Unedited Chapter 2 [2]

       Bree Pasko.

       Nathan stared at the name written in neat, bold letters. She probably took her precious time, carefully drawing the lines one-eighty straight, and made sure all the curves were curved perfectly—not a single mistake.

       He didn't want to invade her privacy, so he didn't look at the contents inside, just the name written on the front. He should have gone to the office already, but he went down to the basement instead. His hands were itching for the guitar, and his ears to hear the tune.

       He placed the folder on top of his bag and reached for the guitar he had left three and a half hours ago; a few specs of dust decorated it once more, and again, he took pleasure in wiping it away.

       "Shallow waters settle beneath me, I can see my reflection. Is there nothing else I can do, or nothing else I can say to make it better? To make me a better," he softened his voice to just a mere whisper, "man?"

       He switched up the chords, going into the verse, his voice dropping a bit lower.

       "Maybe I can tell you a story, and show you a part of my soul. Maybe you'll understand it, or baby maybe you'll want to go," he then stopped abruptly, the last chord ringing out. He didn't know the rest of the verse. He was making it up as he went, but now his mind was stuck in a ditch.

       He bit his lip and rubbed his left hand, his fret hand, on his jeans before strumming another chord, starting the verse a bit different.

       Again, he stopped where he did the first time.

       He looked over at the lime green folder lying on top of his backpack; maybe he should just go find her and return it.

       No. He should find a teacher and let them deal with it.

       He was getting nowhere with his music right now. Maybe he should just go find her. He didn't really want her to run away in the first place.

       But what would he have said?

       Hey. Um. I saw you. At this. Um. Nightclub. Um. What's up?

       He chuckled to himself. What a stupid thought.

       He felt hungry, anyway, so he put away the guitar for the second time, time grabbed the folder and his bag and made his way back upstairs into the jungle. Hardly anyone ate in the cafeteria, but it was still crowded. Sometimes, Nathan swore there were a million people attending his school. They were like ants—giant ones.
       Since he left so early this morning, he had to time to make himself lunch. He never liked the school lunches, ever since he found a hair in his macaroni and cheese in middle school, so he just got a juice box instead. They were out of apple juice, so he got grape.

       Like a child, he struggled to free the straw from his clear, plastic confines; he resorted to using his teeth, which he was sure made him look very weird to the people around him.
       Once he punctured his way into the box, he began his search for the shy girl with the long, black hair.

       He had no clue where she would be: The cafeteria? Not somewhere a girl as meek as her would be hanging around. Probably the library? Maybe. There could be a chance that she's a nerdy girl that loves to hide out in the restricted sections.

       But he also knew her name. He could just ask around for her.

       Bad idea.

       Not only would be break his rule of not talking to people randomly, what if they don't know her? What if she's just as invisible as he way.

       If she was invisible, she wouldn't have such a good (and mean) looking boyfriend who takes her to nightclubs like the Lion's Den, Nathan thought to himself.

       She was very pretty.

       Instead of heading up to the library, he wondered outside on the lawns. There were picnic tables and benches outside, and some of the students were out here, soaking in what was left of the sun. By sheer luck, he saw her sitting with a few other girls on one of those benches.

       She was laughing with them, not looking shy or meek at all. All he had to do was give her back the folder and walk away. One job. Just a few steps, one hello, give her the lime green folder and one last goodbye before completely ignoring her existence once more.
       But it wasn't that easy for him: walking up to one girl is fine. Walking up to a bunch of them, all of them belonging to the existence of a clique he despised to the very pit of his heart wasn't a piece of cake.

       He didn't want to deal with bullshit, and he knew they were full of it.

       He took a sip of his grape juice. It was pretty good, so he took another once before heading towards the girls' table.

       ABORT! ABORT! ABO
                                                  R
                                                     T.

       "Um, are you Bree?" Nathan asked the girl. He ignored the snickers coming from her friends. She grinned at her friends, brushing her loose hair over her shoulders. Didn't she have it in a ponytail before?

       "And who's asking?" she asked, her voice very smooth and flirtatious. Definitely not the shy girl he saw and actually wanted to talk to before.

       "Er, I bumped into you... this morning. You might have dropped this..." Nathan held out the lime green folder.

       "Oh!" She exclaimed in an annoying high pitched tone, snatching the folder from Nathan's hand. "I thought I left this in Neil's car," she laughed with her friends.

       "Hey, aren't you that guy that's always down in the basement?" One of her friends asked.

       Nathan looked at her blankly. Just hearing their voices aggravated him.

       "What, you talk to Bree and not us?" Another laughed.

       God, that laugh made Nathan want to tear his ears out. He did not need this attention; he brought it upon himself. However, her attitude was very surprising. Sure, he never spoke to her before, but she didn't seem so... bold (and annoying, if that's the word to use).

       "She's taken, bud," the girl closet to his right said. He glared down at her, but she returned his glare with a satisfied smirk, "But I'm not," and a wink. He heard Bree laugh. He didn't like it. He didn't like the spot light. All he wanted was to return what was hers. One job.

       "You're welcome," he spat, giving Bree and her friends her a dirty look.

       How did the shy, frail girl that muttered and abundance of apologies and looked frightened to death become one of them in a matter of hours? It was weird, and he knew she shouldn't think about it, but he couldn't help it.

       He sipped his grape juice until the box went dry. He frowned when he threw it into the trash bin: he wanted more.

       That afternoon, when he saw her wave goodbye at her friends, her long, black hair flowing behind her, and got into the black mustang on which her boyfriend, Neil, was sitting, waiting for her (looking as mean as he did that night), Nathan felt as if he should be the one muttering an abundance of apologies.

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Hey you guys! Once again, thank you for reading! We finally hit over 150 reads! *party time* Hehe, I've been working on more chapters, and I'll probably continue right after posting this. Please tell me in the comments if you're enjoying the story so far!

Question: Okay, so we haven't officially named my baby brother yet, so, how does the name Alexander (first) Sebastian (middle) sound?

Alexander Sebastian (top secret last name)

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