“Guys, I know Pearl can be a bitch,” I let them know, “but I get along quite well with her. Just to make it clear, I’m not like her.” I don’t want to be judged for Pearl’s stupid actions, friendship or not.
Delsin clicks his tongue. “Well, no offense, Shailene, but none of us has anything good to say about either Pearl or Cay.”
I nod slowly. “I guess I’ll be going then.”
“Yeah, I think that would be best,” Camille says snidely.
“Sit down, Shailene,” Delsin says, turning to frown at Camille. “Why are you holding her responsible for things Pearl and Cay did, Caramel?”
“She’s one of their best friends.”
“So?”
“She’s still their friend, after all the awful stuff they did.”
“And what does that prove?” he asks.
“Delsin, you know how passionately I hate Cay and Pearl, and now their friend is sitting here with us … ”
“So?” he repeats.
“But she—”
“Caramel, Shailene stays! If she was like Cay or Pearl, she’d have thrown herself at one of us already.”
“Which makes me glad Logan is safe, far away from here,” Hailey jokes next to me.
“It’s okay,” I interrupt. “I understand if I’m not welcome here.” Then I rise and pick up my backpack. “Can I use the front door? So I don’t need to walk through the sand again in my shoes.”
“You don’t have to leave,” Dahlia says suddenly, her voice shy yet filled with resolve. The next moment, Avery kisses the crown of her head and then soothingly places his hand on her shoulder. “The stuff with Pearl is history. And someday Camille will be able to forget about Cay’s mean move.”
Hesitantly, I ask, “Can I ask what Cay did? I mean, I know what Pearl did, and we had a huge fight over that. But Cay?”
Cami gives me an assessing look, but then she tells me the story of how Cay tried to drive a wedge between her and Delsin. My jaw drops at the description of her brazen unkindness. It would seem Cay and Pearl really take no prisoners when they want something. It’s awful. “Oh my God,” I murmur. “Guys, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“I’m still upset about it all, so I’m just not comfortable with having you here,” Camille growls, unforgiving. “You’re friends with the two sluts.”
I can’t even blame her for acting this way. Pearl and Cay really screwed up, big time. How can I express how ashamed I am of their actions? Thankfully it all happened when I wasn’t around.
“Yeah,” I say, “I’m on my way out.” I leave the terrace to walk across the beach anyway, screw the shoes.
“Where are you going, Shai?” Nate calls after me.
“Home,” I say as he approaches.
“But why?”
“Well, turns out your friends practically hate my friends,” I explain with a shrug.
His eyebrows shoot up. “What? Who hates who?”
“Well, Camille has good reason to be angry with my friend Cay, and I think Dahlia still hates Pearl, even though she says she’s past that.”
Nathaniel starts to laugh. “Don’t tell me you’re really friends with these two.”
“They’re my best friends, Nate.”
He shakes his head. “Oh. Then it probably really is better if you go now. Can I drive you?”
“I don’t want to keep you from your friends,” I say with sincerity.
He sighs. “Wait a moment, so I can get my shirt. I’m driving you home.”
I lean against the railing. “All right.”
“Or better yet, come with me,” he says, holding out his hand. “We need to go out the front door anyway. That’s where the car is.”
I hesitate but take his hand, and we walk inside together.
When I see his bare back, I’m surprised by all the tattoos he has. Jesus, when did he get those? “Nice tattoo,” I say softly.
Nathaniel smirks. “Which one?”
“The rose blossom with the angel’s wing is beautiful,” I say honestly.
He throws me an inscrutable glance, and then his smile widens. It’s the kind of look that makes a woman’s knees weak. Mine, at least. I wonder how guys do that. They look at you and you turn all soft and mushy inside, or they change the quality of their voice, murmuring, growling, adopting a tone that makes you want to throw yourself at them.
Women, on the other hand, only possess breasts and certain asses they can parade around. Of course men are much easier to impress than us women. At least that’s what I think.
