1 | The Bathroom Interruption

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^ Don't forget to check out the trailer! ^

Without further ado, here is Chapter One of JUST CALL ME!

Everyone knows how awkward it is to take a shit in public, but how about taking a shit in public when the guy you like, who just agreed to go on a date with you, walks in? I couldn't catch a break here.

Yesterday, Ty and I cleared everything up between us. After a mind-blowingly amazing kiss, we talked about everything and nothing for hours. And all that ended with deciding to go out on a date Friday night.

I one hundred percent didn't decide on this happening.

I strolled into the bathroom like any other Sunday night, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and sat to take a shit. Riveting, I know.

The bathroom door swung open, not an uncommon occurrence.

But, that deep, gravelly voice had to go and say, "Hey, nice slippers, Nat."

I froze on my porcelain throne, hardly stifling a yelp.

Ty?! His shadow on the floor told me he stopped in front of a sink.

"I'm not Nat," I choked out. Biting down on my bottom lip, I shook my head. Did Ty seriously have to walk in mid-satisfying-shit?

"Pink fuzzy slippers," he said like that explained it away.

I glared down at my all-too-recognizable pink foot coverings. Shoulda gone for the Adidas slides.

Welp, there was zero chance I'd be continuing my shit here. Sure, Ty knew pretty much all my weird quirks, but I drew the line at taking a shit while he stood five feet away.

I'd slip out of the stall, wash my hands, and run down to the washrooms in the basement— easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Hand to thin toilet paper, foot to metal flusher, fingers to cold stall lock.

The blue door of the stall swung open with a whoosh.

Eyes to too-handsome-for-his-own-good Ty.

I stood in the stall doorway, taking in his same old (well, hopefully, he had more than just one) white shirt and sweats.

Ty wet his toothbrush and squeezed a red, white, and blue stripe of toothpaste across the bristles. His dark blonde hair fell into his eyes as his head tilted down, jawline cutting.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

How'd he still manage to short circuit my brain after months of knowing him? And why was I swooning over his dental hygiene habits?

I stepped over to the sink next to Ty. Remember to function like a human, Nat.

What do I say? What am I doing? What are words? Mouth, please work.

"Good night," I blurted out.

Wait, good night? No, that came out wrong. My brain forgot a human greeting. There was good morning, good afternoon, what about night?

Good night? No...

Ty gave me a sidelong glance, blue eyes glinting.

My chest expanded as the right word popped into my brain. Lightbulb moment!

"Good evening!"

I flinched when my brain caught up. Crap that sounded even weirder. I washed my hands in the hopes that the stream of water from the rusted faucet would mask my awkwardness.

Good evening? What was I doing, starting a long and tedious speech at one of those banquet things that I had to go to for the hospital Dad worked at but never actually wanted to be there?

"Evenin' to you too," Ty said around his toothbrush, gaze trailing me as I dried my hands with my towel and grabbed my caddy.

He spit in the sink and wiped his own towel across his mouth.

I made towards the door, still needing to finish my shit. "I'll see you on our first date, then."

Given I didn't scare him off yet.

"We've been on a date before..." Ty ran a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes.

I paused mid-stride and turned back to face him. "But that doesn't count; it was fake."

He smirked, pink lips curling up. "All the other times we've hung out don't count either then?"

"Nope, this is an entirely different beast." Did I just compare my date with Ty to a beast?

He shrugged, broad shoulders highlighted by the thin cotton of his shirt. "We'll see each other before Friday."

"We might not, we're not in any classes together this semester," I pointed out. Unless Ty decided to pull a whack-a-mole and pop up in one of my new classes, we wouldn't see each other in class.

Ty avoided my eye contact and gathered his things from the counter. "Who knows, maybe we'll both decide to do laundry at 2 in the morning."

I tilted my head to the side. "Why'd you say it like that?"

He raised a brow. "You really thought I just happened to do my laundry on the exact same day at the exact same time as you?"

"Yes," I said, blunt. We both had to do laundry sometime. Unconsciously, I leaned closer to Ty, pulled into his orbit.

"Well, I don't." Ty's eyes swung back to mine as he stepped closer. "I woke up to get water and saw you heading down, so I grabbed a load of Will's clothes."

I could take that as stalkerish, but with Ty's earnest face, how could I? At that point, all I did was eat, sleep, and study, so there wasn't any other way he could talk to me. But he took the effort to pretend to do laundry too?

My pulse raced, a silly grin spreading across my face.

Alert! Heart-melting more than the gooey inside of a Caramilk bar.

But, no heart-melting allowed— time to deflect.

Ignoring the warmth spreading through my chest, I drew in a big, settling breath.

