7

AWWW.....

 This time around at the bookstore I went alone. Since Lia was off for the day, and Nate was doing… whatever he does. Today it was just Carol and I. How awkward…

This time I worked the register, and she sat in the corner chair getting away with doing nothing. Today was slower than usual, and I wondered why they even needed me here. I resulted in flipping through a beauty magazine with all those ads with the women that had flawless faces, and the ‘Top 20 Tips to Accentuate Your Eyes’. I wasn’t into these types of magazines, where they say anyone could be beautiful with just a ‘touch’ of makeup and a haircut that fits your face. Speaking of, the bell on the door rings for the first time in what seems like hours, and Deb walks in.

        “Liz!” She shouted. Carol shot a ‘quiet!’ piercing look.

        “Hey Deb. What’s up?” I asked. She’s never come in the store before now.

        “I got your text, so I figured you could use me here…”

I texted her an hour or so ago, telling her that I was bored to tears and if you don’t get over here right now I would kill my self. I guess I forgot.  

       “Oh yeah, thanks. Nobody is really coming in, I don’t need to physically be here but-“

        “But you volunteered to be here. Heaven knows why.” Carol muttered.

Deb half laughed, but then saw the look on my face.

        “Doesn’t Nate usually come here with you?” She propped herself up on the counter and ignored Carol’s cynical stare.

        “Sometimes. But he’s out today.” I didn’t want to talk more about Nate with Deb. She’d try to turn it into something else, something it already has turned into by itself.  

       “So you two are actually, like, friends now? I mean, you stopped trying to avoid him?”

        “Yeah. We’re friends.” I was a terrible liar, but was I lying? Deb smiled at me.

        “What…!?”

Urgh. She was getting that look.

        “You so love him!” She squealed and grabbed my hands.

        “No, I am not!” I pulled them away.

The thing between Nate and I was still so new, since we only kissed last night and haven’t seen each other since. I didn’t even know what to consider us, or if there was even an us at all. He probably had even regretted what happened last night. Next time I see him, I should probably act like it never happened.

        “Oh common Liz. Stop playing this game with yourself. You’re not fooling anyone.”

        “Listen, you girl,” Carol interrupted. “You either buy something, or leave, got it?”

I jerked my head toward the door so we could talk outside.

        “Jeez, no wonder why nobody’s in there.” She said. “Anyway, why cant you just tell him, Liz?” Take a chance and-“   

      “”Deb!” I snapped my fingers in her face, which was going off into cloudland. “I’m not in love with him, okay?”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to unleash the information all over Deb. If I did, she would tell me that she told me so, and hang that over me, and if I didn’t, she would keep bugging me. Hell no.

        “Okay, maybe not love, but you know you want something between you two, right?”

If there was one thing Deb could talk about for hours, this kind of stuff would be it. I mean, she deals with it almost everyday.

        “Okay Deb, here’s the deal.” I said in a hushed tone.” I think there is something between us. I’m just not sure.” Her face lit up and she started to squeal again. I was already starting to regret saying anything to her.

        “Liz, oh my god, tell me everything!”

        “Deb. I’m not even going to get into it, because it probably didn’t mean anything. Don’t get all excited…”

Deb led me farther away from the door.

        “Stop this, Liz. Of course it meant something.”

        “You don’t even know what it is!”

She rolled her eyes.

“You kissed, its written all over your face. Anyway, Nate had his eyes on you since he first saw you, and now you think he would totally change his mind after he finally kissed you? Of course he hasn’t!”  

       “Well I don’t know if-“

        “You two are more than friends?”

Jeez. She reads my face a lot.

        “”Yes. Yes you are.” She continued. “So I’m guessing you two haven’t seen each other since the big kiss?”

        “No, we haven’t.”

Deb seemed to be thinking about this, twirling her shiny hair in her fingers.

        “I’ll talk to him.”

Bad idea.   

      “Deb, no! That never works out in my favor!”

        “Oh common Liz! You know I’m the expert at relationships.”

        “Yes, you are. But not my relationships.”

Our conversation was cut short when Carol came out of the store holding her handbag in her left hand.         “We’re closing early. Who comes to a bookstore in the middle of the summer? She locked the doors and walked passed us to the parking lot.

        “Just let me figure all this out on my own.” I said.

        “”And I’ll be watching from my room.”    

                     ----------*-----------*-------

 

I didn’t see Nate that day, and to tell the truth I was kind of relieved I didn’t. I got more to thinking about it, and concluded it wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t regret it, but what if he did, on the other hand? I would find out soon, anyway, he was bound to show up somewhere. And he did as usual. I was playing with Gabby outside on the front steps and he walked up. My heart skipped a beat, and I felt my face heat up. That’s a first.         “Natie, where have you been?”

Gabby ran up to him and led him by the hand over to the steps to sit. I scooted over.

        “I’ve been here, where’ve you been?” He joked.

He rested his hand behind me on the step. Was it around me, or just resting there, my face got brighter, and I straightened my back.

        “Well you should come over to play. Liz is no fun.”  

       “You can play tic tac toe in the dirt for so long, Gabby.” She stuck her tongue out at me playfully. Now his arm was touching my back, and his hand was near my left.

Gabby seemed to notice, and she hatched onto his arm.

        “Natie, I wanna ask you something.” She said.

        “Go on.”

        “Will you-… will you marry me?”