“Thank you,” Nate says. “I got that one for my eighteenth birthday, after my grandmother died.”
“Granny’s dead?” I ask, taken aback.
He nods sadly.
“But … what did she die of?” His grandma Sylvia was a wonderful woman, and I liked her a lot. She used to read Nathaniel the riot act a lot, and her quick wit and their repartee made me giggle uncontrollably.
“She was assaulted and had a heart attack,” he explains, “which ultimately resulted in her heart giving out.” He clears his throat quickly and addresses his friends as we pass them. “I’m driving Shai home since she doesn’t seem to be welcome here.”
Cami gives him a pout but seems at least a tiny bit guilty, too. “I’m sorry, Nate, but I’m just so relieved not to have anything to do with those girls anymore. I don’t need any of their drama in my life, and now that you’ve met Shailene, I’m worried … ”
Nate’s eyebrows travel up slowly. “Maybe you should get to know a person before you pass judgment on them.”
Delsin steps in. “It’s okay, dude, Camille didn’t mean to be rude.”
“Actually, I did,” she chimes in unhelpfully.
I take a deep breath. “I don’t want you all to fight because of me. If I’d known my friendships are a problem, I wouldn’t have accepted Nate’s invitation.” I’m trying to be the diplomat here. I understand their resentment, but I didn’t do anything. “I’ll just go home and enjoy the rest of my day off there.”
“And I think your girlfriend’s behavior is immature and mean, Delsin,” Nathaniel says scathingly. “She’s the one who keeps preaching that you shouldn’t judge people by their past.” He pulls me along with him.
“Bye,” I call over my shoulder to his friends.
Great, that was a big fat success of a first impression, my inner voice squeals. I don’t want to listen to it.
“I don’t get it,” Nate rants. “Cami is the one always saying we should accept people as they are, and now this monkey business! Jesus, she’s like a character in Donkey Kong instead of a human being.” He lets go of my hand and pulls his t-shirt over his head.
“Where on earth did that come from?” I can’t help but chuckle a little at the reference. “Stop getting upset, it won’t change anything. I can live with your friends’ rejection. I have my own friends.”
“Thally would like you, I’m sure of that,” he says, ignoring me. “She thinks exactly like you do.”
“And how’s that?”
“I think her credo is if someone doesn’t like me the way I am, they can go to hell. That’s what she always says.”
“At least you have one intelligent person in your circle then,” I tease him.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he says, but I can see that he’s mostly pretending to be angry.
“You’re right. Avery is also sort of a clever guy,” I giggle. “I’ve known him for a while.”
“Are you trying to rile me up?” he asks, amused.
I shrug. “Who knows?”
“You do!” he laughs.
“I know.” I grin and watch him slip into his shoes. He still wears the same threadbare sneakers he used to. It isn’t the same pair, of course, but they look the same. He’s always been known to wear a pair of sneakers until they all but fell from his feet.
He shakes his head and grabs his backpack, hanging it across his chest. It’s one of those cross-body, one-strap bags, somet
imes called a man bag. I smirk.
“Can we go?” he asks.
“That’s up to you, not me,” I say cheerfully. God, I’d completely forgotten how much fun it was to be around him. We used to laugh so much when we were together, and he’d always been joking. We’d really had a great time together, and then it was cut short. Maybe now that six years have passed and we’ve both grown up, we can be friends.
Nathaniel leads me through the impressive building and out the front door. A black Mercedes convertible is waiting by the curb. He presses a button on the key fob. “Where do we need to go?”
I tell him my address as we get in. After I buckle up and set my backpack in my lap, I ask, “How are your parents?”
“My dad is fine, but we’re worried about my mom.”
“What happened?”
“She has heart issues, and they keep getting worse. Sometimes when she goes to get up, she all but faints, her blood pressure is so low. It’s tough, seeing her like that,” he admits.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say with a compassionate sigh. His mom is another wonderful woman, always cheerful and kind, always ready to laugh and think the best of people.
