UNEDITED CHAPTER NINE [1]

       Cold white walls were all that was left to comfort him. He hated being in the principal's office; being absent from school without turning in a written excuse was kind of a sin for his school. Two hours of detention gave Nathan two extra hours away from home—away from his angry father.

       Nathan busied himself with the task of writing more lyrics. He felt like a dingus for running his mouth to Bree about his 'new song' that was no where near being in the works; with every line he wrote came a very messy scratch to hide the words that sounded no horrendous in his perspective.

       He had no Seth to consult with, either.

       Nathan was left to fend for himself.

       He wasn't allowed the usage of any electronics during his detention, so no classical (or any) music to help him calm his nerves.

       He couldn't even hum!

       Nathan let his pen do the taking for him, thought, he muted himself with every word he scratched out. He was getting nowhere.

       "What's the use?" He sighed.

       "Nathan," he looked up at the secretary seated behind her desk at the other side of the room, "Your mother is here for you," she said.

       "So I can leave now?" Nathan asked stupidly.

       She nodded and continued to do whatever she was doing on her computer.

       Nathan grabbed his stuff and quickly left the office. His mother was out on the steps, waiting for him. She was in a casual outfit, with a huge coat on over it; her hair seemed shorter than before, and curlier. The moment she laid eyes on her son approaching her slowly, she smiled widely and took her hands out of her coat pockets.

       "Hey," she greeted him. It looked like she wanted to go in for a hug, but pulled back almost immediately.

       Nathan felt his pride stuck like a huge piece of gum in his throat.

       "Hey," he said in a flat voice.

       "Your dad is... well, I think you could enjoy being somewhere else right now," she said.

       "I was enjoying detention," Nathan huffed.

       "I never enjoyed detention. My math teacher used to be in charge of it, and boy, was he one asshole," she chuckled.

       "What he make you do?" Nathan asked.

       "We had to clean the detention room—he was a clean freak—then, he'd have us write a five thousand word essay on why we deserved out punishment."

       "Boy, all I had to do was sit around and do nothing."

       Catherine laughed and began walking down the stone steps. She hopped off the last one like a little child.

       "But won't he be mad if I'm not home again?" Nathan asked, standing firmly in place.

       "I'll call him. He won't be mad if he knows you're with your mother."

       Nathan hesitated a bit, until he took a step forward, then another, and another, until he was standing beside his mother. He was a few inches taller than her, which struck him as strange because he was probably the shortest guy in the entire school. The shortest and the leanest.

       "Let's go, then," she said, breathing out at the end. She seemed nervous, but Nathan could see that she was trying her best to act normal.

       They walked straight ahead for about ten minutes in complete silence, until they turned their first corner. Nathan took the time to take in everything around him: there were a lot of potted plants outside the buildings on the sidewalk. A few shop owners were outside, sweeping fallen leaves away. Autumn was near, if not here already.

       The wind picked up and blew a few of the leaves around, and one got caught in his mother's hair. Nathan reached up and plucked it out. Catherine looked up at her soon, her eyes asking, "What's wrong?" Nathan held up the leaf.

       "Autumn leaves are pretty. Don't you think?" she asked, taking it from him and examining it.

       "Yeah, green leaves make me sick," Nathan joked.

       Catherine swatted his arm and chuckled.

       "You were born on a fine autumn night, you know," she stated. "It was so cold and windy. My dad kept telling me that you were gonna look like a pumpkin," she laughed.

       Nathan had only met his grandparents once: that was when he was two, and they went to visit them for Christmas. That was just before his mother had left. He remembered them and his parents arguing over something, and they never did visit again. He was too young to remember something like that, but the way he parents looked all angry, and his grandparents never calling or visiting told him that something happened that night.

       He never heard much from his dad's parents either.

       It seemed as though Nathan was a grandchild without any active grandparents.

       "Did I look like a pumpkin?" Nathan asked.

       "No, you didn't," Catherine sighed. They turned another corner before coming to a stop in front of a glass door. He knew this place; Carrie's Cool Spot. The  Den was right underneath this place.

       "What do you want to eat?" Catherine asked her son as she pushed the door open, causing the bell to jingle.

       "I don't know... something with pumpkin," Nathan said as he scratched the back of his head. He looked around the place, and he was amazed. It looked so much better (and fancier) than the Den. It was huge, with about four dozen (or more) tables in the area. It was a three story building, so he only imagined people he could fit in the entire building. The Den was crowded with just two dozen people.

       Fairy lights hung on the walls, and the air smelt of wood-chips and herbs.

       The mother and son were led to a table near the window, as per Catherine's polite request. She ordered two slices of pumpkin pie, with green tea for her, and just water for him.

       Nathan sat with his hands tightly clasped on the table; he looked at everywhere else but his mother.

       Apologize, his brain told him.

       "Do you live close by?" he asked instead.

       "Three blocks down," she answered.

       Nathan nodded curtly and went back to being silent.

       "We'll stop by after the meal, sounds cool?"

       Catherine tucked her hair behind her hair and smiled. Nathan thought she looked so much like a teenager. Her skin was fair and wrinkle-free. She had long eyelashes, and the bluest of blue eyes he had ever seen. She looked so young, she could pass herself off as a high school senior, or a college student or something. Then Nathan remembered that she was only thirty one.

       Nathan wondered if his father was the only man she had ever loved. After all, they did get married when she was sixteen and he was nineteen, just after he was born. He questioned the legalities of things back then, but he was curious as to why she chose his father, and why she left him two years later. Was it really love, or just another teenage fling? Why is she here now?

       "Yeah, cool," Nathan finally replied.

       Their order came, and Nathan dug in because the pumpkin pie smelled so good.

       "You know, my mom, your grandma, named you," Catherine stated before taking a sip of her tea. "She thought you were such a cute baby."

       "I have you heard from them?" Nathan wondered aloud.

       "They moved to Alaska a bout a year ago. Mom's sister lives there..." Catherine trailed off and looked down.

        "Nathan, I'm sorry. I know that you don't have a normal life, and your anger with me is justified," she began, but Nathan stopped her. He got enough apologies from Bree already; not her too.

       "I'm sorry about yesterday. I acted like a complete jerk. I know I should apologize to dad, but he was acting like a jerk too," Nathan mumbled. It was supposed to be a simple apology, but he ended up bashing his father, which was bad.

       "You're right," his mother said, "and after you left to go up to your room, I told him. Now he's mad with me, too."

       Nathan felt a little better, now, and from the looks of it, so did his mother. There was still some tension lingering around them, but he apologized, and it felt like such a heavy burden lifted from his shoulders.

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Hey my little flowers! How are you? I'm sick. AGAIN. UGH! So, I know you might think, "Well that was fast!" Well, not really, but don't you worry about a thing. Soon you're going to want everything to just zoom past (;

Please comment below! I absolutely love reading your comments <3 You guys make me feel so... asdfghjkl<3