RUNAWAY GIRL

CHAPTER 10

NATHANIEL POV

What the hell does this bloody Moses think of himself? He can’t just ask me this anytime. I will cope with  this situation on my own. I really need to calm myself down. 

I sit in my car and drive off towards my apartment. Once I reached the house, I straight away went to the kitchen and picked out the scotch whiskey bottle from my so called father’s collection and started chugging it down my throat.

“f**k. This burns.” I say to myself and drag my feet to the room, I swore never to enter. I entered the room and sat on the bed where we sat and had our all night long conversations. I smoothened the surface of the blanket my elder brother, Caleb had. 

“Oh, Caleb. I miss you so so so much big bro. I don’t even know where you are.” I say tears falling from my eyes like small teardrops falling down the windshield of a car. I got up and walked towards the photo frame kept on the shelf of his room. An eighteen year old Caleb standing there with an arm around a fourteen year old me who was holding Astrid’s hand. 

The two people who meant the world to me after my parents weren’t there. First I lost Azzi, then my parents which when followed by Caleb broke me. The people, I loved in my life, left me to be alone and for the icing on the f*****g cake, they all left by choice. 

With all these thoughts in my mind, I kept taking large sips of the scotch whiskey in my hand. Then suddenly, I remembered my friends. My friends, Moses, my uncle and aunt, who were always there for me and helped me out always. It was then like I felt a bucket of cold water had been thrown on my face and I felt guilty for ill treating my friends the way I did today. Then suddenly, Melly’s face came into my mind. I smiled lightly and felt like talking to her. So I went back to the living room, got my phone and called her. After three rings she picked the call.

“Hello.” She says in a sleepy tone.

“Hey, Mellllyyyyyy.” I say.

“Nate? Is that you.?” She asks. 

“Yes. Oh my god, Melly. Do you not have my phone  number?” I say.

“Of course, I do.”

“Then dum dum, why are you asking when you can clearly see the caller id.” I say chuckling a bit. 

“Okayy. Are you okay? You don’t sound so okay. Are you drunk?” She says softly. 

“What do you think? Am I or am I not drunk? You tell.” I say acting coy.

“Urghh…. You’re definitely drunk. Are you alone?” She asks. 

Alone. I am always alone even when I am surrounded by a lot of people because my family left me. Everyone leaves me. 

“Yep. Not like that is something new.” I say.

When she said these words my thoughts automatically again went down the drain and my already spoilt mood was now more spoilt. 

“You know, it was a bad idea calling you. I don’t even know why I called you. Goodbye, Melly.” I say and cut the phone. 

Man! I don’t need this s**t!

I look at the bottle in my hand again, took a sip and started walking towards my room.

MELLISSA POV

“Nate. Nate. Naate.” I say. 

“Oh God. This boy cut the damn phone.” I mumble. 

I really hope Nathan is alright. But he didn’t sound okay. Oh god, I can’t sleep till I know he is alright. Ughhh! Boys can be soooooo frustrating. 

I picked my phone up again and called Jack. He picked the call up after me calling him three times. Man seriously, how deep is his sleep?

“Hello. Just so you know, you have woken me up from my beautiful dreams with Mae, Mels. Why are you calling me this late?” Jacks says in his heavy sleepy voice. 

“Where is Nate’s apartment?” I ask.

“Why do you want to know the address to his apartment?” Jack says.

“Because I got a call from him. And he was very very very drunk and speaking nonsense and I can’t settle or sleep till I know for sure that that guy is safe or atleast not doing anything stupid as such.” I say.

“You say he’s drunk?” Jacks asks again. 

“Yep. So please can you tell me the address?” I ask again. 

“Don’t bother. I’ll drive you there. It’s not safe to be alone at this time. Meet me near my car in 5 minutes.” He says and hangs up. 

“Alright then.” I say to myself and get up. 

I quickly change into sweatpants and one of Luke’s stolen t-shirts (inserting evil laughter), and went downstairs to my parents room. 

I knocked on their room door and waited when suddenly I heard a crash and mom came wearing dad’s t-shirt while taming her wild hair which screamed ‘s*x’ to answer the door. .

“Yes dear? Are you okay?” She asks opening the door slightly and standing in front of the door to not let me see inside. 

