You Deserve Each Other tells the complicated story of Naomi and Nicholas, who are engaged to be married soon. Instead of the usual pre-wedding jitters, Naomi and Nicholas have bigger problems to face as they start to hate each other to the core. [Source: Fueled by Chapters]

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FFAEK: This book taught Emily how Love was a journey and not a destination.

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Chapter Seven: You Deserve Each Other

I  stared at the twins as Nathan glanced back at me. He looked furious yet helpless. He stepped back from the window, while both of the guys jumped straight to the bed. It bounced. I stood up and transferred to Nathan’s desk.

The room was too small to accommodate a giant six-foot guy (Nathan) and two other giants, almost six-foot guys (Theo and his brotha).

As I settled down on his chair, Nathan let out a long sigh while covering his face with his palm. He looked at me when he was done and said, “I’m sorry. They don’t know any manners.”

“Are you listening, Fletch?” Said Theo, I figured.

“Yes, it’s like our Nathaniel is a whole other person,” Fletch shook his blonde hair and stared at Nathan with scrutiny.

I was holding back a smile.

Nathan, on the other hand, was only growing furious, “My name is Nathan, not Nathaniel.”

“Whatever, you say, Natey boy,” Theo replied, grinning. Fletch laughed and turned to focus his attention on me.

“Yo, I’m Fletcher,” he said, raising his hand.

“I’m Theo,” said the other one, “Also known as Theodore the savior and the better one of the two.”

Fletcher opened his mouth in surprise and ended it by hitting the back of Theo’s head.

Nathan gave me a look. I shrugged, smiling.

“I’m Emily,” I said to them, “Nathan’s friend.”

Theo shook his head, “This is where things went wrong.”

Fletcher leaned forward, “Yes, how could Callahan have a friend we don’t know, and a pretty girl like you at that?”

“Real smooth, Fletcher,” said Nathan begrudgingly, coming towards me and leaning against the desk between me and the twin.

It was difficult to see their faces with Nathan’s body wedged between us. So I moved the chair.

“Ah, I am surprised as well. I thought this guy here,” I gestured to Nathan, “couldn’t possibly have any friends. Then I found two.”

“Neighbors,” Nathan cut in before either of the twins could reply, “They’re neighbors.”

I might not have known Fletcher and Theo, but we shared a look of understanding between us. We knew Nathan Callahan too well.

“What exactly are you doing with him?” Theo asked, genuinely curious, “And how did he even manage to get you in his room?”

“Yeah, like, don't you have any sense of self-preservation?” Fletcher added.

I laughed, “Unfortunately, for me, I need a study partner.”

Nathan was rolling his eyes, “Would you people keep talking like I’m literally not standing here, and you are crowding my room?”

“He told me I took away his peace,” I told them. They looked at me with pity.

“To be honest,” Theo said, “he said something like that to me last week too.”

“Yeah, same,” Fletcher nodded.

“He would have never brought me here, but I'm kind of not doing great in chem,” I said, “And he is, I have to admit, not awful at it, so I thought why not?”

“Chemistry sucks really bad,” Theo said, “So you go to this loser’s school?”

“Umm, yes,” I said, “I figured you don't.”

Fletcher, in a moment of inspiration, took both of my hands in his, and said, “You should transfer to Cycreak.”

It made me giggle. I threw my head back laughing, “Sure, if you pay for my tuition.”

Cycreak High was our rival school. It was also the better and more expensive one.

Nathan walked in right between us and pushed Fletcher by his forehead, “Whatever the hell you two are doing here.”

“Damn, bro, turn a little more green, you'll beat Shrek,” Theo commented. I knew Nathan was glaring at him.

Nathan focused his attention on me, “And you said you needed to focus and study. How’s that going?”

I rolled my eyes.

“See?” Theo told me, “That's why we were so surprised to see you.”

Fletcher stood up, “You really are something, Callahan.”

He patted Nathan’s shoulder. “A girl comes to your room for the first -”

I knew things were going to get out of hand right then. So I quietly stepped back as Nathan launched himself at Fletcher. Theo shrieked even though he was in the clear and joined the chaos.

I wish I had popcorn as I watched the overflowing display of testosterone.

“I swear to God-” Nathan started, but his voice got mumbled as Theo pulled his hair and turned his face around. Nathan threw him a glare and punched his stomach. Fletcher pulled Nathan back by his shirt.

