Nate was furious when he saw Amelia holding the picture of him and Destiny. He didn’t like anyone to know about her, which is why he never let anyone go inside his room.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have come inside the room without your permission,” Amelia said, her eyes were full of regrets.
“I need you to leave, right now!” he said with his voice full of rage.
“Look, I said I was sorry, okay?” she insisted.
“I don’t want to fucking hear it. Just get the fuck out of my house.” Nate said heatedly.
“Okay, I get it,” Amelia said and ran downstairs. She didn’t understand what the big deal was. She had a feeling he was angrier about her looking at the picture than the fact that she was inside the room. She was curious to know why but she didn’t want to push him.
It took Nate a few minutes to calm down. He knew he overreacted a little bit, but she did cross the line by entering his room without his permission. He picked up the picture and looked at it. He should get rid of it, but he didn’t have the heart to do it. It has been almost a year since that day.
The next day at lunchtime, he grabbed a tray full of food and headed to his table.
“Hey Nate,” he looked up and saw Amelia standing in front of him.
“What do you want?” Nate said.
“Just want to talk,” she said quietly.
“Look, I am okay with working with you on the project, but that’s it,” Nate said, scowling.
“I don’t know what your problem is. I admit I was wrong for entering your room without permission, but you don’t have to treat me like dirt. I am only trying to be your friend, and you keep pushing me away,” her eyes were dark with sadness.
“And I told you I don’t need a friend. Especially not you,” Nate said bluntly.
Amelia came closer to him and touched his hand. “Why not? What happened to you? Did she break your heart that badly? Please tell me. I can help.” Amelia wasn’t willing to give up on him just yet. For some reason, she felt drawn to him.
Nate hesitated for a moment, and his eyes softened for a split second. But then he shook his head and smacked her hand away from his, making her flinch.
“You know how you can help? By leaving me the fuck alone. You are loud, aggravating, and obnoxious, and I cannot stand you,” Nate said cruelly. “So why don’t you find some loser that is crazy enough to like you?” he hissed.
Sadness enveloped her face. “I’m sorry you feel that way,” she said quietly. “I’ll leave you alone if that you really want.” With that, she walked away from the table.
The next day, Nate saw Amelia in class but avoided her gaze.
“Alright, everyone, it is almost time to finish the project. We will be presenting tomorrow,” Ms. Webb said.
Shit, the project, Nate thought. He looked at Amelia, who was writing something on a piece of paper. She passed the paper to him quietly.
“Don’t worry about the project, I’ll finish it tonight and bring it in,” the note said.
Great, he thought. He didn’t want to spend any more time with her.
He did feel kind of bad for telling her off. He could’ve handled it a lot better, but sometimes he can’t control his anger.
After school, he went home and plopped down on his bed. He received a text from his father.
“We are having dinner next week on Friday night. I expect you to be there.” his text said.
Typical Dad, always making demands. Nate would rather do anything else in the world than go to this dinner, but he didn’t have any choice. His dad wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Amelia’s face kept popping up in his mind. He couldn’t stop thinking about the sadness in her usual cheerful eyes when he told her off. He shouldn’t have been so harsh. He knew she was only trying to be nice to him. In fact, she was the only person who was nice to him and genuinely wanted to be his friend. He knew he tends to self-sabotage every time someone got too close to him. He was still too afraid to let people in.
Amelia was thinking about Nate too. She usually didn’t let people get to her, but his harsh words hurt her feelings this time. She didn’t know why she felt a certain pull toward him. All she knew that she liked him. A lot. But he made it clear that she was a nuisance.
Maybe I will leave him alone, she thought. She started to put the final touches on their project. After the presentation is done, she won’t speak to him again.
The next day, everyone in the class was preparing for their presentation. Amelia came in early and started to get ready. Nate walked in a few minutes later.
“Hey,” he said and avoided her gaze. He didn’t have his usual scowl on his face. It was replaced by sadness. Did he feel bad about what he said to her? she thought. She immediately rejected the idea since Nate didn’t seem like the type who felt bad about anything.
“Hi, so I finished the sculpture. Take a look and see what you think,” she said and took the cover off.
Nate looked at it in amazement. It was an extremely realistic looking Pink Lily. The details were so precise that they looked real at first glance.
“Wow!” he said before he could stop himself. “That looks really cool.”
“Thank you. I hope we get an A on it,” Amelia said seriously.
Pretty soon, it was their turn to present. Everyone in the class, including Ms. Webb, gasped when they saw her sculpture with admiration in their eyes.
They took a seat after the presentation. Nate turned around and looked at Amelia.
“That went pretty well, huh?” he said awkwardly.
“Yeah…” That’s all she said.
I guess she is still upset about the things I said to her, he thought. Good. Maybe she will finally leave me alone now.
