Natalia met a cold blue eyed gaze, the gaze that had caused her so much trouble already, and somehow she couldn't get away from. He knew how and where to find her in her darkest moments. Although she wasn't spending much time anymore in the janitor's closet…
He stared at her expectantly, half expecting her to say no, half expecting her to say yes. Natalia thought for a moment, then got up and pulled open the passenger door and hopped in. Lukas didn't speak a word but started to drive off, very quickly and recklessly to the exit of the parking lot. It was some time before Natalia realized that he had no intention of taking her home, because he was crossing the final stoplight before merging onto the highway.
"Lukas," Natalia started. She didn't know exactly what to say to him, or where to begin, but the deafening silence was killing her. Lukas didn't reply, but rather waited for her to speak. She broke under his silence. "I have to know, are the rumors true?" she practically jumped out of her seat as she carelessly blurted out what she was feeling.
Lukas weighed his options, but Natalia mistook this for him not knowing what she was talking about. "It's about some girl being preg—" Lukas held up his hand to stop her.
"I know, and yes." Lukas confessed to her. Natalia put a hand over her mouth and looked out the window. She wasn't sure where they were going, but she didn't care.
"Why?" she whispered after she watched mile markers on the side of the road pass in a blur. Lukas said nothing, but sighed and shook his head. Natalia was fine with this answer, she didn't want his explanation, she needed to let it all sink in.
"Are you mad?" Lukas asked after a long pause. He changed lanes and turned right onto an exit.
Natalia shook her head, "I just don't know what to think," Lukas wanted to tell her that is wasn't at all like she thought it was, that he didn't even demand that girls he got pregnant got abortions, he was just caught up in some things. But he wondered if he could tell her at this moment, or if he even had the words to tell her. He decided that letting her hate him was the best decision. He drove over the bridge on the highway and merged onto the highway going the opposite direction from which they came.
Natalia bit her bottom lip, trying to figure out something to say to him. She had a lot that she wanted to say, but none of it seemed right. She chose silence of all virtues, and she hoped that Lukas would take her home, but the tension and uneasiness in the car made it clear that she wasn't going home for a while.
"Please take me home now," Natalia straightened up in her chair. She wasn't sure if Lukas would comply, or if she even wanted to go home at the moment.
"Okay," Lukas finally said. He had every intention to take her home, but he had to get off the highway first.
"So what's with your new girlfriend?" Natalia asked him rudely. She was angry that Lukas would get some new girlfriend, an underclassmen of all people, and leave her in the dust.
Lukas shrugged, "What about her?" he replied in a monotone. He didn't want to tell Natalia that he didn't even like his girlfriend, it's just that she… He couldn't even think about it. But he knew that somehow he had to tell her.
"Natalia, about my girlfriend— she—" he rushed carelessly out. Natalia held up her hand.
"I know about your girlfriend," Natalia bit back, Lukas was starting to irritate her, although she was trying to keep her cool. Lukas shut up, and figured if she knew about his girlfriend, then she must know why he had to date her. That means that she couldn't and shouldn't be mad at him… So why was she?
"Lukas, you do some pretty shitty things you know. You're just like Alfred," Natalia crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Lukas. Lukas wasn't sure what he had done, or if they were even on the same page anymore. He decided it best to resort back to silence because he wasn't sure what she was talking about.
"Alfred used all of these girls—especially me, and that's exactly what you're doing!" Natalia clenched her teeth, took a deep breath, and began to speak again.
"What the hell is wrong with you? You're not even the same Lukas I knew when we were kids! Is it Matthias? He's such an asshole! I knew he'd do this to you, he's always been an ass and always will be," she took another deep breath. "God damn Lukas, why can't you just stop using people?!" she burst. Of course there was no basis for her logic on Lukas using anybody, but perhaps she was so angry at Alfred at this point that she saw Lukas as Alfred.
"And furthermore—" Lukas cut her off, it was his turn now.
"You always go back and forth from Alfred to me, so who's really using people?" Lukas tried his hand at speaking up for himself, and it succeeded. Natalia stopped her a moment and stared at him in disbelief.
"You just can't keep running from Alfred to me when things don't work out, it's time to choose now," Lukas wasn't exactly mad at her, and he tried to reflect his emotion in the tone of his voice, but no matter how hard he tried he ended up sounding cold no matter what.
Natalia kept staring at him, soaking in what he just said. In a certain aspect, he was right. She had to choose either Alfred or Lukas, she couldn't have both anymore. Just like Lukas couldn't have both his girlfriend and Natalia. Things didn't work that way, and Natalia had to choose, there was no running anymore.
"Take me the fuck home," she ordered him instead of telling him all that was going on in her mind at the moment. It wasn't like Lukas wasn't taking her home already though, he was already two blocks away from her house, Natalia just didn't have an answer for him. Not now at least.
When Lukas finally pulled up to her driveway she almost leaped out of the car before it even stopped. She didn't thank Lukas for the ride, she didn't talk to him again after that, she just needed to think. She raced all too quickly for the front door, and Lukas waited until the door slammed shut and she was inside before sighing and putting his car out of park. But as if on cue, his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and saw who it was. He sighed an exasperated sigh and opened the phone.
"What do you want?" he asked.
A cheerful feminine voice on the other end giggled, "That's no way to greet your girlfriend silly!"
"What do you want?" Lukas asked again, glaring out his windshield angrily.
