Who We Were by Christy Sloat Page A

know me. We’d only met each other two weeks prior, so how was he so sure he knew me and what I would or would not feel? I took back the thoughts I had about wanting to kiss him.
    Thankfully, the bell rang and Nash grabbed his folder and books.
    “See you at lunch?” he asked. I nodded and headed in the opposite direction. The last thing I wanted to do was to sit with Nash and Oliver at lunch. I had to come up with a good excuse for not being there. I would rather eat lunch in my car than sit next to Oliver. I had to find out what it was about the guy that irked me so much; other than the fact that he ditched Lily when she needed help. I knew there was more to the story about him and his ex Gwynnie, and I vowed to find out ASAP.
    Class wasn’t as boring as usual, surprisingly. Mrs. Bentley wanted us to talk in groups about the value of beauty as compared to Dorian Gray in today’s society. I was paired with Kyleigh, a girl named Rochelle, and Nolan. At first we stared at each other, no one really knowing what to say. Nolan just stared at his crinkled copy of the book, and Kyleigh played with her earrings. It was Rochelle who spoke first.
    “Well, I think that most teenagers think that because they’re beautiful they aren’t responsible for the wrong things that they do. Like their actions don’t matter because they are special.”
    We looked at her and all dived into conversation. Each of us proving our points, and ultimately agreeing with Rochelle. We wrote our findings down, and Nolan gave it to Mrs. Bentley. Then the lunch bell rang. Kyleigh grabbed me and told me she had to go to a doctor’s appointment, so she wouldn’t be able to sit with me at lunch today.
    “It’s okay,” I told her. “Let’s hang out later though.”
    “Sounds good! See ya,” she called as I stood there alone, not knowing what to do.
    As soon as I gave up on ideas and decided to just go to the lunchroom and sit with Nash, an arm came out of nowhere and pulled me into the quad, out of sight. Nolan’s face looked concerned as he pulled me along with him, out of the quad now and into the parking lot. He pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked his car. He opened the passenger side door for me, and I got in, not questioning anything he was doing. In my mind he was saving me.
    He got in and drove away from the school; the farther I got the better my stomach felt. I wondered briefly if the pain I felt was because of Nash. Was my body trying to tell me that he wasn’t good for me?
    “We needed to get you out of there,” Nolan said as he pulled into a quaint diner where I had never eaten. “I could see you’re upset about whatever’s going on and your face screamed, ‘save me.’” He laughed, but it wasn’t funny. He was so right. I was begging for someone to save me, except the one person I would go to when I felt this way didn’t like me anymore. Tears came to my eyes. I turned my face so Nolan didn’t see, but he did anyway.
    “Hey, don’t cry, Sadie,” he whispered gently.
    “It’s easy to say, not easy to do,” I choked out. Damn tears! “I was done crying yesterday. I even told myself I wasn’t going to, but …”
    He didn’t leave me; he just sat there with me while I cried. He handed me a tissue and rubbed my shoulder. Usually I never cried in front of people, except Lily, but there was something very comforting about crying with Nolan. I knew he didn’t judge me or my ugly tear-stained face. Taking a huge breath in, I released out all of the negative and then said, “Okay, let’s eat.”
    We found a table near the back, just in case the crying started again. Nolan ordered for me, insisting that he knew what was best here.
    “Two Turkey Rueben’s with extra sauce please,” he told the waitress. She snapped her gum and winked at him. She was totally flirting with him. I looked from him to her and back again. I could see suddenly what she saw; Nolan was hot. Why hadn’t I ever seen it before? Sure