I almost choked on nothing. This was just so damn cute. He seemed to think so too, because he started to laugh.

        “Aren’t you a bit too young?” He asked.

I couldn’t help it, I was laughing almost to tears.

        “Not when you’re in love!”

She said in her squeaky little voice. I was wiping the tears from my eyes.  

       “What’s so funny Liz?” Gabby said crossly. She did not think this was funny.

Nate was kind of laughing too; Gabby hates when people laugh at her, even when it is because she’s adorable. She stood up and stomped away. Oh, jeez.

        “Gabby, wait!” I got up, so did Nate, and we walked into the house, where we saw Gabby laying face down on the couch. I tickled her stomach.

        “No! I’m mad at you!” She said through the couch pillow. Nate sat criss cross next to me.

        “Why are you mad at me?” She wiped her eyes and put her head back down.

        “You stole him! You stole Natie from me, and I love him!”

Okay, time to get real with her.

        “First of all Gabby, I didn’t steal anything from you. And second of all, your not in love with Nate, your only five years old.” She sat up now, her face all red.  

       “How would you know Liz? I love him!”

She got up and ran over to the kitchen. Nate didn’t follow me this time, but stood up.

        “Gabby, you’ll fall in love when you’re older, but your five!” I couldn’t help but smiling when I said this, it was just very funny. Like that episode of Full House when Michelle asked Steve to marry her, only to find out he was joking. Ouch. Way to kill a little girls dream.  

       “You’re only saying that because you’re in love with Natie!” You want him to yourself!”

Who is she, Deb? I was going to respond with who knows what, when my mom came storming down the stairs.

        “Alright, what’s going on here?”

        I laughed a little since the situation was hilarious. Gabby was serious about it though, which made it funnier. I couldn’t help it.

        “It’s not funny, Liz!” Gabby started.

I covered my mouth and looked to Nate for help of my laughter, but he was trying to hold back too.  

       “So?” My mother asked again.

        “They’re making fun of me!” She pouted.

        “For the record, were not, she’s just cute.” I said.

Mom looked over to Nate.   

      “It’s true.” He said back.

        “He wont marry me…” Gabby cried.

Mom smiled and looked at me like she understood why I was laughing.

        “Alright Gabby…” She started. She was going to continue, but she gave us the leave look.

I headed upstairs and so did Nate. I kind of felt weird, because he hasn’t ever been up here before. I opened my door to my room, which took my whole side to crash open because the door was a bit too big and the paint was sticky.

        “I’m sorry about Gabby…” I laughed. “ She gets pretty attached.”   

      “I kinda feel bad though, for laughing.” I opened the screen in the ceiling to let some air in.

        “Oh, she’ll be okay. She doesn’t like to get disappointed, but my mom puts it in a way that babies her. I hate it. I sat on the edge of my bed.  

       “Why do you hate it?”

        “Because Gabby should just know the raw truth, not candied vegetables.” He laughed more. “Well, that’s an interesting way to put it.” There was a little pause where I pulled my hair out of my face.  

       “But I guess I have been ‘staling her time with me’ as she puts it.” He said.  

       “Oh, please. You have no obligation to her.”  

       “I guess your right.” I knew it was time to stop talking about Gabby, and on to other things.

        “What are you doing tomorrow?” He said finally.

When am I ever really doing something?  

       “Nothing.” He put his hands in his pockets “Come out with me tomorrow. Just around town.”

        “Yeah.”

I didn’t take the time to think about weather or not I wanted to go with him, I just did. He seemed pleased by the fact I answered him so quickly without second thoughts and smiled.  

       “Maybe things are calm downstairs?” I said. I walked passed him, and to the stairs where I listened. It sounded normal, the TV was on and there was the sound of a bag of chips being riffled through. I signaled to Nate to go downstairs again. Gabby was no the couch watching that show Suite Life of Zach and Cody and my mom was reading a book on the chair. She saw me, and nodded that everything was okay. Nate and I sat down at the couch next to Gabby, who acted though it was all okay. I just then noticed… something was missing here.

        “Mom, where’s Mitch?” I haven’t seen him all day.

        “He’s out with your father.” She said without looking up. Mitch out with dad? Did mom force it or did they actually want to? I didn’t ask her this, but Gabby gave me a weird stare too.

        “Well, I just hope neither of them come back dead.” Gabby giggles her head off and Nate gave a short laugh.   

      “You can’t think your brother and father can last twelve hours together?” Mom snapped.

        “I didn’t say that...they can’t last five!”

She shut her book with a thud and laughed her way upstairs.  

       “Gabby do we seriously have to watch this?” I bothered, and grabbed for the clicker.  

       “I was here first, Liz!”

I ruffled her hair and got up. I looked at the two of them, Gabby and Nate, sitting on the couch together watching the stupid slapstick. I walked over to Nate and whispered in his ear, “You know, you two would make an adorable couple.”

Reviews

[Jenn Gold]

Well, in the last chapter especially I realized that this is kind of deep. Liz really has some personal issues and isn't just a fluffly character. She has learned from her mistakes and is trying to be careful, and when one guy shows an interest she doesn't jump into his arms at the first chance. She's smart. I like that.

But I do have to say I don't think the language is at all neccessary, but I guess it's your conviction.

Now, my only other question is: Is this the end or have you just not finished it? Because if this is the end I'm going to be pretty upset.

[Nova]

Awesome chapter 5,6, and 7 were great!!