“Thanks … If you want to, you could come visit her with me this weekend. I’m sure she would like that.”
I shake my head slowly. “I doubt that’s a good idea, Nate. I like your mom a lot, but she should have you all to herself. I don’t want to impose.”
“You wouldn’t be imposing,” he says, steering the car into traffic.
“I still don’t think it’s a good idea,” I say quietly.
“Why?”
“I’m your ex, Nate. Your mother would probably get the wrong idea if we came to visit her together, and I really don’t feel comfortable with that.”
“If we tell her we’re just friends, why would she think anything else?”
I raise a defensive hand.
“Talk to the hand?” he asks with a smile.
“No, just stop it, okay? I don’t want to come along. It wouldn’t feel right.”
Nathaniel sighs. “Sorry if I made you feel pressured.”
“You didn’t. The thing is, I don’t want to open all those doors and let you get too close to me or anything,” I explain. “We can go for coffee, but I think that should be it. It’s been six years now, and I don’t want to change much.” It’s not a good idea to try to be friends with him now, I decide. All the movies in which a man and a woman try to be friends show perfectly what happens. With my luck, I’d end up in bed with him, and I don’t want that. Sure, I experienced my first time with Nathaniel, but there will be no second, third, or fourth time. I don’t want him anymore.
“That was a low blow.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s the truth,” I say quietly.
“Don’t be sorry,” he says. “You’re just being honest, and I’ve always appreciated that about you, Shai. I’d just hoped the past wouldn’t be such an obstacle between us. I guess I was wrong there.”
“It will always be between us, Nate.”
“Never heard the saying ‘let bygones be bygones’?” he asks.
I look at him, confused for a moment, because I used to quote that a lot. I still do sometimes. Though I remember hearing it in a movie first and wonder if that’s where he picked it up. “Are you really quoting The Lion King right now?”
“Hey, Timon and Pumbaa were clever guys.”
“Pumbaa was the clever one; Timon was only a cuddly-looking rat who kept presenting Pumbaa’s ideas as his own,” I point out.
Nate laughs. “Timon was a meerkat, not a rat!”
I giggle. “Oh.”
He waits for the light to turn green and then steps on the gas again. “I’m disappointed in the girl who once claimed she knew every Disney movie by heart.”
“I do!” I snap.
“Then you should know the species of the animals.”
“I know all of them,” I insist with a chuckle. “Bambi, for example, was a skunk, and Thumper was a raccoon.”
He laughs. “You’re despicable.”
“Nope. Gru is the one who’s despicable.”
“Bee-do, bee-do, bee-do,” he imitates the fire-fighting minion.
“Did you see the new one yet?” I ask him, grinning.
“Two days ago. The girls couldn’t wait.”
I nod slowly. “I missed it in the theater. I had to work too much. But I want to see it.”
“You’re working?” he asks, frowning. “I thought your birth parents set up a college fund so you could focus on school.”
“They did, but I wanted to save the money for an apartment after college,” I explain.
“And you can manage studying and working?”
“So far, yeah, not a problem. I don’t need to study too much, and I usually work late shifts, so I start after classes. But I will be off all summer. I need a break.”
“Are you going anywhere?”
“Just for a week or two, visiting my parents. You?”
“I’m going to Austin with my friends.”
“Texas?”
“Yeah. Thalia and Cami both grew up in Austin and spend all their breaks there. And the rest are going, too, so I thought I’d join them. I can’t do much for my mom right now, and my dad is still working a lot. No reason to stay in Florida.”
“So you’re spending the entire summer in Texas?”
“No. I’ll go a few weeks in, with Draven and Delsin,” he says. He raises an eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”
“Because I’m making polite conversation,” I reply with an innocent smile.
“Is that what this is called these days?” he teases, smiling back at me.
“I’m sure there are other names for it, but I wanted to speak like a lady for once in my life.”
“I see.” He smirks.
