Nathan pt. 2

"How are we supposed to become best friends in one night?" I ask repeating his stupid idea "That's the point, Riley! We night cap and tell each other everything, I promise it'll bring us close" "Yeah my first thought was right, this is weird" I walk out of the kitchen "I'm gonna walk home."


"It's already midnight you're going to get yourself killed, I have a big house with everything we possibly could ever need" that doesn't impress me "plus an indoor pool"

"Indoor pool you say?" He smiles nodding "fine" what? I like pools and I've never been invited to one of his parties before. Standing in front of each other Nathan doesn't say anything "well where do we start?"

"Right! How about midnight snacks and more drinks I'm starving"


"Okay" he walks back to the kitchen. "Where are your parents?" I ask as he pours drinks from his parent's fully stacked bar

"Who knows? Europe" he shrugs guessing "they call once in a while to make sure I'm not dead" he talks carelessly as if being abandoned is ok. "I've been taking care of myself for as long as I could remember"


"That's sad"

He laughs "don't feel sorry for me, I still have a bunch of stuff" "That will never leave you"

"Damn right." He grabs the bottle "follow me" he walks away and I follow, going down a hallway made of glass we get to the pool and he flips a switch turning the pool lights on "I promised you a pool" he turns to me

"Wow" I gaze at the big beautiful pool "Want to get in?"

"Was I suppose to stand and stare?" dropping everything we start to strip and I take off my pants staying in my boxers, turning to Nathan

"oh my god!" I turn back "why are you naked?!"

"Skinny dipping!" He runs jumping in the pool splashing water everywhere "what? You've never skinny dipped?"

"No" I stand there watching him in the water "Try it"

"No thanks" I walk to the pool taking my time to get in, the water actually feels nice I thought it'd be

cold.

"When I was a kid my parents hired this hot swimming instructor to teach me how to swim, and the first time I saw her in her swimsuit I got a boner" he starts laughing "and she quit like 20 minutes later."

"How old were you?"

"13" swimming to me "so when was your first boner?"

"No I'm not sharing that with you" I swim away and he follows

"Oh come on we said we'd tell each other everything that's the only way it'll work." Ignoring him I continue to swim around "I bet Mia knows"

"She's my best friend"

"And what am I trying to be?" He smiles and I stop and stare at him

Sighing "fine, when I was 14 at camp I had this counselor who was very involved, we'd get a lot of cramps after swimming and he offered to give us massages. Anyway, during my massage, I got excited and it was so embarrassing that I called my parents and left early."

He laughs "now I know never to give you a massage"

"I read that it's completely normal okay so don't make fun"

"I'm not." We swim around a bit more then leave the pool, back upstairs in towels we sit on his living room floor against a couch, each holding a bottle of alcohol. "Worst birthday go"

"Oh um my 10th birthday, I invited a bunch of kids from school and the only people who showed were Mia, and Cory Finkle"

"Tinkle Finkle?" He laughs

"It sucks you guys call him that" Cory once peed himself on a school trip and since then everyone's called him tinkle Finkle "he's a good person."

"Good person or not he peed himself admit that's weird" "Nope." Taking a sip of my drink I turn to him "what about you?"

"Um probably my 15th, I got really excited because my parents were coming back and I knew everyone would want to meet them so I invited the whole school, and my parents didn't show. I was in this house with like 100 angry people ready to meet my famous parents who forgot, even though I called them so many times prior to make sure they'd be here."

"Wow"

He chugs his drink "yeah."

"You didn't invite me" I whisper "What?"

"I remember that party Mia was invited but I wasn't, and if I were I wouldn't come to meet your famous parents."

"I was an asshole Riley, I still am" understatement "I always tried telling myself that people like me because of who I am not because I have a house they can come get drunk in at any time."

"I can speak for the people you never gave the time of day to, those people would actually be your friends but the cast system of high school would never allow you to interact with them."

"Those people hate me"

"They want to be you, Nathan, there's a difference"

"Did you ever want to be me?" He rests the back of his head on the couch and looks at me "I've always wondered what being you felt like but I've never actually wanted to be you, I don't

spend my days pining after popular people like most do."

"Right you're too focused on getting out"

"High school definitely wasn't for everyone." He doesn't say anything But after a few minutes, he asks randomly "what's it like being gay?" "What?"

"You're gay right? How do you know what to like in a guy if they're the exact same as you are"

"That's not how I think about it, the way you feel when you see a hot girl is how I feel when I see a hot guy"