Matters of the Hart

Chapter 15 - I didn’t want Lia to go Jackie Chan on his ass.

Day ten.

I was walking through the halls on this very fine Monday morning, try to get to homeroom in one piece and not be dismantled by rows of hooligans walking all over the small corridor that led to the lockers. Oops, I meant students. (Did I really just say hooligans?)

We were back to school already and I didn't realise how quickly this weekend went by. Well, I mean Monday mornings can be pretty alright, right? You get to wake up in the morning and then get ready, look your best and then prance around in cute clothes. Right?

Sigh. Okay, fine. Maybe I was a little too excited to get back to school on Monday, but hey, you couldn't blame me. Friday night's events weren't exactly easy to erase from my memory and it had left me...expectful to say the least.

After that (mind boggling, wonderful, out of the world, breath-taking, alright, I should stop now) kiss, it was difficult to focus on anything at all. All through the weekend, my mind kept playing and replaying the whole scene in my head. Again and again. Which is why I had three assignments, one essay and a lot of dance practices that I had to catch up on.

That ridiculous smile that had plastered on my face just wasn't ready to wear off. I even practised this morning; I stood in front of the mirror for more than twenty minutes, imaging myself in front of Nathaniel and then teaching how to not blush under his gaze. I simply could not imagine how much deeper a colour my cheeks can taint themselves if he came into sight.

The mere thought of him was giving my heart excuses to consult a cardiologist. Kidding. I just wanted to use the word cardiologist to prove that I was smart. Obviously, it didn't turn out that way. Never mind.

Amelia Hart had suddenly taken a keen interest in my life - especially a particular aspect of my life that I'd rather not discuss with us. When I had returned from our date that night (did I mention he kissed me on the forehead?), she was already fast asleep. Thankfully. It gave me more time to prepare myself to answer all of her ruthless and invasive questions. Which of course, happened the next morning - at five a.m.

—————the next morning————

"Tee, wake up! I want to know!"

"How was it?"

"Where did you guys go?"

"What did you eat?" Special mention - she asked me this thrice. See, this was why I had no doubt that we were twins.

"Did he offer you his jacket?"

"I had my own jacket, Lia." I tried to shrug her off of me, burying the side of my face into my pillow as I waited for her to get off so I could get back on fifteen minutes of lost sleep. No thanks to Lia.

"I knew you were awake! You just don't want to answer me!"

Of course I didn't want to solve her little questionnaire. That would just mean more questions. More entertainment for her, much, much more torture for me.

"Tee, tell me! How was it?"

"Good." Monosyllable replies had to work out for me this time.

"Just good?"

"Yup."

"Was the food good?

"Yup."

"Was Nate being nice?"

Oh, he was amazing, Lia. "Yup."

"Did he smell good?"

"Yup."

"Was the kiss good?"

"Yup."

Well, fudge my life.

"So there was a kiss? Oh my God, my baby sister has become a woman! You lost your kiss-ginity to the Nathaniel Knight. Tell me, was it good? Was there tongue? Was it wet? Does his breath stink? Was he chewing gum? What flavoured gum? Tell me. Tell me everything now!?!"

I was half asleep, and now I only had myself to blame. So I did the next best thing that occurred to me.

"What are you talking about?"

I played dumb.

"The kiss, silly. Don't act dumb. I want to know! Did y'all exchange gum?"

It was an automated response - me scrunching my face up at the thought of exchanging bacteria laden gum? "Ew, what's that?"

"It's when two people kiss. The guy pushes the gum into the girl's mou—"

"Yuck. I don't want to know!" I picked the other pillow and placed it over my ear, I was so not hearing any of this anymore.

"It's an act of passion, Thea," she declared. Um, what?

"No, it's bad oral hygiene," I retorted back.

"It gives signals, Thea. You got to decode it."

"Signals? More like Mono. Now get off me, I want to sleep."

Then one punch on the butt and a few “you're a meanie" later, I finally picked my face off the pillow. Who knew that blushing too hard could heat up a stupid pillow.

