Getting Over Matt

20 - "Kiss me."

Chapter 20 - "Kiss me."

By the time Friday rolled around, people were gradually beginning to stop with the staring and whispering. I could have let out a sigh of relief as I managed to make it down a corridor without a single person looking at me with sympathetic pity.

"It's like I said before," Nathan was saying as we sat down in Spanish. "People get over things. By Monday there'll be a new piece of gossip and you'll be old news."

"I hope so," I sighed, unzipping my bag to root around for my Spanish textbook.

"So, on that positive note, are you coming to the party tonight?"

"Party? I'd forgotten about that. I think I already have plans."

It was a complete lie. The party had been on my mind a lot this week. I knew that Matt would be there and I didn't really fancy seeing other girls hit on him. Kat was also a party animal, never one to miss a party. What if her and Matt hooked up? That would be awful. It would, of course, be stupid of them but I didn't want to take the chance and risk seeing any drunken escapades unfold.

"Well, cancel your plans," Nathan said with a shrug. "Not a big deal, is it?"

"And this party is a big deal?" I asked pointedly. "A bigger priority than my plans?"

"Actually, yes. It is a big deal because we both know you don't really have plans. You just don't want to go to the party. You have to face up to these things, Bella, else you'll never move on."

I groaned at his rationality and fought back the natural urge to argue with him about it. Instead, I adopted a different approach.

"Can I go with you?" I asked him.

Nathan had been flicking through a Spanish dictionary but once I said that, his fingers stopped turning the pages.

"Go with me?" he asked, slowly tilting his head to the side to look at me.

"I don't mean like a date," I quickly amended, cursing myself for digging this hole.

After the incident on the ice, Nathan and I hadn't really spoken much about the two of us as a couple. We'd put it down to adrenaline and were trying to move on as if it hadn't happened. The last thing I wanted was to bring it all up again and confuse things once more.

"I mean, not that I don't want to," I then added hurriedly, worried I'd offended him. "But it's just—"

"Let me stop you there before you go off on one of your nervous rambling speeches," Nathan said with an amused smile. "I'll pick you up at half past eight, okay?"

"Okay," I replied, swallowing anxiously. "Thanks."

He smiled and shook his head to himself as he turned his attention back to the dictionary.

-

I spent longer than usual getting ready for the party. If Matt was going to be there, then I wanted to look good, especially if the likes of Lucy were going to be fawning over him all night.

At eight o'clock, there was a knock on my door. I was sitting in front of my mirror, straightening my hair and twisting as I got to the tips so that it curled slightly.

"Yeah?" I called.

The door opened a crack and Nathan poked his head through the gap.

"You're early," I said.

Seeing that I was decent, he let himself in and shut the door. "I wanted to make sure you hadn't changed your mind."

"Have I once changed my mind this week with all the other activities you planned for me?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.