“I'll kill you both,” bellowed Nathan as he somehow gained control over both of them. When they were finished, Nathan was holding their hair while they were trying to get him off.

“I have a theory,” Theo said and looked at me, “He has more strength than usual today.”

“Does he?” I asked.

Fletcher was sighing. Nathan let go of both of them and straightened his shirt, “Bear's downstairs.”

Fletcher shook his hair, almost like a dog, and stretched, “Did you bake again?”

Theo stopped mid-movement, “Oh yeah, he did. I smelled the cookies from my bedroom.”

Nathan was glancing at me.

So he did bake those cookies.

“No, I didn't.”

“Did you know-” Theo had started to tell me something when Nathan pushed him towards the door.

“Out, both of you. Out now.”

Fletcher put his hands up in the air and followed Theo, “Fine, fine, we'll get out of your love den.”

He mouthed good luck to me. I guess I might have looked amused.

Nathan locked the door after them and leaned against it as if he were tired.

“Poor Callahan,” I murmured. He turned to give me a glare.

I went back to his bed so he could sit at his desk. I mentally made a note about asking him about his hobby later.

We went back to our chemistry textbooks and copies. Nathan was looking through something.

“I thought you didn't have friends,” I said after a bit.

“Didn't I say neighbors?” Nathan replied.

“But friends.” I said. Oh, how wrong I had gotten him.

Now that I put everything I had seen together, it was something like this: he had a cute family with too many people. He had a cute little sister, and a brother, and a sweet mother. He had friends.

He was fairly normal and not the freak I thought he was.

“Why do you go around school like you sell drugs or something?” I asked, looking at him.

“Maybe I do,” he replied.

I didn't believe him for a second, “Yeah, sure.”

Nathan shrugged.

“I once heard you did underground boxing,” I said, “as if it's a thing.”

“What do you think pays for my gas?” Nathan said dryly.

I glared at him, “Oh, please.”

“Go back to chem, Emily. Enough about my interesting life,” Nathan looked into my eyes right then.

I was struck for a second by that eye contact, realizing how close we were sitting now that I was facing him, sitting on the bed with the books and copies on his desk. His forearm was close to mine.

There's a window of time that is deemed appropriate to stare at someone, but that time had passed, yet I didn't stop. My eyes traveled along his face, the black of his hair, the green of his eyes, his nose down to his lips.

When I was too caught up in all that, Nathan decided, like always, to interrupt me and call me out, “Are we having a staring contest?”

I looked away, adding a scoff to sound convincing.

He didn't make any more conversation and made me focus on the horrible reactions and definitions the whole time.

*****

Simon Wallberg was running late.

Leanna and I were sitting at a quaint café I had found while driving to Nathan's house.

I hadn't told her anything about my chemistry study partner. It wasn't that important.

As Landon McArther had suggested, Leanna, Simon and I had grouped up for tomorrow’s debate, and today we were to have a team meeting. Simon, the prodigy, was yet nowhere to be found.

I was sipping on my iced vanilla latte while dreading what’d happen to us if Simon ditched us. Leanna didn't seem too bothered by it, as she had her extra whipped cream-topped Frappuccino with sprinkles.

After ten entire minutes, Simon turned up, ordered and sat down in front of us. 

There were a few things you needed to know about Simon if you were to deal with him. First and foremost, Simon was the very definition of a flirt. He flirted with any girl he met, shamelessly. I had seen him chatting up with senior girls like his life depended on it. 

When he sat down, he reclined a little, taking up more space than he needed with his legs, and greeted, “Hey, girls.”

I raised my eyebrow in greeting. Leanna said hi.

“Shouldn’t we first think of a team name?” She suggested.

“Newton High Debaters who'll blow your mind,” Simon said smiling, “how's that?”

He was not taking this seriously, at all.

“That's awesome, but we can't possibly put that,” I said.

“How about Newton High Contenders?” Leanna suggested. I googled for some ideas.

“Those names don't look that bad,” She said as we looked into my phone together.

“I got it,” Simon interrupted, “Newton High Eloquent Monsters.”

“No,” I said simply and went back to my phone.

“We can't even agree on a team name,” Leanna murmured.

“That's because you girls are so indecisive,” Simon said, “Newton High Dragons.”

“That's not even relevant,” I said.

“It doesn't need to be. We are dragons, and we will spitfire on our opponent.” He reasoned.

Leanna looked convinced. And that's how we got our team name.

