In the Air (25 page)

"You don't mean that." She knew I did. "Samson, please." Aubrey tried to wrap her arms around my waist, but I forced her away. I didn't want to be anywhere near her.

"Stay away from me. Stay away from Natalia. I don't ever want to see you again." I turned to look at her before I slammed the door. "Goodbye, Aubrey."

After I made the stupid drunk phone call to Samson, I refused to walk back into the bar and spend the rest of the evening with Kingsley and Wren. The last thing I wanted was to be surrounded by two horndogs who couldn't keep their paws off each other. I hailed a cab back to the school. It was after 1 A.M. when I finally got into my room. My head was throbbing. Once I located my bed, feeling around the room aimlessly for at least five minutes, my body collapsed onto the cool sheets.

"Natalia, answer the door. You know it's for you." My father shouted to me from the living room. I hopped down the stairs and found him lounging on the couch in his favorite sweatpants and hoodie.

"You're lazy!" I exclaimed, throwing a coaster at him. He caught it in his hands and threw it back in my direction.

"And you're a mean daughter. I can still trade you in, you know?" My father joked.

The knocking continued on the door, my dad looking at me pointedly from the couch.

"Answer the door, sweetheart." His words repeated in my head. "Answer the door, sweetheart."

I awoke in a panic, breathing hard as I sat up in bed. My forehead was wet from perspiration, and my heart was pounding in my chest.

Knock. Knock.

Am I still dreaming?

Knock. Knock. Knock.

I stood from my bed and reached out for the robe hanging off my chair. The knocking continued. Looking through the peephole, I saw Samson.
Oh gosh, did I call him and tell him to come over?
When I opened the door, I saw that his entire body was drenched.

"Samson, why are you all wet?" I reached out and pulled him inside my room.

"It's pouring outside. I walked back to the dorms." His fingers shook through his hair, causing droplets of water to splash my face.

"Walked back from where?"

"It doesn't matter," he answered vaguely. "We need to talk about what you said to me in the library."

"Did I ask you to come over?" It was a stupid thing to ask, but he had to know I was drunk from the earlier call I'd made to him.

"No." His body began to shiver, and I quickly retrieved a blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders. The shivering began to subside, but my arms remained on top of his shoulders.

"What's going on, Samson? Did something happen?"

"You tell me, Natalia. What did you and Aubrey talk about?"

Shit.
Aubrey must have told him everything.

Trying to buy myself some more time, I said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Natalia!" he shouted, his nostrils flared. "Tell me what happened?" His voice calmed, but his face remained unhappy.

"Aubrey came to my dorm. She wanted to talk to me about you." I wrung my hands, cracking my knuckles from agitation. "Samson, I didn't want to talk to her, but she insisted."

"I can't believe this!" His body moved closer to mine. "How could you lie to me?"

Tears filled my eyes. I never meant to lie to him. I never meant to hurt him, but I had no other choice. If I wanted to protect my own heart, that was my only option.

"I had to," I simply said.

"You had to? You had to lie to me?" Hurt brimmed his face. "After how pissed off you got at me for lying to you?"

Samson was right. I was a hypocrite. "It never would have worked out between us anyway. You would have started missing Aubrey eventually." I whispered.

What I said wasn't what he wanted to hear in that moment. Samson kneeled down onto the floor. His hands cradling his head, and his intense breathing filling the silence of the room.

I stood in my spot, glued to the carpet. "Samson?" I whispered. He showed no sign of acknowledging me. "Samson, can you please talk to me?"

Suddenly, Samson stood from the ground. His stone face stared into mine, until I finally broke the silence.

"I'm sorry."

"Are you? You're sorry for giving up on us so easily?"

His words were true. I didn't even put up a fight.

"Yes." Tears began forming again. I didn't want to cry because I knew the tears wouldn't prove anything to Samson. The damage was done and showing remorse wasn't going to take us back in time.

"Did you really think that I'd just wake up one morning and not feel anything for you?" His hand wiped a fallen tear from my cheek.

"Yes." The tears came anyway. "You'd realize you'd made a mistake by choosing me."

"You can't predict those things." Samson lowered his body to meet my eyes. "What I feel for you is real, and that won't change overnight."

"I'm so afraid of getting my heart broken again," I confessed.

"There's always that possibility when you love someone!" His voice rose, determined to make me understand. "You can't go into a relationship knowing the outcome. You're either going to love someone for the rest of your life or fall out of love. I fell out of love with Aubrey. It happens! I can't promise you anything, but what I can tell you is that I love you, Natalia. Right now, in this very moment, you're the only girl I love. I would never intentionally hurt you. I'm here."

I began sobbing, while Samson cradled me against his solid chest. I felt my eyes burn, and I knew they were bloodshot from the tears. I looked into Samson's blue eyes, my heart beating ferociously in my chest.

"I love you, too."

