Thanks to complexions for the amazing cover!!

____

It was Monday morning and saying I was tired was a complete understatement. I was sure glad to have my car back though.

I walked towards my locker and found Gerald leaning against it, he seemed to be waiting for me.

"Hey." He greeted me as soon as I walked over.

"Why are you standing in front of my locker?" I said not bothering to greet him back.

"Because I knew you'd come here and I wanted to see how you were doing." He shrugged still standing in front of my locker.

"I'm tired. That's how I am." I said shoving him out of the way.

"Well I'm good thanks for asking." He said sarcastically.

"I didn't ask." I pointed out while getting my books.

"Someone is in a b-" he paused and looked at my left hand. "What happened to your hand?"

"I got burned." I said casually.

"How?" He said with concern.

"With an ice cube." I said sarcastically and walked away. Honestly I didn't want to tell him what really happened and get more attention.

Before I could even take two steps he grabbed my wrist and turned me around to face him.

"Victoria, I want a serious answer and not a fucking sarcastic one." He said sounding annoyed.

"Gerald I'm not a puppet, I don't have to do as you want me to."

"Fuck Victoria, you have some serious moods when you're tired, do you know that?" He said frustratedly.

Just then the bell rang and I tired to break free of his grasp, but he was too strong.

"Dammit, let go of me." I demanded.

He smirked,"Not until you answer my question."

I sighed annoyed at him. "Fine, Jessica burned me with boiling water. Happy now?"

"I knew it had something to do with her or your brother!" He said and I could see the anger in his eyes.

"Now can you let go of me?" I said grimly.

"How did she burn you?" He asked ignoring my statement.

"You not going to let me go until I answer you, are you?" I asked and he shook his head.

I explained to him what happened and he looked pretty pissed but he kept it under control and finally let go of me.

"Well now because of you I'm late and probably going to be in detention." I said sourly at him.

"It's English and we have that together so I'll make sure you don't get detention. Every teacher here is scared of my dad." He said, walking next to me.

I was done with English and Gerald was right, I didn't get any detention thanks to him.

I was currently in math with a very quiet and broody Nate next to me, all he did was say hi to me and that was it. He wasn't even paying attention to the teacher.

I kicked his leg under the table to get his attention and ask him what his issue was.

He looked at me with a questioning look on his face.

"What no chirpy mood today?" I raised a brow.

"Not everyone can be chirpy everyday, you know" he said looking at the board and not at me.

"Yeah but you seem extra broody today, it's like someone killed your dog or something." I rolled my eyes.

He just ignored my statement and continued staring at the board.

"Okay, creepy much." I muttered under my breath.

The rest of math was extremely boring, I missed Nate's annoying comments.

I wonder what's wrong with him...he was perfectly fine last night.

I walked out the classroom and chased after him.

"Wait up Nate!" I called after him but he didn't stop.

Wow he was being an asshole today.

I ran after him and when I caught up I grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"What now Victoria?" He said, softly moving my hand away from his arm.

"Don't 'what now' me! You're the one being an asshole not me." I said crossing my arms across my chest.

He frustratedly ran a hand through his hair. "I'm really not in the mood to talk about this now, Victoria." He said making his way to leave but I stopped him once again.

"Really? You're being a fucking dick, Nathaniel! Just last night you were all normal and chirpy but this morning you're acting like I'm some pesky flea that you can't get rid off." I snapped. Just as well it was lunch so the hallway was quiet since everyone was in the cafeteria.

"You know you're not the only one with problems, we all have our own issues to deal with. Whenever you're in a shitty mood I give you your space. So maybe you should stop being a clingy bitch and give me my fucking space." He snapped back.

I'd be lying if I said that his words didn't hurt me, but I quickly covered it up with anger.

"All I was trying to do was help, which you've done countless of times for me, but you know what," I took a step closer to him, "if I'm not worthy enough for you to share your problems with and too much of a clingy bitch then fuck you Nathaniel." With that I turned on my heel and walked away from him.

I walked outside with a lost appetite and sat on a nearby bench, still feeling angry at Nate.

My phone buzzed and I looked and seen it was a text from Michael.

