Tender

    Everyone has that one kid in their class everyone one picks on. That person in my high school is this brown haired green eyed boy named Nathan Evers. I felt so bad for him and wondered what was his purpose. What I mean by that is, I believe everyone is put on earth for a purpose and once it is fulfilled your life is complete. I know, I know weird I get that all the time. Nathan just seemed so misunderstood and nobody took the time to get to know him, even me. Ive known of Nathan since second grade when his family moved to Reidsville Georgia, from well actually I'm not really sure. Today was the day I was going to say hello and try to be friends with him.  "Kaitlyn, Are you coming?" said Sarah my best friend since kindergarten. "Um, Yeah I'll catch up with you guys. Just save me a seat at the table. thanks, Love you." I say as I make my way into the hall trying to find the mystery man.      Finally there he was standing at his locker, and he looks so sad is was kind of painful looking at him. I finally stop staring at Nathan and made my way over, thinking about how much of a creep I must have just looked. I mean come on you can't tell me as a bystander if you seen someone just staring at some else you wouldn't be like "what the Hell?" As I approach I could feel my stomach felling tight with butterflies and my palms were becoming sweaty. I finally get to his locker he just stares at me confused and not amused at all.  "Hi, My name is Kaitlyn. You're Nathan right?" He just nodded and still looked at me funny. The same look you would get from a confused puppy, it was kind of cute. " Well, it's nice to finally meet you. Also I hope this doesn't come off as rude but, you really aren't a mute are you?"  I asked regretting it as soon as it came out of my mouth.     He put his head down and whispered no and it shocked me to hear his voice. It was low but soft at the same time. It just flowed so well and melted away in the air when he talked. He closed his locked and started to walk away. I of course, being me, didn't take the hint and followed.  "Where ya goin' ?" I asked as if we had been friends for years and I had any right to know where he went. He turned around sharply and said, " Do you mind, I like to be alone and since when have you wanted to "get to know me?""      I just stared blankly amazed at what I was hearing from such a quiet person. I didn't really know what to say. I mean I understood exactly where he was coming from, which made me feel so low as a person. I began to trail deep into thought and didn't even realize and by the time I looked back up he was gone. I walked to the Cafeteria thinking about everything that just happened. When I got there, Sarah bombarded me with a million questions. As I told her what I was doing she gave me weird and scrunching faces. "What made you want to talk to him in the first place?" she said. " I mean I don't know it doesn't bother you that LITERALLY no one talks to him and NO ONE knows anything about him but yet he's a mute and all of this?"  "OOOOOOOO, when you put it like this you make him sound like a Vampire or something sexy." she said doing a little shake and winking. " EW! Grow up." I say kind of chuckling. " Come on you can't tell me you don't think he's kinda of hot." Sarah said leaning in closer to me. " Really Guys, in front of me?" Said Shane our other friend. He completed our little trio and we were inseparable. Sarah just stuck her tongue out at him and we went back to eating our food. I was kind of glad for once he butted in I didn't want her knowing just yet that I did find him attractive. Shane at one point tried to confess some type of love for me. I told him that we should stay friends because he was literally like a bother to me. Surprisingly it hasn't changed a thing about our friendship.     When the final bell rang my goal was to find Nathan and try to talk to him a little bit more. Honestly it was one of the hardest man hunts that I did in my life. I let Sarah know of my plan and that I would walk home instead of her driving me. I can drive, but I walk because I literally live fifteen minutes from the school. I eventually find him and started walking with him, but of course it was in the opposite direction of my house. "Hey! Wait up!" I say speed walking towards Nathan. He looked at me confused and then said, "What is it that you want from me? And aren't you worried people will stop talking to you and calling you weird names for talking to me?" "No, I'm not worried and I could careless about that. Besides I have two friends that would never leave my side EVER!"  "Must be nice." He said as he kept walking.  "Look, you're making this very difficult. I'm trying to get know you and be your friend. No, it's not out of pity and if you don't want to be friends, then fine." I say very frustrated. "Okay. Just know I am not a very social person." Nathan said still walking getting further and further from my house. "That's fine, i'll get you to talk easily, but here's my number I'll see you in class tomorrow." I say as I wave and turn to start walking towards my house. "Wait. Are you walking alone?" he said sounding very concerned. "Yes, I usually do. Why?"     "Not today, I am taking you home." He said as he walked next me. I kind of smiled at his gesture of kindness. We talked for a little bit, well mostly I did all the talking. He listened and answered here and there. When we made it to my house I asked him if he would text me on his way home and of course he agreed to it. We texted back and forth for about a good twenty to twenty-five minutes. We talked about everything, from what we wanted to study in college to the little things like favorite colors. His by the way is Sky Blue, because he thinks of it as an escape from reality. The messages stopped very fast, kind of like a waterfall. Everything was great and then this huge drop. I didn't think nothing of it I mean we literally just started talking today. I went downstairs and hung out with my family for a little bit and told them about my day. My brother Braxton, of course, started saying that I had a boyfriend. We ate dinner and I went to spend the remaining night up in my room. I was going to text Nathan Goodnight, but decided against it, as I felt like it was too much.     I got up for school that following day and I still didn't have a text from Nathan. It honestly was upsetting I thought we were becoming really good friends, guess not. When I got to school I ran up to Sarah and Shane and told them everything, well mainly Sarah. I had already told her everything yesterday she just wanted to hear the story again and to see if anything had changed, which it hadn't. He never showed up for school. This is when I started getting scared and started feeling very guilty. I decided to text him when I got home and just told him I hope he gets better if he's sick and I hope he got home safe yesterday, but to also text me as soon as he could. The following days and the rest of the school week he wasn't there and he never responded. I'm not going to lie I was waiting for them to announce the worse and I cried a couple of times because I kept thinking this was all my fault. I needed some explanation someone doesn't just disappear into thin air. That weekend was like prison, because I still didn't hear anything from him. The weekend drug on for what felt like centuries. When Monday rolled around I rode with Sarah to school and we started making up scenarios about what happened. We pulled into her parking spot and here came Shane running to the car, which was unlike him.  "GUYS GUESS WHAT!" He said shouting at both of us.