~*~ Liz's name has been changed to Amber.


Why I hate dresses…

I'm going to die. This is how it's going to end. Amber~*~ will hunt me down and bomb me with hundreds of questions and I'll drown in them.

"Natalie."

She jumped, "what?"

Michael frowned at her lack of concentration, "are you done with that problem yet?"

"Erm, right. Just give me a minute." The truth is, she hasn't even start yet.

His relentless eyes stared at her with more concentration than she was capable of summoning, making her all the more twitchy. She decided this is as good a time as any. "Michael?" She was almost hoping for another phone call to interrupt her. Nope, apparently wishful thinking never work.

"Mhm?" He flipped through a page in the book as an excuse to do something.

"You're not going to tell anyone, are you?"

He looked up and Natalie couldn't help but notice his brilliant blue eyes. "Tell anyone what?"

"You know," she shifted, "that you're tutoring me?"

He cocked his head to the side in curiosity. "You want to keep it a secret?'

"No, I don't care." She hesitated. "Well, yeah. I mean, if my parents knew I was being tutored, they'd pull me off the team."

"We wouldn't want that, would we?"

He received her best annoyed look, "no, 'we' wouldn't." She knew from the beginning he would not understand why she requested this of him, hence making it even harder to bring the topic into discussion in the first place.

He shrugged in response. "I haven't told anyone yet, have I?" Silence. It wasn't a good enough answer for her to be assured. He added to her satisfactory, "It's not interesting enough for me to discuss with other people."

"Good." At least she got what she wanted in the end, despite the ego hit.

"Is that it?" It was a voice that he used to express his disdain of everything not related to a burning need to learn. It was becoming easier and easier to read his emotions.

"Yeah."

Silence settled once more as she stared at the meaningless jumble of numbers before her.

"Natalie?"

"Mhm?" She bit her lip as she thought back to her talk with Mrs. Cullen about the additional payment. She knew that was going to bite her back sooner or later.

"About the…money." He felt her body coil with tension and he paused.

"What about it?"

"Are you…how are you going to pay?"

"Don't worry," she flipped a page in her book, "I'll get to it."

He shook his head and ran his hand through his hair, "it isn't that…"

Natalie gave in to her own guilt at putting him through this and looked up, meeting his frustration. "It isn't what?"

He looked at her, seeing something he never would have thought she was capable of. Sympathy. Oddly, this made it much harder for him.

She crossed her arms in an arrogant way, the previous emotion washed away with something that he couldn't quite describe. Suddenly, he was able to arrange his visage from the familiarity of her hostility. "I doubt your parents are going to pay you when you refuse to give them a reason."

Her eyes skipped to the kitchen counter, where the daily newspaper lay unopened. "I have it under control."

His eyes suddenly narrowed, "if you're going to lie to them about it…"

She looked appalled for a second. Scamming her parents was something she would never do but she didn't bother to explain that to Michael when he obviously hold no interest in her capability of self morals. "What if I lie?" she challenged, "You're just not going to take the money?" It would be a pretty good idea if it comes to that.

"No. I'd tell your parents."

Her heart skipped a beat but she refused to slip the mask off her face, "why is it so important to you?"

"I'm doing this for a reason."

"Yeah, for Mrs. Cullen's internship. What I don't understand is why your dad has to be so difficult with adding the extra payment."

"My dad isn't being difficult."

"Yes, he is. You already have your part of the deal. Why add more to it?"

"He has his reasons."

She clenched her fists, "you know the reason why I'm doing this."

"That doesn't mean you need to know why I'm doing this."

"Natalie? Who's this?"

Her head snapped open and she faced her mother standing by the doorway. Crap. "You're home already?"

"It's eleven-thirty."

Michael cursed under his breath. "Eleven-thirty? I have to go home."

Mrs. Johnson blocked the door swiftly despite her high heels. "What's going on? Who's this?" She looked expectantly at Natalie.

How is she going to explain this? She subconsciously scanned the table littered with books and notes sprawled throughout the area. "Um… this is Michael Krauss."

Michael shook her mother's hands then continued to shove stuff into his backpack, completely oblivious towards Natalie's fear.
"Were you two…studying?" Her mother was digging for information but the genuine skepticism couldn't be missed.

Michael looked up, "yes, I'm her…" He saw Natalie's expression and faltered without knowing why.

"Boyfriend!" she shouted and jumped to her feet. "Michael's my new boyfriend." Oh god.

His mouth dropped open and he gaped at her in disbelief. She knows she's going to pay for it later. Before he could blow her cover, she grabbed his arm and shot him her most pleading look. Please go along with this. She zipped his backpack and pushed it at him. "You have to go. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Natalie…" His voice seeped in venom.
"Tomorrow. I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for studying with me." She shoved him out the door and slammed it shut.

She leaned back for a moment when she realized her mother was still staring at her cynically. Natalie knew Ann could smell tutor dripping from every part of her desperate body.

"Boyfriend? Since when did you get a boyfriend?"

She blinked. She bought it? "Um…we just started dating." She crossed her fingers behind her.

"I'm not comfortable with the two of you being alone in the house. Un-chaperoned."

Natalie nearly choked on her laughter. As if anything would happen with Michael. I mean, "I understand."

"Why didn't you tell me he was coming over?"

Natalie sensed an ultimatum coming. Her mother was not done. What if she banned her from dating him? What is she going to do then? "He's a straight-A student," she blurted.

Ann blinked at her, taken aback with this sudden statement. She lifted her eyebrows, "And?"

"He's a major math geek." Her father is a physics professor at a local university and her mother once majored in accountancy. Their interests are the total opposite of what hers are. "He loves science, too. Did I mention straight A's?"

She could feel her mother relax at the thought of having the 'child they've never had', as Natalie usually called it. She continued to ramble, "He's not into sports. At all. He actually hates them. He's more about education and school."

Pulsing silence echoed through the house. Then, "why don't you invite him to dinner so we can get to know him better?"

Her mother was falling for it, but she isn't naïve. Natalie knows her mother; she needs proof before she's a believer. Natalie also knows Michael would never go along with it. Ever. "Um…"

Seeing her daughter's hesitation, Ann drew her line, "Dinner or no dating. I'm not going to allow you to have a boyfriend that I don't know and approve of."

"I'll…see what he says."

"Good." Her mother smiled, suddenly brightening in her mood, "we went shopping tonight and Lisa picked out this gorgeous dress for you."

Natalie sighed. She never wears dresses. She never did and she never will. She wonders when her mother stopped paying attention to that fact.

But dresses are the least of her worries. Amber is going to murder her tomorrow. Then, Michael will hunt her down and kill her again. Then his dad will murder some more. And if she's still alive long enough to actually wear a dress bought by her mother's one and only friend who probably has horrible taste like all the friends mothers make, she'll be the one of indebted suicide.

Dresses are such a waste of money when I don't even wear them. Sometimes, I wonder if my mother is mocking me on purpose.