A few minutes pass without either of us saying anything. Whenever we stop at a light, I notice him studying me. Why is he doing that? “Is there something on my face?” I finally ask, because it’s unsettling, the way he keeps staring.
Nathaniel clears his throat. “No. Pardon my staring.”
“Okay. I was just wondering why you keep looking at me like that.”
“I can’t help myself when I’m sitting next to a beautiful woman,” he says shyly.
My cheeks immediately flame red. “O-oh,” I stammer.
“Are you embarrassed?”
“No. I just blush when I get a compliment. Always have.”
He nods and steps on the gas again because, thankfully, the light is green.
***
After he parks in the lot in front of my building, he looks at me. “So … can I see you again or will you go back to avoiding me in the future?”
I study him thoughtfully, focusing on the dark brown eyes framed by long, thick lashes. I envy his lashes. Women would kill to have them—or rather, spend loads of money to have theirs artificially thickened to look like his. Of course, I wouldn’t do a thing like that, since a lot of mascara will have the same effect. “I don’t know. We might see each other on campus or something, but I don’t want to fix a date or anything.”
He sighs. “But you promised me a coffee date.”
“If you’re so adamant about having coffee with me … come upstairs now.” I open the door and get out.
Nathaniel all but leaps out of the car, locks it, and follows me. “You really don’t mind?”
“Would I have offered if I did?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. You were always polite, so the answer could be yes or no.”
Grinning, I shake my head and walk to the front door, opening it and holding it for him.
“What floor?” he asks.
“Follow me.” I walk ahead and immediately can’t shake the feeling that he’s staring at my butt. Why, I can’t say, but the feeling is strong.
When we reach the apartment, I lead Nathaniel into the kitchen, where my brother’s sitting.
“You two h-
here?” Noah stammers. “Together?”
“I invited Nathaniel up for a cup of coffee.”
“Hey, Noah,” Nathaniel greets him.
“Hey.” Noah clears his throat. “I guess I’ll leave you alone then.”
I nod slowly. “Okay. Uh … what do you want to have for dinner tonight?”
“I ate in the cafeteria,” he says in passing, and then he’s out the door.
I guess that means it’ll be another sandwich night. Can’t hurt to forgo a heavy dinner. Sometimes I feel fat, and then I worry what that feeling might trigger. I don’t even want to think about it.
“So do you really want coffee, or maybe something cold instead?” I ask Nathaniel.
“I could do with something cold, yeah.”
“Any preference?”
He shakes his head, so I fetch a bottle of water from the fridge. Then I take two glasses from the cabinet and sit on one of the stools at the high table. Noah and I didn’t want to squeeze in a large dining table, since it’s only the two of us anyway; nobody ever stays overnight, so we don’t need a bigger table. When we moved in, we agreed that if anyone did stay the night, it would only be same-sex friends, since it would be so awkward to hear your sibling have sex in the middle of the night. I pour a glass of water for Nate and wait for him to sit with me, which he finally does.
“Thanks, Shai.”
“You’re welcome.” I’m at a loss as to what to talk about now, until I remember he mentioned talking about what’s happened in the years since our relationship. “So what year are you?”
“Sophomore. But just barely. It took me a while longer to get my shit together, so I started college in spring.”
“Wow. I’m younger than you, yet I’m ahead. I like that.” I smirk.
He grins. “You’re only one year younger, Shai.”
“And yet I started college half a year before you did.”
“Well, to be honest, the only reason I started late was my mom. I took care of her when her heart took a turn. With my dad’s way with words, and a few letters from my mom’s doctors, I was able to salvage my scholarship.”
“Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”
“Because I don’t want your pity. My mom has been sick for a long time, and two years ago she got really bad, so I had to stay with her and look after her. It was hard to find an in-home nurse that didn’t cost a fortune, but eventually we did, and now my mom has been in a specialist clinic for two months. Without the scholarship, I couldn’t afford college.”
Nathaniel: True Love: New Adult College Romance Novella (Coral Gables Series Book 4) Page 5