Michael: Hey, I'm going over to Jessica's after work so I'll eat dinner there one time. Don't wait up. :)

Feeling even more angry I threw my phone across and let out a frustrated sigh.

"What did this poor phone do to deserve that?" I heard a masculine voice say.

"It's not poor if it's worth a thousand dollars." I said glaring at Gerald.

He sat next to me with my phone in his hand.

"What are you doing out here alone?" He asked, concern evident on his face.

"Nothing." I murmured not looking at him.

"So you just thought it'd be cool to skip lunch and sit outside all by yourself?" He said sarcastically.

I just ignored him and continued to stare at the tree that was a few feet away from me.

He took a deep breath. "Victoria what's wrong? You've been like this since this morning. I just thought you were tired this morning so I brushed it off, but now you're still being like this."

"This morning I was tired." I said.

I was starting to feel better, I always felt better after getting some fresh air.

"And what's wrong now?"

I sighed,"I'm just annoyed, that's all."

He seemed to have understood and let it go. For a while we were just sitting in silence until he broke it.

"You do know that is lunch over, right?" He asked and I nodded.

"Wanna ditch the rest of our classes and go somewhere?" He suggested.

"Where do you wanna go?"

"We can go get your favourite cookie dough ice cream?" He smirked.

He knew that was my weakness and I would definitely give in.

I grinned widely at him, stood up and pulled him up from the bench.

"Impatient much?" He teased.

"You know that's my weakness." I said and I heard him chuckle.

"I'm driving." I said and got in.

"How are you going to drive with a burned hand?" He raised his brows.

"Only the lower part of my hand is burned not my whole hand, so I can still drive." I told him and rolled my eyes at his stupidity.

It was like I didn't have that argument with Nate. Gerald just knew how to cheer me up. I felt happy when I was with him, he's never hurt me ever before and yet when someone else hurt me he just knew how to to cheer me up and make me feel a lot better. I smiled to myself as I thought of that.

After getting ice cream, we were on our way to his house to get my stuff.

"Did you by any chance see Ashley at lunch?" I asked him. She was going to be furious at me, I seen her in class but I hadn't filled her in on anything and I told her I'd tell her everything at lunch but I skipped that.

"No, I was sitting with my friends at our table. Why?"

"Because I told her I'd fill her in on everything about what happened at lunch but I kinda skipped that, so yeah she's gonna be furious at me." I said switching off my ignition when we reached his house.

"I'm sure blondie will understand."

"Yeah I know she will."

After getting my bags, I decided to leave wanting to get home.

"Thanks for letting me stay when I was homeless." I smiled at him once we were outside.

"Wow, you actually said thanks." He said pretending to be startled.

I rolled my eyes, "That's the first and last."

We were now standing outside my car door when he leaned in and kissed my forehead.

"Let me know when you're home." He told and I nodded.

For a while we just stood there, staring at each other until he leaned down and placed his lips on mine.

I stood on tiptoes, because he was taller than me, and wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back softly.

The kiss was gentle and chaste, it made my heart flutter, it was pretty perfect since the sun was setting and it looked like a scene from a movie. God, I sound like those cheesy girls in books and chick flicks!

"I'll see you tomorrow, Victoria." He smiled and opened my door for me.

"You know I can open my own door." I joked.

"Wouldn't be very gentleman like of me to that." He smirked.

I rolled my eyes to at him and told him bye then drove off.

****

It was already Friday, the rest of the week had went by in a blur. I've hardly seen Michael because he's either at her place or she's here and I preferred to sit in my room than sit out there with those two 'lovebirds'.

Ashley and Jessie have been spending a lot of time together, at lunch they couldn't keep their hands to themselves, and every time I asked her whether they were dating or not she'd deny it, it was getting annoying.

As for Nate, he hadn't said a word to me since our argument, he didn't even glance my way. It kinda hurt, it's not like I did anything bad to him. I asked Gerald how he was with him and the rest of the soccer team and he said he was normal, so I guess it was just me he was being a jerk with. As I thought of that I felt a pang in my chest.

Shaking my thoughts away, I made my way out the house and drove to school. It was still kinda hard to drive with my hand that got burned but I was getting used to it.

