Page 14 of Noticing Natalie
She’d made a face and put her hands on her hips. “No. Because I’m not in middle school.”
He’d chuckled then. “Insulting us isn’t actually the way to get on my good side, Jayne.”
She’d rolled her eyes. “Maybe I don’t need to get on your good side,” she’d said and acted like she was going to walk away. She waited for him to call her back, sure he would change his mind if she actually left.
“See ya,” Tim had said absent mindedly as he’d turned back to me. “Hey, do you remember the time you fell in front of that house on Oldman’s Drive on Halloween night? The one we thought was haunted?”
I had recoiled in horror. “Yes! I swear I could sense something coming after us…”
And we’d talked until the sun came up. It had turned out to be a wonderful night, especially for one that had started in such a rough way.
It had also taught me something.
Over the past few years, I’d grown to believe I was at least halfway in love with Tim Summers. That feeling hadn’t changed; I did have feelings for him. But now I knew that we’d always be better as friends. I simply wasn’t what he was looking for. It hurt, but it was better to acknowledge the truth than bury my head in the sand.
And one thing would always be true. My friendship with Tim was the most important thing. It was more important than my other relationships. It was more important than almost anything else, really. And it was definitely more important than the potential of a romantic relationship that could end in heartbreak, devastation, and the loss of the most important people in my life.
I had no doubt that if Tim and I went our separate ways, things would never be the same between me and the rest of the Summers family.
I knew I couldn’t go through life without them. All of them.
So, I’d pushed my feelings for him way down deep, smiled, and continued on the path we’d always been on.
CHAPTER FOUR
Natalie
The weeks following prom seemed to fly by, and before long I was leaving high school behind for good. Graduation was a massive event for us. I was valedictorian, Imani was salutatorian, and Tim, who had placed third in the class, was the class president. We all gave speeches at graduation. Mine was heartfelt and about being the best version of yourself that you could possibly be. I was nervous as hell and barely made it through without crying, vomiting, or fainting. But I did it.
Imani was calm, cool, and collected. She spoke about the need for our generation to make a difference, and by the time she was through, I was ready to sign up for whatever cause would most help the country. She was agreatpublic speaker. So, was Tim, but he mainly joked through his. He did end it up with about a paragraph of real sentiment, telling everyone to go out and do big things, but never to forget where you came from. He said that small towns only stayed alive as long as the people who grew up in them came back to ensure they remained wonderful for the next generation.
He had a point.
I’d decided it would be too cold for me up in Rhode Island at Brown and had made up my mind to room with Imani at Emory. Even though it was pretty close by, I couldn’t wait for a change of scenery. But Tim’s reminder had me thinking about potentiallycoming back to Indigo Falls after I graduated. I knew that Carrie Crenshaw’s dad Jack, who was both town mayor and a doctor, was always looking for qualified nurses to work in his practice. Carrie was one of Sadie Summers’ friends and she’d mentioned it a couple of times when I’d said I wanted to be a nurse. Either a family practice like Dr. Crenshaw’s or Halliwell Hospital would be great places to work.
After graduation we all went back to Tim’s house, as usual, for a party. Tim’s friend group had changed drastically after finding out what happened between Annika and most of his male friends. He no longer hung out with any of them, which made the number of people at the party much smaller than usual.
We all understood, and I for one was happy to have a more reasonable number of people in attendance. Not that I liked the way it had happened. I still felt horrible for Tim. He’d lost his ability to trust all but the closest people to him. I hoped it was a temporary thing, but I wasn’t sure that it was. He seemed heavily affected by it. I knew he’d thought he and Annika were in love. To have that relationship revealed to be a sham had hurt him deeply.
He tried to joke about it, but he wasn’t fooling me or any of his family members. Lynne was trying to get him into therapy at the same place I still sometimes went in Halliwell, but he was resistant to it. He kept saying he didn’t need it, but as the weeks wore on, I was afraid that wasn’t true.
I shoved those thoughts aside and just enjoyed the party. By the end of the night, I was hot, sweaty, and happy. I couldn’t wait to move on and really start my life. Was I sad that my mom couldn’t be at graduation? Of course. But as Tim drove me home, I saw a shooting star as I looked out the window.
I gasped, unable to think that it was anything other than my mom sending me a sign from heaven.
“What?” Tim asked, over the sound of the wind whipping in from the rolled down windows.
“I saw a shooting star,” I said with a smile.
He got a sweet but sad look on his face. “Your mom, huh?”
I nodded, not able to speak for a bit.
He reached out and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. I leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes, letting the outside air cascade over my slightly sunburned skin.
Tim walked me in when we got home. He wanted to say hello to Anne and Gilbert. He was almost as much a part of the tortoise’s lives as I was. He was over all the time to check on them, and I took them to his house often to let them hang out near the creek.
I was surprised to hear my dad’s voice when we walked through the front door. Tim and I exchanged a look when it became clear he wasn’t happy with someone.
