Can't Resist His Charm

Cancel him

AND WE’RE BACK TO Bryan’s pov

Friday goes by smoothly and so does Saturday…until now anyway. Natalie is quiet. I guess she was getting over her heartbreak with Damian- as she should be. He’s broken and my best friend deserves better than that. I look at her now and I push the milkshake she had ordered in front of her. She absentmindedly pulled in half the contents through the straw, while Gail patted her back.

Throughout the week, Nat’s playing on the field had not diminished and that’s why she was captain. Nothing fazed her out on the field…off it though? A mess.

“And he works in a kitchen?” I hear her say in a gasping tone of voice. She is changing and I did not like the change personally.

Gail looks at me and cringes. We all thought similar to how she just spoke but I mean I admired Damian- I think we all did, for he was in high school and not some broke adult. I mean, he hadn’t even touched the money I had given him, although I know he needs it. He said he eats, drinks, sleeps by me free so he doesn’t need it but I know he does, so I left it right where he had put it, next to my brushes in the drawer. I figure he’ll take it when he needs it most.

Natalie’s words just now made my forehead furrow and I feel Mel’s hand on my thigh also clenching. She was also bothered by our friend’s words. Gail looked super embarrassed too. Yeah, we might be privileged teenagers who didn’t have to work or worry about where our next meal was coming and just focus on studying but that didn’t mean that we should speak about our friend that way.

Yes, Damian is our friend now and Nat’s words bothered us. I think meeting Damian changed our thinking a bit. It made us appreciate what we had and what he didn’t.

We were at our usual hangout, waiting for the others- minus Fuzz and Tony for they had a gig to play music at a pool party. Our pizza is almost ready, the waitress assures us as she brings us our drinks and fries.

“Dumps me? Do you know how many guys wish they could date me?” Nat goes on and Gail continues patting her shoulder silently as she watches us, looking uncomfortable- as if she wanted to leave.

Nat is right, many guys wanted to date her but most were afraid of the pressure that would come with dating a preacher’s daughter, so they stayed back.

“Over the phone?” Nat gawks. “A text message?”

Even I was a bit taken back that he had texted her about the break-up last night. I had coaxed him to tell her that they were not dating as he had stated to me when I had asked him what was going on, for he was avoiding her. And I knew for she whined about it the entire week.

He had avoided her like the plague and I had confronted him about it. To prove to me that he wasn’t, he had made small talk with her on Wednesday. But Nat was more confused than ever so I asked him what was going on with them.

“Nothing, we went on like- two dates,” he had answered easily as he did some stretches.

“She thinks you’re dating her,” I had replied and he had scoffed. We all thought that actually.

“Nah man. She’s nosy- sorry I know she’s your friend-”

“She really likes you man-”

“-and no, I’m not gay- geez Bryan,” he had added as if expecting me to say that and went on with, “No, I don’t like Mel either-”

“I don’t think that-” I butted in again for I trust Mel if not him. Besides what could he do if he was constantly with me?

“I’m chill.”

I understood what he meant. He did not have time for dating. Maybe he was thinking it was best for Nat to not get involved with him. So, I had encouraged him to call her and explain their relationship to her. “People like to know where they stand together, you know?” I had said.

Nat’s wailing was annoying my eardrums. I literally want to slug him right now for this is not what I meant. I had expected him to take her out and say…I don’t know, “Let’s take things slow?”

“Yea, he calls me and says to meet him by this fancy restaurant, right?” Natalie motions with her hands, palms up, “so I’m excited and then he walks out wearing an apron from the kitchen.” She flips one hand over, “Oh- it was horrible,” she explains in a crying voice, only there were no tears. “Stephanie and her parents were there and they saw,” she wails again.

Right. So, she was embarrassed because a pompous b*tch from school saw her? Nat needed to get her grip together… this was embarrassing for me as her friend. I feel terrible for Damian- what must he be thinking about us- me now? I look at Nat in astonishment, for she caught me off-guard with that one.

“He’s evil,” Gail says sarcastically, her facial expression in one of pain. Her thin eyebrows twisted as she begged Mel to help her. Mel again squeezes my thigh, reminding me that I am her best friend and I needed to comfort her in some way, but what can I do?

“Yea he’s- a pain?” I say looking at Mel, hoping I said the correct thing and she nods. Releasing a breath, she pats my leg and I am relieved.

“You agree? Then it’s final,” Nat says firmly and I look from her to Gail, then Nat. They both looked confused as well. “We banish him.”

“Ba- ba- what?” Gail mutters on behalf of all of us as we stare at our friend.

Nat claps her hands silently, grinning, “Yes, we avoid him and all talks of him-”

I frown. I certainly don’t agree with her. The guy was living with me for heaven’s sake “Hold on Nat, we-”

“Here’s your pizza,” the waitress says with a wide smile as she placed our extra bacon pizza in front of us. “Oh look, your friends have arrived, I’ll just bring the other drinks, okay?”

“Sup guys?” Lucas hollers as she leaves us walking away and taking a seat, he grabs a slice as he sits down, next to me. Nick sits next to Nat.

“Oh, we’re avoiding that jerk,” Nat pipes in and digs into the pizza happily too. "Cancel from our team."

“What jerk?” Tony asks and Nat says, “The one that was privileged to go out with me.”

“Oh, Damian? Cool dude- wait why?” Tony stops his chewing a bit to look at Natalie.

“She says he dumped her,” Gail adds and Lucas jumps up, “No way. That’s on you Nat. we’re cool with him.”

“What kind- of-friends- are you,” Nat growls as she gave them each a hostile stare down while she twisted her head almost comically but the guys were unfazed.

Tony thanked the waitress as she brought over their drinks and chirped, “Well uh one; we need him for the team, uh two; he’s cool-”

“He’s off the team-”

Her words shook me. She wanted him off the team because he dumped her- when they weren’t even dating, to begin with?

“Sure, if you want to lose and what are you going to tell coach huh?” Lucas pipes in. “Wah, cry-cry. I was dumped? We need him, Michael is off the team,” he reminds her.

Michael is a star player and off the team now because his grades were too low. The principal did give him three occasions to get them up but he did not think he’d been serious or Michael just did not care. We never saw him make one effort even to start his studies even though we all tried to encourage him.

“Oh my God, are you hearing yourself right now?” Gail protested but not at Nat, it was directed at the boys.

Mel and I just looked on slurping our shakes silently as we observed our friends.

“Look we are your friends Nat but you can’t expect us to follow you when you are wrong. That’s all I’m saying,” Lucas mutters as he grabbed another slick.

“Look- he took you out. You guys saw a movie, it was great, he was nice…even you said it-”

“I never-” Nat interrupted.

“Oh, he’s so dreamy,” Tony mocked Nat and slapped Lucas’s shoulder, who in turn in a girlish squeal, “Oh my God his lips- ugh.”

I felt Mel’s body shake as she struggles to keep her laughter in, just as she always did when the guys did that whole switched gender role thing they did.

“Have you seen his face? Did you even stop to wonder what happened to him” Lucas asked Nat in his normal voice and her eyes shed real tears then. But probably angry ones.

“Of course, I wondered but he won’t tell me. Then he dumps me,” she pouted.

“Exactly Nat. Whatever he’s going through, maybe he doesn’t think you should be part of it. He’s protecting you- uh maybe?” Tony mumbles. I now have a new respect for these two who always seem to share the same brain.

“He’s poor,” Nat mumbles.

“That’s on you, Nat. He’s a decent guy,” Tony finishes.