Sunday rolled around, and we were at the debating clubroom with other teams. There were three teams from our school in total, one for every grade.

When I looked over at the Seniors’ team, I couldn’t find Landon. He was probably the best speaker among us. So I wondered where he might be.

Simon slid onto the long bench Leanna and I were sitting on, right beside me. Even though it was an online debate, which we could do from home, for better team understanding, we were all in the clubroom.

“I will be the second speaker,” I barely had time to tell him. The motion was posted on the server, and we had only a few minutes to get our ideas together.

“I'm sitting out the first one,” Leanna let us know, “Since you two are better than me.”

Simon cracked his knuckles and told me the most generic things about the motion that I already knew.

I realized this would not be as much teamwork as I thought it would be. Leanna was googling stuff, but since she was sitting out, I didn't ask for her advice.

The debate started. We were the affirmative team. Simon was our first speaker. He started incredibly well. He was good. He presented his points which he told me nothing about and gatekeeped for himself. I had to listen to him and note those down. As soon as his speech was over, he reclined like he was done and started playing games on his phone.

I didn't have an opportunity to say anything because I was writing down the opponent's points.

Then it was time for my speech. I had some problems with the audio. It wouldn't work at first. I fumbled with it while both of my teammates seemed busy with something else.

I could vouch for Leanna, but Simon would go next for rebuttal. Giving all hopes up, I started jotting down points by myself.

When Simon's turn came again, he started speaking, but he seemed clueless. I passed him all my notes. He belted a great speech out of that.

I wasn't surprised when we lost the match.

The same thing repeated the next match when it was Leanna’s and Simon’s turn. They gave their speeches, stopped paying attention when they were done speaking, while I was supplying them my notes.

We lost that one too.

“Well, this isn't going as well as I had hoped,” Simon said as I sat beside him for the next debate.

We had three matches today. We already lost two of those three. We were out of the competition as he spoke. The last match would be a formality for us.

Yet, I wanted to win.

Simon repeated what he had done earlier. Leanna was nowhere to be found. I had vowed I’d win this round. I did the best I could. This introverted mind had to fight for argument points.

I always came up with better points when I was done arguing.

When I was done speaking, Simon smiled at me, “Damn, you went all fiery.”

“What use is that, we already lost," I said, dejected.

“Don’t be sad,” Simon replied.

The match was over. The scoreboard said Newton High Dragons had zero points. I could die of mortification right then and there.

Leanna finally came around to our desk. She had been going around taking photos of people. I wish she was here with me. Even looking at her face while I gave speeches would have been a great support.

“Hey, we should go out and have dinner,” She said to both of us.

I was hungry after all that eloquent monstrosity and spitfiring on our opponents.

Leanna and I got into her car, Simon in his, and we drove to the local diner. I slid into a booth, Simon followed, sitting right beside me.

I glanced at him. He was sitting too close.

I looked up at Leanna, who was across us and raised an eyebrow at me.

Simon got up to order. Leanna broke into a gasp as soon as we were out of his earshot, “What’s up with Wallberg?”

I pursed my lips, “I don't even wanna know.”

“He is so flirting with you.”

I was the one who read romance. So I had the right to be delusional, not her. Leanna didn't even count romance as literature.

“I don't think so.”

“Oh come on, even the other day, he was trying to talk to you the whole time.”

“I’d say he likes you better.”

Leanna scoffed and Simon came back, again sitting right beside me, leaving not much space between us.

I moved away from him a little.

“So, Emily, what's up?” Simon turned to me.

I gave him a bored look. He smiled. “We'll do better next time.”

I sure as hell wouldn’t team up with him again. He could be a great speaker but he did it best when he was alone.

Simon turned to Leanna, and they started talking about anime, studio Ghibli movies and Japanese literature.

I couldn't relate to any of them and didn't want to force my way into the conversation.

“Hey, I'll step out for a bit,” I said to them. The night sky looked starry and bright.

I had high hopes for those matches. But it was gone already.

Leanna raised an eyebrow at me. I smiled at her to reassure her as I made my way out of the booth.

I walked out. The dull sound of the conversations finally faded away. I overused my social battery today with all those speeches.

After waiting for a while, I decided it was time to get back. As I turned around, I noticed someone leaning against the wall by the corner.

I knew him too well.

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A/N: This chapter is unedited so if you find mistakes, point them out. Thanks.

Also this is URGENT

Which one of you is an expert on Chinese food? DM me pls.