“Mom, I got a call from Nate and now Jack and I are going to his house to check in on him.” I say.

“You say Jack is going with you?” She says fiddling with her hair and by her doing this I spot a rather large hickey on her neck. 

“Yes mom. Don’t worry we will be safe. I just need to see him and will stay the night with him there only.” I say.

“Ok dear. Once you reach, just text me, okay.” She says.

“But mom, I doubt you would hardly hear the chime of your phone if you will be doing the activities you were doing before.” I say to her while smirking. 

“Get lost.” She says and quickly shuts the door. .

But before shutting the door I quickly scream, “Get some.” To dad and he screams back, “Finally today.” And I run out of the house before the black widow does a number on me.

I walk to Jack’s car and see him sitting in the drivers’ seat. Once he sees me he opens the door and I  get in and we start toward Nate’s apartment. The drive was pretty silent when Jack decided to break the ice.

“So he umm… called you.” Jack says. 

“Yep.” I answer. 

“Do you know, if he called anyone else or not?” He says and I just shrug my shoulders.

“Why did he call you and not me or anyone else?” He asks again and I shrug my shoulders again as even I don’t know the answer to this.

“Soo. we are really not good at this right?” He says and I nod again.

“Okaaaay then. I will  just shut up and drive.” He says earning a nod from me again.

After that Jack also doesn’t say a word and we eventually pull into the driveway of Nate’s apartment. 

“I’ll come with you.” He says.

“It’s okay, Jack. I will manage.” I say.

“No you wont. I have clear access to his apartment from the front desk whereas he will have to buzz you in since he has not cleared you at the front desk, I guess which will alert him of our arrival.” Jack says and I nod again agreeing with him.

“Melly you are only nodding today. Something is wrong with you?” He asks and I shake my head NO again and he shakes his head in return making me smile a little.

We enter the building and see Moses standing in front of the reception desk.

When Moses sees us walking towards him, he glares at me and softens his look as he sees Jack next ro me. 

“What are you doing here with her, Jack?” Moses says. 

“What is your problem? She means no harm.” Jack says and speaks to the man sitting at the desk. 

“Hey Vance. Is Nate in?” Jack asks.

“Yes. Mr Jack you may go up. Do you want me to inform Mr Nate?” Vance asks.

“No I guess that will be all.” Jack says and we stand in the Lift lobby and wait for it to come to the ground floor. 

As the elevator came, we got into the elevator and Jack pressed the button for the 10 th floor.  

“You came alone. Where are the girls?” Jack asked.

“The girls are together at Riley’s place since Arya didn’t want to go home.” Moses says.

After about 20-30 seconds we reach the floor and stand in front of his apartment door. Moses removes the name plate and takes out the key from behind the plate, unlocks the door and places the key and plate back. 

“Seriously. The name plate?” I ask. 

“What? Nate keeps it there. You gotta admit it is unique.” Jack says and I shake my head and walk inside. 

The apartment is extremely beautiful and just the way it looked before. 

How the hell did I not remember where his apartment was. We always came here as kids to play in the hot tub.Ahh! The hot tub!

 There is an entrance foyer in front of which there are steps which take you to the floor above. In the middle there are sofas and a coffee table. Adjacent to the entrance wall is an open kitchen with an island kitchen table and next to the kitchen is a dining table where we always celebrated thanksgiving and other festivals together. Going further in were two rooms which were Nate’s and Caleb’s and going upstairs was the master bedroom along with the guest room and an open terrace with a small garden and my favourite hot tub. 

I quickly ran towards Nate’s room there with both the boys hot on my heels and saw that the room had been trashed. The bed covers were all over the place, the L.E.D. TV was broken and an empty bottle of whiskey was on the floor. 

We saw that the bathroom door was closed so Moses quickly started banging on the door.

“Nate. Nate. Are you in there? I am really sorry for what you said. Please don’t shut us out.” Moses says. 

“Get lost, Moses. I am in no mood to talk to you.” Nate screams from inside. 

“Nate. Come out bro. We have come to make sure you are okay. We know your feelings were hurt but please don’t do something bad to yourself.” Jack pleads.

“Guys, back off. Just back off please.” He screams from inside.

“Mels, you try. He called you. He might just listen to you.” Jack says. 

“What do you mean he called her?” Moses says. 