Nate started to eat his lunch and expected Amelia to interrupt him and annoy him, but she didn’t sit at his table this time. Does that mean he is finally rid of her?He saw her walk in, and she went straight to another table with some other kids. He should feel relieved as she ignored him instead of aggravating him, but he couldn’t help feeling slightly lonely. It was too quiet as she wasn’t sitting near him talking his ears off, and he didn’t know how to feel about it anymore.It was the same way the next day. Amelia avoided him all day then sat somewhere else during lunch. Nate’s life was back to how it used to be. She finally left him alone. But he didn’t feel as happy as he thought he would be.He tried to force himself to stop thinking about her all day, but he couldn’t. What was wrong with him?On day three, he saw her standing by her locker
Nate lightly knocked on the door.“Hold on!” Amelia said from the other side, so he waited quietly.The door opened, and there stood Amelia. She was wearing a cropped t-shirt with a pair of Victoria’s Secret shorts. Her hair was messy like she had been lying down for a while.She looks adorable. The thought flashed in his mind before he could stop it.Her eyes turned huge with surprise when she saw him standing there.“Nate? What are you doing here?” she asked.He didn’t know what to say at first and stared at her. He was just about to open his mouth to say something but stopped when her facial expression suddenly changed.Her face turned pale. She grabbed the side of her stomach, and her facial expression contorted as if she was in pain. She looked like she was struggling to stay o
“Alex? What the fuck do you want?” Nate barked.Alexander Wolf, his twin brother, was standing in front of him with a sickening grin on his face. Nate’s old intense hatred for him resurfaced upon seeing him, and rage boiled inside him.“Last time I checked, this is my house too,” Alex said. He was used to Nate’s rude behavior and was not swayed by it one bit.“Just answer my goddamn question,” Nate said.“Relax, bro, I just came here to visit dad. Is this any way to treat your brother?” Alex raised his eyebrows.“You are not my brother. I denounced you for what you did,” Nate glared at him.“I’m afraid that’s not how it works. I’m still your twin brother. And come on! It has been a year already, so just let it go! I miss how close we used to be.&r
“Sorry I’m late,” Alex said and sat down beside Jessica.“Whoa! I didn’t realize there were two of you, Nate!” Amelia exclaimed.Alex chuckled. “Hi, I’m Alex. Nate’s twin.”Wow, Amelia thought. They looked exactly alike yet different somehow. Nate had a dark shadow over his face and always looked depressed, but Alex gave out a completely different vibe. He was more cheerful and had a certain spark in his eyes.I want Nate’s eyes to glow with happiness too…, she thought suddenly.Another difference she noticed in Alex’s face was that it was missing a tiny scar on his forehead.She noticed Nate was avoiding looking at Alex the entire time. Aren’t twins supposed to be close? Their attitude towards each other was more like a distant relative than a brother.
“What do you mean you have a date?” Nate typed on his laptop.It was Saturday afternoon. Nate was playing an online game, then suddenly, his Facebook messenger dinged, indicating someone sent him a message.Nate scoffed. He usually ignores every message, but something told him to check this one.“Hey, best friend! I found you on Facebook! Add me!” said the message from Amelia.Of course…she couldn’t leave her alone on the internet either. Nate smiled to himself. What an obnoxious and persistent girl!“Hey, what’s up?” he typed.“Oh, not much, just thinking about what to wear on my date. Any advice?” she replied.A date? Was Amelia seeing someone? Wait…of course, she can see anyone she wants. It’s not like they were boyfriend and girlfriend
“WHAT!” Amelia screamed and gripped Nate’s shirt.“What the hell….let go of me, psycho!” Nate cringed and tried to get out of Amelia’s death grip, but she was surprisingly strong for a skinny, hundred-pound girl.“I will let go of you once you tell me it isn’t true!” she groaned.Nate was having lunch with Amelia at the cafeteria. It has been a few more weeks since they became friends again. He didn’t mind being friends with her anymore and was actually getting used to hanging out with her. He still kept his distance from everyone else because he still hated people.“What’s the big deal?” he said and tried to take a bite out of his sandwich, but Amelia slapped it off of his hand.“Hey! The fuck…..” Nate glared at her, but she ignored it. It was as if she was immu
Nate grumpily got ready for the weekend trip. He had no desire to go hang out with a bunch of stupid high school kids. Why the hell did he agree to this again?Oh yeah, that’s right. The words slipped right out of his mouth when he heard Ryan coming along to the trip. He was just trying to be a good friend. He couldn’t possibly let her be alone with a boy in some remote cabin even though she is dating that boy.Pfft…dating, he thought. Such a pointless thing. It’s not like Nate never craved a company of a woman before. But when he did, he simply made a booty call to the girls who were desperate and called it a night. He had no desire to date anyone.He went to pick up Amelia. She was waiting for him by the door. She smiled brightly as she saw him coming. His heart did a little flip when he saw her smile, but he didn’t smile back.“So tell me again, why
“Can I help you?” Nate asked gruffly.“You like her, don’t you?” Alex asked.“Who, Amanda? No, not really,” Nate replied. “Why is everyone keep asking me about that?”“I was talking about Amelia. I saw the way you were looking at her when she was snuggling with Ryan,” Alex said and smirked. “You looked jealous. And don’t try to deny it because I know what you look like when you are jealous.”“I bet you do, asshole. What’s it to you anyway? And why are you talking to me?” Nate retorted.“Oh, come on! How long are you going to keep up this act, brother? You can’t stay mad at me forever. Why can’t we go back to the way we were?” Alex pouted.“That’s where you are wrong, ‘brother,’ you took somethi