After all my boring morning classes it was finally lunch and I was about to make my way to usual table until a tall figure stood in front of me.

"Wanna go sit away from everyone?" Gerald said standing in front of me.

"Why would I wanna do that?" I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

"Let's just go." He grabbed my hand and dragged me to an empty table away from where most of the students sat.

"Why are we sitting alone at a table meant for loners?" I raised a brow.

"Because I wanted some alone time with you." He smirked and shifted closer to me.

"Are you going to murder me?" I joked.

"Now why would I wanna murder such a beautiful face?"

"So what do you really want?"

"To know if you'll go to dinner with me in Saturday night?" He asked grinning at me.

"Sure why not." It's just dinner, nothing serious.

"Great! I'll pick you up at 8." He said and kissed my cheek.

"Missing my company that much that you wanna go out to dinner?" I joked.

"I've been missing your company way too much, Victoria."

****

I got back from school and was sitting on my bed and watching TV.

I heard my phone ring and looked down and seen that it was Nate calling. Should I pick up? Still feeling angry at him, I declined his call.

"I wonder what he wanted? Maybe he dialled me by accident?"

He called me again and I once again declined. There's no way I'm giving in that easily to him, he's the one being a jerk and not me.

He called again and I declined his call again and this time I turned my phone off and went back to watching TV.

After about 40 minutes later, someone knocked on my door.

Probably Gloria. I thought.

I walked over to open the door and I was right, it was Gloria at the door.

"Ms. Victoria, there is someone here to see you." She informed standing in my doorway.

"Who?" I frowned.

"A young man, he did not tell me his name."

Couldn't have been Gerald, Gloria knew him. I think I know who's here.

"Is he really tall? And tan? With brown hair? And does he have light brown eyes?"

"I'm not sure Ms, but he was very tall indeed."

"I knew it was him." I muttered.

"So you do know him?" She asked waiting for an answer.

"Yes, unfortunately I do. Just tell him I don't wanna see him."

"He told me that if you said that I should tell you that he really wants to talk to y-"

"Tell him I don't care." I said cutting her off.

"But he said it is important." She finished.

Important? Maybe I could just go and see what he wants. He did say it was important.

"Fine." I walked out my room and closed the door behind me.

I walked downstairs and seen him sitting in the living room, he looked more like he was in his mid twenties than eighteen. He had a stubble like beard and looked like he had a million problems. I wonder what's troubling him. I felt concerned about him and I was a bit glad that I didn't send Gloria to throw him out the house.

"Wow I'm surprised you actually came." He said as soon as he saw me walking towards him.

"Well you tried calling me like three times - which I declined- and you told Gloria that it was important, so I thought maybe it is important and decided to see what was wrong." I told him. He was leaning against the wall and I was standing opposite him, a little distance between us.

"Yeah and you turned off your phone." He pointed out.

"So what do you want from me?" I asked, getting straight to the point. His words from that day still hurt when I thought about it.

"I want to apologise for what I did, Victoria. I-"

I cut him off, feeling myself getting angry at what he said. "You want to apologise? That's what you wanted to speak about? Well I don't want your fucking apology! What I want is for you and your so called apology to get the fuck out of my house!" I bellowed.

"Victoria, please just hear me out." He pleaded.

"So we can be friends again and then you will start feeling like being a jerk and call me a bitch again? And hurt me once again?!"

"I didn't mean to hurt you. I would never ever, ever intentionally hurt you. I never meant any of those words I onl-"

I once again cut him off. "Nate, do us both a favo-" before I could complete what I was saying he gently placed his lips onto mine. His lips were soft as well as his kiss.

I stood there, shocked and confused, my heart was running a marathon.

"There, that should keep you quiet." He said with a small smile at my startled expression.

My lips were tingling after his kiss and my heart still was beating so fast It felt like it was going to pop out of my chest.

"You know you could've just told me to shut up." I said.

"Like you would've actually listened." He chuckled softly.

"Fine, I'm listening now."