“He drunk dialled me.” I say. 

Something changed in Moses’s eyes and he backed off from the door and said, “Try once.” 

“I go to the door, knock on it and say, “Hey Nate. It’s me, Melly here.” I say.

“Melly?” He says. 

“Yes Nate. We have come here for you. Please come out.” I say.

“Why should I? Tell me, Melly. Why should I come out when I know, I am alone in this world.” He says but using a calmer tone.

“No, Nate. You are not alone. Jack, Moses and I are here right now and we know if Peggy, Riley and Arya could come, they would have.” I say.  

“No. I am not coming out. The people I want are not here so why should I?” Nate says his voice a little louder this time which meant he was closer to the door.

Moses and Jack also seemed to sense that as they encouraged me to talk to him. 

“Nate, you know right that we are your friends and will always be there for you. Jack, Moses, Arya, Riley and Peggy have been your friends for so long and you guys graciously accepted me in your group and now after a month of me being here I have seen that they will never ever leave you alone.” I say. 

We wait for two minutes and when he doesn’t say anything I start speaking again. 

“Nathaniel Vivian Johnson, come out now. You are not alone. We are there for you.” I say raising my voice and we hear the lock of the bathroom click, Nate coming out and enveloping me in a hug. As he hugged me he burst into tears. Moses quickly helped me to take him to the bed while Jack ran out to get water for him. 

“Oh Nathan, please don’t cry. I can’t bear to see you cry. Please Nathan.” I say rubbing his back slowly while his head is in the crook of my neck. 

I move a bit and hold his face in my hands and make him look into my eyes while wiping his tears from his cheeks and say, “Nathan look at me. Vivian! Look at me. You are going to drink water and sleep. We are here with you and you will not cry. What did I say, Vivian?” 

“Drink water. Sleep. You are here.” He says slowly. 

“Yes. Good.” I say and motion Jack for me to give me the glass of water. I make him drink the whole glass of water and then three of us make him lie down. 

“I am going to sit in the living room after making some coffee for the three of us. I don’t think it is advisable for us to sleep.” Jack says. 

“Moses help me. Melly, once he is asleep come out and have some coffee” Jack says and both the boys go out.

After about fifteen minutes, when I am sure that he is asleep, I go out and sit with the boys taking a steamy cup of coffee in my hands. 

“So Melly, I have a question for you. Can I ask?” Jack says. 

“How did you know where his room was? How did you know his full name, hell I didn’t know his full name. Why did you call him Nathan and Vivian when only one person was allowed to call him those names and even if we by mistake teased him with those names he would have our head. So how did you know all of this when you have never been here before?” Jack says and I stare at him wide eyed. 

FUCK! f**k! f**k! I SCREWED UP!!

“I...umm..I-I.” I don’t have any words. I freaked out while handling Nathan and I handled him the way Astrid would. 

“Well I had the same questions as Jack but I do have an idea why she knew all of that.” Moses says getting up and standing in front of me. 

“What?” I say shakingly. 

“You forgot to wear your contacts, Mellissa Scott or should I say Astrid Emily Miller.” Moses says. 

I put my head down not being able to say anything. 

“What? What are you trying to say, Moses?” Jack asks, coming to stand next to Moses. 

“Well, for starters I always had my doubts on her as she always knew everything about us, then her mannerisms and calling us by the names Azzi would. Then tonight I heard Mrs. Scott, well I don’t even know if that is her real name, call her Azzi. Then her supposed dad even called her Astrid miller. Moreover, she has green eyes, just like hers. And as for her hair she could have dyed it brown. So tell us who you are now or I am going to the cops. My dad’s best friend is one but I am sure you already knew that. Oh and I snuck into your room before we went to Jack’s and guess what I found. A box full of Azzi’s pictures with us and her parents. I also found some tapes and a pendrive which I stole. I went home after leaving the girls and saw it. It was her birthday and baby videos. That is when i realised she is someone whom we knew well. Our friend, who left us, left Nate. So Ms. Astrid Miller your act is done.” Moses says folding his arms on his chest.

“Is it… umm… is it true? Are you Astrid?” Jack asks me. 

There is no point in hiding it from them now! I will just have to tell them everything.

“Yes. I am Astrid.” I say in defeat.