(Lol I got so angry with my characters during this chapter I said shit repeatedly so please ignore it if you're younger XD)

Nathan knocked nervously on Julia's door. "I don't even know what I'm doing here," he muttered to himself. "She clearly hates me." He had no idea why, but somehow he had offended Julia and he never even met her until last night. He slicked down his hair again, trying to catch a glimpse of his reflection off the shiny door.

He had had relationships with many girls before, but he couldn't actually remember the last time he went out on a date. The girls he used to be with were all clearly trouble, with sky high legs and too short skirts, with little expectations of him and running through the bases at a sprint. He had never taken any of them out on first dates.

The one exception to this rule was Fiona. Fiona had seemed just like all the other girls when he first saw her, but then the words coming out of her mouth contradicted that. She wanted more than what he was able to give her, and he usually would have just ditched her at this stage. But she was clearly besotted with him, and the fact she was a 'goody-goody' two shoes was too much for him to handle. He soon shut her up with kisses and empty promises.

She had demanded certain privileges, such as the title of his girlfriend, but the title meant nothing anyway. He only gave Daphne that title to keep her around, and he knew she cheated on him too on a daily basis. But that was fine. They weren't serious or anything, they just used each other. The agreement worked well. But Fiona was clearly deluded when it came to their relationship, and he couldn't be bothered to correct her so he just lied his ass off.

But the she broke up with him. He'd never had a break up before, and it changed him. The angry words that came out of her mouth were all true.

Which led him to here, trying to start again.

Julia finally opened the door, with a scowl. She was dressed unusually nicely, but Rosie had secretly enlisted Harriet to help with that. Nathan's eyes raked over her appreciatively, taking in the light pink dress and the tan heels. "Stop it." She said sharply, crossing her arms over her chest. "Let's just go." As she pushed past him she muttered something under her breath.

"Excuse me?" He said sassily. "What was that you just said?"

She ignored him, with a roll of her eyes and a look to the ceiling. "Why did you do this?" She whispered, talking to thin air. Then she turned round and fixed him with a withering glare. "What are you looking at? Just leave me alone!"

Nathan stood his ground. "You're the one agreed to this date." He said calmly. "You have to treat me with a certain respect."

The slap was short and stingy, bringing tears to Nathan's eyes. Unusually though, it was Julia that had to hold back tears, and she took a deep breath. "After all you've done with me, I can't believe you have the nerve to say that."

"What I've done?" He asked incredulously. "You're the one that's treating me like shit here! Ever since I met you, you've hated me! You've slapped me, yelled at me, told me off, muttered about me... I've done nothing wrong!"

"Nothing wrong?" She yelled, getting herself worked up. "You talk about being treated like shit, but you're the one that treated Fiona like that! She liked you for ages but you just ignored her until her stupid roommate Jessica dolled her up to get your attention! Then you took her virginity, and slept with other girls repeatedly throughout your relationship! We had to engineer your break-up, we made it out like you wanted to get married to draw on all those commitment issues you had!"

"She was a virgin?" He asked, shocked. "I just assumed..."

"Well, we all knew what they say about assuming." She said, looking at him as if he was a piece of dirt stuck to her shoe. "It makes an ass out of you and her."

Nathan sat down in the middle of the corridor, his mind racing. "If I'd known," he said slowly. "I wouldn't have slept with her."

"Aye right." Julia scoffed.

"I'm serious!" He protested. "I knew what's it like to regret your first time. I would never have inflicted that pain upon Fiona if I knew."

Julia crossed her arms protectively across her chest. "What was so bad about your first time then?"

"I'd rather not say."

"I knew you were a liar, but you're some piece of shit for lying about matters like that."

"I'm not lying, for shit's sake!" He yelled. "If you must know, I spent my first time with my fiancée."

Julia blinked, suddenly looking less angry. "You had a fiancée?" She asked slowly, trying to wrap her mind around the fact that Nathan might have once been in a long term relationship.

"Is that hard to believe?" He asked scathingly.

"Yes." Julia said bluntly.

For a moment she was afraid Nathan was going to hit her, but instead he let out a short bark of laughter. "That's about right." He sighed, and Julia sat down beside him and patted his arm in a comforting manner.

"You've got a reputation, Nathan." She informed him. "People tend to think the worst of you. I'm among them, so you'd better start explaining yourself."

Her hand was still on his arm, sending a tingle up it. He looked into her sincere blue eyes, telling him to say more. For a strange moment he was filled with an impulse to kiss her. But then she drew her hand uncomfortably away and the moment ended. "Nathan? You were about to say something." She reminded him and he shook his head sharply.

"Yes." He said distractedly. "I was in love with this girl in high school, and we started dating in junior year. Things went really well, and at the end of senior year I was elected as class valedictorian, and my speech was all about love. At the end of it, I asked her to marry me." He smiled at the memory.

"That's not very romantic." Julia observed. "Keep going."

"Right." He glared at her. "Well, Nicky thought it was terribly romantic. That night I spent my first time with her. When I woke up really early the next morning, my arm was empty; she wasn't there anymore. I thought she'd just gone to the bathroom or something, then I heard the shower running. I went into the bathroom to join her in the shower, but someone was already in it with her. My brother. Turned out she'd been sleeping with him behind my back. Some fiancée, huh?"

Julia looked a little shocked. "I wasn't expecting that. At least you don't have to see her anymore though."

