Hearts with History
Lelia M. Silver
Chapter 1
Natalie frowned irritably at the masses of teenagers that swarmed the mall.
She hated teenagers.
She hated everything about them- the giggling, the cell phones, the angst, the total disregard for anyone else’s feelings. Especially that last one. They were evil.
It didn’t matter that she didn’t know any of the hoard overwhelming the mall personally. She knew their type all too well.
She finished paying for her purchase and took the bag of books the saleswoman handed her. She couldn’t wait to get out of there and leave the little devils behind her. Already she felt claustrophobic, surrounded and crushed in the crowd of people. What on earth had possessed her to go shopping on a Friday evening? She should have remembered it would be like this. But that new novel from her favorite author had just been released, and she had hurried down to grab it before it sold out, anticipating spending a lazy Saturday morning in her pajamas with her favorite characters.
The thought of snuggling up under a blanket with a hot cup of coffee beckoned her and buoyed her spirits. Maybe she could start the book that night and try to forget about those teenagers.
She turned to exit the store and ran into the man standing in line behind her, almost knocking him over when her heavy bag of books struck him solidly in the knee.
“Oh! I am so sorry!” she apologized, leaning down to help him pick up the stack of books he had dropped.
“That’s okay,” a deep voice responded. “I wasn’t paying any attention either.”
She set the last book back in his hands and looked up into his face for the first time. “I-” She froze as she recognized the one person in the world she had hoped never to see again. Jack Morrison.
*****
She had been so excited for her first day of high school- an over-eager fourteen-year-old, too smart for her own good. She pushed her way through the crowds of upper classmen in the hallway to locate her locker and fumbled with the lock, checking her notes to make sure she had the right combination. She had just succeeded in pulling it open when she saw him, striding down the hall with four of his buddies.
He was a junior, two years ahead of her, with curly black hair and piercing green eyes. He wore his letterman’s jacket with confidence, the quarterback of the varsity football team and the hero of every teenage girl’s fantasy.
She watched, fascinated, as he advanced towards her. He was smiling at something one of his friends had said when he looked up and made eye contact with her. In that instant, everything slowed down. The crowded hallway around them disappeared. It was just the two of them, some visceral connection linking them among the hoards of teenagers and teachers. She smiled shyly and he grinned back.
She was brought rudely back to reality by someone pushing her from the side, sending her off balance and shoving her into her locker. She dropped her books as she fell forward, scattering papers and pencils all around her. She picked herself up, her knee smarting from where she had knocked it against her locker and hurried to gather up her paperwork off the floor before it could get trampled on.
He laughed with his buddies as they passed by her, two callous words floating back to her as they soiled her hard work with their dirty footprints.
“Stupid freshman.”
*****
Natalie shook herself free from the lingering memories and tried to smile weakly at the man before her. Jack was talking to her animatedly. She blinked as his words slowly sank in through her horror.
“Wow! I can’t believe it’s you, Natalie! Fancy running into you here! It’s been what, seven years?”
“Eight,” she corrected him automatically.
“Really? I can’t believe it’s been so long!”
Not long enough. Natalie’s brain finally kicked into gear. She gathered up her bag purposefully and shot a pointed glance at the waiting sales clerk. “Yes, it has been awhile,” she acknowledged. “I certainly never expected to run into you here. Well, I’ve got to get going. I hope you enjoy your visit.” She waved good-bye as she headed out the door, Jack’s voice following her out.
“Maybe I’ll see you around sometime!”
“I doubt it,” she mumbled under her breath. Never would be too soon. She scowled at the teenagers gaping at her from the bench beside the door. “What are you staring at?” she snapped. They quickly looked away, but she heard their giggles as she walked past them. Great, now they thought she was some crazy lady. She sighed. How could one person make her feel like she was back in high school again?
*****
Jack pulled out his wallet to pay for his purchase, still grinning stupidly over running into Natalie Carver after all these years. She had grown into a beautiful woman- more so than he had ever imagined. She had been pretty in high school, in a bookish sort of way, but she had definitely grown into herself in the intervening years.
She was tall, probably about five foot seven, with the same chestnut brown hair she had had eight years ago. She had ditched the glasses somewhere along the road, but her eyes still held all the fire and intelligence he remembered from high school.
He had had the biggest crush on her back then, not that he would have ever admitted it. The guys he had hung out with would have teased him mercilessly if they had ever found out. Not that they were a bad bunch of guys, but… She had been “that nerdy girl,” or “the geek,” her intelligence a threat to the young men still struggling to find themselves.
He took his bags from the sales clerk and headed out to the parking lot. Natalie was too special to be overlooked, even if they hadn’t lived in a small town. Looking back, he could recognize what he hadn’t known then. They had all been jealous of her natural confidence and her refusal to fit in with the crowd. Their own insecurities had gotten the best of them.
He found himself whistling as he started his car. Now that he was back in town to stay, it was only a matter of time before he ran into Natalie again.
In fact, he was counting on it.
*****
Natalie tucked her feet up on the couch beside her and wrapped her hands around her warm mug of coffee. She breathed in the tantalizing aroma and smiled, letting the tension flow out of her shoulders and neck. She sipped the pungent brew, her eyes closed to savor the taste.
The soft pad of footsteps on the hardwood floor preceded a whine at her side and the weight of her golden retriever’s head on her knee. She opened her eyes and smiled down at her dog, Sophie. She patted the couch beside her. “Okay, girl. I guess it’s alright this once.”
The dog wagged her tail happily and hopped up, settling herself beside Natalie on the couch and laying her head in her lap. Natalie stroked her hand through the dog’s fur. “How can he still make me feel so small?” she murmured. “I’m not the same person I was back then. How can he still have so much control over me?”
*****
Natalie tried to keep her head down as she carried her lunch tray through the cafeteria. She was almost to her table…
“Hey bookworm!” Jack called mockingly, “Where are your glasses?”
His friends joined in taunting her.
“Yeah, four eyes-what happened? Did a screw come loose?”
They cackled with laughter. “Nah, she’s had a screw loose for a long time. Why else would she wear those jeans? She looks like some sort of deranged hooker.”
Natalie glanced down at her jeans with bewilderment. They looked just fine to her.
The farther away from the group of boys she walked, the harder they laughed. “She’s even got pink panties on!”
Natalie set down the tray at the table, her heart sinking. She did a quick rear end check and discovered what they had been talking about. There was a hole worn at the corner of one of her rear pockets, exposing a small swatch of her pink underwear for the whole school to see. Cheeks flaming, she took off her jacket and tied it around her waist, which only served to encourage the boys’ mirth.
She sank into her chair, careful to keep her back to the boys’ table so they wouldn’t see the single tear that coursed its way down her cheek.
*****
Natalie tightened her grip on her coffee cup and pried the fingers of her other hand loose from their death grip on Sophie. She didn’t want to think about high school. Even after eight years, the memories were still too fresh and raw to reopen.
She picked up the book she had laid down on the coffee table and turned to the first page. At least she could always count on a good book to pull her out of the doldrums and make her forget about her own problems for a little while.
© 2013 All Rights Reserved Lelia M. Silver
