Chapter 13, but Nathan's Room

Nathan opened his bland room door and showed Jade in.

He asked,

"Why did you lie that I was a genius?"

As Jade studied the room's typical "organized-messy" nature, she replied,

"Relax I was just adding some color to your character."

Nathan replied in a dull voice,

"Oh...Okay.", He wasn't too sure as to whether it was an insult or a form of help.

"Smile a little.", smiled Jade as she examined some books on a wood stained desk.

There was a small study space in Nathan's room. The area was made up of a wood stained desk kept to the side of the room, being lit by only a small blue table lamp. A discarded array of old books appeared to occupy most of the actual study space.

By the manner in which Nathan's school bag was kept next to the small office chair, you would think that it too was just another discarded item.

While most of the books had the deteriorating covers of ordinary history and factual books, there was one which stuck out as a wolf among sheep.

Its cover was painted in a deep red color with burns around the edges and was kept aside from the heap of discarded books.

The dark writing engraved within the book cover read;

"The real story of Lilu and Lilitu."

"Troubled by sleep demons much?", asked Jade as she read the book's cover.

Nathan's eyes grew wide, "Wha-what, no. No...", Nathan was surprised that Jade knew what the book was about.

He quickly recovered, "Those books... it's just a hobby."

Nathan reached for his classic Yamaha nylon string guitar from the corner of his room, "Now what did you have trouble learning?"

Nathan sat down with the guitar on his bed and waited for Jade.

Jade turned away her attention from the pile of books and towards Nathan, "It's the whole thing about chords. I just don't get it. I'm useless.", she complained.

Nathan gave her a reassuring glance,

"Well I'm sure you're not that bad."

Jade walked towards Nathan and sat down next to him on the bed.

She hunched her back and buried her face in the palms of her hands in hopelessness,

"Thanks for thinking that, but you haven't even heard me play. How would you know?"

Nathan stared at Jade and began in a subtle voice, "Well all I know is that you're perfect..."

Nathan stopped.

Jade looked down and Nathan looked away from Jade as he realized the implications of what might be understood by what he had just said.

Nathan quickly sprung to life,

"Not perfect like that!!!..."

He continued, "I mean you're not perfect... I mean not that there's anything wrong with you... I-uh, mean you are perfect but like yeah... Nobody's perfect-I-uh...think you're cool...", Nathan's fumble died down on that.

"Don't worry I know exactly what you mean. You're cool too. I'm glad we're friends.", said Jade excitedly, whether intentionally or unintentionally emphasizing the word, "friends".

Nathan feeling a little red-faced played a quick *riff on his guitar (from James Bay~Hold Back The River) and said, "Well-uhm now, the first thing to know about chords is to understand notes."

"Wow! that was stupéfiant, beautiful.", Jade applauded Nathan's riff melody.

"You are really talented. Who taught you to play like that?", asked Jade.

"Uh-actually, I taught myself. Had a lot of time I guess...", Nathan shrugged quietly, not wanting any praise.

Jade chuckled,

"You're too modest."

"I wish I was as good as..."

Jade was interrupted by a sudden singing voice.

"Why do I live

Oh why do I

Tell me why do I livvee

Oh why

Sometimes I just wanna

Disappear

Yeah sometimes I don't wanna

See a face

And every fear

Creeping outta, the brightest place..."

It was Nathan's phone ringtone playing on the loudest possible volume.

At that moment he wished that Jade didn't hear that. The only reason that Nathan's phone wasn't on silent was because he had almost never received a phone call from anybody. And the only reason that, that specific song was his ringtone was the same, he had almost never received a phone call from anybody ever.

That begged the question, "Who was calling Nathan?".

Nathan grinned shyly as he woke up and hid his face in shame while he quickly answered his phone which was lying on the dressing table.

In that frozen moment which Nathan answered the phone call, two things were causing Nathan to freak out on the inside;

Number one: He didn't know how to greet a person on the phone, because he had hardly ever received phone calls before. And to make things worse the number on the phone showed as an unknown number. So who could possibly be calling him at this hour?

Number two: Jade.

Jade was watching the whole thing.

Not much more to be said here.

"H-Hello.", as hard as he tried not to, Nathan still answered the phone in an unstable and stuttering voice.

"Hey, it's me!", the unknown voice replied with excitement from the other end of the call.

The voice sounded very familiar to Nathan, but he still couldn't decide who it was. And it wasn't even like he had too many contacts or people who he knew. He wasn't the type of person to make new contacts easily.

Nathan decided to deal with the call rationally,

"Uhm, I think you might have the wrong number..."

"No this is Nathan right... Nathan Marquette, isn't it?", asked the whiney and high pitched voice on the phone.

Nathan was now even more anxious. The only thing worse than not knowing someone, is not knowing someone who knows you.

"Yes this is Nathan, and-uh, who are you?", asked Nathan, trying to muster some confidence in his voice.

The person on the call laughed, "I thought you would remember your friendly magic hunter and ghost expert...Martin. Martin Pasquier."

Nathan thought that the squeaky high-pitched voice sounded familiar.

"Oh...Martin, it's you. I don't remember giving you my number.", Nathan was confused as to how and where he got his number from.

"I found it.", replied Martin calmly.

"So you stalked me?", asked Nathan in a serious manner.

Jade got up from the bed and walked towards Nathan.

"Is-uhm, everything okay?", she asked softly.

"Yeah-uh just one second.", whispered Nathan.

"No, I investigated you not stalked. There's a difference...", boasted Martin in an excited voice.

He continued,

"Now look, I'm outside your house below your oculus room window, We have to meet. It's important. I know that your parents will not allow you to leave this late, but I figure that you could fit through that room window of yours. Wouldn't be the first, would it?"

"Wait a minute, how do you know where I live and which room is mine and that I've done this sort of thing before?", asked Nathan in a panic.

Martin replied with a straightforward answer,

"I-uh, stalked you."

_____________

DefInItIonS iN ThIS ChApTEr:

*Riff - a short repeated phrase/melody in popular music and jazz, typically used as an introduction or refrain in a song.

*Stupéfiant - A French word for "amazing".