"Lukas, you have to be nice to me. Or else we could do something that would hurt Natalia again," she replied, feigning innocence.
"Fine," he simply said. He didn't want to bring Natalia into this anymore, he hated the fact that Alfred always hurt him enough himself but he also hated that Alfred's presence in Natalia's life was making her subjected to bullying.
"Good choice Lukas. So would you mind coming over? It'll only be for a while," she flirted. Lukas sighed and switched his car into drive. He was speeding in the direction of her house, only to get this little visit over with.
"I'm on my way now Laura," he told her a little less than friendly.
"Great, I can't wait to see you!" she giggled in reply. Lukas hung up, not wanting to return the "I can't wait to see you either!" because that's not at all how he felt. He wished that he didn't have to date Laura, and that he didn't care so darn much about protecting Natalia from Alfred. He wasn't sure if he was trying to protect her because he felt sorry for her, or if it was something else...
Natalia was on her bed, laying face up and staring at the ceiling. Lukas was right, she had to make a decision, but it wasn't that simple. Alfred had called her about three times that night and begged her to come back over to his house, and Lukas called her not at all. She felt as if she wasn't getting much done just by laying on her bed and waiting for the answer to come to her. She sent Alfred a quick text and went down the stairs to go to the garage to drive to his house.
When she finally made it to his sad excuse for an apartment she knocked on the door three times, then she took a step back and waited. She heard hurried footsteps on the inside rush to the door. The door swung open and hit the inside wall, Alfred wasted no time in pulling Natalia into his arms.
"I'm so sorry about today, please don't leave me," he whispered into her long blonde hair. Natalia slowly and unsurely wrapped her arms around him and patted his back. She couldn't help but feel weird about his words, he acted like they were actually dating, and like she had actually left him. But none of that happened, because they weren't dating. They were two friends—at best—who decided to use each other to get rid of their problems.
"Um Alfred, you're squeezing me too tight and it's freezing out here," she shakily told him. Alfred nodded against her hair and pulled away from her, he motioned for her to go inside and she followed. He closed the door behind her.
"So I see not much has changed in the twenty four hours that I wasn't here," she tried to crack a joke, but Alfred seemed so shaken up that it didn't work on him. Unusual for him because normally he would've laughed or made a joke at how bad her humor is.
Natalia bit her lip uncomfortably and she made her way over the old beat up couch in the living room. Alfred followed her and sat down next to her, she pulled her knees up to her chest and looked at the TV. Alfred was watching some sports game that he usually watched, and Natalia felt at ease that he hadn't changed. Not that she had expected him to in less than twenty four hours. But still, something was off, the tension in the room was choking her.
Natalia decided to confront it head on, after all, what was another confrontation to her? She had been confronting people all day, "So Alfred, about today,"
"Don't worry about it, I was stupid to over react. I'm over it," he absently told her, still staring at the TV. Natalia felt like he didn't really mean it, but she swallowed hard and nodded, she too returned to the TV screen.
"So how did Lukas kiss you?" Alfred asked, suddenly very cheerful and interested. Natalia noted how his personality and interests change so quickly.
"Well, it was in the hall," she told him, not sure what he meant by "how".
Alfred shook his head, "No not where, how?"
"I don't… know. Normally?" she gave him a confused look. Alfred shook his head and grabbed the back of her head, roughly pulling her closer to him. Natalia was staring into his sparkling and somewhat devious blue eyes.
"Was is it like this?" Alfred gave her a sloppy kiss on the lips roughly. Natalia cringed slightly at the awfulness of the kiss. He pulled her away from him, and was once again staring into her cold blue eyes, he also noticed that she was blushing and looked to be in shock.
"Or was it like this?" Alfred roughly pulled her into him again and kissed her better than she had ever been kissed. This time, Natalia didn't cringe or try to fight it, and she was admittedly a little disappointed when Alfred pulled her away too soon. He stared at her with questioning eyes, waiting for her answer. Natalia's thought swirled in her head, she wasn't sure what Lukas kissed like, she had slapped him afterwards, so did that mean he was a bad kisser? Or did it just mean that she was mad at him? No, she was pretty sure it was the latter.
"Um, I don't know…" she quietly and absently answered. She then smiled, "Maybe you'll have to give the options again,"
Alfred smirked, seeing what she was doing, "Alright, I'll give you your options as many times as you need,"
"Well it might take me a while to remember," she flirted right back. Alfred leaned in and kissed her again, this time more gentle. She wasn't sure what got into her, but kissing Alfred seemed to make things make more sense. At this moment, she wanted to choose Alfred and never bother with Lukas again. But at the same time, Lukas had always been there for her. Through the times that the girls at school were bullying her over Alfred and he was nowhere in sight to help her, Lukas was always there. So now the question stands: does she choose the one who's been behind her all along, or the one who has just started giving a damn.
Natalia didn't want to think about Lukas while she was kissing Alfred. So she didn't dwell on it any longer.
So "Laura" in this story is Belgium, because I feel like she'd be an awesome bad—I mean character for this story there were a lot of names to choose from in the potential Belgium name list so I chose the first one. List is at this link: . ?title=Human_names. And just out of curiosity, which couple is everyone rooting for? NataliaXLukas or NataliaXAlfred. Hm. I wonder. Because I know which one I'm rooting for! ;) (duh, I'm the author.)