As soon as Samson heard my words, his lips crashed onto mine. His hands roamed my body freely, desperately wanting to touch every inch of my skin. "This is all that matters now. You and me," he whispered

I smiled from his words. I knew he meant them.

My fears lessened each time I heard the words "I love you." My father once told me that I would know when I found true love from the abnormal beating of my heart that would happen when that special person was near. My father was right about most things, but when it came to love, his advice was dead on. Once I found Samson, my heart never beat the same.

Three months had passed since the fateful night between Natalia and me. Ever since we said we loved each other, I'd told Natalia those words every day.

My phone vibrated with a text from Natalia. "
Get back here immediately."
At first it worried me. She was just telling me last week that her mother had been upset with her for dating someone and not focusing on Juilliard. Of course, that wasn't true. Yes, we were now in a relationship, but together we worked hard. Madame Dampier announced that we were the best partners in her classroom, making us lead in the piece we'd be doing at the end of the semester.

"Is something wrong with your mom?"
I texted her back.

"No, silly. Though something will be wrong if you don't get back here soon."

I was just coming back from Wren's. Natalia had plans to be with Kingsley for most of the day.

I hadn't talked to Aubrey since I rushed out of her hotel room. She'd tried to get in touch with me, along with my father, but I hadn't picked up their calls. My mother relayed both Aubrey's and my father's messages to me. She wanted me to forgive them, but I think in the back of her mind, she knew it wouldn't ever happen. The scheme they pulled almost cost me Natalia, and that wasn't ever going to be okay with me. Natalia was the love of my life, the girl who changed me for the better.

I knocked on Natalia's door, waiting for her to answer. I had a feeling she was planning something, by the cryptic look on her face this morning when we woke up. I asked her about her plans and she replied, "Oh, nothing. Probably going shopping with Kingsley." I knew she was lying by her answer. She never went shopping with Kingsley. She and I both agreed that Kingsley's style was vomit-inducing, and it would take a real patient person to go to a mall with her. Someone like Wren.

I found out Wren was dating Kingsley the night I invited him out to dinner with Natalia and me. Natalia jumped from her chair when she saw him walking into the restaurant.

"Wren! What are you doing here?" Wren's shocked face looked from Natalia and then to me, finally putting the pieces together.

"Fuck. You're Samson's girlfriend
and
Kingsley's roommate. Shit!" Wren looked nervously between the both of us.

"Kingsley? How do you know her?" I asked Wren.

"Umm ... " Wren stammered, "Well ... "

"Kingsley and Wren are dating," Natalia jumped in.

My jaw dropped. I swear I felt it hit the table.

"Wait, you're Samson's best friend?" Natalia asked, completely baffled.

"Yeah," Wren looked at Natalia and smiled. He then looked at me. "I've been dating Kingsley for awhile now."

"I can't believe this. One, that's disgusting. And two, you're just now telling me you're dating someone?" I was dumbfounded. Yes, Kingsley was hot, but her looks couldn't ever make me forget about her poisonous attitude.

"I've heard you two don't get along, but for the sake of Natalia and me, you'll have to."

Kingsley and I still hated each other, just not as vocally as before.

"Finally, you're here!" Natalia roughly pulled me into her room. All of the overhead lighting was turned off, and there were candles lit on every open surface. The room smelled of lavender and vanilla. I lifted my eyebrow in question. "Sit," she instructed, pushing me down onto her made up bed.

She stood in front of me, her body covered in a familiar brown trench coat. I'd bought Natalia the Burberry jacket one afternoon when we went shopping. She refused to go into Burberry with me again, so I ran in and came out with the coat. I told her that if she didn't wear it, I would wear a seashell necklace every day for the rest of the year. She grimaced at my comment and jerked the bag from my hands. She hadn't worn it once, until now.

"I wanted to show you something." Natalia began slowly unbuttoning the buttons, stopping at the last button.

"What's going on, Brooks?"

She grinned down at me seductively and peeled off the coat, revealing a skintight black romper with pink ruffles along the trim. I felt my heart stop from the vision in front of me. A few weeks ago, I told her how hot I thought it was when girls surprised their boyfriends with lingerie. She laughed, saying that it was stupid to spend money on lingerie when it only stayed on for a few minutes. She declared she would never do something like that. Now, here she was, standing in front of me looking like the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

"Going back on your word?" My arms reached out to grab her waist, but she stepped back before I could touch her.

"I figured I'd prove to you how right I am," she said sweetly.

"You're never right," I teased. I reached farther this time, grabbing her and pulling her onto my lap. Her legs straddled me as she peered down into my eyes. Natalia's beauty entranced me more every day. Staring at her then, the light from the candles casting a soft glow across her face, she looked flawless. Every part of her body screamed for me to touch it. My lips found the soft spot on her neck. Her breath hitched, as my tongue traveled down to her collarbone.