48 | Upside Down

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This chapter had me in an emotional roller coaster so good luck... Vote & comment your feels!!!!
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I called Stephanie and told her to come over for some much needed girl time after everything that's been going on this week. Not only had I seen and made an effort to reconnect with my father, school was kicking my ass in more ways than one. It was impossible to get through the day without hundreds of pairs of eyes scrutinizing me and Nathan, and Luke was more than happy to tell me of the rumors floating around the school.

My favorite rumor was the one claiming that I cheated on Thomas with Nathan. Isn't that lovely?

Perhaps the worst part of school is the fact that Holden and Mike were sitting at the lunch table again. They had been skipping school quite frequently, but apparently it was too frequently, and Principal Metler threatened their diplomas if they continue to miss any more classes. Let me give you a solid play by play of how the lunch hour now goes:

Holden says, "Lexi Pennington has a great ass."

Mike adds, "Not as great as Nina Alexander's tits, that's for sure."

Holden nods and tells us all, "I'd hit that ass."

During their vulgar conversations, I tried to pretend like they were in another country, and ignore them to the best of my ability, but it was hard when they were comparing girls a few seats away. That's why when Friday came around, I left school wary of the entire male species and dialed Stephanie's phone number.

"No need to fear, Steph is here!" Stephanie bellows upon opening my front door.

I get up from the couch and look at her gratefully, my gratitude doubling when I see what's in her hands. "You brought your box of movies!"

She kicks the door shut and walks toward me with a grin. "You sounded wiped on the phone, and what better remedy than Jake Ryan and Sixteen Candles to cheer you up again?"

When Stephanie drops the box on the ground in front of the TV, I lunge at her to hug her. She laughs and hugs me back tightly, well aware that I've had quite the week. I told her on Monday that my father was home, and that I spoke with him, but I was too emotionally worn out to explain the details of the encounter with her. When I let Steph go, she put in Sixteen Candles and instructed I sit down, and shortly after she joined me on the couch.

As the credits began rolling for the beginning of the movie, Stephanie turned to me seriously. "So, how did things go with your dad?"

"Surprisingly well, actually," I admit with a small smile. "We talked about everything. He seemed genuinely upset with himself for leaving. Usually I can tell when someone's bullshitting me, but he wasn't. He actually still cares."

"So you forgave him?" Steph asks incredulously. She knew how much his absence hurt me, and I had ultimately given up on missing him to instead grow to hate him.

I shake my head. "I don't really forgive him for leaving," I admit honestly. "But I do want to give him another chance. I want him to be in my life again."

Stephanie studies for a moment, her psychology-ridden mind probably analyzing my decision, before a large smile breaks out on her face. She leans toward me and says softly, "I'm happy for you, Lauren. That's great." I smile wider at the sincerity of her tone. "What changed your mind?"

My smile turns sheepish as I think of a certain boy who somehow completely derailed my old decision and made me see reason. "Nathan."

As I say it, and as I see a knowing smirk replace Stephanie's smile, I realize something important.

I still haven't told her that we were dating.

My smile drops upon the realization; I forgot to tell my best friend that the boy I had been pining over really fucking likes me. I got so wrapped up in everything happening around me that I just forgot.

"Stephanie," I say immediately, and a smile grows on my lips before I even get the words out. "Nathan and I are dating."

Her smirk falls, as does her jaw, and she splutters, "Since when?"

"It happened at the Poconos," I tell her quickly with sheepishness lacing my tone. "I was going to tell you the day that I got home, but then my dad was at my house, and I got distracted." For good measure, I add, "Please don't hate me!" 

It takes Stephanie a few moments to understand my rambling words, but in the end, a wide grin crosses her lips all over again. "I told you that he likes you!" She practically squeals. "I knew it!" 

A brief sense of relief washed over me that she wasn't upset that I neglected to tell her such important information before I'm overwhelmed with the giddy happiness once again. Instead of watching Sixteen Candles, we spend the majority of the movie gossiping over the details of my new relationship with Nathan, and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't get butterflies every time I recalled the moment in the cabin that he kissed me. 

