regret? Anger?

I don't know. I really don't know.

The couple walk away and I slump back down into my chair, placing the flowers on the counter beside me. I put my head in my hands and think about what just happened.

The way he gave me those flowers. How nervous he was. How good he looked. How he stood up for me.

Dammit, I just need to get him and his jerky-ness out of my mind.

***

After lying in my bed awake all through last night, I still can't get Alex out of my mind. Hopefully, if a miracle happens, he won't be at school. His flowers are in  a vase right beside me, reminding me of him. I should probably take them out of my room, but I can't be bothered. I pull on some leggings and throw on a short sleeved striped T-Shirt. I pull my hair into a bun and throw my bag over my shoulder.

Running down to the car, I hear Mum call out my name behind me.

"Natalie! I need to speak with you!" she sings. I run quickly into the living room.

"Make it quick, Mum, I promised I'd help Chloe with her Calculus."

"Michelle wants you to babysit Felecia and Liam on Friday," she tells me, looking up from her sheets and staring at me over the top of her glasses.

"Ok. Why can't Alex do it?" I ask.

"Michelle doesn't trust him," Mum says, smiling. "We'll probably have the same problem if you were all staying here for the night alone. We'd invite Alex over too. Which is why, when your Dad and I go on our anniversary date at the Oxdor in a couple of months, we'll be having him over to baby sit you all."

"Mum, why?" I groan.

"Because we don't trust you to ensure no vases get broken by the boys," she says.

"Fine. Tell Michelle I can do it."

"Can't you just tell Alex at school?"

"Oh.." I mumble. "Fine. Bye! Have a good day!"

I rush out the door and start my car. Driving out of the driveway, I see Dad fixing the mail box. He waves at me to come closer.

"Yes, Dad?" I say impatiently.

"Erm," he fixes a nail into the timber. "Michelle and Jackson want you to baby sit their three kids on friday."

"Yes Dad, I know," I say.

"Oh, alright then. Go off to school now," he waves me off and I roll my eyes.

"Don't hurt yourself. Have a great day," I wave. Just as I say this, he hammers one of his fingers and bounces around clutching it. I drive off, ignoring my Dad's clumsiness.

***

I pull up in the school car park and turn off the ignition. Someone knocks on my window and I wind it down before even looking at who it is.

"Hey," Alex says, leaning over, into my car.

"Hi, babe," I say casually, turning to face him.

"I put on quite a show last night, didn't I?" he says.

"You and your pig-faced barbie doll with no brain, yeah," I say, nodding.

"Oh, yeah, sorry about her," he says.

"Yesterday you brought me flowers and now you're just saying oh, yeah, sorry about her?" I roll my eyes. He blushes.

"I felt bad!"

"So whenever you feel bad about doing something you'll get me flowers?" I asks, raising my eyebrows.

"Well, um, I mean, yeah?" he says, scratching the back of his neck. I get out of the car and lock it. He walks around to my side.

"So, if you did something that hurt me, I'd get flowers?" I ask. He shrugs. I walk over to him, touch his leg, and pretend to trip. "You tripped me!" I say.

He laughs. "Sure I did," Alex says, offering me a hand. I stand up next to him.

"This time I want daisies," I whisper in his ear before walking away.

When I get to the gate Chloe is waiting there for me impatiently, tapping her foot, her arms crossed. "Hurry! The homework is due in period 5! And I have drama club at morning tea!" she says, pulling me away into the library with her.

We sit down in a booth and she pulls out her books and a pencil. "Teach me!" she says. I start talking her through it. She's in the middle of completing her homework when someone sits down beside me.

"Noah!" I say, turning to see who it is.

"Hey Nat," he says and slides a hand around my waist. I feel kind of uncomfortable, but I don't want to be rude, so I refrain from shoving him off.

"What're you doing here?" I ask politely.

"People have been saying you're working at Cafe Extra?"

"Yeah, I started there yesterday," I nod.

"Man, word does spread quickly," he says, shaking his head. "Who're you doing it with?"

"My friends Meghan and  Bub- Claudia," I say, he wouldn't have a clue who I was talking about.

"Oh, I think I know Claudia. Maybe I should meet your friends? Ya know, get them to like me," he grins before noticing Chloe sitting there looking at us. "Oh, hi."

"Yeah, hi. I don't know about the other girls, but I certainly don't like you," Chloe says rudely. I glare at her and she shrugs, continuing with her work.

"Anyway," Noah brings his eyes back from Chloe to me. "Can I come meet them at lunch today?"

"Sure," I say, earning a warning look from Chloe. "See you then."

Noah walks off and I look back to Chloe. She practically explodes. "WHAT THE HELL, NATALIE!"

