Don't Say A Word.
One -
Once you started, it was hard for you to not stare at Mitchie Torres. The way her chin clefted inwards, yet the little incidental disappeared when she showed off her bright, pearly smile, the way her eyes lit up when she caught sight of her friends, her throaty, beautiful singing voice, her confidence and ease in her life, the way how she always smelt faintly of vanilla, the way she manages to make you squirm with just one gentle smile. She's your best friend, and yet you're in love with her. The little things you notice, the only things someone like you would. She's everyone you could ever hope for, and yet even though you're the only guy on the planet who'd ever notice her, you could never be with her.
"Natie?" her voice breaks through your thoughts and you blink repeatedly, eyes focusing in on the worried, perfect face in front of you. "You okay?" Momentarily, you resist the urge to just lean forwards and kiss her, close the gap between you, the few inches between friends and almost lovers. You blink again.
"Uh .. yeah, got distracted," you manage to choke out, blushing and bobbing your head down, her thick, curly hair covering up your reddening face, and you gulp back your Diet Coke, praying that you would choke and just die right there.
"Like always," Caitlyn chirps, and you hear her sweet laugh, mixed with Andy and Jason's chortles and a snort from Lola.
"Shut up," you narrow your eyes at the girl sitting next to you, and fiddle around with your fingers, feeling suddenly very hot inside your jumper.
"So, we all good for tonight?" Mitchie asks, creating a murmur around her. Caitlyn nodded, finally breaking her gaze from you, though you don't even notice she has been staring at you for the past two minutes. Jason sighs.
"What's up, dude?" you ask, surprising yourself at sounding so natural.
"Shane and me were gonna go see Transformers after school."
Mitchie's laugh pealed out, and she grinned knowingly at you. "Transformers, seriously?"
"Uh, Megan Fox," you point out, at ease with teasing her. "Duh!"
"Uh, Shia Labeouf!" she kicks you under the table and you throw her a glare, taken in by her perfection. "Duh!"
"Ugh, him? Really? I'm way hotter, Mitch," you gloat, a smug look on your face.
"Oh yeah, you and your famous three-man band that everyone knows about," Mitchie rolls her eyes.
"Hey! We're playing school prom this year – don't mock us," you put a hand to your chest, mock-wounded.
"Aw, Natie, you know I love you, really," she smirks at you, pulling away from the lunch table, and offering out her hand. "Walk with me?" You nod without even registering her offer, but Jason puts a hand on your shoulder, glaring, you try to send him telepathic messages, saying, 'Dude, this could be my chance!'
"Nate's gonna walk with me," he says, raising an eyebrow at you. Mitchie pouts and blows you a kiss which makes you even redder. "Dude, you look like you're fucking sunburnt," Jason mutters in your ear.
Reluctantly you walk away from the table, trying your hardest not to turn back and check that Andy hadn't jumped the wagon to walk Mitchie to Chemistry, her next lesson, the only lesson you're not in with her. But the only lesson he was in. Stupid Shane.
"What?" you glare at him.
"Dude, just ask her out!" he nudges you and you sigh.
"We've been through this, genius. She's .. so .."
"Beautiful, perfect, ya-da, ya-da! I get it. She probably likes you too, but you wouldn't know, would you?"
You duck your head, ignoring him.
"Nate, c'mon. You'd better find out soon, and let Caitlyn know too."
"Why Caitlyn?" you ask, incredulous. Caitlyn has to be the only girl that gets on your nerves.
Jason rolls his eyes. "See you in Home Room."
- - -
It's hard to get to Mitchie after Chemistry, you note as you run through the halls. She's always surrounded by her 'posse' that doesn't include well, you. It's her girls-only posse, the popular posse. And Mitchie is head of them all. There's a glimpse of Caitlyn walking out, rolling her eyes at them and heading over to Lola, and you stand on your tiptoes, trying to see who was talking to Mitchie.
But of course.
"Shane," you mutter through gritted teeth. He may be your best friend, but his intentions towards your best friend were sickening.
You walk forward with more speed, more purpose this time, and elbow Sandie Greyson and Em Stanford out of the way, ignoring how they pout at you and try and grab at you. For some reason, you're popular at this school.
"Natie!" they call after you, and then you have to turn and give them a winning smile.
"Hey," you say, trudging back, glancing over at Mitchie with a quickening heart-beat. You hate it when anyone that isn't Mitchie calls you Natie.
"I wouldn't go over there," Sandie points out, gesturing to Mitchie and Shane.
"He's asking her out," Em continues.
Your face goes red. "What?" you shout, anger and disgust evident in your eyes and voice. Sandie grimaces.
"He's been flirting with her all Chem," she says with a sigh, obviously wishing he'd been flirting with her.
"Bastard," you mutter under your breath.
"Anyway, Nate," Em giggles, playing with one of your curls – something you also hate unless it's Mitchie. "A bunch of us are going out tonight, we'd love it if you could come."
You pause, getting more annoyed by the second. How Mitchie could hang around these girls, he'd never know. "Ah, can't. Mitch and - "
"From the looks of it, Natie, her schedule's pretty booked," Sandie cuts in, and Em gives you a glance. It's pretty obvious to the rest of the world sans Mitchie herself that you're totally in love with her.
"Uh, yeah. I'll text you or something," you start to edge away, but Em grabs you and plants a kiss on your cheek.
"Cheer up, emo," she teases and you attempt to smile, but your anger is too evident.
You stride towards Mitchie and Shane, and cough impatiently. Mitchie gives you 'the look', and your heart sinks.
It's the look she gives you whenever she doesn't want you around. The look is rare, but it still stings. You start to walk backwards, obey her wishes, but your anger is fueling your sudden adrenaline.
"Shane."
He turns and flashes you a 'Shane' smile. "Hey, Natie. What's up?"
