Chapter Eight
Jet
I stood in the hallway with Katie, unable to believe what just happened. Staring at her, I just shook my head; I didn't even have words to say to her at that moment. I turned away and ran down the hallway to find Natalie. I couldn't find her at first. I checked the other bathroom, and the sitting room where my family was. I asked Karen if she had seen her. It hadn't occurred to me that she would actually leave my house. But as I stared at the front door, I knew that she had done exactly that.
I rushed out the door and saw her walking down the sidewalk. She was actually planning on walking home alone on Thanksgiving. I could have just killed myself at that moment. After all the time it took to get her to be mine, and now this had to happen. How could I have been so stupid? To have allowed anything to upset Natalie this way? She didn't deserve things like this happening to her, especially after she went through what she did with her ex.
It killed me to see her walking away from me. I called out to her a few times, yelling her name down the street, but she didn't even turn to look at me. She just kept walking. I start running after her and grabbed her by the arm. I turned her around, and the look on her face should have turned me to stone.
“Natalie, please let me explain.”
“Explain what, Jet?”
I sighed. “Natalie, it's not what you think at all. Please, I know what it looked like, but it wasn't what you think.”
“Oh no?”
“She kissed me, Natalie; I didn't kiss her.”
“Oh, is that how it works? So because she made the first move, it doesn't count?”
“That's not what I mean. It wasn't me doing anything. She made a move on me; it was out of my control.”
“Don't feed me bullshit, okay? She has been all over you every chance she’s had, and you're telling me you had no idea that she was about to kiss you? I wasn't born yesterday. I sure as hell know when someone is about to kiss me, so how is it that you don't know? She was practically dry humping you at the bar―could you possibly be more stupid?”
“Natalie, it wasn't me. You act like we were making out in the hallway. You literally walked in at the exact moment she just up and kissed me.”
“Yeah, God knows what would have happened had I not walked in.”
“You can't seriously mean that, Natalie.”
“I do. I'm sick of this crap with you. I've always felt like I wasn't enough, and you just proved that to me. Why can't you just leave the other girls alone? Is that really too much to ask?”
She was revved up, and I could see that I wasn't going to get anywhere with her. She was screaming at me at that point, and the more I seemed to try to calm her down, the angrier she got.
“Baby, please. I'm crazy about you, how can you not see that?”
“I saw enough tonight, thank you very much,” she screamed at me.
It was pointless trying to talk her out of anything, and I didn't think that there was any point in continuing the conversation. She was so angry that she wasn't willing to hear my side of things. I had majorly screwed up, and there was nothing that I could do about it. I should have told Katie to go back to the sitting room as soon as I saw her following me down the hall. But I didn't think she would actually try to kiss me. Boy, had I been wrong. She had caused a huge problem between Natalie and me, and I would like nothing more than to strangle her at that moment.
If things weren't already bad enough at that moment, I turned to see Katie walking up behind us. My mouth dropped open and I was quite literally speechless.
“Katie, what the hell?”
“Can we talk?”
Natalie turned to find her there, and yelled, “Ugh!” She stomped past us and headed back to the house. At least she was going in the right direction, but I was sure Katie had just done far more damage by coming out of the house.
I turned from Natalie and faced Katie, anger emanating from me. “What are you doing out here? Do you really think Natalie wants to see you right now?”
“I thought I could fix things, say something to her.”
“How could you have kissed me?”
“I thought you would like it.”
“Katie, we have been over this a dozen times. We aren't hooking up. Don't you think we would have by now? I have known you forever. And I have a girlfriend.”
“That hasn't stopped you before.”
“This time it's different. She's different, and you probably ruined that for me. What kind of friend are you?”
“Look Jet, I'm sorry, okay? I wasn't trying to hurt you. I've just had a crush on you forever, and I just thought that we would make a pretty hot couple.”
“It's never going to happen. I'm sorry, Katie. I think you're great and really beautiful, but you're not for me. I'm with Natalie; she’s who I want. She’s who I've always wanted.”
She looked heartbroken, but that wasn't my problem. My problem was sitting in the house with my family, and I hoped to God I could fix that.
“I'm sorry, Jet. I really am.”
“Just fix it, Katie. Make it right. I want her to know that I didn't kiss you, that I would never kiss you. That it was you who kissed me, and that we weren’t making out or anything.”
She just nodded, and I walked away from her to go find Natalie. When I get back into the house I found her in the sitting room with my family. I walked up to her and smiled. She took one look at me, dismissed me silently, and went on talking to my family. I couldn't exactly talk to her about my problem with my family right there, and she wouldn't go anywhere with me. I had ruined my own girlfriend's Thanksgiving.
“Is everything okay? Can we talk?”
“No shot. Now leave me alone for the rest of the night.”
I turned away from her and saw Katie come in from outside. She went over to my sister and they chatted amongst themselves. It couldn't possibly be more awkward at that moment. I had no way to fix it and I had to accept the fact that the evening was ruined and try to mend things with Natalie another day.
We spent the whole night apart, but my family was none the wiser. Natalie put on a good show, even though she did avoid me like the plague. I wanted to kiss her or hold her hand, but I worried that if I tried to do anything like that, she would explode in front of everyone. Again, things would have to wait for another time.
We spent the night in the sitting room, chatting amongst everyone and playing a few family games. My mother offered for Natalie to stay the night, but she declined. She walked up to me with her purse and coat in hand.
“I would like to go home now.”
“Are you sure? I thought we were going to stay for a few days. Go sightseeing.”
“I have no interest in that. I just want to go home and be alone. It was a mistake coming here. Can you please just take me home?”
I smiled at her sadly. “Yes, sweetheart, I'll take you home.”
We said our goodbyes to everyone, and headed out the door. I walked with her to the car, and she didn't say a thing to me. I drove her back to her apartment and through the entire 45-minute drive, she didn't say a word. Neither did I. I just didn't have anything more to say, and I thought that she needed a break from me.
I pulled up to the curb in front of her apartment and turned off the car. I was hoping she was going to invite me up, but that wasn't going to happen.
“Goodnight, Natalie.” I smiled as I grabbed her hand before she went out the door. She paused before getting out, and rolled her eyes. She pulled away from me then and got out of the car without saying another word to me.