Chapter six - Nathan

I hadn't planned to annoy Leanna again, I'd actually thought we could try and get back to being friends. I hate to admit it, but being on my own with her made it glaringly obvious how much I enjoy being with her and how much I've miss her the last few years. She's so funny, easy to talk to and she has no idea how amazing she is, she's too busy comparing herself to her sister and feeling like she comes up short.

I saw her this morning, watching Kim dick around and I swear the desire to be doing the same was just rolling off her, I'm surprised her friends didn't notice.

I wanted to go over there, drag her out over and chuck her onto that wall, tell her her parents aren't going to be upset if she makes a few mistakes. I don't know why I didn't, but I'm fairly sure after hearing the rumours going around school, she would be more likely to smack me in the face than enjoy herself with me.

At lunchtime I'm just minding my own business and what happens? Max fucking Carlisle is all over her, when he stands up and announces than Leanna and I are nothing to one another, I near enough lose the plot. I can't stop myself heading straight over, but then she opens her mouth and tells him he's her hero and it's like a knife straight to the chest.

That's what she wants? For us to be nothing to one another? After everything?

I'm about to turn around and leave when Max looks at me, and I swear the guy intentionally drops his hand to her back the moment he sees me coming over and there's a grin on his face that I'm desperate to wipe off of him. I'm not a fighter though, so maybe I need to find a way to befriend Jake and then get him to do it for me.

"So, I was just telling the girls about my party, you in?" Max asks, but all I can focus on is his hand on her back. She's always so quick to move away from guys usually, so why isn't she moving away from him?

"Is she coming?" I snap, gesturing at Leanna and hoping she'll be riled up enough to come back at me, but all she does is give me the middle finger, she doesn't even bother to speak to me, so I try to push her further. "Make sure it's big enough for me to avoid her and pull someone hot. I don't want anymore rumours."

"Of course." Max laughs, his fingers moving under the back of her shirt. This time she does meet my eyes and she actually looks guilty, so she knows how I feel about her.

Hang on, what? Felt, felt about her! I don't feel anything for her. I won't, not when she obviously feels nothing for me

Max is still talking to me, but it's like my focus is on nothing except his fingertips brushing against her skin.

I want to tell him to leave her alone, to keep his hands off her, but then I realise I can't, it's not my place, we're not even friends any more, let alone anything else.

It's then that I spot her bottle of drink, the lid off and just at the edge of the table and it gives me an idea. Swinging my bag onto my back as I turn to go, I make sure to knock it straight into her lap. She'll hate me for doing it, but it'll separate them for long enough for me to stop seeing it.

It works, she's out of her seat in seconds shouting at me, but, despite her fury, I catch her eyeing me up, even if she pretends it was all an act, I catch the moment of panic in her eyes when she realises what she's doing.

"I wouldn't sit down, dude." Callum laughs and points to my ass. "She got you back good."

"What the hell?" I grab my trousers and feel the moisture, bringing my hand up and seeing brown sticky chocolate all over it.,

She's already leaving the room when I look up, so I shout her name loud enough for her to hear, so she knows that I'm going to get her back for this. 

Callum's still giggling to himself, so I grab my bag and tell him I'm going to go get changed.

"Hi Nathan." Georgie is waiting for me by the door and even though I lengthen my stride to get away from her, she manages to keep up.

"Y'alright Georgie, I need to get changed before next lesson." I say, stopping by the toilets and gesturing to the door.

"Yes, I just wanted to see if you were going to Max's party this weekend?" She stands there, pulling at her fingers nervously and looking up at me from under her eyelashes. 

It occurs to me that she would be quite pretty if the crazy didn't show on her face, or maybe I'm just seeing that because I know?

"I'm not sure, maybe." Her eyes flicker over my face like she's thinking about something, but I'm not sure what, and then she's smiling up at me again.

"Well maybe I'll see you there then." She giggles and bats her eyelids at me and I feel like I need to remind her that I'm not interested, so I clear my throat and try to think of the right words so I don't set her off.

"Uh… Georgie, remember I said I was interested in someone else?" I say tentatively and when I look up she's nodding slowly. "And that I suggested you find someone who is interested in you?"

"You did yes." She continues nodding and I'm not sure if she understands what I mean, so I push the door to the toilets open.

"Ok great, so I'm going to go. Bye." I walk through, letting the door swing shut behind me and hope she's not still out there when I've finished.

*

The rest of the week is relatively normal, Leanna ignores me or glares at me if I speak to her, like she has pretty much every day for the last few years. Georgie pops up regularly, but she doesn't speak, just hovers near to wherever I am, staring and making us all feel uncomfortable.

"She's going to Max's you know, we could skip it and just go out in town." Adam says, eyeing Georgie who's behind a tree, watching us warm up and stretch on the football field.

"No way, he throws the best parties, we can't miss it just because Nathan's got himself a stalker." Callum nudges me with his elbow. "She'll find him wherever he is anyway, she's probably tracking his phone or something."

"Or sleeping under his bed each night." Adam adds laughing. "I read about this guy who lived in this girl's attic during the day and slept under her bed at night, he was there for weeks within anyone knowing a thing. I could definitely see her doing shit like that."

We all look over towards Georgie who's drawing in a sketch book, whilst not even trying to hide the fact she's staring at me.

"Twenty quid says that books full of drawings of Nathan." Callum says, strapping his shin pads on and pulling his socks up over them.

"Actually, I saw the drawings she did of Chris Parkhouse, she sent them to his house and she's really good, a few of them looked like photos." Adam says, turning to pass the football to me.

"I need to speak to Chris, find out how he got rid of her." I say, looking around the pitch and seeing his curly blonde hair bouncing on the opposite side.

"Guys, come on, we're going to do five aside on these two pitches. Max, Oliver, Adam and Leo, you can all be team captains." Mr Gearing, our coach, calls and we all congregate close together. 

I'm standing with Callum, my focus on Adam so I don't hear Max calling my name until Mr Gearing tells me to get over to my team. 

"What's he playing at?" Callum mutters, looking at Max who's waving me over, I shrug and jog over to stand behind Max.

"I wanted a quick chat." He whispers as Oliver calls amhis best friend Nick over to his team. "It's about Leanna, I like her and I'm going to ask her out at my party tonight. We're not going to have a problem, are we? I mean, it's not like you guys are together, from what I gather, you can't stand each other, but no one ever asks her out because of you. Why is that?" 

I was not expecting that and it throws me. I'm not sure what to say but I'm saved from having to respond by Max having to pick again and he steps away from me, as though the subject's already closed.

"Don't worry, he's been hanging around her all week and she's completely oblivious to his interest in her." Callum says in the car on the way to Adam's house after school. 

"I'm not worried." I mutter and he rolls his eyes.

"Sure, ok. So why'd you mention it?" He asks, turning into Adam's driveway.

"Just telling you what he said." I get out, grab the cans of lager we bought on the way over and head towards where Adam's getting out of his own car. "Where do you want the drinks?"

"Basement, dad's just bought a table tennis table, I reckon we can make it into some sort of drinking game?" Adam says, opening his front door and we follow him through and downstairs, getting changed while Adam figures out the rules to his new table tennis drinking game.