Up in the Air

Chapter 11

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Chapter 11

Happy as I was about my date on Friday with Daniel, there was the small matter of Nate punching Theo that I still had to deal with.

The opportunity to do just that presented itself when, after stepping out of school on Tuesday afternoon, I saw him leaning against his Jeep surrounded by a few of the guys from the football team.

Better get this over with now, I told myself.

Ignoring the other football players, I walked up to Nate and calmly asked if I could talk to him.

He nodded and we made our way to one of the shady oak trees on school grounds. We were a considerable distance from other people and yet I had this sixth sense that told me we weren't far away enough.

"I didn't know you were coming back in today -" he started but I silenced him with a glare.

"I heard you punched Theo last Friday."

He looked confused. "Yeah, I did. He lost you and -"

"Nathan," I interrupted him with the name nobody, except his parents, had called him in years. "Who gave you the right to go punching people on my behalf?"

He looked at me like I was stupid and/or braindead.

"Theo lost you, Sara! He promised to look out for you. Who knows what could have happened -"

"Regardless of what could have happened, did punching him do anything about me being missing?"

"Well, no, but -"

"It was an honest mistake on his part. I fought with Julian and I got myself drunk. Before all of that, I told Theo to hang out with his friends for a while -"

"He should have gone and looked for you when he saw you were gone -"

"You mean when he came back and saw that his date and one of the hottest guys at school were missing?"

I ignored his disbelieving scoff and kept talking.

"Yeah, the rational conclusion would be to think that said date got herself over-the-moon drunk and said hot guy was running around looking for her. That's definitely what I would have thought if I was Theo."

My voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Don't you think he tried to explain that to me, Sara? I'm sorry, alright. I'm sorry I punched him but I only did that in the heat of the moment – and only because I was mad that he didn't know where you were. I was worried about what could have happened to you! I'm your best friend and -"

"No, Nathan! Just, no! You don't get to pull that card out right now. In fact, you don't get to pull it out at all!" I shouted.

I took a deep breath to calm myself down and raised a hand to tell him I had more to say.

"Three years, Nate. Three years I barely hear from you and you think a box of cupcakes gives you the right to call yourself my best friend again?"

I poked a finger at his chest, the words pouring out from a very hurt, very angry part of me I thought I'd locked up.

"I tried to stay friends with you – and don't even think about saying that you tried too!"