"Who said that?" He said bitterly. "Now she and my brother are the ones engaged. I'd been sleeping around a lot during my first year here anyway out of anger, but when I got the news at the end of the summer I really upped my game for this year. Then, yesterday, I had to go back up to my family's house to have dinner with them all. My relatives appear to have forgotten she was my fiancée first, and they're making such a big fuss over her. My brother and her looked genuinely happy. The way she looked at him... She never looked at me like that. Then, I was intending to spend the night in my own room, and then drive up here again tomorrow. I was on my computer when she came in."

Julia's hand outstretched to squeeze his, sensing his pain. It distracted him momentarily from the story, and he obtained his fingers through hers. He was surprised at how much he liked the feel of her hand in his. "What did she do?" Julia asked gently.

"She was wearing this long trench coat, and she closed the door behind her and took it off. She wasn't wearing anything beneath, and she just climbed into my bed and started kissing me. She said she'd missed me, and she'd made a mistake, and she wanted me back. I knew it wasn't real, of course I did, I knew she was just repeating what she'd did over a year ago. But I was still angry at my brother, so I just kissed her back. I wanted my brother to know how it felt to see the person he loved with his best bro. But as she started to pull at my shirt, I knew I couldn't go through with it. He didn't think twice about going behind my back, but I couldn't do the same to him. I told her I couldn't, so she went back to his room, and I fled back here."

"Please take offence when I say she and your brother are the shittiest people I've ever had the pleasure of not meeting." Julia said, and he loved her for not saying something stupid like 'I'm so sorry'. "I sort of get your behaviour now, but you still shouldn't be sleeping around like that."

"I know. I've stopped. I honestly want a proper relationship now." He said sincerely. "Fiona made me realise a few things, and so did Nicky last night. Will you give me another chance?"

"Have you broken up with Daphne?" Julia knew this was the ultimate test.

"Not yet." He admitted. "But I can call her now. And I'll put her on speakerphone so you knew I've done it." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled in her number.

Daphne picked up on the first ring. "I'll be over in five minutes."

Julia raised an eyebrow at him, and he swallowed nervously. "Actually, I'm calling to break up with you."

He expected crying or angry words, swearing or screaming. But he didn't expect her to say, "That's fine. You haven't been that good recently anyway." Then she hung up.

Nathan blinked in surprise, making Julia roll her eyes. "What did you expect her to tell you tearfully not to go?" She said scathingly, starting to walk towards the exit. "Come on, we've got a pizza date."

***

The date went surprising well. Nathan hadn't expected Julia to say so cutting remarks or rhyme off so many facts, but they the facts were surprisingly funny and her not so good girl side sort of turned him on. He knew, as he walked her back to her room, that he liked her. More than all the girls he'd slept with this last year.

Julia paused at her door, equally surprised at having such a good time. She hadn't expected Nathan to be as nice as he was, and he had actually liked her geeky facts. Her opinion of him had vastly changed over the course of the night, and maybe she would consider going out with him again.

"So, this is it." She said awkwardly, having reached the door. "Um, goodnight?" She wasn't exactly sure what she was meant to do. Was he supposed to kiss her goodnight? Was she supposed to want him to? She'd had a few boyfriends before, one of them serious, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what happened at the end of a first date.

Nathan also had that gap in knowledge, but he just went for it. He grabbed her waist and pulled her towards him, planting a kiss on her lips.

Julia stood up on tiptoe and kissed him back, properly, her hands clutching at his hair. After a few moment of intense kissing they broke apart, their hearts beating way too fast and both of them breathless. Julia unlocked the door with her eyes still on Nathan, and stepped inside. She was filled with an intense desire to kiss him again, and to drag him into her room. Harriet was spending the night with some people from her gay support group, so her room was empty. But it was the first date. She wasn't going to make that move, especially not with Nathan of all people.

But he wasn't afraid to make it. He stopped inside and began kissing bet again, and she closed the door hastily behind her. They sat down on her bed, and she thought to herself if she was really going to do this. Then Nathan's hand pulled upwards at her dress, and he abruptly stopped kissing her.

"What happened?" Nathan whispered, staring at blue-black bruise. She winced, and tugged at her dress to fall back and cover it again. She tried to lean forward and kiss him, but he pulled away from her kiss. "Julia, what happened?"

      "Nothing!" She started kissing him again to distract him, and for a moment he gave in; but then he pulled away.

     "Stop trying to distract me and his answer the question." He snapped.

She shook her head, the memory burning. "I can't..." She whispered, tears forming in her eyes. He pulled her close to him in a comforting hug.

"You can tell me." He whispered. "Come on."

Julia took a deep, raggedy breath. "There was a guy at your party, and he tried to force me into doing something..."

"Shit!" He swore venomously. "Shit, shit, shit! I'll kill him!"

"Calm down!" She tried to grab his arm. "Nothing much happened, my friends came and rescued me, I was fine. Honestly!"

His eyes burned. "No, you're not. You're not fine, and I'm not fine with some shit guy trying to hurt my girlfriend." The word slipped out of his mouth before he had time to process it.

"Your girlfriend?" She asked.

He was about to correct himself, but he found he didn't want to. "Yeah, your my girlfriend." He said, a little nervously. Julia looked at him and began to kiss him again, and he had to pull himself away. "And as much as I want to be with you right now, I'm going to do this one right. We're going to take it slowly, and we're going to make the most of it." He smiled at her. "Would you like to be my date to the Halloween party on Wednesday?"

"Yes." Julia beamed, and then let Nathan out.