He took a breath and started. "Victoria, what happened on Monday, I didn't mean it. It's just that my parents are back and, well you know what it's like when they're around, but this time it's just worse than how it used to be before and I'm just concerned for my sister, I've been so stressed that I feel like I'm going to turn grey before I turn 23." He chuckled humourlessly. "So on that day, I was just feeling really like not talking to anyone and I guess I just snapped."

I listened to what he had to say without a word and honestly, I did feel bad for him but that still doesn't explain why he was being a complete jerk to me the whole week and absolutely normal to everyone else, he acted like I didn't exist until today.

"So you just thought that it'll be fine to just ignore me the whole week? You acted like you didn't know who I was, like I was invisible." I told him and ran a hand through my hair, feeling really frustrated.

"I guess I just couldn't look at you after what I said that day."

"You hurt me Nate," I said softly, "you made me feel like I was the horrible person, every time I looked at you it hurt. We've been through so much together and it felt like everything we had was over." Memories from the past came flooding back in.

He stroked my hair back and cupped my cheek. "I know, and when I think of that I feel like such a dick, I wish I could punch myself in the face. I didn't mean to hurt you, I would never want to hurt you in any way and I'm sorry that I did Victoria."

I looked into his eyes and seen how sincere his apology was. I understood why he was being being a jerk, he was just doing exactly what I do when I'm emotional. He looked vulnerable and there was a very rare thing to see on him, after all he was the one whom helped me become tough and helped me deal with my emotions.

Instead of saying anything I stood on my tiptoes and wrapped my arms around him. He instantly hugged me back, he held me tightly as if he lets go I'll disappear.

We stood like that for awhile until he broke it.

"So I take it that you've accepted my apology?" He grinned.

"No I just hugged you because I'm extremely pissed of at you." I said sarcastically.

"Hey I'm just making sure." He said with a grin.

It felt good to see his normal grin back.

"So now that that's out of the way, wanna go somewhere?" He asked me.

"Sure. Where do you wanna go?"

"Hmm a movie? Maybe dinner?" He shrugged.

"The stuff you do at a date?" I joked.

"I just really don't feel like going home and it is a Friday, but if you want it to be a date then so be it." He smirked.

"I was only joking. Like I would go on a date with you." I rolled my eyes.

"Let's go then." He said and I looked at him like he was insane.

"What?" He asked me, confused.

"You expect me to go out like this." I pointed down at my outfit, which was an oversized hoodie.

"Fine then go change."

"I'm going." I said leaving.

"I'm coming with you." He said and I could hear his footsteps behind me.

"Of course you are." I said sounding annoyed but I actually really wasn't.

We walked into my room and I made my way towards my closet to look for clothes.

"Your room looks so similar to your one in New York." He said, lying on my bed.

He was right, I like my room like how it was. It had white walls with a huge flat screen TV directly opposite my bed and I had a king sized bed with black beddings.

My parents owned a house in New York and my room over there pretty much looked the same as this one.

"Well I happen to like the way my room looks." I said while picking out my favourite pair of black high waisted jeans.

"I'm going to go and change." I told Nate and went into my bathroom. It'll just be weird to change in front of him.

After changing I walked out the bathroom, which was joined to my room, and went over to do my hair.

"Oh by the way, I did you a favour and switched on your phone for you." Nate said now standing next to me and placed my phone on my dressing table.

Just as I was about to place my straightener onto my hair he grabbed it from me.

"Hey! What was that for?!" I yelped at him.

"How hot does this thing get?" He asked, smirking.

"Why?"

"Just answer the damn question."

"Like 360 degrees Fahrenheit." I answered, confused as to why he asked me that.

"Because I think I know how to avenge that." He said pointing at my burn, which was now just a scar.

"What exactly do you plan on doing?" I raised a brow and grabbed my straightener back from him to continue doing my hair.

"You'll see, Sunshine."

After doing my hair we were done and left the house.

"Get in the car." He said waiting for me to get in.

"No! We're going with my car." I said stubbornly and crossed my arms.

"Do I get to drive?" He raised his brows.

"Hell no!"

"Then we're going with my car." He grinned and opened the door for me.

I resentfully went in while he laughed at me and got into the drivers seat.

"Could you at least play some music?" I told him.

"It's not like you don't understand how it works so do it yourself." He shrugged.