And once the details have been hashed out and I feel sick from all the butterflies in my stomach, we actually watch the remainder of Sixteen Candles, and then another movie after that. Eventually I have to get up to get ready for the dinner that my father had invited me and Nathan to tonight, and Stephanie packs up her box of movies. 

As she's bending down to grab the box, she looks at me excitedly. "Oh, wait! I almost forgot to tell you," Stephanie bounces back up giddily. "I have the finished video version of the social experiment. I'll send it to you tonight."

At the mention of the social experiment, I deflated a bit, but nod nonetheless. "Okay, thanks."

She flashes me an encouraging smile. "Have fun tonight at dinner. See you, Laur!"

Stephanie waves before she walks out and leaves me to stew in my own thoughts. If the video was finished, then the entire experiment was finally over, too. I couldn't help but feel relieved at the realization. After the initial relief, I decide to redirect my energy into getting ready for dinner. 

Dad told Nathan and I to meet him at Moshulu, an upscale restaurant on the waterfront, so I knew I would have to dress more formally than usual. Luckily, after Stephanie's donations to my closet, I had plenty of dresses to choose from. I settled on a nice figure-fitting plain black dress. It was simple, just the way I wanted it.

I even bothered to curl my hair and do my makeup so I looked extra presentable, and by the time seven thirty rolled around, I was smiling at my reflection. I smoothed out my dress with my hands one last time before I heard the doorbell. Sparing one last glance at the mirror, I give myself a final once over, and then exit my room.

At the top of the stairs, I can hear that mom let Nathan in, and I secretly pray that she doesn't whip out the photo album before I get downstairs. With that determination in mind, I descend down the stairs, and when Nathan comes into view, I'm pleased to see he's still standing at the front door without any embarrassing childhood photos of me.

As I walk down the last few steps, Nathan's gaze shifts from my mom to me, and his previous smile fades as his eyes drink me in. They float over my body, and then my legs, and then finally rest on my face. A vibrant grin stretches across his lips as he watches me step toward him and my mom once I reach the bottom of the steps.

I took this time to check him out, too. Nathan was wearing a dark blue button down underneath a grey opened suit jacket, nice black pants, and black shoes. His hair looked more tamed compared to his usual tousled look, and his eyes were as breathtakingly eccentric as they always were. For a moment, I couldn't believe that the heart stoppingly attractive man in front of me was mine.

"Lauren," Nathan greets, his voice deep and sexy. "You look beautiful."

I return his smile, except mine isn't nearly as magnificent. "Thank you, Nate. You look really hot," My cheeks warm after the words escape my lips and my mom raises her eyebrows at me. "Uh, I meant handsome. You look really handsome."

I bite my lip to keep myself from speaking anymore, quickly coming to the conclusion that being around Nathan makes me too flustered to form a coherent thought. So I shut up and just listen to Nathan's deep laughter, which inevitably calms me down amidst my flustered state.

But once my mom starts laughing with him, I groan, "Can we go?" 

"Wait, let me take a picture!" My mom demands in her motherly way as she fumbles to find her phone.

I'm about to open my mouth to object, but Nathan wraps his hand around my waist and pulls me closer to him. His hand was resting on the curve from my hip to my waist, and I felt him lean closer to me. Nate tilts his head down a little and his nose brushes against my hair.

"You know," He says, his voice low so only I hear him. "You look hot, too."

I look up at him and laugh, and he grins back at me, his eyes alight. A flash goes off and I turn to my mom, having momentarily forgotten she was taking a photo, but she was smiling widely at her phone.

"Okay, we have to go," I say with finality and look back at Nate.

He's still smiling at me, the same damn smile that melts my heart. I somehow find the strength not to get lost in his eyes and instead look back at my mom, who shifted her gaze to us, and was now smiling widely at me.

"Have fun tonight," Mom wishes cheerfully. "I love you Lauren. See you later Nathan."

Nate shifts his charming smile to my mother. "It was nice seeing you again, Marie."

He grabs my hand and locks our fingers together before he tugs me toward the door. But before we could step out the front door, Nathan stops and turns back around to face my mom.

"Can you send me that picture?" He asks thoughtfully.

I can hear the smile in her voice as she promises, "Yes, of course, I'll send it to you both now."

