Torment
Nathan, Audrey and Duke were all sitting at The Grey Gull. Today had been surprisingly quiet so they took the opportunity to just hang out and talk. Although Duke had never been really close to Nathan, they had become a little bit closer thanks to the presence of Audrey. They sat a small square table, Duke and Nathan across from each other and Audrey to the left of Duke, and the right of Nathan. They had just finished eating lunch and both Audrey and Duke ordered iced tea while Nathan ordered black coffee.
"You know Nathan, that conversation that we had about the thumb tacks brought back some other memories." Duke said in a menacing voice.
"Thumbtacks? What happened with thumbtacks?" Audrey asked.
"Nothing, it was just one of the many things that Duke and his friends used to torment me with."
"Well what happened?" Audrey asked, now curious about Nathan's past.
Nathan went into the details of the horrible events of the day that Duke tricked him into asking a girl out in fifth grade.
Duke was laughing, he loved hearing about that story from Nathan and he loved to watch all the little facial expressions he would make while reliving the story.
"Wow that's terrible, did he ever get in trouble for doing stuff like that?"
"No, I would never tell on him."
"Why not? You could have seriously been hurt."
"Yes, but I wasn't going to go and tell on him every five minutes. Back then, I tried not to waste any time on him."
Duke interrupted them, "Actually, I think he secretly cared so much for me, that he didn't want me in trouble."
"Yes, because I just cared so much I ignored all of the things you did to me."
"Do you remember the sleep over I had?"
"Oh please don't bring that up again."
"What? What happened?" Audrey asked, very interested.
"Should I tell her or do you want me to?" Duke asked Nathan.
"You can tell her. Remember, I wasn't awake for it."
"Oh yeah, that's how we were able to do all that to you."
"Come on and just tell me already." Audrey interrupted.
"Okay well it all happened at my party when I turned twelve and I was having a few guys stay over. And-"
"Wait," Audrey turned to Nathan. "You went over to his house to spend the night? Weren't you afraid that they would do something to you?"
"I knew they would, but my dad insisted that I should go, and make friends. I wasn't very social them." Nathan replied.
"Yes, and you are just such a social butterfly now. But back to the story, Nathan was unfortunately one of the first boys asleep so we all did as planned. We started by stripping him and putting him in a dress." He stopped to think about it and snickered a bit. "I was surprised he slept through that, he might not be able to feel anything but we were laughing out butts off. After we put him in the frilly pink dress, we 'barrowed' some of my mom's make-up and jewelry, and started to go to work with that. We put on powder, blush, eye shadow and of course, lipstick."
Nathan stopped him for a second. "They way it was put on was pretty professional, I think someone had plenty of practice."
"Shut up, I wasn't the one who did the make-up. I was busy shoving the ear rings into your ear." Audrey gasped, it reminded her of the time she had her ears pierced. Well at least she thought it was her memory. "They were dangly pearls and looked wonderful on you. We also put on a matching necklace and bracelet…yeah my mother was not too happy about us wasting her make-up and taking her jewelry."
"Well that isn't too bad, well except piercing your ears." Audrey said to Nathan.
"No not really, until they took pictures and showed everyone at school." Nathan said, looking down at his hands feeling a little uncomfortable talking about this in front of Audrey. He was embarrassed but he wouldn't let it show, he didn't want to give Duke any satisfaction in this.
"Wow, you were just do nice to him, weren't you?" Audrey said to Duke.
"Come on, it wasn't too bad. Come to think of it I think I still have that picture." Duke replied.
"Awe you must have treasured tormenting me." Nathan said sarcastically.
"No, I like to archive my achievements. I am sure Audrey would love to see the pictures. Wouldn't you Audrey? " Duke said, in a cocky tone.
"No, I am good. I don't want to trouble you."Audrey answered.
"It's no trouble" He grinned at her, "I love humiliating Nathan." He stood up. "I will be back in fifteen or so minutes." Then he left, leaving Audrey and Nathan alone. When Duke had been leaving, Nathan picked up a white rose from the little vase on the table. He twirled it over his lips, wishing that he could feel like had been able to for that short time, only days ago.
Audrey put her hand on his comfortingly. It shocked him a bit; he was still not use to being able to feel her. "Is it really tough for you?"
"What? Dealing with Duke? No." He knew what he was talking about but he liked to avoid the subject, especially with her. He didn't want to make it seem like he absolutely needed her and wanted her, so that he could feel, even though he did need her.
"Nathan," He loved how she said his names. If he could feel, he would butterflies in his stomach when she uttered his name. "You know what I am talking about."
He tried moving his had away from her, but she held on tighter, so he couldn't easily remove it. "I have had to live with it for a while; I have become more adapted to it."
"But you must still miss it."
"Of course I do, and I treasured the day I had it back."
"You could have kept it though."
"I know, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I took away that girls only opportunity to rid herself of her affliction."
Audrey took the rose from him and started to twirl it on her lips too. "It was really sweet of you to do that, I don't know if I would be able to live without feeling."
"Well as I said, I have adapted to it."
"But you can feel me, and -"
Her words were cut off by Duke. "I found it!" He exclaimed. Nathan quickly moved his hand out from under hers, but this time she did not resist. Duke handed the picture to Audrey.
She laughed a bit. "How funny, did you take any revenge out on Duke after that?" She asked Nathan.
"No, revenge was never really my thing." He said this distantly and distracted.
"That kind of lessened the fun, but we all still enjoyed tormenting you so much." Duke paused, trying to think of another thing he and his friends had done to Nathan. There were many. "There was this one time that Nathan had fallen asleep in class so since I was just a good friend I tried waking him up. So I poured water down the front of his pants. When he woke up I told everyone that he obviously had a wet dream. Everyone was laughing at him; I think that was in 10th grade." Before he had the chance to tell anymore stories his phone rand and he answered it. "Well I have to go, business calls." He stood up, threw down some money for his food and said "Bye Audrey, Pinocchio." Then left to go off and most likely smuggle something off.
"Pinocchio?" Audrey asked, very confused.
"It has to do with me not being able to feel and that I'm 'Not a real boy'. It was my nickname all through school."
"Kids are so nice aren't they?"
"Yeah, so did you have any wonderful nicknames as a kid?"
"No. Everyone did call me Prudence, though. They all knew that I hated my middle name."
"That's not that bad."
"Okay, well if you feel that way maybe I should call you Thaddeus from now on."
"Okay, Prudence." He made sure to keep his hands under the table so that she could not hold them again.
"Fine, I won't call you that."
There was an awkward silence for a while. Audrey broke it. "Nathan, you really don't need to avoid my touch."
"I know, but I don't want you to feel like you have to do touch me just because I can only feel you."
"I don't feel that way; I do it because I want to."
He got up. "I think it's time to go back to the station."
She stood up too. They paid and walked back to the car. She stopped him before he could get into the car. "Nathan, why do you always avoid talking about this, you need to open your ears and hear what I am saying. I don't hold your hand or peck you on the cheek for you, but for me." Well the cat was out of the bag now.
He looked at her a bit shocked, he always wanted her to feel that way but he thought it would never happen. He was about to say something when she kissed him, not on the cheek this time but on the lips.