I glared at him and then plugged my phone into the cable that was plugged into his car and played a song I knew we'd both like.

"I see your taste in music hasn't changed." He commented.

"Nope. How about you?"

"Still the same, Sunshine." He glanced at me then looked back at the road.

My phone got a text and because of my it being plugged into his car we both heard the noise.

"Who's that?" He asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Aren't you nosy?"

He shrugged. "Just call it curiosity."

I unlocked my phone and seen that it was Michael. Wonder what he wants know. I thought annoyed.

Michael: I won't be coming home tonight, I'm staying over at Jess. I'll see you tomorrow.

I just locked my phone and found no need to reply. Michael staying over by Jessica has become normal now, it was like I lived alone in a mansion.

"It was Michael, he said that he's staying over by Jessica tonight." I told Nate and rolled my eyes.

"Does he do that often?" He raised his brows.

"Pretty much every night." I shrugged.

"So you're alone at home every night?"

"Yep. It's just me, myself and I."

"How irresponsible of him." He said bitterly.

We reached the mall, which has a cinema, great restaurants and closes really late, and got out of the car.

"Let's go, shorty." He said and slung his arm around me.

I raised a brow. "Shorty? Just so you know, I happen to be five foot ten and that's pretty tall."

"And I'm six foot five which means you're still short to me." He smirked.

"When you're that tall everyone is going to be short to you." I rolled my eyes.

We walked into the cinema and I shrugged his arm off of me. I didn't want people to think that we were a couple or anything.

"What do you wanna watch?" He asked me.

"Hmmm, how about Batman vs Superman?" I grinned.

"We all know Batman is better." He smirked. He knew I was a fan of Superman so he was trying to annoy me.

"It's a matter of personal opinion." I smirked.

"You only like Superman because you like that Cavill dude."

"Yes, Henry Cavill is hot but it has absolutely nothing to do with Superman being awesome." I rolled my eyes at him.

"I bet a 100 dollars that after this movie you'll be obsessing over Batman and not Superman." He challenged.

"Fine. If you come out liking Superman then you owe me a 100 dollars." I grinned.

"Fine we have a deal." He said and extended his hand which I shook.

****

"You, Mr. Elington, owe me a hundred bucks." I grinned.

We were out of the movies and I won the bet. What happened was, during the movie Nate's exact words were: "Damn, you go Superman." And that was when I knew I'd won.

"Just because I said a few words by accident does not mean you've won." He added.

"No that's not fair! You never say one word about Batman through out the whole movie but you did about Superman so that means that I've won." I gloated.

He looked at me for a while then he laughed softly and reached into his wallet and handed me a 100 dollar bill.

I frowned. "So you just going to pay me and accept the fact that you're a big fat loser?"

"Yes I am going to pay you, but I am most definitely not a big fat loser." He said still holding out the bill which I didn't take yet.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "Why?"

"Because you're adorable when you're gloating over a hundred bucks." He said and poked my cheek which earned him a glare from me. "Now take it."

"Nah, keep it. It was just for fun, I'm not going to take your money." I smiled.

He just ignored my statement and put the bill in my jeans pocket.

"Hey! Who said you could do that?" I squealed.

"I did sunshine." He smirked.

I rolled my eyes at him and playfully punched him.

"Meanie." He pouted.

I laughed at him. "Let's go get something to eat, I'm hungry."

"What do you want to eat?"

"Food."

"Wow I would've never thought of that, aren't you a genius Victoria." He said sarcastically. "I mean like do you want, Italian food? Thai food? Chinese food? Indian food? French food? And I can't think of anything else."

"Ooh Italian!" I said excitedly. Italian food was my favourite!

"Why did I even ask?" He chucked.

We were made our way inside and the waiter got us a table for two.

We sat down and ordered our meals. I ordered some fancy chicken pasta and Nate ordered a ravioli.

"Why the fuck would you turn on the air cons in Autumn?" I said rubbing my arms which had goosebumps.

"Are you cold?" Nate asked.

"No I'm just pretend to be cold for fun. Yes I'm cold you idiot!." I rolled my eyes. "And I forgot my jacket at home."

