𝐶𝐿𝑂𝐴𝐾 𝐴𝑁𝐷 𝐷𝐴𝐺𝐺𝐸𝑅 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒 [DISCONTINUED]

𝟕 | 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄

"𝑀𝑦 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑦, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑟."
—𝑈𝑛𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛

𝒩.

𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐒 she climbed out of bed and rubbed her head; she hadn't had the greatest night of sleep.

Then again, she hadn't had a great night of sleep in a long time.

It had been almost a month since Ben's funeral, and, ever since then, her life had become immensely harder: she could barely get four hours of sleep a night, most of her nights consisted of tossing and turning; she never had the appetite to eat anymore, despite the scolding from her father and all the encouragement from her mother; and she could never seem to get her mind off of the fact that if she hadn't been so goddamn sick and stupid, Ben still could've been with them.

She could only hope that things would turn out better, eventually.

And so she carried that hope with her as she changed into her uniform and brushed her hair. She didn't bother to put makeup on anymore; she couldn't find the energy to do so.

Her attention turned to the door as it opened, and Diego offered her a smile as he came in, closing the door behind him.

"Good morning, beautiful," he greeted, kissing her forehead once he had reached her. "How you feelin'?"

"Okay." She sighed, putting her hairbrush down on her vanity and sitting on the edge of her bed.

Diego frowned as he sat down next to her, reaching over and interlacing their fingers. He gave her hand a small squeeze.

As she gave a squeeze back, he murmured, "You think you're ready for tomorrow's bio test?"

"Definitely not. I studied with Klaus and Alli for the past couple of days, and . . ." She sighed as she gave a small lift of the shoulders. "Well, you know them; we didn't get anything done."

Diego raised his eyebrows. "That's why you should study with me."

"Diego," she pointed out, "I get nothing done with you, too."

His nose scrunched as he shrugged. "We get a little done."

"Do we?"

"Okay," he admitted with a grin, "not really."

"Mhm," she hummed as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"But still," he insisted as he folded his arms, "hanging out with me is a lot better than with Allison or Klaus."

"Is it?"

"Yeah," Diego immediately answered. "I mean, you love me, not them."

Natalia lifted her head and looked at him with a wrinkled nose. "But I do love them."

"Not the same way you love me, though!" he chided as he nudged her side.

"That's true," she conceded, shifting closer and kissing his cheek, eliciting a grin from him. "What about me?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Do you love me differently?"

He rolled his eyes in amusement as he pressed his forehead against hers. "I think you already know the answer to that, princess."

He kissed her once more as the bell rang, causing a small smile to draw onto her face.

Gripping her hand tightly, Diego got to his feet before pulling her onto hers, though he let go once they had left her bedroom.