How to Forget

secrettes

Meet me at my house at 5:30. I'm taking you to a football game ;))

Nat gives me his address in a succeeding text as I'm relaxing on the couch, watching a film approximately four hours before I need to be at Nat's house. Apparently it was my favorite movie before the crash, and I can see why. I find myself falling in love with it again. Maybe it's my subconscious reaching out to grasp the things I once cherished.

This will be my first school event in my new identity. I missed the homecoming dance and its related football game, but I can settle for one of our school's normal football games. I'm not too hurt by it, considering I'm not very big on sports anyway, which I learned through my lack of enthusiasm and skill during my baseball adventure. Nat's jock friends will most likely be there, but I would bet that they're on the team instead of with me and Nat in the bleachers, so I don't worry about that.

I pause the movie and descend the stairs to hunt for the school phonebook. My father helps me locate it, and I turn to the K section. Skimming the pages, I eventually stumble across Kingsley and see that there is only Nat's father's name and his own. I pause to wonder about this for a moment, but then I remember my original purpose with the directory, and I jot down his address to put into my phone's GPS. Fortunately, his house is close enough to mine and to our school, so I assume this is why he asked me to come to his place.

Perhaps he has some pets I can meet.

~~~~~

Having finished my movie, I throw on something that will put Nat off my "I've been wearing the same outfit every weekend" trail, then I make my way over to his place. Halfway through my journey, I receive a text from him instructing me to wait in the driveway and that he'll come out when he's ready, so when I arrive, that's where I stop.

A couple minutes later, it's 5:37, and I'm still alone in his driveway. I check my watch multiples times in the span of 50 seconds, expecting to see a different result in my social state. It gets to the point where I have no choice but to disregard Nat's instructions and just climb the porch steps. I halt at the door upon hearing a heated conversation going on inside.

"You little fag boy," an adult voice slurs. "You're as intolerable as your mother."

"And you're a drunkard who only wishes he could deserve my mother," the other voice fires back.

The door bursts open, almost hitting me were it not for my quick reaction time, and out comes a sniffling and teary-eyed Nat Kingsley with his eyes set not on me but on the end of the driveway. He doesn't even acknowledge me as I stumble along beside him. He only speedwalks away from his house until he reaches the road.

"Nat, are you okay?"

"I know how to handle this. You don't need to worry." This is intended to be a reassurance, but his tone does not frame it that way.

"Well shit, dude, I am worried, because it isn't normal for your parents to yell at their child about how they're intolerable. Even I understand that, and I haven't had the chance to hear about any cases like this."

"You have your own issues to deal with, Link." He pivots to me and equips that dazzling smile that may or may not be faked and, paired with his red-rimmed eyes, makes his next words all the more ironic. "I'm fine. I promise."

With that, we continue walking, but we're both still stuck mentally on our previous topic. It's an uncomfortable silence where we both know what the other person is thinking about, but we'd rather not think about it. I hastily find something to switch the subject to.

"Why aren't you on the team with the rest of your friends?"

Nat kicks a pebble down the rough pavement. "Oh, I was, but I had to quit in September due to, um, a certain incident that put me under a lot of stress."

He sounds plenty stressed just by mentioning it, so I don't pry further. It probably has something to do with his dad, and that's a pretty heavy topic. Today is for having fun with my one friend, and I don't want to spoil a good time with a reminder of abuse. And quite frankly, I'm scared to ask about it.

~~~~~

A/N: the complexity of characters oooooooh

~Dakoterrible