"Ha, that's what I was saying to myself yesterday," I mutter.

"What?" Chloe raises her eyebrows.

"I didn't say anything!"

"Oh," she continues. "You were scolding yourself for goggling over Alex when he sang yesterday. Don't worry I heard all about it from Meghan and Claudia. Apparently they said after you left he kept looking around but Amanda kept trying to dance with him. At the end they said he finally pulled away from her and walked to the other end of the stage."

"What?" I gape at her.

"I knew it! You were scolding yourself about checking him out."

I didn't know Chloe was a mind reader!

"Anyway. Back to the situation at hand! Why is Noah coming to meet us? You know he's not right for you. Its Natalex all the bloody way."

"C'mon, he won't be that bad," I say. Chloe snorts. "He's a really great guy once you get to know him."

"Nat, we aren't playing games here, I saw how uncomfortable you looked next to him," she shakes her head. "I can tell you don't want to speak about it. I'll do Question 11 now, almost done!"

I sit there thinking about what Chloe said. Why the hell is Alex dating Amanda when he doesn't even want to ballroom dance in public with her? Why did he buy me roses, it couldn't have just been because he felt bad, that's not an Alex thing to do. Did he really fix my feet because he wanted to? Why did I just ask myself that? That was so weird.

"Natalie! Natalie!" Chloe waves a hand in front of my face and I snap out of my thinking mode.

"Yeah?" I ask.

"The bell just rang!" she says. "See you and your boring boyfriend at lunch."

I roll my eyes, pack up my stuff and walk to my french classroom. I go to sit down next to Kate when the teacher calls me up.

"Natalie!" she calls, gesturing for me to move over to her desk.

"Yes Madame?" I say.

"Take a seat," she pulls out the extra seat beside her and I sit down. "It has come to my attention that a student in this class who usually does very well in all their exams, extremely well, actually. They've got a mark that their parents aren't entirely happy with. They've offered a tutor $50 an hour. Would you be up for it?"

"$50 an hour!" I blurt out. My teacher smiles and nods. "Oui! Of course!"

"Great, I'll email you the details, just waaaaait," she pastes a document into an email to me and clicks send. "There we go. Today is a filler and review lesson, don't worry about it. Read through that, you know all the content anyway," she waves me off and I walk over to my seat beside Kate.

"What was that about?" she asks me.

"Oh, I just have to tutor some random, apparently their parents aren't happy with the mark they got," I pull out my laptop and sign into my emails.

"Who is it?"

"Dunno yet," I say, opening the email.

"Is it on there?" Kate leans over to see my computer.

"Yeah," I say. Scanning through the email. I see something I never want to see again. "No, no, no, no, NO!" I say, holding my face in my hands.

"Who is it?" I feel Kate take the  computer off my desk and onto hers. "OOOO, gurl."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I scream. "That idiot!"

"Alex is nothing close to an idiot, Nat. He aces all his exams. I've got no idea how he got lower than an A-."

"Hmmph," I grumble, to annoyed to comprehend what she actually means. "I don't want to tutor him!"

"C'mon, Nat, you wanna spend more time with him! You get paid $50 an hour, and you get to sit next to him for a long time."

"I hate him," I groan, crossing my arms on the desk in front of me and laying my head inside them.

"You love him," Kate places the laptop back onto my desk. "Stop tryna hide it."

"Eugh, I just can't believe him!"

"Its not exactly his fault," Kate shrugs as I look up, leaning my head on my hand.

"Yes it IS! He probably deliberately flunked it because he knew that his parents would most likely give him a tutor which he knew would be me because-"

"He wants to see you ALL THE BLOODY TIME!" Kate interrupts me.

"-He wants to annoy me!" I finish.

"Nat, you've just gotta wait, honey. Just wait," Kate shakes her head.

***

"And then he picked me up for school this morning!" Bubbles smiles brightly as she talks about Callum, sucking on a lolly pop.

"That's great, Claudia!" says Meghan.

"Yeah, it really is," she places a hand on her chin and gazes dreamily at the ceiling.

"You're both so cute toge-" I'm interrupted when someone slings their arms around my neck from behind and kisses me on the cheek.

"Hey Nat!" says Noah, taking a seat beside me.

"Hi, Noah," I reply.

"How was your day?" he asks.

"Pretty good," I say.

"Are these your friends?" he asks.

"No she's just sitting with us because we're her terrorists, not her friends," Bubbles rolls her eyes.

"You're Claudia? I think I know you, you're on the volleyball team, right?" he says.

"Yeah," Bubbles bites into her burger and starts speaking to Siena on her side.