"You probably didn't even make a dent in Will's chair clothes mountain." Commenting on laundry seemed like the best approach. Will gave off those I-will-wear-my-underwear-inside-out-before-I-do-my-laundry vibes. But, I couldn't judge. I had a similar mountain of clothes on my desk chair that I continually plopped from my chair to my bed and back and forth till I built up the energy to do my laundry.

The corners of Ty's lips twitched into a barely-there (but I knew it was there) smile.

"Speaking of Will," I segued, not awkwardly at all, "have you guys, oh I don't know, talked recently?"

He blinked at me. "Talked about what?"

My face heated, and I blinked rapidly in return. Jeez, why had I brought this up? It'd only been a day, Will presumably hadn't mentioned the whole I've been hooking up with Micah behind your back thing.

"Oh, life," I said instead, keeping it vague.

His eyebrows squished together. "Nothing in particular, why?"

I waved a hand, hoping he'd drop it 'cause it wasn't my secret to tell. "Nevermind, it's nothing."

My muscles went quivery and twitchy at having to wait for Will to tell Ty the truth. I rubbed a sweaty hand down my pants leg.

If I stayed here any longer, I'd blurt everything out to Ty in a ramble.

"You know what, I left my coffee out. I better go and check on it. Not that coffee needs checking in on, I'm not babysitting it, it's an inanimate object. A drink," I said as I pulled the door open.

"Decaf?" Ty called out.

What?

Oh, my fake coffee that wasn't truly waiting for me.

He held the door open behind me as I walked through. "Doc's orders, remember? Cutting back on the caffeine?"

"Of course, decaf. Not a drop of caf. Night!"

I rushed down the hallway. Will better tell Ty before our date; I don't know how I could keep it a secret 'cause knowing Ty, he saw through whatever came out of my mouth.

Well, that was a problem for future Nat.



Ohmysweetgoodness.

T-minus four days till my first date with Ty.

During which I would go on a date with Ty and have fun. I didn't want a boyfriend, that failed epically last time. I just wanted to have some fun, and there was nothing wrong with that. We'd go on dates together.

The refrigerator door closed with a suctiony pop, and I lined up to pay with a mini-pint of ice cream in hand.

After the Monday I had, I deserved some frozen sugary yumminess. There should be a law against a surprise quiz worth 10% on the first day back from winter break.

The bright fluorescent light strips running across the ceiling of the caf made my head ache.

I paid for the ice cream and made a little small talk with Marge, the little hairnet-and-apron-wearing lady at the cash.

Smiling to myself, I thanked Marge and strolled past her. I passed handmade posters on the walls advertising school events and stained trash cans with piles of used trays on top.

As I crossed the threshold into the caf's seating section, I bumped into a hard chest.

"Oh, sorry I wasn't looki–" I raised my head, eyes meeting a familiar set of brown ones. "Will?"

I jerked backwards.

"I'll catch up with you guys," Will said to the group of guys he'd entered the caf with. The little herd of them went in to get their food.

Chairs scraped the floor, and dishes clattering in the kitchen.

"Hey," Will said, ducking his chin and not meeting my eyes.

My gut tightened, brows lowering. "Uh, hi."

If cutting awkwardness with a knife was a thing, that'd be what I'd call the situation happening here.

The cash register dinged, sound audible over the hum of conversations nearby.

I shoved my hands into the pocket of my hoodie.

Will still didn't look up at me.

"Funny seeing you here," I deadpanned.

He cleared his throat and coughed. "Yeah, food, you know."

"Yup." I nodded slowly. The caf, the rows of long tables with uncomfortable plastic chairs spaced along them, the pudding blobs and stepped-on fries on the floor all meant food.

Will finally met my gaze, brightening, a lil peek of the Will I knew shining through. "Congrats on getting the mentorship spot with Professor Davis, by the way."

I tilted my head. Professor Davis liked my article and decided to give me the one-on-one mentorship spot for the rest of the year. How'd Will know about that?

"Sawyer mentioned it," Will explained.

"Right." I nodded again. Introducing bobble-head Nat.

I should say something.

Pull a Ty and stop dancing around my words.

After all, it was six easy words: why haven't you told Ty yet?

Spit it out, Nat.

My generic iPhone jingle rang out, filling the silence.

The tension seeped out of my muscles as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Thank you to whoever was calling me, now no more Confrontational Nat™️ needed.

I bit my lip. "Sorry, I have to take this, it's my Mom."

Did I have to take it? No.

Did I even want to take it? No.

However, did I want to get out of this conversation? Very much so.

"No prob," Will said with a half-smile.

I picked up the call and brushed past him, returning a half-smile that moonlighted as a grimace.