Nathan says a quick thanks and then follows me outside. We walk to Nathan's car and I smile when he opens the car door for me. He gets in and immediately turns the radio on, and I'm pleased when I hear Sublime float through the speakers.

Before he starts driving, Nathan's phone buzzes in his pocket, and he reaches for it. Once his eyes land on the phone screen, a smile stretches across his lips. His eyes flicker to me as I stare at him thoughtfully from the passenger seat, and his smile widens a little.

When Nate lifts his phone to show me the screen, I see the photo my mom took a few minutes ago. Without even realizing it, I begin smiling as I examine the photo. In the picture, Nathan is looking down at me with a beautiful smile, giving me all of his attention. Similarly, I'm smiling up at him, genuinely content.

"This is great," Nate praises, and my heart warms a little bit.

It made me happy how much he liked the photo of us, and he kept me smiling for much of the car ride. We met my dad at Moshulu, a dimly lit restaurant with silk window curtains and beautifully crafted wooden tables. The hostess led us to his table in the back of the restaurant, and I began the strangely-satisfying process of being nervous about introducing my boyfriend to my father.

"Nathan, this is my dad, Richard. Dad, this is Nathan." I introduce once we're settled at the table.

My dads gaze sets on Nathan and he nods. "It's nice to meet the boy my daughter adores."

"Dad," I whine. "Adore? Really?"

Nathan, however, chuckles. "I already know she adores me, it's okay," He spares a glance at me and winks before settling his amused gaze back on my father. "It's nice to finally meet you."

The waitress comes and takes our drink orders, and as I order, I feel Nathan's hand rest on my thigh. I try to keep a straight face, but his hand feels like fire even with a layer in between his hand and my skin. As the waitress walks away, Nate turns to my dad and smiles politely.

"So, Mr. Collins," Nate begins.

"Call me Richard," Dad supplements quickly.

Nathan nods. "Richard," he begins again. "What do you do for work?"

I'm about to answer for him, tell Nathan that he is an accountant at a law firm, but my dad answers first. "I'm a banker."

I shut my mouth when I realize that things have changed since he left. He got a new job, in a new town. Really, I didn't even know that much about him anymore. 

"That's nice," Nate comments conversationally. "Where do you live?"

"Miami," Dad reveals, and glances at me. "You two should come visit sometime. I've got a nice place on the beach, I'm sure you'd love it."

Hearing my dad talk about his new life was a weird reminder that I haven't seen him in many years and knew little about his life. He went from an accountant in Philadelphia with a family to a banker in Miami with a house on the beach.

Luckily, the waitress came back with our waters and my dads beer, and the interruption kept me from answering him. She took our orders and our menus before walking off again. My hand subconsciously found Nathan's on my thigh to rest on top of it.

"So, Nathan," My father begins. "What are your plans for next year?"

The question bothered me, mostly because I haven't even asked Nathan this question. I didn't want to think about the future because I knew it was likely that we wouldn't be together next year, and the reality made my chest hurt, so I decided to ignore it.

At least, I was planning on ignoring it, until my father decided it was an innocent enough question to ask Nathan. I began pulling my hand away from Nathan's almost reflexively, but instead he laced his fingers though mine and turned to me directly.

"I'm staying home next year to take care of Bennett," his eyes lock with mine as they say this, before he looks at my father. "My younger brother. But I'll be taking classes at community college."

He was staying here?

My father raises his eyebrows, interested in the information. "Your younger brother?"

Drexel was right in the city, only fifteen minutes away from his house.

"He's six," Nathan explains roughly. "I became his guardian after my parents passed. Well, my older brother and I, but I'm more responsible than Ty."

I simply stared at Nathan as he spoke to my father, a selfish kind of happiness growing inside me. Nathan and I wouldn't be in different states, or on the opposite sides of the country; we would be fifteen minutes away. I didn't have to say goodbye to him after this summer, like I thought I did.

When Nathan and dad were done their conversation, my father excused himself to go to the bathroom. I had been quiet for quite some time, just staring at Nathan, as I realized what the future had in store for us. When he turned to look at me, he squeezed my hand, and flashed me a beautifully encouraging smile.

