Chapter 9

The next morning I woke up to my phone beeping. I groaned and rolled to the other side of the bed, picking my phone up.

It was a text from Nate. I quickly sat up straight and wiped my eyes, before reading the text clearly.

Nate: hey can u cum n open da backdoor 4 me cuz im stuk in kittys room n i dont wan ur grandparents t c me

I had to read it three times to actually understand what he was saying. I rolled my eyes and stood up from the bed, before typing a response for him.

Renee: yeah come to my door and I’ll let you out in 2 minutes

I heard a quick knock as soon as I sent out the text. I looked around the room and had time to stuff a peppermint candy that was lying in a package on the desk before the door was swung open and Nate entered the room, in a pair of blue sweatpants. Just sweatpants.

His hair was ruffled and his piercings were gone, except the one in his lip.

"I told you to wait outside."

He smirked and looked me up and down. "No you didn’t."

Then it occurred to me that I was in extremely short shorts and a bra. I snatched the blanket from the bed and wrapped it around my body, furiously blushing.

"It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked."

"You’re an idiot." I mumbled and exited my room, walking past him.

"What’s going on? Why did you leave Ni?"

We looked at Katherine, who was followed out of her room by Hannah. What happened last night? From what I remember, it was almost 3am when I got into bed. Did they…actually, I don’t want to know what they did. I was going to be sick.

"I have to go." Nate mumbled. "But last night was fun. We should do it again."

"Definitely." Hannah and Katherine said at once, and Nate’s eyes drifted to me.

"Show me the way, babe."

I rolled my eyes and after I made sure that my grandparents weren’t around, I walked down the stairs, then into the kitchen, were I unlocked the door.

"How did you even get it?" I asked him and he stopped in the doorframe. I instantly noticed that he smelled like smoke.

"Climbed up the window."

"Wow, you’re that horny you would climb up a window to shag someone?"

"Not someone. Two someones."

His eyes drifted down to the blanket, and my fingers that were tightly gripping into it.

"Why? Do you want me to pay a visit tonight? Because I can do that if you want."

"Yeah okay bye." I said. It occurred to me that I didn’t deny his proposal. But I left it at that, surprising myself.

What the fuck?

"Bye Renee." he said licking his lips, before turning around and walking away. My eyes were glued to the black heart to his neck, wondering what it meant.

God, why was he so complicated?

***

It turned out that grandma and grandpa went out grocery shopping, cue the lasagna smell that came from the kitchen a few hours later.

I was up in my room like usual, scrolling through Tumblr and reblogging skating photos.

My eyes drifted to the house across the street once again. I wondered what Nate was doing at the moment.

I immediately squinted my eyes at the mental image in my head. Shit, he fucked me up. I was starting to get perverted.

I bit my lip and grabbed my phone, with the intention of plying Temple Run, when a knock on my door interrupted me.

"Yeah?" I asked.

Katherine came in wearing a pretty revealing tank top and a pair of high-waisted shorts. She had on high wedges and she seemed to go through a hipster phase, hence the headband that was squeezing her forehead, making her face look like a pear.

"What’s up?" I asked putting the phone on the table.

"I was about to go hang out on the street with the others…and I thought I’d invite you."

I glanced outside the window. The sky was dark, which meant it was going to rain. I shrugged.

"Sure, why not? Just let me dress properly."

I changed into a tank top and jean shorts, putting on a pair of blue Vans.

"You’re going to be cold.," she said as we walked down the stairs. I shrugged.

Katherine announced grandma that we were going outside, and she replied, saying we should come back when it will start raining.

Everyone was chilling around Jake and Jade’s house. I gulped when I saw Nate on one of the lounge chairs, sipping from a beer.

His piercings were back, and his hair was brown. His long skinny legs were covered with shorts and he was crossing his ankles as he idly chatted with Sean and Hannah. He bowed his head towards me, so he could look at me over his shades. Who wore shades when it wasn’t even sunny?

Kaylee was laughing with Jade, secretly sneaking glanced towards Jake, who was too involved in his phone than to notice everyone else. There were three more people from yesterday’s party here, but I didn’t know them.

"HEY!" Katherine yelled and everyone’s head turned to us. Sean and Nate smirked.

"Hi." Sean said, his eyes on me.

I faked a small smile and tugged on my shorts, immediately regretting my choice of clothing. We heard a scream from down the street, and all of our heads snapped towards Ricky, who jogged towards us with a soccer ball under his arm. He was smiling.

Nate and Sean got up from their chairs.

"S’go!" Sean said motioning to us to follow them.

"Where are we going?" I asked Katherine.

"We’re goin’ on the footie field." Ricky answered for her as he started walking further down the street.

I bit my lip and looked up at the sky. I knew we’d end up getting completely wet because a rain was definitely going to start.

"Grab me bottle from the table!" Nate yelled looking at me over his shoulder.

I tried to ignore the fact that he had his arm around Katherine, and was now kissing her as they walked. I grabbed his beer bottle from the table and walked a few feet behind them. I could hear a sexual topic starting, and quite frankly I wasn’t interested in any of it.

I plaid with my nails and looked at the half full bottle. They turned left on a field and I saw a small park, a few small shops and a small soccer field.

The girls sat down on the grass, giggling and chatting. I awkwardly looked at Nate, who tugged his shirt over his head and tossed it to Katherine.

"Hold me shirt babe." he said and I found the fact that he kept saying ‘meh’ instead of ‘my’ or ‘me’ completely annoying. Everything he did was annoying.

"What am I going to do with this?" I asked raising the bottle.

He tore his eyes away from Katherine who sat down next to Hannah and looked at me. He smiled and I had to gather all my strength not to look down at his naked, tattooed chest.

"Keep it until I finish the game." he said before turning around, and once again I found myself staring at the black heart on his neck.

I sat down next to Kaylee and sighed, crossing my legs. I placed the bottle in the circle formed by my legs and propped my elbow on my knee, resting my head in my palm as I watched the game.

I caught Nate’s eyes a couple of times, and it suddenly became a game of who was averting their gaze first.

He stopped in the middle of the field, still holding my gaze. People were starting to notice, so I quickly focused on a spot on the grass, blushing from all the attention.

"Why did he get that dragon tattoo on his arm again?" Hannah asked Katherine as she laid on her back, glancing up at the cloudy sky.

"He said it was something to do with the fact that it’s dangerous and dark." Katherine mumbled plying with Nate’s shirt.

"You really know the meanings of all his tattoos?" Jade asked leaning back on her palms.

Katherine nodded. "He told me."

Well aren’t you pretty fucking special.

"What does the black heart on the back of his neck mean?" I asked before I could stop myself.

All three of them turned to look at me.

"That’s the only one he didn’t tell me about."