Chapter 7
Travis is holding a spoon is his hand and Lottie looks like she literally wants to be anywhere but there as Nat walks up to the table with Misty. “Hey you two, what’s going on?” Nat starts as casually as she can. Lottie and Travis both look relieved to see her.
“Dude, you’re here!” Travis looks over to Nat’s side. “And with Misty.”
“Mind if we sit down?” Nat gestures to the empty side of the booth beside her and both Travis and Lottie both move to make room for them.
“Not at all.” Lottie says at the same time Travis says “Please sit.” They both end up calling for the waiter at the same time and Travis looks at Nat and mouths “help me.”
Nat almost feels bad for how happy she is that this date is actually a disaster.
“So, I was just telling Travis how great it was to meet a real man at this school.” Lottie says as she grabs onto Travis arm and looks at Nat.
Travis looks at her confused “You were?”
“Well, I was just about to.” Lottie looked over at Nat again before looking over to Misty. “Isn’t it great to have a real man around Misty? A real man is hard to find.” Lottie smiles before kissing Travis on the cheek and Nat suddenly doesn’t wanna stick around anymore to see this train wreck.
Nat stands up abruptly “Alright you know what this has been real fun but I have to go get some practice in. See you guys later.” She says before rushing out. What the fuck was
that?
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Nat is running late to the debutant luncheon and she accidentally makes a grand entrance when she arrives. She greets people as she walks to her table.
“Thank you for joining us Natalie.” The head coordinator says. “Now who’s ready to eat?”
Nat stares at Lottie unintentionally the whole time as they’re eating. It’s not creepy…she’s just sad ok? How could she like Travis all of a sudden? She really thought they had a
connection and then that night when they almost kissed in her dorm. Maybe it was all in her head.
Lottie gets up to go to the bathroom and Nat takes this as an opportunity to go and follow her, again not creepy. She just wants to find out some things ok?
Lottie is fixing her makeup in the mirror when Nat comes into the bathroom. She pretends to fix her hair to look busy before looking over at Lottie. “Hi.” Nat greets her.
“Hey” Lottie says then glances at her again with recognition covering her features. “Hey, you’re the one that saved me from the kissing booth that one time right?”
“Oh yeah, hi.” Nat starts holding out her hand. “What a small world, I’m Natalie.”
“Lottie.” Lottie smiles.
“Nice to meet you.”
“You too!” Lottie goes back to messing with her makeup and hair. Nat does the same with messing with her hair before trying to act casual about her next question.
“So uh, oh it’s none of my business but you went out with that Travis Martinez guy right?” Nat turned to face Lottie once again to wait for her answer.
“Yeah, once.” Lottie smiles kinda awkwardly at this.
“Well good for you.” Nat says awkwardly since she wasn’t sure exactly what to say in that moment and Lottie frowns at her.
“Oh no, I actually don’t really like Travis.” Nat’s eyebrows raise cause now she’s even more confused. “I have a really huge crush on his roommate, Nat, and I was trying to make Nat jealous.” Lottie admits shyly while looking away.
Holy shit. Lottie liked her. Well not her her but she liked her and that was a win in Nat’s book. Nat was trying not to jump up and down for joy or just tell Lottie right then and there the truth. Telling Lottie the truth would ruin everything that she’s worked so hard for the past couple weeks.
“Oh boy.” Nat says finally.
“Yeah. I know it’s really wrong to use a person this way and I feel awful about it but I really, really like Nat. He’s just so handsome like in a refined type of way you know. And when he smiles I can’t stop looking at him. He’s just so amazing.” Nat smiles shyly before she forces herself to stop while she’s facing the mirror. She almost feels bad that Lottie is unknowingly telling her crush all of this.
“Look Lottie, I’m sure anybody would be lucky to be with you. Just be careful because it seems like you’re weaving a very tangled web with Travis and Nat ya know. You just gotta tell everybody the truth, be very very honest, and let the chips fall where they may.” Nat makes motions with her hands as she’s talking and Lottie nods.
“You’re right. The next time I see Nat I’m just gonna tell him how I feel and kiss the shit out of him.” Lottie nods determined.
“Yeah, wait what?” Nat starts blushing at the thought but before she can comment further a bathroom stall opens to reveal Allie. “Oh this isn’t good” Nat murmurs.
“Hello Natalie.” Allie starts and then scrunches up her face into a sneer at Lottie. “And hello to you, you little homewrecker!”
Lottie looks at her in confusion. “Um who are you?”
“I’m Nathan’s girlfriend.” Allie says with her eybebrows raised.
“EX girlfriend.” Nat interjects.
“Ok everybody’s gotta stop saying that!”
“Oh you were the one he dumped at Cesario’s the other day.” Lottie is almost smirking.
“No no, he did not dump me. We’re just going through a bit of a rough patch right now.” Allie insists.
“Oh but I heard he dumped you big. It was just a big, huge, dumping.” Lottie laughs and Allie starts fake laughing before shoving her against the sink. Lottie shoves her back into the stall before Allie comes back and clothesline her.
“What are you crazy?” Nat asks Allie. She bends down to help Lottie. “Are you ok?” Before Lottie can respond and before Nat can properly help her up, Nat is being yanked back by Allie and thrown onto the couch that’s in the bathroom. “Fuck this.” She runs up and grabs Allie’s arms before she can do anymore damage to her or Lottie.