"You're staying in Philadelphia," I say matter of factly, a sly smile overcoming my lips.

He begins to look a little nervous when he hears me say this. "Yeah," Nate uses his free hand to rake through his hair as he sighs. "You still haven't told me where you're going."

It seemed like Nathan intended on using the whole ignore approach that I was planning on using, and was just as in the dark about my plans next year as I was about his plans. Again, a selfish happiness bubbled through me when I realize he was as nervous as hearing my answer as I was for his.

"I'm going to Drexel," I say slowly, my smile widening.

Nate's eyes snap up to meet my gaze and his whole expression brightens. "You're staying in Philadelphia?"

"Yes," I beam at him, "I am."

A thousand watt grin breaks out on Nathan's face as his eyes float over every feature of my face. Not even a second later, he leans forward and captures my neck with the back of his hand, then presses his lips against mine. I was taken by surprise by the sudden urgency of Nathan's lips on mine, but I melted into him easily.

A shot of happiness burst through me. I didn't have to say goodbye to Nathan, not yet anyway. Clearly, he felt just as happy as I did, because he was kissing me in the middle of this upscale restaurant, where the other patrons were turning their noses up at the love struck teenagers.

"Excuse me, the food is ready," the waitress squeaked awkwardly.

I pulled away from Nathan with a blush on my cheeks, and lean into him to hide myself from the look the waitress was giving me. Shortly after she placed the food down on the table, my dad walked up and took his seat to rejoin us. I smiled sheepishly and looked down at my food, trying to pretend that I hadn't just been making out with my boyfriend.

The rest of dinner was spent sneaking secret glances at Nathan, who was sporting his half-smirk, half-smile, playing with my hand from under the table.

***

My phone was ringing.

The obnoxious ringing was starting to pull me out of sleep despite the fact that I willed it to stop. Eventually, I groaned and rolled over on my back, blindly reaching out to find the stupid thing that wouldn't stop ringing incessantly. When I finally grasped it, I dragged it toward my ear and answered the call. 

"Hello?" I mumble tiredly, my eyes still firmly shut.

"Lauren, did I just wake you up? Nevermind, that doesn't matter. Shit, Lauren, we have a problem," Stephanie's voice carried urgency that made me fully come to.

I sit up and rub my eyes with my free hand and groan, "Calm down, Steph."

She let out a deep breath. "Lauren, I'm so sorry. My professor didn't tell me that he wanted me to present my case for the prospects today."

I open my eyes and glance at the clock to see that it was around one in the afternoon. I feel my phone vibrate in a text message but ignore it. Stephanie seemed really freaked out, and I didn't understand her nervous rambling. I run a hand through my hair and sigh.

"The prospects? What do you mean?" I ask carefully.

"Lauren, today we had High School students enrolled in Sociology at their school from three or four towns come to a sit-in at Drexel," Stephanie explains evenly. "My teacher asked me to present my social experiment project, because he said it was the best in the class. But..."

A feeling of dread finally washed over me as I begin to understand the situation.

"But?" I encourage her to continue.

She lets out a discouraged breath. "But... Tess and Nina were there. They saw the video." I hold my breath when I hear this, and Steph mutters, "Lauren, Tess and Nina knows about the social experiment."

My heart drops. Shit, shit, shit. I pull the phone away from my ear and scroll to my messages and saw Nathan's name pop up among the others in my inbox. I quickly put my phone back up to my ear and mutter, "Steph, I gotta go. I'll call you later."

"I'm sorry Lauren," Stephanie cries through the phone.

"I know Steph, it's not your fault. But I have to call Nathan," I say in a hurried voice as anxiety starts to creep through me. 

We say goodbye quickly and I go to my messages as fast as my thumbs take me. I clicked on Nathan's messages, my stomach churning in nerves as I did so, and scanned his texts immediately.

Nathan: So this whole time, you've just been playing along for some fucked up social experiment?
Nathan: I was just a part of your little game?
Nathan: I hope you got the results you wanted, Lauren.

My stomach drops this time, my heart plummets into the depths of my chest, and I suddenly feel like I'm going to throw up.

I fell asleep last night feeling on top of the world;

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