You grit your teeth. Other girls calling you Natie is horrible enough. Shane mocking you about it is just torture.
"Nothing much," you say and Mitchie frowns at you.
An awkward silence ensues. You fuming, Mitchie annoyed and Shane confused.
"I'll .. call you?" Shane backs away and Mitchie's eyes sink.
"Actually, she's gonna be busy tonight," you butt in. Mitchie gives another look. "And tomorrow. And .. all of this week."
Shane gives you a mocking thumbs-up and walks away, faster than before. Mitchie's groan is loud.
"What the fuck, Nate!?"
"What?" you shrug defensively.
"There's one thing called jealousy, but this – you – are insane! I want to go out with Shane, Nate. Couldn't you get that?"
"No, but, I --"
"Forget it."
She opens her locker and stuffs in a few books and takes a long hard look at the picture of you and her last year at prom when you both didn't have dates – at least, you declined every girl in the year. She sighs.
"What's up with you, Natie?" she tucks a piece of your hair behind your ear.
"Nothing, nothing," you mumble, staring at the ground.
"I don't think I'm gonna come over tonight -"
You open your mouth in immediate protest but she puts a finger on your lips.
"Listen, I wanna work things out with Shane. I know we went out before and he hurt me -"
"Mitchie, he fucking cheated on you with some whore he didn't even know! You don't need a guy like that. You deserve better! Someone like, someone like -"
She cuts you off again, her eyes hiding tears. You suck in a breath.
"You've always been there to protect me and I love you for that, but I have my own life, and you have yours."
"Mitchie, anyone," you say, lamely. "Anyone but him."
She pauses. "I love him, Nate. As ridiculous as it is, I want to be with him for some irrelevant, fucked up reason and … oh, you wouldn't understand."
She wraps her arms around your waist, burying her face in your chest and sighs. "I'll call you."
- - -
It's exactly seven forty-seven when she finally calls. She's in a good mood, and just by hearing her voice, you are too.
"Hey Natie," she coos. You look through your window, over to her house, right next to yours, but her curtain is closed. A second later however, her face peeks around the corner of the material and she grins as she spots you. She pushes her curtain back and opens her window, as you do the same.
"Hey," you smile at her. She's wearing that t-shirt that she got when you took her to see Metallica for her birthday last year.
"Can I come over?" she smiles and you nod. The gap between your houses is less than a metre wide but you still freak out whenever she cross the distance by swinging her legs over and sliding over your window ledge. You catch her before she lands on your computer desk and she laughs hysterically into your chest before you lay her down on your bed and sit with her encircled in your arms.
"Ew, I don't want to sit her. Do you like, wank over me here?" she teases, giggling louder now.
"Well …" you raise your eyebrows suggestively and she laughs loudly again.
"Nate?" your mom calls up and you beg for Mitchie to stop laughing. She's opening the door before Mitchie could dive under the bed and Mitchie only laughs harder as your mom opens the door and pokes her head in.
"Oh, hey Mitchie. Come by window? I didn't hear the doorbell."
"Yeah, pretty much," you reply, subtly tickling Mitchie in the crook of her neck, which only makes her laugh harder.
"No funny business guys. Your father and I are negotiating chocolate cakes for Benny's wedding."
Mitchie mock-saluted, which gave you the opportunity to tickle her under the arm and she laughed again, and your mom smiles affectionately at the two of you.
"Well, if you need anything -"
"Mom."
"I know, I know. I'll go now."
You sigh, content, as you lay back on the pillows, Mitchie still against your chest. It's a good minute before she leans with her elbows against your rib-cage and stares into your face.
"What did she mean by funny business?" she asks, chewing her lip. You roll your eyes.
"You know."
"Uhh, no I don't," she smirking now.
"Are you drunk?" you mock-frown at her, though your heart is racing.
"No," she blinks at you, still holding her innocent façade. "So what did she mean?"
Sighing, you flip her over so now she's lying against the bed and you next to her.
"Well, we're teenagers," you begin, sticking on a creepy German accent, "teenagers like to …"
"Fuck each other!" Mitchie chirps suddenly and you laugh before she's kissing you roughly and you open your eyes wide in confusion.
"Mitchie," you push her off and she looks at you in confusion.
"I thought this was what you wanted, Nate."
"N-not like .. th-this," you stammer, blushing a furious red and sitting up.
"Mitchie, you know I'll always l-lo -"
"Stop it, Nate. Please," her voice is thick. You get up and edge the window open again, but she shakes her head. "Can I .. stay here?"
You hesitate, but you know you can't leave her like this. "Sure," you mumble, still furious with yourself for almost telling her those three words which had always hung between you but never actually been spoken aloud, at least in sincerity.
You pull your shirt off without looking at her and try not to glance behind as you hear her pull her own jumper off and jeans. You quickly change into your black sweats and sit on the bed, your bare chest feeling colder than ever and avoid her gaze as you pull back the cover and gesture for her to climb in. Awkwardly climbing in after her, you switch off your bedside lamp, your clock clearly reading out eight in the evening. You almost laugh at the stupidly early time to sleep.
"Nate?"
You don't reply.
"I love you too," she whispers into your naked shoulder and wraps her arms around your waist.
You don't say a word.
- - -
Yay, I finished! This took a long time to write, for some reason. I love writing from Nate's perspective. I know that the Nitchie ship is .. unshipped, but it's more like a Nate/Mitchie/Shane love-triangle, so don't be alarmed Mitchie shippers. Yeah, Naitlyn freaks me out, I dislike Alyson Stoner, so yeah. It won't always be in Nate's POV, it'll switch between him and Mitchie, but I think I'll die trying to write Shane, so I won't go there unless you all give me cookies. Anywhoo, if you like, review and ya-da. Love, love, love.