Just then the head coordinator bursts in. “Ladies, please stop! PLEASE!” She heads over to separate Nat and Allie. “When debutants disagree, they say it with their eyes.” She then turns to Nat “Natalie Scatorrcio, why is it that I always find you in the middle of a tussle?” Nat just shrugs. It’s not her fault her and her cousin’s exes are crazy.
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Headmaster Scott is trimming hedges on campus while Mari is talking to him about Nat. “Look, I am convinced he’s hiding something.”
“Oh, nonsense Mari. He may be a little lost and confused but deep down he’s an all-American, red-blooded male.”
Just then Nat walks by talking on the phone to her aunt Lisa. “Aunt Lisa, I will pick out my own dress and no I won’t wear heels.” Nat rolls her eyes as she stops for a second to listen. “Because heels are a male invention designed to make women’s butts look smaller.” She pauses. “And to make it harder for them to run away.” Nat continues on her way while talking to her aunt.
Headmaster Scott and Mari just stand there for a second after hearing Nat’s conversation. “Mari, have you ever tried to run away in high heels?”
“No sir.”
“Not that easy, not that easy.” Mari just looks at him confused.
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Travis gets off his motorcycle to see Lottie running across the street from where he’s parked. He smiles as he takes his helmet off.
Lottie sees Nat stepping out of a cab and goes running up to him. Without thinking too hard and letting her nerves get the best of her, she grabs him by the shoulders and kisses him. “Nat, I really like you. I’ll talk to you more after your game tomorrow ok?” She runs off before he can answer.
Nathan grins “I think I’m gonna like this school.”
Travis, having just watched everything from across the street, just shakes his head in disbelief before storming off to his dorm.
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Allie walks into her room and decides to finally check her email. As she’s reading it, she learns that Nathan was actually in London this whole time and she storms back out of her room ready to kill somebody.
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“Hey man.” Nat greets Travis as she enters their shared room. “Jeff was looking for you.” Travis doesn’t even look up at her. “Hello?”
“You know it’s crazy how wrong you can be about a person. It’s just crazy man. You know, you think they’re one thing and then”, Travis looks up at her now “they turn out to be
the exact opposite.”
Nat sits on her bed looking at him confused. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re gonna sit there and act like you don’t know what I’m talking about?” Travis asks her disbelievingly. He just huffs and goes back to his homework assignment he was working on.
Oh shit, she’s been found out. Guess it’s time to come clean and hope for the best. “Ok, ok. Look I wanted to tell you Travis but you have to know I love soccer more than anything else in the world and I had a point to prove-“
“What? So you’re telling me that you used me to help you with soccer and then you’re gonna turn around and stab me in the back?” Nat looks even more confused now.
“Wait, what? Now I really don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
Travis just gets irritated and throws his hands up. “You know what, save it man. I saw you with her.”
“With who?” Nat questions.
“With Lottie man, that’s who!” Travis throws his books as he stands up and gets closer to Nat. “I saw you kissing her when you got out the cab man.” Nat’s eyes widen as she follows Travis to the door.
“Cab? What cab?”
“We were supposed to be friends!” Travis yells.
“We are friends!” Nat insists.
“Nah you don’t even know the meaning of the word!” Travis shoves her near the door and Nat shoves him back.
“Ok, ok. Lottie never liked you.” Travis stops his movements and stills. “She was just using you to make me jealous, I’m sorry man.”
“You know what, get out.” Travis starts grabbing her arm to shove her out the dorm.
“Wait, Travis!” But Travis won’t listen to her, he’s too pissed off right now.
“You have a good life!” Travis slams the door in her face and Nat’s left standing in the hallway.
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Mari is busy stalking Nathan Scatorrcio online when she finds out that he has a cousin that looks just like him. She’s about to dig further when she hears yelling coming from the hallway.
“Nathan, open up!” Allie yells. “You have some explaining to do followed by some serious groveling.”
Travis abruptly opens the door “He’s not here!” Before slamming it in Allie’s face. Allie scoffs and the door opens back up. “Take his stupid phone, it rings every 10 seconds.” He shoves the phone in Allie’s hand before slamming the door again.
Allie scoffs again and looks down at the phone in her hands. “This isn’t Nathan’s phone. Ugh.” She starts stomping down the hallway yelling Nathan’s name.
Mari steps out of her room a couple doors down to greet Allie. “Ew.” Allie scrunches her face in disgust at her.
“Can I help you?” Mari asks as Nat’s phone starts ringing. Allie holds up her finger before answering the phone.
“Hello?”
“Nat, baby. It’s Bobby. You know the big game’s tomorrow and-“ Allie hangs up the phone. “Natalie.”
Mari smirks as she grabs Nat’s phone. “Allow me to introduce myself.”
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Nat is sitting on a bench on campus when Misty comes moonwalking towards her. “Nice night.” Misty greets.
“Hey Misty.” Nat smiles awkwardly. “Sorry about running out on our date the other night.”
“Oh that’s ok, my intensity scares some people.” Misty smiles over at Nat and Nat nods in agreement. “Is something wrong?”
“I got thrown out of my room.” Nat rolls her eyes and shrugs.
Misty starts sliding closer on the bench. “You mean, you need a place to sleep?”
“I really do, the Cornwall game is tomorrow.”
“I’ve never had a roommate before.” Misty says before setting her head on Nat’s shoulder. Oh boy, it was going to be a long night.