My stomach churned as I held my phone to my ear, ice cream in the other. "Hi Mom."

"Natasha! I'm so glad I could catch you, you're so hard to get ahold of."

Had I been dodging her calls better than a professional dodgeball player, aka a middle school gym teacher? You betcha.

"Erm, sorry," I mumbled, phone squeezed between my shoulder and my ear to push the door open to leave the caf.

"No need to apologize, it's not like your only mother needs her daughter and can't get ahold of her." She let out a long, suffering sigh.

She could talk to Mia. But no, she needed something from me. And that something could only be one thing. Guess Confrontational Nat™️ wasn't getting a break tonight.

I climbed up the stairs to my room, dragging my feet.

The line crackled. "Chris is between jobs right now, and we need a bit to tide us over."

A bit of money? The least she could do was say it. M-o-n-e-y.

I rubbed at an eyelid. "I sent you some two weeks ago, over Christmas break."

"You know, we splurged a little, Christmas, New Years, and all." I could almost hear the scowl in her voice. Like, why'd she have to explain things to me, the person she wanted money from?

Juggling my melting ice cream, I used my key card to get back into my room. I kicked the door shut behind me.

How long would I keep doing this? Putting myself through this?

I went still as an aha moment hit.

"Why don't you come work for Daisy Paper & Co. again? It would be all virtual, like before." God knows I could use the help. I caught up a bit over the break, but soon it'd pile up like before. "Or maybe think about getting another job, you–"

"How could you say that?" She scoffed. "I've done so much for you, I stuck around for you and Mia when your father left, and now you're calling me a mooch?"

My chest tightened as I couldn't take in enough breaths.

I rubbed my forehead with my fingertips. "I didn't say that, I don't mean that–"

"You know what? You're being selfish." She spit out the words. "You've always been so selfish. You really need to learn to put others first, Natasha. I raised you better than this."

Pain built up in the back of my throat.

"Okay, it's okay, I'll send the money over later today, okay?" I stuttered, voice cracking. My chin dipped to my chest as my posture slumped.

She sniffed. "That's fine."

Her tone flipped as she jumped to a new topic. "Did I tell you about the absolutely fabulous party Chris and I went to on New Year's Eve? I wore the..."

She went on as I settled into bed with my now soupy ice cream. Growing up, Mom's mood swings were legendary. Constantly had to walk on eggshells around her. It was always something or other– I never could live up to her ridiculously high expectations.

But her words super-Gorilla-glued themself into my brain.

You really need to learn to put others first, Natasha.

I set aside my fully melted ice cream soup, appetite gone.

Was I selfish?

No, she didn't mean it. She couldn't.

I'd be the first to admit– I used to be hella judgemental. And I still am sometimes, but I'm trying to do better, to be better.

But was I selfish?

And now, with my date with Ty coming up, was I being selfish? He didn't need all my drama. Jeez, why would he even want to put up with all my crap?

What if he wanted something serious? Like, commitment with a capital C.

I didn't want that.

Being with Alec, I'd been trapped in a little box. I had to be perfect, be what he wanted me to be. And that was Commitment, right?

No, Ty and I would be fun. We'd date and do all the fun probable possibilities, but we wouldn't be serious.

Time to throw out the plans, go with the flow and have fun, Nat.

Just have fun.

Fun.

I could totally do fun.



Currently feeling... excited nervous!

Nat's story is continuing! EEEEEEK I have so much planned and I'm so stinking excited (with a heaping of nervous in there too, but we'll just ignore that)

But whaddya think? Kicked it off with some Nat & Ty (Natler? #TeamTy? idk lmao), then Will & Nat's mom. Any predictions for the rest of the book?

Anywho, that's enough about the book haha

I like sharing my story, but what I like even more than that, is getting to know you! We already introduced ourselves in JPS so how about you let me know... two truths & a lie?

I'll go first (leave an inline comment on which you think is a lie, I'll let you know in the next chapter):

1. I lived in a castle for a month. 🏰 

2. I have 2 sisters. 👯 

3.  I hate pineapple on pizza. 🍍 

Comment your two truths & a lie here and we can all guess the lie!

But before you go, I gotta do some... shameless self-promo :)

Time for my super serious reminder to please vote for JCM and add it to your reading list. And, if you're feeling so inclined, give me a follow so you can be notified whenever I have important info about the story to share or fun stuff like naming new characters. *Self promo over,* I still feel so awkward & conceited asking you to follow me but oh whale 🐳 

Cheesy awkwardness aside, I can't wait to share the rest of Nat's story with you. So sit down, grab a cup of tea (or your beverage of choice), and get reading with me, you lovely human.





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