Nathan Marsh's State of Being

Chapter Fourteen

unsatisfied

A few days after our bowling outing, it was a Friday, and I walked into my room to find Noel jumping to his feet at my appearance. He looked abnormally anxious and he had a stuffed duffel bag sitting on his bed.

"Hey, there you are," he said. He sounded angry and I was momentarily worried it was directed at me.

I closed the door behind me and dropped my things down on my bed. We met in the middle of the room with a few feet of space between us.

"Whoa, you okay?" I nervously asked, searching his face.

"No. I'm fucking pissed," he snapped. When I flinched, his expression softened just barely enough for me to notice. His voice was still rough, though. "Not at you, sorry. Look, I wanted to let you know I'm gonna be gone for a week or so."

I furrowed my brows while he gestured to his duffel bag. Noel didn't look like he was taking a week off to celebrate Halloween that was next weekend. "What's going on?"

I really didn't expect his next words.

"My fucking--my little sister is pregnant."

I blinked, shock settling through me. I didn't even know Noel had a sister. But he was only nineteen so a little sister would be..."Shit."

"Yeah, shit. She's fourteen, Nat!"

I couldn't escape the look of disgust on his face. My eyes went wide. I'd been expecting seventeen, maybe sixteen. But not that. "Oh my God..."

"I know. Her birthday is this week, my parents have this huge ass party planned--not a quinceañera, by the way, because my mom is dead against them. But my sister has friends who are Mexican who are having them and she conned my parents into having a party that's exactly the same without the label and the church shit."

Noel took a much needed breath as I took him in with wide eyes. "God, none of that is the point...I'm rambling. Anyway it's going to be a fucking shitfest." He began to pace. Hands ran through his hair time and time again. "My grandparents fly in from Spain tomorrow for this and they hate the idea of anything resembling a quinceañera, if that doesn't say everything right there. My whole big ass family from California is going to be there and my sister's got a whole ass baby growing in her stomach!"

I took a few moments while Noel tugged his fingers frustratedly through his hair to think about what else to say. Nothing really seemed right so I just asked, "How far along is she?"

"Like three months."

I tried not to cringe, but Noel wasn't looking at me anyway. He looked far away from here with anger. "How long have you known?"

"Me, or my parents?" He looked at me and I gave him a blank stare. I hadn't realized the answer was going to be different. "My parents don't know and Leesy just told me like twenty minutes ago. She was crying and she said she can't fit into her dress. I guess she only just started showing or some shit? I don't know what's going on, Nat."

I fought the urge to touch his shoulder. He looked like he could use some comfort, but that wasn't the type of relationship we had. "Are you going to be okay?"

Noel's face kind of looked bitter and I didn't think it suited him. He still looked handsome, but the emotion was so unlike his usual take on things that I found it mildly upsetting.

"Do I have a choice?" he spat. I didn't take his tone to heart. "My parents are going to kill her. And when I find that boyfriend of hers I'm going to kick his fucking ass so hard he won't even know which way is up."