Chapter Text
When you woke up Saturday morning, you were quite exhausted, and your phone was vibrating harshly against the nightstand. Your brows knitted together and you scrunched your nose, lazily rubbing the sleep from your eyes. You stared at the ceiling for a moment with heavy lids, groaning as your phone buzzed once more. You finally slapped a hand down onto your nightstand, patting around a bit until you found where you'd placed it last night, yanking out the charging cable as you brought it to your face.
A text from an unknown number?
UNKNOWN NUMBER: hey
UNKNOWN NUMBER: u got ur bag packed?
Huh? My– Oh. How the fuck did he get my number?
YOU: you seriously still wanna do that??
NATHAN: i told u i would
YOU: i can't just run off
NATHAN: why
YOU: i'm not made of money
YOU: all my stuff is here and an expensive tuition that's being paid just to attend this school
NATHAN: i cant do anythng abt the tuition but i could pay for ur stuff to be packed and sent home
YOU: yeah no. can't do that
NATHAN: hold on
YOU: alright
You rolled your eyes and hauled yourself out of bed, shuffling over to your cube shelves and pulling out one of the bins, grabbing a granola bar. You had just opened it and started taking a bite when there was a knock at your door. Your brows furrowed, and you held the granola bar in your mouth for a second as you quickly made sure you didn't have a major case of bedhead with a glance in the mirror before you went and opened it, surprised by Nathan on the other side.
“What the hell are you doing here?” You questioned.
“Cute pajamas.” He commented, and you looked down, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious about the oversized Hawt Dawg Man shirt and fuzzy pajama pants you had on.
“Shut up.” You huffed.
“Let me in. I don’t wanna be seen out here.”
“Wow, you’re really winning me over on running away with you.” You muttered as you stepped aside. You shut the door behind him once he got inside and stared at him, waiting for some kind of explanation.
He turned around and stared at you for a moment before harshly saying, “What?”
“Why are you here?” You repeated.
“I was getting annoyed with texting about this shit.”
So your next best option was coming up here instead of calling me or something? Was the first thought on your mind, but you kept it to yourself. You really didn’t want to fight with Nathan, especially not in your own room when you’ve seen him throw things while angry.
“Okay, then talk.”
“So, are you coming with?” He asked.
“I already told you I couldn’t. My family isn’t made of money like yours. I can’t just run off. I’m stuck here until I graduate, and then I go back home.”
“Then why’d you suggest it last night?” He scoffed.
“It was more of a joke than anything.”
Nathan rolled his eyes. "Everybody in this school just likes to lie to me, huh?"
"I never lied to you, Nathan. I just made a dumb joke when you were drunk because I didn't think you'd remember it. You were absolutely plastered last night."
"Yeah, well, I did remember it, and I–" He cut himself off, his nose crinkling. "What the fuck ever. You can stay here in this stupid school in this shitty town then."
"Nathan–"
"Screw you." He spat out, storming out of your room and slamming the door behind him. You were left standing there, staring at your door, utterly confused at what had so quickly transpired.
It had been about two weeks since then. For going so long in this school without having once dealt with Nathan Prescott, you were dealing with him every single day, multiple times a day now. He was constantly glaring at you. In passing in the hallway, outside, in Jefferson's class where it felt like he was always boring holes through you in your peripheral. It didn't end there. If you were walking past each other in the hallway, he would almost always shoulder-check you, unless he had other shit he was mulling over that wasn't that you wouldn't run off with him. It got to the point that Victoria was now on your ass sometimes, though you knew she had no idea what Nathan had against you so suddenly.
The one time in Jefferson's class before it started, Victoria was there chatting with Nathan, and you saw her try to urge him to go over with her to give you shit, a big grin on her face, only to quickly deflate when he shot her down. That's when you officially knew she didn't know. Even with Victoria being his closest friend, he still wanted to keep this situation between you and him.
You couldn't even bring yourself to care about her shit most of the time since it was so half-hearted with her not having any info on why she was supposed to dislike you specifically. It was starting to piss her off enough that she was personally beginning to have an issue with you, but again, it was the least of your concerns when you had the ticking time bomb still seething over you.
Your classes were done for the day, and today, you just about had it with him after he bumped you so hard that he knocked your books from your arms, sending them sliding down the hallway. It was seriously turning into Degrassi—no, a Disney Channel Original Movie with the bullshit he was pulling. Once you were out in the quad, you spotted him sitting all by himself at a picnic table, doing his signature angsty teenage brooding crap. You immediately beelined for him, locked on like you were the Terminator and he was John Connor.
"Are you seriously still sulking about this crap?" You harshly questioned as you came to a stop in front of him.
He looked up from his phone, and boy, if looks could kill. "Don't talk to me."
"No, I'm talking to you, Nathan. I'm done with your shit."
"I don't need to be seen talking to you." He reiterated.
"Get off your fucking throne. We're talking. Whether you like it or not."
"Jesus fucking Christ, can we at least just talk somewhere else?" Nathan let out a heavy sigh as he threw his head back.
"Fine."
"Meet me at the beach."
Your face scrunched up. "The beach? Why can't we just talk in one of our rooms?"
"People are awake. I don't need them to see us entering one together."