"And who are the rest of you?" Noah asks.

"That's Kate, Meghan and Chloe," I say, pointing to them each in turn.

"Nice to meet you all," he says politely. "Now, Nat, I have to cancel the date on Thursday. Are you free tom-"

I see Bubbles, Meghan, Chloe and Kate look up and behind me, they all smile when they see something. I turn my head around, but before I can look to see who it is, someone cups the back of my neck and leans over so that their face is only inches from mine. I see the ocean blue eyes looking into mine and feel his dark, curly hair touching my head.

He gives me something. "Because you're not worthy of just roses," he whispers so quietly only I can hear it. I can smell his minty breath against my face before he walks away. My friends are looking at me, either smiling or gaping. I look down at the thing in my hand. Its a singular daisy. I turn to look at Alex's retreating figure and grin.  I don't notice everyone in the cafeteria looking at me, instead, I turn and take a bite of my sandwich.

"You were saying?" I look at Noah, who's wearing a shocked look on his face.

"Oh... um, right," he side-eyes my friends before continuing. "I was wondering if you're free tomorrow? You know, since I have to cancel Thursday. The sooner the better, I s'pose!"

"Oh, I can do tomorrow, sure," I say.

"Great, see you then!" Noah gathers his things and hurries away.

Chloe's mouth is still hung open, and a chunk of banana falls out. "Ew, Chloe. You'll catch flies."

She shuts her mouth immediately. "I..what...um-how-who?"

"WHEN WHERE WHY!" Bubbles screams. "THIS IS AMAZING! HE LOVES YOU! GO PICK THE PETALS OFF THAT DAISY, NATALIE! YOUR PRINCE HAS COME FOR YOU!"

I roll my eyes. "Calm down Bubbles, Alex is just being annoying, as usual," I say, turning around to face him. He's sitting with Callum and Leo. When he looks at me he winks. I turn back around.

"Oh. My. God! Ship Natalex has set sail!"

***

I walk down the corridor towards music by myself. Meghan went to the bathroom and said she'd catch up. I'm almost at the classroom when I hear heels clacking down the hallway. I wish I could just jump into a locker and hide. If its Amanda's I'd be happy to squish her lipstick and smash her mirror and jump on her when she opens it. Then I'd run for my life, I wouldn't want to spend a lifetime in jail. No one would.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here?" Amanda and her minions stand in front of me. Damn, I wish one of those lockers was unlocked.

"Me?" I say before I can stop myself.

"Yup. A fat cow," Amanda smirks at me and her friends giggle. "Remember I told you not to talk to Alex? My boyfriend?"

"Yup. I dunno if he does though," I roll my eyes.

"Stay away from him, or go die in a hole with your grandmother," Amanda says, glaring at me.

She knows my grandmother was like a second mother for me. Whenever Amanda couldn't be there for me, or was bulling me, she was there. I always loved going over to her house and watching Gilmore girls on her lap with a hot chocolate. I remember once I was at her house and had spilled hot chocolate on my favorite dress. The next day my Grandmother arrived with a beautiful new dress. I wore it every wear. No one was allowed to touch it. Every night I would wash it in the washing machine, once Mum had taught me how, and dry it in the dryer every morning. I wore it everyday to school. Amanda loved the dress and when it shrunk in the wash and didn't fit me anymore, Amanda asked to borrow it. She then wore it everyday to school, and I wondered why she wouldn't give it back. I remember going to grandma's house one afternoon.

"Where's your dress, sweetheart?" she had asked.

"It got to small for me and so Amanda is borrowing it," I had told her.

I never got the dress back, even after months of waiting. Even when Amanda grew out of it. I loved to sing with my grandmother. One day Amanda was over. She started singing with us. Amanda knew what my grandmother meant to me. She died just after Amanda and I had a fallout. Amanda didn't go to the funeral, but her parents had told her my grandmother had died of stroke.

"Stay away from Alex," Amanda warns, pushing past me with her crocodile skin hand bag and knocking into my shoulder with her denim-clad jacket. I stare after them and walk to class, arriving a couple of minutes late.

I sit down at my desk and take out my books. I prop my elbows on the desk and stuff my face into my hands. What Amanda said hit close to home, and I want to make sure no one sees me crying.

"Nat? Nat? What's wrong?"

___________________________________________________________________

Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Comment all your thoughts please! Vote! Yup. All that stuff. Do you like the flower idea?

My chapters have been a bit longer, and I hope to make every chapter around 3000 words now. The next chapter will be about Noah and Nat's date, sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... stay tuned.

Byeeeeeeee!

PS: Sorry about the really cliche bits in the last few chapters. (or in the whole book)