Chapter 8

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.”

“What’s so special about it anyway?” Jade butted in.

“Yeah, I don’t know.” Katherine spoke. “I asked him a couple of times about it, but he freaked out. Well not really freaked out, but he was all mysterious about it, saying it wasn’t any of my business.”

I gulped and looked back on the field, to see that Nate was running across it, apparently he won. They were all sweating when they came towards us. Nate stretched his arm to Katherine, who handed him his shirt. He used it to wipe his face and smirked when his eyes fell on the bottle between my legs.

“We going?” Hannah asked looking at the watch on her phone.

“Yeah.” Katherine said getting up, right when a thunder was heard.

“Shit.” Kaylee looked up at the sky.

“You coming over to mine?” Ricky asked her as he pulled his shirt on.

Jake eyed Kaylee immediately. Kaylee shrugged and nodded, before she turned to me.

“You should come too.”

I looked up at them.

“Nah, I got to go home.”

“She has math homework.” Katherine said and I wanted to slap her. Jade crossed her arms impatiently on her chest.

“So are we going shopping or not? The rain’s going to pour any second now.”

Katherine nodded and asked me to tell grandma that she’ll be home later tonight. I shrugged and watched everyone leave. Sean and Nate still stood a few feet away from me.

Nate came over to me and I wanted to stand up. My arse was numb and it was going to rain anyway.

He crouched down in front of me, before he wrapped his long fin-gers around the bottle and took it away, making sure to brush it a-gainst my crotch. I blushed and stood up, right when the first water drops started falling.

“Let’s go mate.” Sean said, seeming pretty alarmed by the fact that his hair was going to get wet.

“Where you goin’ now?” Nate asked him, not even bothered by the fact that it was going to rain heavily.

I walked next to them, not saying anything, just listening to Sean telling him about a girl that was coming over in a few minutes, to ‘have their way’. Was I the only virgin in this country?

Nate’s tattooed muscles were glistening in the rain. My hair was taped to my forehead when I got to my door. Sean smirked and winked at me for goodbye. Nate just looked at me, fixed his snapback and turned to his house. His shades were hung at the collar of his tank top.

I walked up the steps to my grandma’s porch and opened the door. Or, tried to open it. It wouldn’t budge.

“What?” I asked but then saw the note on the coffee table.

Renee, Katherine, your grandpa and I are out to yet another book club meeting. Katherine, you have your keys and the food is in the fridge. Love, grandma.

I groaned and crumpled the paper, before I turned around looking out on the street that was now flooded by water. I was freezing and wet and I hated the way my clothes clung to my body.

I crossed my arms and found myself running across the street to Nate’s house. I hated myself for what I was about to do.

I pressed my index finger to the doorbell and tried to make my teeth stop from jittering.

The door was opened, and Nate stood there with a Twix bar in hand. He raised his eyebrows before he smirked. He was still dripping wet.

“Can I help you?” he asked, obviously enjoying the fact that he was keeping me outside in the rain.

“My grandparents are gone to their book club meeting…and I’m locked out.”

“And what do I have to do with all this?”

“Can I wait inside for them? It won’t last longer than an hour.”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

“Get on your knees.” he said seriously.

My face fell and I turned red.

“Forget it.” I said and wanted to turn around.

He rolled his eyes and stepped aside:

“God, I was just joking.”

“Ha-ha.” I mumbled and walked inside as he slammed the door shut, locking it.

His house was almost unrecognizable with no red cups everywhere and drunk people dancing. It was clean…normal.

“I’m jumping in the shower quickly…so unless you want to join me, you can wait here.,” he said throwing the Twix wrapper on the coffee table and running up the stairs.

I threw it in the trash in the kitchen and sat down on the couch. I stood up again, because I was going to wet the cushions.

I looked around, staring at pictures of Nate when he was younger. He was so cute and innocent. I couldn’t help but wonder what hap-pened to him. There was a recent picture of him with his mother and someone who appeared to be his stepfather.

I remembered seeing him yesterday in his driveway. “He’s going on a business trip to London.” my grandma said to my grandpa.

Grandpa squinted his eyes and said: “I’m sure.” He was sarcastic. I ignored it.

Another picture was nailed to the wall. It was of Nate’s mom and his stepdad. They were smiling at each other.

“Makes me throw up every time.”

I turned around and saw Nate looking at the picture over my shoulder. He was wearing a grey sweatshirt and matching sweatpants. I noticed that all his piercings were gone now. Even though I’d never say it out loud, he was beautiful. You couldn’t see any of his tattoos now, and without his piercings he looked innocent, normal. His hair was almost brown.

“They look in love.” I mumbled.

“He’s not.” he replied and stepped back.

He still had his tongue piercing.

I shivered.

“Do you want a jumper?” he asked.

I was surprised by his question. “Wh- yeah.”

He turned around and I glanced at the picture once more. He came back with a pair of sweatpants and a greenish knitted jumper.

I took the clothing from him and went in the kitchen where I got changed. To my surprise he didn’t protest or anything.

When I came back out he was on the couch watching some soccer game.

“Just put them on the radiator.” he instructed, pointing towards the radiator.

I did as he suggested and turned around to find that he turned the volume down and was now watching me.

“What?” I asked.

“Let’s play chicken.”

"Don’t be silly, I know that game. I’m not plying it with you."

"Fine. Then you can wait for your grandparents in the rain."

I pouted angrily to show him that I didn’t want to play. I didn’t. No. He knew I was going to lose anyway.

He wriggled his eyebrows and mocked me.

"You’re not scared of how far I’ll go, are you?” he asked daringly.

I looked at him for a second before saying: “Fine. I’ll play.”

"Alright.” he said smirking and licking his bottom lip.

I went to sit down on the floor, but he patted the place next to him on the couch. I stood up unsure and went to him, sitting down as far as I could from him.

I knew this game. Basically two people sat in front of each other, cross-legged, and each one of them had to make a move, until one of them was going to chicken out.

And he knew I was going to chicken out. I knew he would take it far, but at the same time I wondered why he would try something on me? I wasn’t experienced and there was nothing attractive about me.

"Ladies first.” he said smirking.

However, I didn’t budge. I didn’t want him laughing at my innocence or things like that. If there was one thing I hated, it was to be laughed at, made fun of.

"Fine.” he sighed. "I’ll go."

He darted out of his seating position towards me, but I stopped him by placing my palms against his chest and pushing him back.

"Y-you didn’t say start.” I managed to say.

He rolled his eyes and fully turned towards me. He leaned against the armrest and propped a leg up on the couch.

"You say it. Whenever you’re ready."

His eyes caught mine and I gulped. To hell with it, I was tired of him thinking that I was a nun. He had no right to judge me. I wasn’t going to chicken out. Not this time.