He took off his leather jacket and handed it to me but I didn't take it.

"No. What if you get cold? You only have a t-shirt on."

"Victoria I'm from New York, I'm not going to get cold. Just take it and stop being stubborn."

"I'm not behind stubborn, I'm being reasonable." I rolled my eyes.

"If you don't take it now I'm going to get over to you and forcefully put it on you." He warned.

I glared at him but I took it from him. I put it on and felt the warmth from his body spread onto mine. I inhaled his scent from the jacket. Damn he smelled good.

"Much better, right?" He grinned.

I smiled. "Yeah and it's huge for me which makes it warmer."

Just as I said that our food came.

"Finally! I'm starving." I said and took a bite from my food.

After a few bites of my food I looked up and seen a familiar face behind Nate.

"Try and not bend down and make sure your back blocks me." I told Nate and sunk a little lower in my seat.

"Why?" He said and turned around to look. "I don't see anyone familiar."

"See that brunette over there?" I said and pointed.

"Yeah."

"That is my sister. She lives in San Francisco but I don't know what the hell she's doing here." I said bitterly. My sister was annoying as hell! She always found it amusing to make me feel like I'm a piece of crap compare to her.

Unlike my brother and I, she was short, okay she wasn't really short but compared to my brother and I she was short. Her hair was about a shade of brown lighter than mine, she had big, almond shaped brown eyes and the same tan skin like mine.

"I think she saw you, it looks like she's approaching us." Nate said.

No! Please don't let her be coming towards me! I chanted in my head.

"Oh my god! Victoria?!" I heard her shrill voice say.

I cursed in my head but plastered on a fake smile. "Hello Natasha."

I glanced at Nate who was watching me with an amused expression. I scowled at him.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Well in case you've forgotten, I live here. What are you doing here?" I emphasised the 'you'.

She smiled. "I was actually going to surprise you and Michael but then I seen you here and I couldn't resist coming to greet my lil sis."

That still didn't answer my question.

"I see." I said nonchalantly.

"And who is this here with you?" She raids eyeing Nate.

"This is Nate. Nate this is Natasha." I introduced them to each other.

"Nice to meet you." Nate stood up and said with a small smile.

Feeling awkward at being the only one sitting down I also stood up.

"Wow it's like my sister is surrounded by good looking men." She said. "How old are you Nate?"

Before he could answer I did. "How old do you think he is?" I narrowed my eyes. If she said anything around her age then I'd know that she was attracted to him.

"Hmm," she paused, "I'd say about 24?"

I knew it! She was 23 so of course she'd say he was a year older than her.

Nate chuckled. "No I'm actually 18."

He stepped closer to me and said quietly. "Guess the beard does make me look old." I laughed softly at that.

"Well you sure are handsome for an 18 year old." She winked.

I rolled my eyes at her flirty behaviour. Really? Why must my all these women flirt with my friends?

"He's a little too young for you, sis." I said sweetly.

She glared at me. "And a little too good looking for you, sis." There it was again, she just loved making me feel like a hideous monster.

Nate seemed annoyed at what she said and wrapped his arms around my wait. I cringed at his touch, it felt like I got electrocuted there, but in a good way. If that even made sense.

"If a guy like me is too good looking for someone as beautiful as Victoria then I'd like to see how bad a guy good enough for you to date would look." Nate said with a grin. I burst out laughing at his statement.

She flushed red with embarrassment at his statement but quickly covered it up with a serious look. "Wow, I see you've got this one wrapped around your finger, but nevertheless I'm not here to fight. Victoria I want you to meet somebody."

I frowned. "Who?"

"You'll see now." She said and walked off.

"What an annoying bitch." Nate said as soon as she left, his arm still around my waist.

"Tell me about it." I scoffed. "I like what you told her though." I grinned.

"Served the bitch well."

"Looks like she's coming back." I sighed.

"Who's that with her?"

I shrugged.

"Victoria, I would like you to meet Daniel, my fiancé." She said standing in front of me.

Fiancé?! My jaw fell open. She's engaged?!

_____

Please don't be a silent reader :)

And once again, if anyone thinks this books is moving too fast it's not, there's a lot more to come. ;)