———————————————————————

Homeroom got boring five minutes into it. Thankfully, Cole was there and he was enough a distraction to get me through. Anything to keep me from the storm in my head, otherwise known as Nathaniel Knight.

"So Cole," I nudged him as we walked out of class and towards history which too, I shared with him. Lucky me.

"It feels like I haven't seen you in forever," I pouted lightly.

Cole swung his arm around my shoulder, drawing me closer as he mentioned in my ear. "Kid, do you really want to know where I have been?"

Wow, it was decided. A single moment had never gone from bland to confusing to me coming to the realisation that Cole Finley was really only talking about his very active s*x life. Nope. Not trudging there. Not a chance.

"Ew, Cole. Get off me!" I grimaced in disgust, pushing his arm away as he let out a very, boyishly unattractive snort. "What do girls even see in you?"

"I've been told I'm quite the catch around here, Theodore," he smirked arrogantly, ruffling my hair. Did I mention that I had taken extra efforts into my appearance? Why, you ask? Just because. No special reason.

"Yeah, until you catch an STD," I laughed at my own joke (obviously, I had no sense of humour).

Cole stopped at his locker, which was some twenty lockers away from mine. He stopped, feigning offence at my words. "You are mean. One day, your Karma will catch up to you, Theodore. One day."

And you say I was mean? This guy needed to stop hanging out with my sister - their intensity of drama knew no bounds. I started walking backwards to my own locker, since I had to pick my books too.

"So will your Herpes, Coley," I snickered. "I have to pee. See you in class," I waved back to where he stood, mouth open and jaw hung downward.

"Mean!" he yelled and that just made me laugh some more. I never really understood him- he was handsome, charming, rich and had brains too (he chose not to use them) - then why would he waste time with girls that only wanted one thing? Well, technically two things- s*x and expensive gifts.

I used to ship Cole and Amelia for the longest time, until last year when they both found out that I was secretly naming their babies in my head and they both went their separate ways - to different washrooms so that they could puke their guts out. I knew, since I was the privileged one that held Amelia's hair back when she was emptying the contents of her full stomach, along with my imaginary Colia babies.

Let's just say, I get it now. They were best friends.

"Dude, seriously, what the f**k?"

I know what you were thinking. Nope. That wasn't me.

Surprisingly, that wasn't for me either. (No sign of Caleb, if you know what I meant). I looked around, slowly inching closer to the wall as I found the source at the end of the corridor. I knew it was bad manners to eavesdrop, but I felt like I had heard that voice before.

"I know, I f****d it up."

Wait, the second voice - it belonged to Nathaniel.

I must have mistaken it for someone else's, my heart told me and I really wanted to believe that just this once, but I couldn't deny the fact that I could recognize his voice from even half a mile away.

"So what now?" The owner of the first voice breathed out. It wouldn't take a genius to guess that if the first voice belonged to Nathaniel, the second was definitely Noah's.

"I guess I'll just behave normally. Like nothing happened," Nathaniel spoke after a few deafeningly silent seconds. Realisation dawned upon me that I was listening in onto something personal and that it was none of my business. I slowly and quietly turned on my heels, only half a step forth.

"I shouldn't have kissed her."

"We were supposed to be friends. I f*****g told her that and then I f*****g kissed Thea. Now I'm regretting it."

Did you hear that?

That, was the sound of my heart breaking.

Literally torn apart into two.

I wiped away the two tears that had taken the liberty of escaping my eyes and turned around once and for all, walking away, not bothering to look back.

The rest of Monday was a blur to be honest. I was not one of those girls who would end up having waterworks in the washrooms. Nor was I one of those who could just forget about it in two seconds.

"I shouldn't have kissed her."

The echo of his sullen voice kept beating against my ear drums. Like I had to register it as a further warning so as to not get myself attached to the idea of having Nathaniel Knight back in my life. It was stuck in my head - he was stuck in my head. As much as I was trying to fight it, I was failing terribly.

