NOCTURNE » Nathan Prescott

» viii. okay

"No, seriously, just lie down and- wait a sec, yeah … like that. Great."

I was currently dramatically staring up at the lighthouse while laying on the grass in between some rocks. Nathan and I had spent most of the afternoon out here already, and he seemed to be surprisingly happy with my more than unprofessional posing. He even shot some photos in between, while I was just staring at the sky for a bit or when a butterfly landed on a stone next to me. I heard the clicking.

After the sun had set we wrapped up the shoot and walked down the hill to his car, neither of us saying anything.
"Sorry if I fucked your shots up," I mumbled while he started up the engine and headed onto the road.
"I mean I'll know once I go over them again, but I'm pretty sure you didn't. Seriously, you did great. You really need to stop being so negative about yourself." -- "Old habits."

The rest of the drive home was silent and when I got out of the car and waved goodbye at my friend I felt really tired all of a sudden. After a long shower to get all of the grass and moss out of my hair I changed into one of the oversized shirts that I slept in and dropped down onto my bed.

NATHAN
Thanks again for today, I owe you one

NATHAN
Speaking of.. breakfast at the Two Whales tomorrow?

ME
sounds great. 9?

NATHAN
Sweet.

ME
Alright, goodnight x

NATHAN
sweet dreams

The next morning I, ironically enough, managed to oversleep. I hurried down the stairs while my dad was having breakfast and talking to the cat about the news. When he heard me open the front door he got up.

"Where are you going?" He asked.
"Meeting a friend for breakfast." -- "A friend?" -- "Jeez, dad, yes a friend. And I'm late."
Holding up his arms he gave me a smile. "Drive safe."

I managed to get to the diner just about ten minutes too late, parking across from Frank's RV. When I walked in I bumped into Chloe, who I had briefly talked to the other day, and headed for the back of the room.

"I'm so sorry, Nate. My alarm went off and I sort of just slept through it," I apologised before even sitting down across from him, and he waved it off.
"No worries, I just got here as well. Already ordered though, hope that's okay."
I gave him a smile. "Sure."

Joyce waved at me from behind the counter and I waved back, turning to Nathan once more. "So how'd the photos turn out? Anything useful?"

The boy gave me a crooked smile. "They're great, Mads. Better than the ones before, if you ask me."
I raised my eyebrows, letting out a scoff.
"I'm serious! If you want you can swing by the dorms when I'm editing some more."

The food came, so I just nodded, smiling. After about half the stack of pancakes I got my pills from my pocket and swallowed them with a huge swig of my milkshake. Nathan eyed me across the table, an eyebrow raised.

"What?" I asked and took another sip.
"Didn't know you take meds now."
I hadn't even thought about that those three pills might seem a little much; I'd just gotten so used to incorporating them into my morning routine like this.
Pushing a blueberry around the plate with my fork I shrugged.

"You wanna talk about it?" -- "No. Later … maybe."
He nodded, taking a sip of his milkshake and I cleared my throat.
"What about you?" -- "You saw the stuff in my room, didn't you." -- "That and … I dunno. You just seem more out of it than usual."
Nathan scoffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Well I don't wanna talk about it either."
With that he finished off his eggs and bacon and I watched him for a bit. "Let me know if you do."

Until we paid for the food the both of us remained silent, and when Nathan was about to just walk to his car and leave I held onto the sleeve of his jacket.
"I'm sorry if I poked around somewhere I shouldn't have. I didn't mean to trigger anything." -- "Whatever. I gotta talk to Frank. Get stuff for the party."

I sighed and stayed right where I was for a few seconds, getting into my own car and driving to school. In art class Luke and I spent some more time on the project, although we were almost done with everything. He had this really colourful, almost comic-esque style and in combination with my rather dark graphite sketching it was certainly an interesting combination.

"You gonna be at the party tonight?" He asked after the bell rang and I picked up my backpack.
"Yeah, Victoria talked me into it. But I'm not part of the Vortex Club." -- "Yet." -- "Jeez, Luke, I think I can differentiate between hanging out with friends and joining a cult."

He let out a loud laugh. "It is like a cult though. You better be careful." -- "Or else I'm gonna get sucked in the Vortex, yeah alright."

We strolled down the hallway in silence until he made a turn for the science lab and I walked into photography class -- there was barely anyone here so I just dropped my bag on my chair and looked out of the window.

David Madsen was creeping around campus behind some trees, like he was observing somebody; a sight we all saw quite frequently but nobody really paid attention to. Chloe had told me a thing or two about him and none sounded very nice, then again the girl had a lot of anger bottled up inside of her as it was.

Considering he'd served in the army, the paranoia could easily be caused through some form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
I shook my head at still catching myself overanalysing other people and their mental state, and sat back down at the table. A few other people had shown up in the meantime and soon enough Victoria strutted into the room, followed by Courtney and Taylor.

"Have you seen Nathan at all today?" she asked immediately after sitting down.
"Uh- … yeah we had breakfast at the Two Whales. But he seemed pretty pissed and was gonna go talk to Frank when I left."

Victoria nodded slowly, tapping around on her phone for a little, huffing. "Well, he's not replying to my texts- wait why'd you guys have breakfast without me?"
I sighed. "I helped him with a shoot, he thanked me by getting breakfast. Don't worry, Vic." She smiled and resumed talking to Courtney, probably gossiping about something that nobody really cared about.

Just as the bell rang Mr Jefferson walked into the room and began talking, reminding us about the 'Everyday Heroes' Contest like he did every day. Victoria and her posse were talking about the party the entire time and the printer at the back of the room was malfunctioning -- I felt everything get louder and louder until it felt like a constant buzzing in my head.
When the bell finally rang again and interrupted the buzzing for a moment, I hurried to get out of the room as quickly as possible, but Victoria held onto my arm.

"Have you handed in your photo yet?" she asked which caught Jefferson's attention.
"I was just about to ask you about that, Madeline."

"I don't think I have any fitting ones. I'll be sure to hand something in, in case I get one," I said and powerwalked to the door before anyone could stop me again. Making my way to the bathroom as quickly as possible I dropped my bag on the floor and sank against the door from the inside, holding my head in my hands.

When I splashed some cold water on my face, took a few deep breaths and counted to seventeen with closed eyes the buzzing slowly died down until it was merely white noise in the back of my head.

"Are you okay?"