"Whatever, sure, I'll meet you at the beach." You rolled your eyes, storming off toward the parking lot. You got into your shitty, old car and threw your backpack on the passenger seat, just sitting there, clutching the steering wheel for a second before you shoved your keys into the ignition and headed for the beach. You drove in silence, not really even thinking at all, until you got there and got out. You walked down to the shore, stuffing your hands into your coat pockets as the wind whipped, sending a shiver down your spine. Winter was done for, and spring had begun, but it was still quite chilly on the beach here in Oregon.
God, you didn't even give this all an ounce of thought before you came down here. Nathan could've just said what he said to get you to leave him alone and make a fool of yourself simultaneously. Now you were on the beach waiting for nothing probably. You kicked at the sand with a heavy sigh. You were an idiot.
"Hey." You jumped hard at the voice directly behind you, practically breaking your neck as you quickly looked to see Nathan walking up to the spot beside you, staring out at the ocean. You turned your attention back to the vast blue waves, chewing on your cheek as you tried to fight down the utter embarrassment that made your entire body feel like it was on fire.
"Hi." You murmured.
"So what do you want?" He sharply questioned.
"For you to stop treating me like shit. Glaring at me and ramming into me in the hallways. 'Cause it's not like we're even friends or were friends. Why are you so pissed? Why are you trying to make my life a living hell? All because I can't run off with you?"
"Because you're nice, okay?" He gritted, turning to look at you with narrowed eyes. "You were nice to me and helped me out when I was shit-faced. You listened to me ramble about a bunch of meaningless bullshit that I can barely remember. No one else would've helped me. Not even Vortex Club members. So why wouldn't I be pissed that the one person who seems to care about me, just a little bit, doesn't want to run off like they said?"
"You wanna run away with me, but you act like it's a fucking crime to even be seen talking to me or to be in each other's room." You snapped. "We run off somewhere and what? We have to walk six feet apart, can't talk to each other, can't look at each other, god forbid some stranger thinks we might know each other in some way, shape, or form?"
"I don't want to be seen talking to you because I don't need my friends to try being friends with you, or your stupid, little friends giving you shit on my behalf."
Your face scrunched up, brows knitting together. "What?"
"I don't need people ruining you for me," He replied, knocking the fight out of you completely. You just stared at him with wide eyes, absently blinking. "Your friends will give you shit for talking to me and chase you away from me. My friends… My friends are shit, and they'll run you off on just their personalities alone. Either way, they'll all ruin the only person who cares. I'm keeping you at a distance so I can still come to you if I need you because I know you'll allow it. You're kind, so you're probably enough of a pushover that you'll listen to my shit even if I treat you horribly every day."
"I'm not a pushover." You spat.
"I told you to meet me at the beach, and you did," Nathan commented.
You crossed your arms tight over your chest as you looked back out to the ocean, grinding your teeth. "Well… I don't care. Stop treating me like shit. You could've just gone back to me not existing in your life."
"Where's the fun in that?" You shot a quick glare at him, and his gaze was still locked onto the side of your face. "Is there really not some way to convince you to ditch this god-awful town?"
"You're really still on that? I told you, I can't just do that. I'm not as privileged as you to just drop everything my senior year while attending a school like this."
"But I'm offering to pay for everything for you once we're gone. I'm eighteen. I have access to my trust fund."
"And as nice as that sounds, Nathan, I worked my ass off to go to school here, and I need to go to college after this. Dropping out of such a great school during my senior year would look horrible to schools. And even though I have a partial scholarship to Blackwell, my parents still had to take out a big loan for me to do this. They would kill me if I up and left. Sure, Blackwell sucks in ways I could've never imagined before I came here, but it doesn't suck that bad for me to fuck over myself and my parents." You rambled.
"Come on." He said so quietly that it surprised you.
"Don't do that. You'll make a fool out of yourself if you start begging and pleading."
"I don't beg." He quickly shot back with a disgusted look on his face.
"Good, because it won't get you anywhere."
Silence grew between you two, filled only by the waves and seagulls. The silence wasn't really awkward per se, but the air between the two of you definitely felt tense, almost weird. This conversation definitely felt different compared to that Friday night. It wasn't as easy. Part of you wondered if you were wasting your time trying to talk with him, if there was even a point to this. Maybe he was just the entitled asshole everyone always said he was, considering the fact that he thought he could just stake his claim on you to be his personal therapist or something, all while treating you like shit.
"Spring break starts soon." Nathan broke you out of your thoughts.
"It does…" You trailed off, looking over at him. "Why are you bringing that up?" Nathan stayed quiet, and you could see him struggling to say what he wanted to. "Do I need to get you drunk for you to be able to speak openly to me again?" You weakly joked, and he scoffed, but you could hear the hint of a laugh in it.
"Do you wanna go off on a road trip or some dumb shit for the week?" He asked.
"Are you gonna kidnap me and force me to run off with you if I do?"
He shrugged. "Chances aren't zero."
"Great. Good to know." You rolled your eyes.
"So, is that a yes?"
"Can I think on it?"
"I guess." He huffed. "But don't take too long."
"I won't." You reassured him, and you could see his face relax a bit. You didn't get to see anything else though as he turned on his heel and started walking away. "Oh… Well, bye." You called after him.
Nathan stopped and shot a look back at you over his shoulder, staring for a moment before he continued walking. "Bye."