Unnatural

Chapter Four

Ryan comes out a few minutes later with a herd of about seven people. He looks around his lawn and finds Zach and I within seconds. He walks over to us and his group trails behind him.

"Sorry for the wait," he says as he finally reaches me.

"No problem," I insist politely.

"Yeah," Zach agrees. "Don't worry about it."

"Okay," he says sort of relieved.

The people that are behind Ryan then come over and steal Zach away from my side. He is soon replaced by Ryan who then drapes his arm over my shoulders. I look over at Zach as he greets his fellow friends and then I look back at Ryan.

"Hello," he says in a hushed sort of tone.

"Hey," I say trying not to let my nervousness show on my face.

It apparently doesn't work though because of his next remark. "Are you nervous around me?"

"No," I lie a little bit. "It's more just the party in general."

"Good," he starts. "Because I think that we would have a problem if you got nervous around me."

"Yeah," I agree. "It would be."

He laughs a little bit and I laugh as a result of him laughing.

"So," he asks. "Is this your first party?"

"Yeah," I answer partly embarrassed.

"Just so you know, there is absolutely no reason to be."

"Good to know," I tell him.

Zach then comes over to us once again. He sees that he has been quickly replaced and comes to the other side of me. He squishes up close to me just as Ryan has. He then puts his arm, instead of around my shoulders, around my waist. I suddenly feel the claustrophobic and get the feeling that the world is becoming smaller by the second. I step out of both of their arms before it can get really bad and I back away from both of them as I struggle to walk straight.

"Whoa!" I say as I put my hands out in front of me to say stop. "Give me some space!"

I take deep breaths as they both come over to me to see what the problem is.

"Are you okay?" Zach asks worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I say as I once again step out of where they are crowding me. "Just remember what I said about space. I need some."

"Sorry," they both say in unison as they step back a few steps.

"Do you need anything?" Zach asks still concerned.

"No," I reply as I start to feel better.

"Are you sure?" Ryan asks.

"Yeah, I'm sure," I say as I take one last deep breath. "Just don't do that again."

"Do what?" they both ask innocently.

"You know what!" I say as I am finally okay.

They exchange glances at each other before turning back to me. "I'm sorry," Ryan says.

"I apologize for my behavior," Zach says after him.

I laugh at this smart way of saying sorry. "Okay, let's do what we were going to do then."

"This way," Ryan says as he starts walking down the sidewalk.

Zach comes up to me and takes my hand as he leads me to the back of the group. Once we are in the back we start to follow.