Lunch arrived and by then I had lost count how many times I had had to blink to push back the tears that threatened the margins of my eye lids, all because I didn't want Lia to go Jackie Chan on his ass. After all this, I still didn't want that to happen.

Muttering a quick goodbye to Lia and Cole both, I walked right out of the cafeteria and decidedly bunked the remaining half of school. I didn't bother turning around or waiting for their response. I didn't have it in me to look them in the eye and say, "I'm fine." My sister would see past that in a second.

Getting to the dormitory was a struggle. It was a long way to go and I only had those thoughts floating in my head to give me company - one that I desperately wanted to avoid right now. Right on time, my phone buzzed.

Noah: Hey, everything okay?

Okay, my ass. I snorted, ignoring the text. Noah must have gotten the whiff of it - he either talked to Lia after I left or he had seen me storm out of there. Could this day get over already? I sighed.

Ten seconds later, another one popped up on my phone screen.

Noah: Saw you sprint out of the cafeteria.

Of course he did.

So did the others.

So did Nate.

But he didn't have to know why. Nobody had to know. Especially Nate. What was said was said and what was done was done. There was no going back now. His words were stuck in my head and they played every time like a broken record from 1975.

"I'm regretting it."

Those words returned to haunt me every two minutes.

I squeeze my eyes shut tightly to not let it invade my mind. Quickly, I typed in a weak, believable response.

Feeling under the weather.

Monday; also one of the three days in which I tutored Noah in English Lit.

Tutor you tom? Great.

Noah was there with Nate. Noah listened to what Nathaniel had to say - about me, about the kiss, about how he shouldn't have done it. Noah bared it all. It wasn't his fault that his best friend was a class-A douchè. I couldn't blame Noah for something he didn't do. He just was there.

Today, it was about me. I couldn't have brought myself to look at any of them. Sorry, Noah. But today was not my day.

Noah: Take care princess. imy.

Shaking my head, I bit my lip to control whatever little emotional dignity I had left as I fastened my pace. Thankfully since half the school was in class and the other half busy shoving their faces with apple pie, I had no one witnessing my poor attempt at holding my head high.

Ten minutes later I was on my bed, with my head buried in my pillow - my very wet and snotty pillow.

This is what I was afraid of - rejection, breaking apart, getting my hopes up only to be let down like that. This is why I thought I should have steered clear of Nathaniel Knight. But how could I? One look into his stormy grey eyes and there was probably no one who had not caved in. I knew I did and look where it had brought me.

My phone beside me pinged again and as much as I didn't want to see it, I knew I was missing on a lot of important things. There were two messages - one from Lia and the second one from Nathaniel.

Lia: Idk what's happened but we'll talk when I get back.

Told you, she would catch on. There was nothing about me that had ever stayed hidden from her longer than a couple of minutes.

The second message - as much as I didn't want to, I had to look. Why? I wasn't sure yet.

Nathaniel: You feeling okay?

I will, but you won’t be when Lia finds out, my mind ushered me to ignore his message and so I did. Listening to my heart would have been a dangerous move. I snorted, leaving him on read as I got off bed to fix what was damaged - my mascara.

And I was right, the miniscule mascara that I had applied ran down my face in the worst possible way, making me look worse than me when it was that time of the month.

It took some time and another couple of tears but the end-result was pretty relaxing. I had a nice long hot-bath and quickly changed into my shorts and tank-top, all too ready for an afternoon nap. But this time too, my phone decided that it wouldn't let me. So it rang.

Guess who?

Yeah, it was jerk-face.

Nathaniel calling…

Well, Cole did mention that I was a 'meanie', right? Fine by me.

I watched it ring till the call died out. There, 'meanie' at it's best.

Thankfully there was neither another call, nor any guilt about how I had just disregarded it. There was nothing more to it - I was just a girl, Thea Hart with a broken heart (ironic, isn't it?) and eyes full of tears that were not going to stop anytime soon.