Page 89 of Two Marlboros

He handed me the phone again without saying anything.

Hi, don’t worry about it.

I don’t know when we

we can meet, I will

let you know.

I handed him the phone again.

“I feel like it’s ok.”

The fact that he was not so happy to hear from Harvey made me realize that Nathan was less stupid than I thought. He might never have admitted that the guy’s goal was just sex, but he still wasn’t about to pass as an idiot. At any rate, the fact that Harvey had sent an apology text message made my opinion of him waver for a moment, so much so that I believed that maybe a hint of interest was really there. And that could only be a good thing: it would keep those strange dreams from visiting me again.

Nathan and Harvey, a couple that would break out later than I thought.

“Oh, you’re here!”

We both looked up at the one who was undoubtedly speaking to us. Ashton was standing there in front, with a rather annoyed expression on his face.

“I’ve been looking all over for you guys, if you wanted to come here and make out just say so, huh.”

Nathan burst out laughing at what must have been a joke, while I felt my blood run cold at speculating why he had chosen those very words.

“You’re right, sorry,” he said, and turned to me. “Shall we go back in?”

I nodded, and Ash started off toward the club, followed by the two of us. I looked at the boy in front of me and thought backto his lips, to what might have happened if I, too, had moistened mine. The next instant I was reminded of Ash’s joke and the timing of it, like he had been spying on us. I barely finished thinking it that Nathan turned toward me, slowing his pace a little. He looked at me straight in the eye and gave me a shy, slightly amused smile for a handful of seconds, during which I thought he was going to say something, then went back to walking straight. The only reaction I was able to have was to look away, hoping to put what had just happened out of my mind.

We had been outside for so long that re-entering in the midst of that commotion was traumatic. I suddenly remembered that I still had my drink to finish, so I took two sips, but it wasn’t much. I wanted to abandon that glass as soon as possible, but it seemed inconvenient to leave it on top of the first free table.

The crowd on the dance floor seemed to be increasing rather than decreasing. Despite my disappointment, however, I should not have been surprised by something so obvious: the night had just begun. We still managed to squeeze into a less crowded place, though we walked single file, Nathan and Ashton in front of me.

At one point, Nathan stopped suddenly. I heard him shout something, but I didn’t understand what he was saying; he repeated it, but I still didn’t understand, so he pointed at someone with his finger. Among all those heads, I recognized a familiar one: Ryan Goldwin. Nathan didn’t even wait for our response: he pushed his way through all those people and tried to reach his friend, who meanwhile had entered what must have been the bathroom. Ash and I cast a quick glance at each other and decided to follow him.

The first thing in front of me was Nathan thrown to the wall with a shove. He hit the wall quite hard and had missed the sink by few inches.

“Mind your own fucking business, you hear me?”

Nathan got back on his feet. “I saw you! You exchanged something, I’m not an idiot!”

Ryan walked up to him, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and pushed him back to the wall, causing his head to jerk back with a grimace of pain.

“I told you to stay out of it. And if you don’t get it the easy way, I’ll see if I can use other ways.”

I lunged at them and freed Nathan from his friend’s grip.

“Stop this, got it?”

“And who would you be?”

I grabbed Nathan just above the wrist and dragged him behind me to remove him from Ryan’s path. Without taking my eyes off the boy, I stepped back little by little, all the while pushing Nathan toward the exit.

“Let’s go, come on,” I told him.

“See, your friend is smarter than you. Get lost, Nathan.”

I felt him resist slightly, as if he didn’t want to leave, but it was the safest thing to do. It was dangerous to confront Ryan in a place like that, where even defending himself would be difficult. Coming out of the bathroom, Nathan began to massage his head.

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